Ethnic Scrapbooking: more organizing=Sanity Check

okay, now that Tavi and Talisa have their own place...I can finally THINK! Or so I thought...really it's my to do list and 2 piles near my desk that have stiffled me severely. I feel overwhelmed with book related business and paralyzed into ineffeciency. All that has changed.

I was introduced to a "tickler" system by Vernestine over at www.absoluteorg.com and I told her I'd give it a try. That night I stumbled upon www.zenhabits.net. So armed with new organized and creative juices I pondered over how to organize my book related business to do items. Vernestin'e solution was having daily to do lists, and Zen Habit recommended the same, but I struggle with everyday...I'm flexible...I don't necessarily do anything but wake up, breathe and brush my teeth, so I knew a daily system wasn't really going to work.

Over the weekend I came up with this system that I think will work for me, so here goes:

Fig. 1 Here is the mess. The right side of my desk collects all that stuff I need to read through and deal with. I thought the book shelf would help, but it wasn't working either. The bottom shelf holds books for shipping and supplies...definitely need at my fingertips.

Middle Shelf was to hold files I've set-it, but they end up in piles...way too much stuff in each folder. Top shelf holds magazines I haven't read, empty organizers and small books I like to have close by.

Fig.2 The Tools – very simple really, sharpie pens (love’em), cardboard file holders in moc crock, that look very real, tri-color file folders, and Organize Magazine, with a family member gracing the cover. All inexpensive items that can be found at your local office supply store.

Fig. 3 Here’s the type of stuff I needed to organize. I pick up free publications around town and see if there’s a way I can contribute scrapbook related articles and program books/advertisements about different cultural events. My process is to quickly read through them and see what their target market is and then contact the editor. Unfortunately, I collect them faster than I quickly read through them, hence the piles. So for the ones I haven’t read I file the whole publication and after I’ve gone through it I rip out the publisher info, table of contents and cover, thinning out the paper in my files. Once I’ve sent them an e-mail, I just bookmark the site and wait for an answer.

Now here’s my unique filing system…I cataloged in an excel spreadsheet each item filed by alphabet…for instance “Freelance Opportunities” go under "F" that way I don’t have to remember the publication name. Some of my papers get whole files to themselves, like “Kwanzaa”, “Latino”, “Ubuntu” & “Jewish Holy Days”. I cataloged the items in excel so that I could add a comments field so I can sort the information according to my plan of attack (to be defined later). This keeps me from using “stickies”…which become unstuck!

Fig.4 My goal was to use only one file holder (even though two came in the package), but I ended up using two, so that one wouldn’t be so stuffed. A third one came in handy to become my new “in box” for my fulltime work which I do mostly from home.

Fig.5 Wa-La…my new organized shelves with a happy color curtain so I don’t have to look at it and it keeps my family room from looking like an office.

Fig. 6 I blogged about these before, but here they are again and still working, mail bins for those family members who stay so mobile, their mail gets delivered to my house!