The seventy-fourth issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
Ode to a Spreadsheet (or should that be “Odd”?)
2. Our Featured Quote
by Unknown
3. Article: Amplify Your Business with the Power of Love
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. Your Simplification Tip
Creating a Mailing List in a Spreadsheet
5. In the News
Cleaning out the house requires a plan and a new attitude; Corporate Leadership: Losing focus; and Simpler living
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
Fall Organizing Special
7. Keep Smiling
Finnegan Gets By With a Little Help from his Friends

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.
[posted by Lance]

Current reading material is Sally McGhee’s Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized. I got it back in 2004 (link is to more recent version) and refer to it periodically even though I don’t use Outlook (long side note: I’m still on Microsoft’s Entourage for Mac–though I’m considering switching to Mac’s suite of programs, i.e. Mail, Address Book, and iCal. However I still haven’t straightened out whether the sync’ing is working with the Palm Treo–it seemed to be a pain last time I looked into it–and I’m not sure how to deal with Notes. /end long side note) The book has all kinds of helpful information, but as far as I can tell, only an organizing geek (like myself) would actually read 250 pages. If disorganization is your thing, that’s about 150 pages too many. Which is why I’m working on my own book. A short one. Well, shorter. And with more cool images.

What I found helpful in Take Back Your Life this time around (directly related to my own long term business planning adventures for the Natural Professional and Project Simplify) is her breakdown and distinction of objectives/projects/tasks (she actually has “tasks” and then “SNA (strategic next actions) but that’s a bit too much for me.)

So often I see people put projects on their ToDo lists (instead of next actions). Or they lose sight of what they are working on, i.e. their “objectives”. Or they’ll put objectives on the wall and not break them down into projects and then get down on themselves for not seeing more progress more quickly. What’s the world coming to? Total mayhem, obviously. (yikes!)

So let’s do a quick review so you don’t have to go buy the book if you don’t want to (save your cash for mine, eh?):

Objectives: The big kahuna. The ultimate goal.
for example, for client X, “Create awesome website”

This is what you might put on your wall to keep you focused on current high priority.

Next to that objective you might write the next phase or two moving you towards completion. These are sub-projects, or, to drop the dash, just projects.
for example: site navigation

Finally, as you review your projects to determine what you will actually be doing during the day, you’ll put the next action(s) on your ToDo list.
for example: 1. draft navigation plan, 2. call client for appointment to review draft plan

While you may have many more irons burning at one time, you’d break each down in a similar manner. The process of the steps above were inspired by Sally McGhee’s book–though as indicated by the title, she’d track them all in Outlook. If you are good with your lists and check them regularly, then using Outlook is fine. Most of my clients are of the more visual/creative oriented type and want the reminders on the wall, not hidden in a list in the Tasks section of Outlook. Besides, a good portion of said clients are Mac based, and they frequently don’t use their email program to track tasks (I do!) Which is all to say, you can customize and personalize systems written about in a book dedicated to Outlook even if you don’t use the program.

Thanks for the inspiration, Sally!

p.s. did I close all my parantheticals??? =)

This interview was originally published in The Simplifier #73.
—

Interview: Gayle Greco - Creating a Healthy Business

By Shawn Tuttle

About two years ago I was referred to Gayle Greco for a creative perspective on a business challenge I was having. I found her to be insightful, cheerful, and calming. I had the sense that she could apply a skilled and focused eye on the issue at hand (whatever it might be) while remaining solidly connected with the spirit of the heart. It was this experience with her that totally piqued my interest in how she would develop a business in our current climate that still places disproportionate value on the $ bottom line. I’m thrilled to offer the following interview as a window into that scenario. Her story is further proof that business can be done differently. 

Gayle Greco
—

ST: Let’s start with a brief description of your business.

Gayle Greco: Our business is Universal Mold Solution. We founded the company a year and a half ago. We have a new technology that Tom [Gayle’s partner] developed that is a safe, environmental way to kill toxic mold in homes, buildings, and structures. The beauty of it is: number one, it is environmentally safe. Secondly, it rides on frequency waves so it goes through walls, sub-floors, and ceilings. In your typical mold removal or remediation situations, you hear these horror stories where people have their walls blown out , their toilets ripped out…with this technology, you don’t have to do any of that. The third benefit is that people don’t have to be displaced out of their homes. The last benefit is that we are allowing people to get healthy again. We are curing their environment. By doing that, they are able to go back and live, work, or play in a safe, healthy environment.

ST: What a wonderful service.

Greco: It is. Our goal is serving the people on the planet, and that’s really our intention. Yes, we are starting a business, and yes, it’s a for-profit business. The ultimate goal is the health, viability, and safety of the people on the planet. It’s a fun thing to be involved in.

