Keep Me Accountable: I WILL Get Through My Non-Fiction Reading Pile This Summer!

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I LOVE to read. I read quickly, and retain a lot.  An exercise in 9th grade English found me skimming a novel and giving a verbal report by the end of the class period.  Much to my children’s delight, I knocked out the 7th Harry Potter in 10 hours the day it was released, taking time out to make and serve dinner for 12.

Summer afternoons spent reading a book appeal just as much to grown-up me as they did to 10-year-old me.

I have to come clean, though – lately I’m better at finding time for fiction novels than I am at getting through my personal / professional development reading pile, see picture below.  Last weekend, when I could have been catching up on non-fiction….I read three fiction novels back to back.  So, I know I CAN read quickly and thoroughly, I’ve just been using this superpower for evil, not for good.  Or at least not-so-good instead of good.

Why Read, and specifically Why Read Non-Fiction?

  • Reading can expand and sharpen our mind;
  • Reading keeps me informed about experts and current events in my profession;
  • Reading lets us spend time with the words from smart people;
  • Making time to read sets an example for my sons for life-long learning; and
  • Reading offers new ideas and knowledge, which we can use and / or share.

If this is a challenge you face, too, let’s work on it together this summer.  Here’s how I plan to get through my reading pile, and you can too:

Embrace Technology:005

Books:  A lot of my reading “pile” is now on my IPad Kindle App, so at least it’s a tidier “pile”.  (At this moment, my Kindle non-fiction includes Real Moms Making Real Money Blogging At Home In their Pajamas by Stephanie ODea, and The 100 Thing Challenge by David Bruno).  When possible, I purchase new books as eBooks on Amazon, so I can take them everywhere.  I check out eBooks from my local library, too, instantly and for free.   My wonderful Mother-In-Law told me about Bookbub.com last weekend, and after setting up my profile and reading preferences, I get a daily list of free and sale-priced eBooks.

When I come across references to books I’d like to read, I’ve started adding them to my Amazon wish-list, to purchase or check out of the library someday. (Most recently, Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin, and Take The U Out of Clutter by Mark Brunetz.)

Magazines: I’m encumbered by magazines lately, so I’m slowly phasing out print publication subscriptions.  This month’s 006magazines lurk on the shelf above my desk, silently reproving me for their neglect.  As an organizer, I know I could just toss them all, or move the pile so they’d stop lurking, but as a voracious reader, I can’t just toss them!  Today I took them off the shelf and started skimming, however, to pare down the backlog.  Also, I receive some subscriptions via email now, where I am quicker at skimming then deleting.

Keeping Notes:

My habit is to take notes as I read, or pull magazine pages out to keep information until I can act on it.  And therein lies the challenge – I end up with notes or piles of magazine pages that I still have to process in some way before letting them go.  So, I have been using my Evernote account even more lately, to store articles or notes, and my Pinterest Board to keep images for some later use.  I still have to DO something with this info, but at least it’s in electronic form, and not creating another pile.

Making Time:

I don’t read books or magazines on weekdays because there’s always work to do. So evenings and weekends are when I read, but that is typically Facebook / TV / IPad video streaming time.  My June habit will be to swap out the mindless streaming with reading, at least until I’m caught up.

Ok, in the title, I asked you to keep me accountable, so I will be reporting on my progress over the next month.  I had hoped to finish in June, but looking at the pile has me a bit intimidated.  But I will stick with the June 30 deadline, just to keep me on track.

Dealing with Re-Entry: Managing a Tired Brain

Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I struggle with what I call Re-Entry.

Travel Luggage Chest Clipart

We are very lucky that we get to travel often to visit with family out of state. And I’ve gotten really good at the getting-ready-and-packing / coming-home-and-unpacking process over the years. But with this weekend marking the unofficial start of summer, I’m out of practice, it seems, as my brain was total mush when we got home today.

