I have reached the end of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Today is the last day, and this is the final post. I’ve made it! I must say, that I’m quite proud of myself.

The blog started out in its early stage as a twice per week blog. One main post and one tip of the week, usually on a Tuesday, cunningly named Tuesday’s Tip. It then stalled for quite a while and when I picked it up again, it became more of now and again blog. After deciding to make a better effort, it became a once a week blog (well, most weeks at least). And on the 5th April I picked up Michelle Shaeffer’s email inviting me (and many others) to join in the Ultimate Blog Challenge. 30 posts in 30 days. I had just come out of hospital after a general anesthetics the day before, so I guess I must have still been a bit under the influence, because I signed up – 5 days behind. But oh wow, what a ride!

I lost another couple of days over Easter but then I put my typing fingers into gear and eventually managed to catch up. At first I thought what on earth am I going to write about 30 days in a row. Blogging every day, some days a few times to catch up seemed almost insurmountable at first.

But then Michelle’s tips came in as well and I realised not all posts have to be dead serious and packed with organisational wisdom. There was the post about organising cats – the first fun post I’d ever done in the blog’s history. And I also started to comment on videos, such as the Feng Shui book post. And I asked my daughter (age 11) what I should write about and her idea was “how to organise books” resulting in the initial organising books post.

As a result of looking for inspiration I even joined Pinterest, really enjoying myself on there as well and connecting with lots of interesting people, all interested in similar things to myself.

The most exciting day was when I received my first comments from readers who were also participants of the Challenge. The comments were friendly, supportive and constructive. I had learned about inviting comments by asking questions at the end of a post, something that I hadn’t done before.

All in all, I have learned a lot during those past 25 days and I have met a whole new bunch of interesting people. I have discovered other people’s blogs, that I would have never come across otherwise, inspiring, informing and educating me about a wide variety of topics.

So if you would like to stay in touch, there is an RSS link on the homepage which will keep you updated of future posts (I haven’t managed to make it work on this page yet). I would also like to invite you to connect with me via Facebook and/or Twitter.

And on a final note, if you enjoyed my ramblings about organising and productivity and would like to read more, I would be grateful if you could fill in the two little polls on the right hand sidebar, one about content, the other about frequency – if you haven’t already done so during previous visits. Thank you.

Today I thought I’d come with a list of attributes and behaviour that are commonly found in people who still need to work on their productivity. If some of these apply to you, that doesn’t mean that you never get anything done, but the more times you nod when you read the following list or mentally say “oh yes”, “yup, that’s me” or “oops, did that” the more likely you could do with a bit of tweaking of habits and improving of techniques that could help you get more done and spend less time treading the hamster wheel.

So, do any of these describe you?

• being late to meetings
• forgetting items
• having more than a screen’s worth of emails once you’re finished dealing with them
• not being able to find things on your desk
• not being able to lay your hand on important documents
• double booking appointments
• regularly exceeding deadlines
• being unable to delegate
• being unable to say no to more work
• being a master procrastinator
• working regularly on evenings and/or weekends
• insisting on working on holiday (if holidays are even taken)
• forgetting to do to-dos
• paying late fees
• finding yourself constantly apologising
• having no inbox on your desk
• having an overflowing inbox on your desk
• winging it instead of preparing
• being constantly stressed out

I’m not going to give a number here, saying if you agree with these statements x many times, you need to do y. You know yourself, whether you’re in need of improving your productivity. There are many ways you can achieve this, but all result in the same 3 steps:

1. Deciding that you have a an issue
2. Getting help (this can be anything from a book to attending a seminar or personal productivity training)
3. Implementing what you have learned, step by step

The third step is probably the most important. The best productivity coach, the most amazingly written book won’t be able to help you if you don’t put into action what you have learned. It’s about changing habits and sticking to the new regime. That’s the same as if you were trying to give up smoking or losing weight.

And the first step needs to come from the person needing the help. It’s no good to identify that your partner/co-worker/friend needs to get their act together and get organised. They need to realise it and want it for themselves, otherwise it won’t work, no matter how well meaning the advice is.

And it’s the same with tools for organising. The example below is a picture I found on Pinterest, a shoe bag that can hold cleaning supplies or many other things. You can store scarves or larger pieces of costume jewellery in them for instance, or maybe your collection of baseball caps. Anything that fits into the compartments really – just be creative.