ST: Since you are looking to grow it substantially, that means a lot of different resources and people to bring in and interact with. How have you been finding the right people to help you along the way?

Greco: That’s the perfect question, Shawn! This is the best part of this whole experience, because the people have found us. We’ve both been in business—I’ve been in corporate America a long time—28 years, and Tom has built businesses before so we have experiences being in the typical model in the business world.

We set the intention at the very beginning, verbally and in writing, about how we wanted to build this business. This business is being built with us, and intention, and spirit. As we set that platform, we really simply stated: this is what we intend to do for the people and the environment, and this is what we intend for ourselves as abundance and prosperity goals.

We also said these are the types of people we want to work with and for. It’s about integrity, it’s about ethics, it’s about maturity, it’s about simple. So we set the intention for that. Without a great deal of effort the perfect people started showing up at the perfect time for what we needed. The first thing we needed was when Tom was working on the technology, he needed a little more scientific help. He has scientific and engineering background to a degree but doesn’t have it fully. We asked, “what are we looking for?” and these people magically began showing up and, with a huge amount of integrity, began working with Tom on the technology.

At the same time. I was starting to work on the business plan and I did the same thing.

I said, “OK, I need resources and people to support me in doing this.” I put a couple of feelers out with people I knew from my career and, same thing, perfect people, perfect timing. We started to recruit, if you will, in a different way. It was easy, effortless, and graceful.

ST: Did you have any people show up that didn’t quite fit and how did you discern between the two?

Greco: We had two times, one on the business side and one on the technology side where we began the process with them (people who had showed up) and, we probably began it more from a human ego mind stand point, than really standing in our own intuitiveness. There were telltale signs that these were not a good fit, and without us having to actually cut the ties, they did; the other people did. It was very gracefully how it all worked. It didn’t interrupt anything in the business, it didn’t take the business in a different direction, it didn’t do any harm. It allowed us to look at ourselves and say, maybe we were also out of step with our own intention.

ST: How are you staying in your intention? Is this something that you work on daily to remind yourselves to stay in? And how is that fitting in with the larger business world?

Greco: We don’t meet on that daily but we are pulled into it weekly. Whenever we have a meeting—whether it’s about investment or public relations or the science and technology or even our tax return—Tom and I go “OK, what happened within the framework of that meeting or that discussion? Is there something we’re feeling right, or not, about?” Then we go to our counsel, the people who have been pulled in as our advisory board and we may bounce something off of one or several of them. They are now trusted community around us. That’s how we’ve done it—independently, together, and then with the group.

This all sounds glowy, easy, and fun—and it is. And it’s really churning, difficult, intense and even chaotic at moments. Some of the challenges we’ve had, some of the interesting ones, have been around funding. Because truthfully, this business could have been brought to market around March of this year and we’re now sitting here in August because of our choice to not take the money. And that was a really good decision, but it was a tough decision. If we would have said yes to a couple of these investor situations, we’d be a different company. What we saw being put on the table looked much more like greed than we wanted to participate in. We are being asked to walk the talk of allowing and the right person or people will show up at the right time with the right investment to make this happen.

ST: So you are having a lot of trust in timing.

Greco: Yes.

ST: One of the words that keeps coming up for me when thinking about the different aspects of creating a business framework is patience.

Greco: Yes. In huge amounts and it’s a humbling experience, because also when you have the expertise to do this, it’s hard to not just charge down the path and get it done. Tom and I are both "get it done" kind of people, so to sit in that place of patience and allowing is a lesson for us. It’s a good one, and at the same time it’s like, “O.K.… when’s this really going to happen?!”

ST: Any final thoughts to share?

Greco: The people are so much healthier and lighter when we are done with the treatment. So even though we are dealing with the dense, physical structure, it always comes back to the people. There’s such a humble reward watching people continue on with their lives without having things destroyed. It’s huge. There’s not much of a price tag you can put on it when you see that.
—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

Lately I’m been enjoying online tunes through Pandora Radio. An old school techie, Jay Coley, President of Editware who began his computing days with punch cards for memory (?!!?!? dinosaur days!) turned me on to this site.

You type in some group you like and it finds music that’s similar to it. Basically, you can customize your own radio station because you can tell it you like or dislike certain songs. The site is easy to use and has been playing for hours for me.

The station I listen to the most is based on Thievery Corporation, a groovy mix of beats and rhythm.

The seventy-third issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
Chargin’ women doing awesome stuff
2. Our Featured Quote
by Suze Orman
3. Interview: Gayle Greco - Creating a Healthy Business
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. Your Simplification Tip
Recognizing the right people for your business
5. In the News
Add Organization - Subtract Stress; Slow movement gains pace as architects inject soul into affordable new homes; Church(es) practice environmental stewardship
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
New on the Blog
7. Keep Smiling
This Makes Me Laugh, dot com

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.
[posted by Lance]

Sorry - technical difficulties kept this from getting posted on-schedule yesterday.