So, my first hour home was spent reminding myself how to manage Re-Entry, after a weekend away. Here’s what works for us, maybe it will work for you, too!  First things first (30 minutes):

  • (5 minutes) Unload dirty clothes and start a load of laundry. (We carry a dirty laundry bag when we travel, to facilitate that first load of laundry when we get home and also to keep any left-over clothes we’ve packed smelling fresh.)
  • (1 min) Drink a really big glass of cold water. I don’t know about you, but I always seem to arrive home from trips slightly dehydrated.
  • (5 – 10 minutes) Unload the car all the way. Yes, ALL THE WAY.
  • (10 minutes) Put away perishable food from the cooler, grab a snack or start dinner (or lunch or breakfast, depending on the clock).  Like the commercial says, You aren’t you when you’re hungry. I find it easier to manage the unloading / unpacking / putting away tasks when I’m not also famished.
  • (5 minutes) Check the snail mail box, and any voice mail messages.

The next 45-60 minutes:

  • (5 minutes) Clean up from your snack / meal.
  • (10-20 minutes) Unpack your suitcases / bags, put away clean, un-worn clothes, shoes and toiletries. Yes, AWAY.
  • (5 minutes) Put the bags / suitcases away. Yes, AWAY!
  • (10 minutes) Depending on how you manage your tech, check your emails and such, but just for emergencies.  This is not time to get work done, just to make sure there’s nothing that needs your immediate attention.
  • (10 minutes) Move that laundry through the process. I didn’t have time for cleaning on Friday, before we left town. So this afternoon, I had a mound of clean but unfolded laundry to tackle before I could move today’s laundry along.
  • Head to the grocery? That’s where I’m headed. I am loathe to get back in my car, but we need some staples for the work and school week ahead, so I’m off.
  • If you’ve been on a long road-trip, or if there was a beach involved, stop off at a car wash and give your car a wash and your rugs a vacuum.

So, there you go.  If you struggle with that first hour at home after a weekend trip, keep this list in mind. And if you happen to have helpers with the unpacking process, this list will help you delegate tasks!

Happy and Safe Travels!

This Week’s Menu Plan Is To Not Cook  (a.k.a., How Many Foods Can we Serve on a Bun?)

I gave up last week.  On dinner.

You see, it’s volleyball season for one son, soccer season for another, and the season of end of year concerts and banquets for all three.   Lately, even when I cooked dinner, no one was around to eat it.  And when my family finally got home for the day, they wanted quick and easy food, and not re-warmed tilapia (I guess I see their point).

I often don’t have time to cook – that’s nothing new.  And I know what to do about that challenge – cook extra on the weekends, use my crock pot, make dinner in the morning and just re-warm it at dinnertime, etc.  But the “not having time to cook” challenge coupled with the “no one is home at an actual dinner time” and “we want quick and easy food” challenges have complicated things a bit.  I had to rethink my usual menu planning strategies.

So I gave up on cooking dinner.  Gave in.  Call it what you want.  I gave up, and then asked the questions: “What can I make that my family will actually still eat?  On their own time that isn’t fast food and still has some semblance of nutrition?” And the answer has to do with French rolls, burger buns, bread and tortillas. Here’s what worked:

  • double batch of homemade meatballs, frozen, to be warmed as needed and served over spaghetti or on a French roll 
  • double batch of tuna salad, for my lunches for the week
  • purchased (Costco and GFS) 5 lb tub of Italian beef and au jus, also to be served on a French roll (I told you, I gave up!)
  • double batch of Sloppy Joe meat
  • pre-sliced ham, for cold sandwiches and grilled ham-and-cheese 
  • quesadillas
  • scrambled eggs and toast
As long as all of these items are on a plate with fresh cut veggies or fruit (and perhaps chips), they are an acceptable dinner for all of us, whenever we get around to eating dinner.This article is not written to encourage you to give up on dinner!  It was written as a new take on previous meal planning blogs, and to encourage you to look at current challenges at home or at work through an organizational lens and seek out creative ways to solve your challenges, in this case, dinner!
I promise to cook again.  And soon.  I actually miss it, so this experience has been good in lots of ways. But we still have 10 days left of the season, so don’t look for me in my kitchen until next week.  Until then, we will be creatively filling our french rolls and our tummies.
To:

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Small Business Week: Run Your Business (and Life) Like A Boss

The first full week of May is National Small Business Week.