I always find that the more versatile an item is, the more useful it is, the better value for money as well. So have a think about items that you are currently not using, because the original use for it is no longer relevant to you. What else could you use it for?

Please comment below if you have any good alternative uses for items, organisational or not.

I’ve just signed up to join another blog challenge in June. This time it’s a challenge specially designed for authors. Well, I’ve already written an eBook and I have been thinking for a while of writing a “proper” book on productivity and organising. I think this new challenge is going to give me the incentive to get on with it and making the intention a reality, stop procrastinating and start acting. If you want to find out more about the Author Blog Challenge, here is the website: http://authorblogchallenge.wordpress.com/ .

I already have a skeleton outline of the book and a couple of chapters have been started. A good start to continue from. I am going to use the blog challenge to keep myself accountable for my progress during June.

The only thing yet to decide is whether I will blog on this page or set up another blog especially for the creation of the book.

What do you think? Any suggestions or advice? Please comment.

Marks & Spencer’s, the famous UK retailers, have come up with a great marketing idea – Shwopping: you swap, you shop. Every time you go shopping you bring along an old item go clothing. These items will then be passed on to Oxfam who will reuse, recycle and resell the items making money for their great work. The neat thing is that the items you’re bringing in don’t even have to come from Marks originally. This gives you the perfect excuse to combine decluttering with a bit of shopping.  Not that we ladies really need an excuse, right?

But seriously, yes of course, Marks & Spencer’s want to increase their revenue this way, but combining it with a campaign for decluttering and helping out a great charity in the process, I think I like this. It’s a little bit of “the best of both worlds”. Making money and doing good on the company’s side. Decluttering and shopping at our end.

What’s your take on this idea? Please comment below.

I have recently decided to join the mobile world and give my beloved legal pad a bit of a break by using Wunderlist, a to-do list app that is really good. And it’s also free, which kind of makes it extra good. I was about to come up with all the reasons why Wunderlist is worth recommending on here when I came across Craig Jarrow, of Time Management Ninja fame who had already done the job in one of his blog posts. So here are his 10 reasons, which I have adopted also:

10 Reason Why I Use Wunderlist

Here are the 10 top reasons that I use Wunderlist as my todo app:

1. Everywhere – If your todo list is not accessible you won’t use it. No matter where I turn, my Wunderlist is there. I can access it on the Web, on Mac OS X, on all my mobile devices (see below), on Linux, and even Windows.
2. Simple – Ever use a todo app that looks like the control panel to the Space Shuttle? So many options, buttons, and fields that it is a burden to use? Wunderlist presents a simple interface. In fact, some may find it too simple. Yet, behind that simple appearance is quite a bit of power. Most of the options stay out-of-the-way until you need them. (BTW, do you really need to set the “context” for each todo and the “color” of each task?)
3. PushReminders – On my iPhone, I can set reminders for tasks that I want to recall at specific times. They can be either email notifications or push notifications. I prefer the push notifications because they appear in my iPhone’s notification center.
4. Share – Want to share a list with someone else? Wunderlist can do that in one click. You can share via email and let a family member or friend edit the list too. You can also share lists via email or via the CloudApp.
5. Sync – Wunderlist syncs magically via the cloud. There is no effort required to keep your lists in sync across all your platforms and devices. More apps are finally getting sync, but Wunderlist has had this right from the start.
6. Priorities – Wunderlist has a simple priority system. You won’t find A, B, C’s or 1, 2, 3′s, but rather a simple Star system. When you “star” an item, it shows up in your Starred list (as well as its original list). I use this “hit list” prioritization to make my Today List of my highest priority tasks that must be done today.
7. Multiple Lists – Wunderlist allows you to have as many lists are you would like. For those that like to sub-sort tasks into many different buckets, you can do this. I tend to minimize the number of lists of I have. However, I can quickly create a list if I have need to capture something. Of course, all these lists are tied together by the “Starred Priority.”
8. Notes – Need to add more detail or important info to a todo? You can add a note to any todo. I will sometimes “paste” supporting information or even a URL into the notes field.
9. Mobile – It doesn’t matter what mobile device you are on, Wunderlist presents a great user experience. Unlike apps that are limited to one mobile device, Wunderlist is available on: iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, and even Windows Phone. Not that you would ever need all of those.
10. Quick - I like to be able to capture ideas and tasks quickly. Otherwise, they can be lost. With Wunderlist, I can open the app, type a todo and hit return. Done. There is no setting of 17 fields just to record a todo. (See #2) I don’t even have to go to the app. I can email myself a todo at me@wunderlist.com and the task is added to my inbox.