By the time we are done, you’ll have a cleared off desk, your foundation containers set-up (Easy Access Station, reference binder, etc) and “defined”, a maintenance system, and a file map to whip your files into shape.

On-site: (2) three hour sessions (Nevada County area)
On-phone: (6) one hour sessions

6 hours @ $60/hour would normally be $360. Special $300

Offer ends on October 31st.

Call Shawn @ 530.205.5775 or email.

Last week I did a workshop covering the Natural Professional foundation. I was fortunate to have an engaged, responsive group.

One of the things I wondered about afterward was the feasibility of dividing a group, OR offering two different versions: one for the lefty brains and one for the righty brains. My concern was that near the end of our two hours, we were covering material fairly quickly. There were three lefties sitting right in front of me and I could tell they were right there, following my train of thought, taking the tips that would work in their world view, letting the rest float off.

The rest of the group… what was happening for them? If I pick up the pace, I risk losing the folks who do better with a more experiential or visual learning process. As a workshop leader, I never want to look out and see glazed eyes reflecting a brain screaming, “information overload!!”

Short answer is: don’t speed up at the end =)

Longer answer begins to point toward the question, “how to pack 24 hours of material into 2 hours?” But that’s not so practical so maybe the question should be, how to better convey a truckload of info in a fascinating and engaging manner such that it fuses into the very cells of my listeners. A sort of magical and mystical expansion of the Natural Professional awareness that comes complete with an integrated understanding of the strategies, tools, and methods to employ. OK. Getting a little off track and unrealistic here?

In any case, it brings me back to a more storytelling type of approach. A couple of months ago I went to the Sierra Storytelling Festival where Willy Claflin closed out the Friday night session with a most hilarious story (of sorts) about how it was Martha, and not George (Washington) who invented the kazoo. (Pardons to Willy if I’m remembering it wrong, but geez! My ears may not have been working properly as my stomach hurt from laughing so much. If I had been drinking anything, it surely would have splurted out my nose and into the hair of the woman sitting in front of me. Her companion, a large bulk of a man who was blocking the view of the person sitting directly behind him surely would have protested to such a dousing of his companion’s curls and who knows what he’d have been moved to do?! If he was as engaged in Willy’s story as I was, he’d have been quite peeved to have attention so unexpectedly wrenched from listening. The situation would have escalated to some yelling and shouting, which would have, no doubt, turned people’s heads. The event producers surely would have frowned on this as the Hulk was not on the program for the evening. It would have been awkward. Which is why I’m thrilled to not have been drinking anything while enjoying Willy’s performance.)

I love that the workshops are a work in progress, forever to morph, grow, and improve. A fun and satisfying vehicle to connect with people everywhere. Onwards!

This article was originally published in The Simplifier #72.

—

Article: Trying to Contain Your Enthusiams

By Shawn Tuttle

It’s back-to-school time and kids are getting supplies for the new year. Have you, too, been picking up organizing supplies for an office that “slipped away” over the summer? Perhaps you’ve been hoarding creatively-labeled files, containers for rogue papers, and sticky notes to capture random thoughts?

In terms of organizing, the concept of “containers” is seemingly easy to get. (So easy, you might not even call it a concept.) This container is for pens, that one for paper clips, this one for files. You sort things and store them in containers. What else do you need to know? Well, we all know containers are a key tool for organizing; however, most people have unleashed only a fraction of their power. One of the functions for which they are often overlooked is as productivity tool. Properly used, containers help you increase efficiency and focus while decreasing muddle time (i.e., time that slips away while looking for things or piddling around in low-priority activities.)

I often hear people say, “I’ve tried a bunch of different systems and they just don’t stick.” That’s because they don’t realize it’s not about the container. 

For one thing, containers are much more than just things you buy at your local office supply store. The store may provide you with the means, but you supply the meaning. You might ask, “What meaning?” The meaning behind the container, where you’ll find the smoothly-running systems that (should) keep your office in order. Integrated systems help you combine form with function – they reflect you, your work style, your type of work, and your space.

Learning from your kitchen
You know how important it is to have the right tools for the job. You don’t use a hammer to screw in a bolt, right? Giving the individual parts of your office the same respect will also have positive results.

The “rules of use” of a container needs to be specifically defined. If this seems a little confusing in terms of the office, let’s take a look at the kitchen, where there are many examples of clearly-defined containers:

- Clean silverware goes in this drawer.
- Mixing spoons go in that jar on the counter.
- Dirty dishes go in the dishwasher. 

For the same reason you wouldn’t put a spoon covered with this morning’s oatmeal back in the silverware drawer, you shouldn’t mix project reference files with “take action” items in the office–they just don’t belong together!

