Wrapping up

It's been a full year with my new business focus, and I just wanted to check back in one final time with all the new information. It seemed like the right time to close down and redirect the old website and now that it's done I feel a huge relief.

Here's my new site:

http://www.michelechristensen.com

and my new blog:

http://www.michelechristensen.com/blog

Thanks for the opportunity to serve you, and I hope to see you on the new site!

A big announcement

I'm making big changes in my business. I'm in the process of changing the focus of my services to supporting solopreneurs (one -person entrepreneurial businesses) in building a business that lets them serve the world with their unique gifts.

How did this come about? Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in business, and for the first part of my career I worked for corporate America and needless to say I didn't like it. When I left that for self-employment and later non-profit work, I stopped even identifying myself as a business person because of my dislike of the hierarchical, slow moving places where I worked. When I started my organizing business in January of 2009, I thought it would be a great service and almost considered the business end of things as an afterthought.

Through investing in some business and marketing training, I learned that my gift and my passion was helping overwhelmed entrepreneurs to get more done by being efficient, having systems, using technology and practicing good time management. I was really happy in this niche and loved the ever-growing part of my business that was really business consulting, not organizing. As I got more clear, I attracted more of the type of clients I love to work with. So what was the problem?

As long as I called myself an organizer, I wasn't able to get the message out because my specialty isn't one people often associate with organizers.

After trying numerous ways to explain my services, it finally became clear that it was time to move on and claim my new business. It's still a work in process, but I will be sure to let you know when I've made the change. It should be in the next few weeks.

It's been a pleasure blogging here and interacting with you. This will be the last regular post here, until I am ready to announce my new site and blog. Stay tuned for that and I hope to continue serving you in my new space.

Talk to you soon! Michele

I'm featured on the Reside Daily Bite!

Check out this 3 1/2 minute video from Realtor David Doucette, who works here on the Westside of LA. We filmed this at a monthly tweetup for local businesses that he and I cohost.

David's site: Reside Real Estate

Reside Daily Bite, The Importance of Networking:

Sleep!

A few weeks ago, I wrote this post on sleep and how important it is. After I wrote that, I was surprised to get advice from my doctor on getting more sleep to help me recover from a minor medical issue. It seems obvious, but once she said it I knew she was right. Since then, I've been more conscientious than usual with my sleep.

I've long known I can't skimp on sleep and feel good so my sleep habits weren't terrible, but I was still shocked to see how different I felt with abundant sleep. I feel much clearer and my problem solving skills are sharper. I'm more tuned in to people. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that I've been getting a lot done and feeling less overwhelm even though my to-do list hasn't gotten smaller!

Don't wait for a doctor to tell you to get more sleep. Pretend he or she did and do it now. Even though you may have less waking time, I predict you'll get more done and enjoy you waking time more.

Weekend event - Rejuvenate Your Practice

This past weekend, I attended at two-day event here in LA called Rejuvenate Your Practice, which was about teaching people like coaches, body workers and other service providers how to to grow their business. Since I work with a lot of people in this line of work, I thought I'd tell you about the event. RYP is taught by husband-and-wife team Jesse Koren and Sharla Jacobs. They are delightful and make a great team. What attracted me to their training is their approach of Heartselling (the opposite of hard selling), and how even the sales part of your business can be approached in a no-pressure, service-oriented way that feels good for everyone.

The ticket price for the event is $997, but I and many others got one of the generous free scholarships Jesse and Sharla offer. The event is packed with great information, and yes, there are other programs by Jesse and Sharla for sale. At no point did I feel pressured or ostracized for not buying and I felt that they did a good job of modeling the kind of sales they teach.

The event and the attendees had that California feel-good vibe - hug your neighbor, tell them they are awesome, etc. and for the most part it was fine. There were definitely some moments that were not something I was comfortable with such as when we paired up for a partner exercise and step one was "tickle your partner," or when we were supposed to give a massage to the person next to us in a chain to start the day. I was in the minority though, and most people seemed to love these activities so I would say the activities were fine and I just wasn't a great match for them. If you like these kinds of things, you'd probably love this event hands down.

If you are a coach, therapist, body worker, chiropractor, acupuncturist, nutritionist, or other service professional, I recommend this event. I learned a lot and it was well worth the two days of time. I do recommend a full day off afterward - the event is intense and I was wiped out!

http://www.rejuvenateyourpractice.com/

Why some small things linger

This is my vanity light fixture today.




As you can see, it's got a bulb burned out, and it burned a few days ago. Why does it still look like this you might ask? I have to buy the bulb at a specialty store and was too booked on those days to address it until today. There's enough light to function so it didn't seem worth running myself into a frenzy to get it changed quickly. For me, part of being organized is being able to tell when something is truly an emergency or not. This isn't.

I've been in people's houses many times where light bulbs go unchanged for years. This is one home repair that most people know how to do, don't need tools for and aren't intimidated by. So why so many burned out bulbs? I think there's two reasons.

First is that this job needs to be taskified, or turned into a series of tasks. In my case, it means:

-get out stepladder
-google how to remove unusual light bulb
-remove bulb, put in car
-put stepladder back
-schedule an errand to go to the light bulb specialty store and purchase replacement bulbs
-get stepladder out
-remove decorative cover(s) on light fixtures
-wash covers, dust fixture
-install bulb
-replace covers
-put stepladder away
-research bulb to see if it needs to go to toxic waste disposal
-throw bulb away or put with items to go to toxic disposal site

So as you can see, changing the light bulb in this case consists of multiple steps all of which have to be executed in order. You need a robust enough task management system that you can keep this project moving.

The second difficulty I see is with the contexts in which these tasks occur. The first few happen at home, when I'm in clothes I can work in (i.e. not dress clothes and not pajamas) and when I'm mentally clear enough to handle being up on a ladder (for me, that means not late at night). The middle step, buying the bulb, has to happen when I'm in the car. Since I live in Southern California, there is no such thing as a quick trip anywhere and not planning errands can be costly indeed. So I had to find a day to go to the light bulb store when it was geographically convenient. The last few tasks happen in the same context as the first few.

So, a simple job like changing a light bulb can be more than just a 2-minute interruption. If you find a job that seems simple but it lingers in your life, try listing the tasks it takes to complete it and the contexts in which those tasks need to happen. Tell me in the comments about small jobs like this that have been undone in your life for too long and what you could do to get them moving.

examine your intervals for recurring tasks

One of the things I'm always adjusting is the interval I use for recurring tasks. If I clean something that got really dirty since the last cleaning, I know I waited too long to do it. If it's still spotless, I'll give it a little longer next time. I shred old paperwork about every 6 months and it keeps my file drawer from getting packed.

In general, I try to minimize the total time spent on the job by considering the frequency of the job and time it takes to do it. If I wait a longer interval, the job itself might take longer. I also consider lifestyle issues - you might be able to get away with doing some tasks very infrequently, but do you want to? I have two dogs, and do a big floor clean once a week and a spot sweep once a week. I could do less, but then things would get kind of gross around here.

I use an electronic calendar and to-do list so adjusting the intervals is easy. It might be a little harder if you use paper.