So that’s it, 10 great reasons if you ask me and here is also a link to the whole of Craig’s blog post. His blog is worth checking out in general. Amazing content, great advice and he is really ninja when it comes to time managment.

Have you got a favourite to-do app? Please share in a comment below.

Wrapping paper is one of those things that challenging to store. There are gadgets you can buy, such as bags specially designed for storing wrapping paper, but they hold only so much. And where are you going to put it, especially when storage space is at a premium? Well, fear not, dear readers, I have just come across the most ingenious solution ever.

Store your wrapping paper in the ceiling of your closet. If you haven’t got one of them, then maybe a broom cupboard might do or a utility room. Anywhere where there is ceiling space that doesn’t get seen very often.

The website, filled with many other amazing ideas is lovelyish.com and here are the two blog posts that show really, really cool organising ideas – the one with the wrapping paper is in the 2nd link.

Why didn’t I think of that? 9 ways to organize your life and 14 more simple organization ideas. Click and enjoy!

On my travels around YouTube to find interesting videos on organising I came across the Beverly Hills Organizer, Linda Koopersmith. She has written a book on organising and is well known for her folding techniques. She has created 26 videos on folding just about anything, from t-shirts to underwear and much more. Below I have embedded “How to fold a hoodie”.

I believe I’m quite good at folding clothing and fairly swift with it, too. Some of her techniques seem a bit complicated and would take too long for my linking, but I must say the result of how she ends up with neat parcels of any kind of clothing that can then be arranged very neatly in drawers so that you can see exactly what you have is quite appealing. Just wish I had the time …

When looking through a pile of business cards I recently entered into my system I realised how many people still have fax numbers as part of their contact details. Do people really still use fax? Do you really still want to use fax? It’s straight out of the 80s and can be replaced so easily these days.

There are multiple services, some of them free, that will route incoming faxes to email (if people still insist on sending them to you), it’s something that can be replaced really easily. What are the benefits of ditching your fax machine?

1. Space

You will reclaim usually a sizable chunk of your office by removing the fax machine. Go on, do some decluttering and get rid of that thing.

2. Paper

You will do your bit for the environment by not having every incoming message print out on paper. And virtual files are a lot quicker to find than paper ones using the search function.

3. Sanity

You will no longer have to remember to refill the fax machine with paper. So no more missed messages because the machine was out of paper!

4. Cost

No cost for receiving emails, paper and electricity for another machine.

What’s the downside of ditching your fax machine? Not sure, to be honest, maybe that’s something you’d like to comment on today. 

We often get very busy doing things and realise that yet again we have forgotten (or didn’t have the time) to do some of the most important things. So, what are those important things that need to get done? If you don’t get anything else done today, make sure that you at least do the following 3 things:

1. Make sure you have backed up your computer
   Your computer needs backing up on a regular basis, a good average is once a day. Imagine what you would do if you suddenly lost all files that you have created over the past week, month or even year! You would not stop kicking yourself, for starters, and you would probably have quite a few business set-backs in the process.
   A hard-drive is a disc that can corrupt if damaged in any way, making it almost certain that at some point in time this will happen. It is less a question of whether, but more a question of when. Be one step ahead and take precautions by backing up onto a memory stick, CDs, DVDs or into the cloud.
   Even if you don’t run a business, make it a regular habit to back up. Should the inevitable happen, you’ll be glad you did.
2. Maintenance
   That falls into two categories – your body and the car. Get that check-up booked in with your doctor, especially if something’s been not quite right. Don’t put it off, you’re playing with your health. And get the car booked in for that overdue service or oil-change. Just like our bodies, cars need looking after, too. And if we look after them, they’re more likely to keep working well when we need them.
3. Make time for your partner
   Book or arrange a nice evening together or a weekend away, something to reconnect with your partner. We take our significant others for granted which too often leads to unnecessary friction in the home. And do it on a regular basis, at least monthly if not weekly. A happy home will lead to greater productivity, because it becomes a place where you can re-energise.
   If you’re single, arrange something nice for yourself. Take time out to recharge your batteries, relax, unwind and re-energise. By doing that you will have more energy when you get back to work, get more done and be more productive.

What’s on your list of important to-dos that hasn’t been done for too long? Please leave a comment below.