I respect and admire my fellow Small Business owners.  We’re small but mighty!  Yet, for every day that we are doing great things in big and small ways, we also struggle. You know it’s true:  if you have a small business, very often you are all departments – bookkeeping, accounting, IT, marketing, manufacturing, legal affairs, strategic planning – rolled into one (or perhaps a few) busy and occasionally overwhelmed individual.  It’s the same on the home front, too – we fill many roles in our homes and families.

This week, as a busy woman and Small Business Owner, I am reminded, and also challenge you, to Be the Boss.  To Be The Boss, we need to:

  • Stick with our strengths – Know what SPECIFICALLY WE ARE GOOD AT, and focus on that;
  • Know what department / individual / outside source can help us with the other areas in our life or business listed below; and
  • Be willing to ask for help / delegate.

To Be the Boss, We need to know and stick with our strengths.  Professionally, I am great at Organizing, and teaching others how to be organized, too.  That’s where I need to spend my time, in the areas where I am an expert.  Consider this, if a client required plumbing skills or financial planning, we would call in other experts.  Having me do tasks I am not good at would be frustrating all around, a waste of my time and my client’s time and $$.

To Be the Boss, we need to realize that as a huge corporation or a solo-professional like myself, We all need support in certain expert areas, like:

  • Accounting
  • Financial Planning
  • Bookkeeping including Payables and Receivables
  • Legal Affairs
  • Marketing
  • Graphic Design / Printing
  • Web Site Design / Maintenance / Social Media
  • Advertising
  • Manufacturing
  • Distribution
  • Sales
  • Customer Service
  • IT / Tech Help
  • Administrative duties
  • Human Resources
  • Strategic Planning / Board of Directors

Consider this: a few years ago, I spent too many hours researching and considering the pros and cons to the different types of legal structure for my business – S or C corporation?  LLC? Sole proprietor?  An hour with an expert, namely my attorney, cleared up my confusion.  I didn’t have to become an expert, I could just ask the expert.  Since I started my business, I have learned a lot and met some really amazing people. Looking at the above list of support areas, now I can say I have experts working with me – a CPA, lawyer, financial planner, graphic design house and printer.

Be the Boss, and know when to ask for help.  Maybe you are good and even great in some of the support areas above. But if you spend time on these support tasks instead of the Expert tasks that only you can do, it’s time to Be the Boss, and find others to help you.  What tasks are you willing to let go of completely, or delegate to others?

For example, I need to focus on delivering Organizational Services and Presentations (what only I can do).  And I like running the business of my Business. So I’m considering what personal / home tasks I can streamline or outsource to professionals, while I focus on my strengths personally and professionally.  Support services for our home life could include:

  • Lawn maintenance
  • House cleaner
  • Laundry service
  • personal shopper / concierge service / errand running
  • child care
  • occasional pet care / dog walking
  • The list is endless, and there are people to do all sorts of tasks for us!

So, whether you own your own business or not, you, too, can run your Business and Life Like A Boss by sticking with your strengths, knowing what you need, and knowing when to ask for help!

7 Solutions to Get My (and Your?) Morning Back on Track

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This is not the blog I planned to publish this week.
But as I drove home from a very early morning client, I considered what I need to focus on today to make tomorrow morning run more smoothly.  We have simple and wonderful systems in place.  Our mornings typically work really well, and all 5 of us know our parts and make the essential stuff happen.
However….. This week…  we could improve.  Let’s just leave it at that.
So here is part of my plan for today.  Maybe one of these solutions will resonate with you, too?  If your morning is a scramble, give them try!
Solution #1: Put ALL the laundry away.
There was a scramble for pants this morning.  Sounds funny when I spell it out. Other days, we scramble for clean socks or a favorite hoodie, but today it was pants.  I occasionally entertain the idea of buying more of certain items to lessen the chance of running out, but we really don’t need more of anything, we just need to maintain the established system, and put ALL the laundry away.  It’s clean, its just not where its supposed to be.

