Strategic Partnerships ~ Why I Hired a Professional Organizer

I am getting much smarter as I age.

I am realizing my strengths and limits and finding other who can help me get further faster than doing everything in my own strength.

This week I am going to share how I am using professionals to grow my business and allow me to concentrate my time on my strengths.

Why I hired a Professional Organizer

I know you might be saying, you ARE a professional organizer! and I am, BUT I have come to discover that there are many different areas of expertise in the field of professional organization.

You wouldn’t go to just any doctor for by pass surgery, or hire a home builder to build a skyscraper.

I am a professional home and home based business organizer. I am NOT an electronic organizer. And as you can see from my love affair with my Cranberry Planner and Blackberry phone, I am not as high tech as I could be.

The Cranberry Part 1

The Cranberry Part 2

I hired an Electronic Professional Organizer.

Nancy’s heart goes pitter pat when you ask her how to sync calendars, schedule tasks and find contacts. I do not!

However, my post it note, to do lists and planner were not keeping up with the business I wanted to be doing. I spent HALF my week trying to figure out who to call when and what I was supposed to say! That’s when I knew I had to make the leap to a virtual calendar.

Since I am a Blackberry gal, Outlook was the answer for my contact manager and calendar needs. It would also work for email, but I like my Gmail canned responses and I finally have GMail just how I want it!

Outlook has a problem with my private blog email addresses. I might get around to figuring that out one day, but not now!

An electronic calendar

I am really nervous about losing my WHOLE calendar. Since Outlook backs up to a Google Calendar – to my iPad AND my phone, I feel relatively ok about going digital.

I am LOVING that I can see all the calls I have scheduled in a day. I could never do that in my paper planner. I also like the reminders so I don’t miss a call!

I also like the ability to repeat tasks. Many of my calls repeat each week. This has saved me tons of time!

I LOVE the color coding!! I am such a visual person. The color coding also helps me see what business activities I am spending the most time on in each week.

My kids are light blue. Once I got all their events in the calendar I saw why I wasn’t getting as much done as I anticipated!

I have been using my new electronic calendar for 10 days and I officially took the paper calendar out of my planner. I can see the day soon when this feels more natural.

More to learn

I have just grazed the iceberg of what Outlook can do for me. I am excited about using the contact and task features. However, I am learning to do just one thing to mastery and then add the next.

I was psyched when Nancy told me I was her only client with a Blackberry and an iPad. She also said I was Tech savvy.