Having the spaces well defined also makes it easy…

…to put away groceries:
Yogurt on the top shelf, veggies in the fridge drawers, and cereal in the cabinet above the counter. 

…to make dinner:
Ingredients from here, spices from there, pots and pans over there, utensils in here, etc.

…and to unload the dishwasher:
Plates on this shelf, infrequently used bowls on the top shelf, silverware In the drawer, and glasses in that cabinet.

The success of all the different aspects working together—the physical containers, designated rules of use, consideration of how often an item is used, the location of recurring activities, and the order of events—is evident in the ease of use of the space.

Become a “master chef” of your office
Wouldn’t you love an office that flowed as smoothly as a well-run kitchen? This happens with a systems approach. You identify different types of info and materials that enter your world and think through each stage that each type of item goes through–all the way from entering your office to their final (appropriate) resting spot. When considering containers,  the question you’ll ask isn’t, “what can I put in this basket?”, but, “which container will best serve “X” function?” 

The container and its rules of use become inextricably intertwined. Take the inbox for example. 

What goes in it? 
YES - Only new incoming items.
NO - ” Take action” items that you are saving for later, bills to pay, or stuff that was hanging out on your desk at the end of the day.

How does stuff get out of the inbox?
YES - One item at a time. Ask: “What is it?” ” What needs to happen with this?” (from article: Inbox Zapper) and follow through until it has reached its next resting place.
NO - Rooting around looking for something easy to Zap or picking up multiple items at a time.

Following these rules of use, the container that you’ve labeled the Inbox serves one function only: a holding place for incoming items until you are ready to Zap them, one at a time. 

Understanding what’s allowed and what’s not allowed in a container wipes out unnecessary ambiguity. Decisions become quick because there is less second-guessing. It gives you a feeling of empowerment because things aren’t falling through the cracks. It gives you peace of mind because you know where to find what you want when you want it. You’ll have greater productivity with less wasted effort. 

This is a big piece of the natural professional’s foundation set-up. For those who want direct support in figuring this out for your work flow, you can hire an organizer who focuses on systems. (I work in person and over the phone.) 

For the do-it-yourselfers, you’ll find most of the systems to handle the different types of info that passes through the typical office in previous newsletter articles and blog posts: the Inbox Zapper, the Easy Access Station, Filing 101, and the Reference Binder, for starters. 

Once you get the basics set up and get your mind in to the step-by-step habit, it’s a lot easier to see what’s falling out of the loop. Instead of working to ignore the growing pile of indistinguishable papers taking over your desk, you’ll be quick to guide the stragglers to their rightful places. 

A well-designed kitchen accommodates the chef and her habits. She knows exactly where her clean knives and mixing bowls are stored. She’s able to perform her art with ease and efficiency because she is well supported by her environment. If creating this environment–whether a kitchen, or an office–were super-simple, everyone would have it dialed in already! It’s a complex weave of supplies, tools, containers, equipment and their relationships with each other that create the opportunity for a smoothly flowing space. The time and effort spent understanding and planning it out is well worth it!.
—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

A couple of years ago, David Allen (of Getting Things Done fame) offered a 2 minute timer to assist people in sticking with the 2 minute rule when processing their inbox. He charges $10 for this which was $10 more than many bloggers and programmers were willing to pay for what is, apparently to them, an easy little piece of code that could be whipped out in about 2 minutes.

Hence, a number of freebie downloads. Here are 2, one for Mac and one for PC. I haven’t used the PC version since I don’t use my PC more than once a month, but LifeHacker liked it and that’s good enough for me.

Free downloads for a 2 minute timer:
Timer for Mac (click here for download page) by Cocoa developer Dan Messing at StuntBlog. This timer doesn’t make a really loud ding at the end of two minutes so you may want to have the volume turned up.

Timer for PC (click here for download page) by Blogger Avesh Jain
Who got a stylin’ write up on LifeHacker as the download of the day back in June 2006.

Here’s a sweet gem from a fellow mobile worker (I hadn’t seem him there before) at the cafe today. He saw me brainstorming with pen and large piece of paper and he said:

“I did that recently for a project. I had all this info about it in my head. I was working with a coach and he suggested I write it all down on a big piece of paper. So I took this 4ft piece of freezer paper (is this like butcher paper??) and got everything out of my head. I slept so well that night!! I’d been having trouble sleeping because I was thinking about all this and that night I slept great!

“Then my coach told me to highlight with yellow all the things that needed to be done that I really loved to do–the stuff I really dig doing. Then I highlighted the rest of the things that needed to get done with blue that I didn’t care for as much. My coach told me to sub-contract out all the blue.

“I’ve been doing that and this project is just sailing along like you wouldn’t believe…”

That conversation made for quite the rockin’ coffee break! Thanks, mystery man at the cafe today!