Solution #2: Another set of keys.
A family member has misplaced his keys.  This one little foible has complicated things, by necessitating other family members having to come home to let the lost-key family member in the house, plan around them, etc. We used to have a back-up key, but a winter garage break-in caused us to change our ways.  And Yes, I know, the real answer is for lost-key son to find his keys.  But today’s solution is to suck it up and get another set of keys made.

Solution #3. Stock the Mom-Envelope.
The Mom-Envelope, with $40-ish dollars in small bills, is sadly empty.  A trip to the bank will solve the emptiness, and the Mom-envelope will be able to again solve morning scrambles for a few $$ here and there.

Solution #4: A Full Tank of Gas.
Luckily, I gassed up the other day.  But as I did, I recognized how having a full tank of gas eliminates a lot of worry (or conversely, worrying about running out causes a lot of stress.)

Solution #5: Fully charged technology.
The strategies are having multiple chargers and just one place to charge stuff (the kitchen counter).  Mysteriously, last night we discovered some of the chargers have wandered off, so a goal for today is to round them all up and keep them where they belong.  I have also started carrying an extra charger in my car.  A recent quote from the Minimalists reads “If your phone is constantly ‘about to die,’ then maybe it’s not the phone that has a problem.” (click here for the full article)

Solution #6: Communications.
My youngest is a rock star when it comes to reviewing the plan for his day.  Before going to sleep, and again in the morning, he reviews out loud what’s in store for his next 24 hours or so.  “Ok, Before-Care, then Band and Boy Scouts, right?  And I already packed my lunch.”  This helps us both to plan ahead and remember the details.

Solution #7: A Clean kitchen counter.
A quick way to de-rail movement in my morning is a messy kitchen.  Can’t make my coffee, eat breakfast, make smoothie, work on breakfast for the little guy, etc.  We left early and in a hurry, but that is the first thing on my list after I publish this!

So look around, and see where you can get your morning back on track!  Whether with these solutions or some of your own!

I’m A Superhero!  My Shelves Will Help Me Save the Planet! 

We celebrate Earth Day this week, April 22nd.

Earth-Day-Images-Free-3
I try to practice Earth Day Every Day, from two directions: setting an example by being eco-friendly in our home and business; and encouraging and informing others with eco-friendly resources. So here are three steps to becoming an Environmental Super-hero, and my real-life Earth Day organizing project (elapsed time, 45 minutes-ish).

Here is how to make positive changes in your behavior, to make Earth Day Every Day:

1.  Know your “Why?”:  Why should we take better care of our environment, on a personal or local level?
  • Obviously, it’s good the environment, which helps all of us.
  • I want to set a good example for my sons, my community and my clients, by choosing environmentally sound practices like recycling and conservation.
  • I want to do Good, even when no one is watching.
  • Being eco-friendly can save money.
  • I despise clutter and stagnant “stuff”, so keeping things moving around, either for charitable donation or recycling, makes me happy.
  • What’s Your “Why”?

2.  Establish and Maintain Eco-Friendly Habits:
  • Decide for yourself and your family / business what type of eco-friendly strategies you want to employ.  We choose:
  • Conservation: My 5th grader’s class talked about water conservation a few months ago, and he brought home a great little tool, a 5-minute shower timer that hangs in the shower. I also recognized an unconscious habit just this morning: as we leave the house in the morning, I walk around turning off lights and fans.
  • Charitable Donations: we have a bin in the laundry room for clothing cast-offs to donate to charity.
  • Recycling: paper, glass, plastic and metal, plus responsibly disposing of EWaste.

3.  Establish Space for your Eco-Friendly Habits:
  • I’m the first to admit that sometimes, the right and eco-friendly thing to do feels like a hassle.
  • I spent time in my garage over the weekend, cleaning up our recycling practices by dedicating garage space for recycling / returns / donations.
  • You see, my clients often ask me to recycle the clutter they choose to purge, and I’m happy to help.  Clothing and household items donated to local charities; books donated to my local library; e-waste dropped at local E-Waste recycling sites.  I don’t always have a chance to drop stuff off right away, though, so stuff accumulates in my van / garage (because it NEVER comes in my home).  And we suffer when items linger (as CLUTTER!) in our garage until I can drop them off at their appropriate eco-friendly destination.
  • So, finally, after assembling dozens of similar shelving units for clients, I bought and assembled chrome sh001elves for my garage. This tall (6 feet) set of shelves can hold all the recycling items as they pause on their way to drop-off, plus my extra organizing supplies and any client returns I might have after a job.  My van is much cleaner now, thank goodness, as is my garage, and my habits will be easier to maintain.
  • So a trip to Home Depot, a little $$ and an hour of my time will help me keep my garage and van cleaner while I protect the environment by using and encouraging eco-friendly clutter destinations.  Seems like a worthwhile investment to me!

So, this week and every week, and this Earth Day and Every Day, what can you do to be a little kinder to our environment? Be a Hero!  Choose your “Why”, Create Your Habit, and Make Some Space!

In honor of Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday today, here are Jefferson’s Ten Rules

Jefferson’s Ten Rules

  1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
  2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
  3. Never spend money before you have earned it.
  4. Never buy what you don’t want because it is cheap.
  5. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
  6. We seldom repent of having eaten too little.
  7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
  8. How much pain the evils cost us that never happened.
  9. Take things always by the smooth handle.
  10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

I post this with the utmost respect and appreciation.

It’s Time.  Why now?  Why Colleen? ….. Well, Why Not?

It’s Time.  Why now?  Why Colleen? ….. Well, Why Not?

A friend challenged me to write a blog to help her share my business with others.   She asked “Why should we get organized now?”  And “Why should people call you to help?”

Why Now?

Well, you name it – Spring, Mother’s Day, more organizational resources and products than ever before – it really is a great time to get organized.

Why Me?

My friend mentioned that “awkward moment” people experience, when they think about calling an organizer or asking for help.  Because we’re vulnerable, and fearful of sharing our “stuff box” (messy closet, scary basement, crammed file drawers).  As I listed the reasons why people should hire an organizer, and specifically me, this article took shape.  So, M.D., here are my answers to the “Why Now? Why Colleen?” questions:

I won’t judge.   

You’re a good person, with strengths and God-given talents.  And perhaps Organizing isn’t one of them.  And that’s OK, because organizing is a strength for me.  So let’s work together on getting you organized so you can focus on the areas where you DO EXCEL.

I will be more compassionate with you than you are with yourself.  (see “I won’t judge”)

I DO know where to begin, even if you don’t.

A statement I often hear is “I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t know where to begin.” I understand.  But here’s the thing – I do know where to begin.  We will list the projects, prioritize and pick a place to start.  I will help you organize and come up with a system that works for you.   Every client, every project, every time.  I DO know how to get organized, even if you don’t, and I am here to help.

I am bound by confidentiality.

I will keep your information confidential, as a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers, and because I’m a good person.  Your private life should stay private, and preserving my reputation and business success requires me to be trustworthy.

I am objective.

Some clients prefer to organize with me rather than family or friends because I won’t get bogged down with past hurts or expectations.   I am completely unemotional about and unattached to your stuff.

This is my business, and I am an Organizing Expert.

I really do love what I do for a living.  I am committed to my clients, I am insured, and I have many great resources for you.  I know several solutions for your organizational challenges, so we can create personalized solutions for you in your home or office.  My clients are individuals, as are their systems.  When I mentor potential professional organizers, I immediately mention that just being an organized person is not enough.  We have to come with solutions specific to our clients.

My agenda is always Your agenda.

Organizing and organizational coaching are all about YOU.  Making your home and office work their best for You.  I may be the organizing expert, but my business exists because of You.

So, yes, It’s Time to get organized, and I may be just the person to help.  And then again, I may not be, but I can point you towards the right person who CAN help.

So, Why Not Now?!

Organizational Truth #42: When we want to break our habits, that’s when we need them the most.

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Organizational Truth # 42: When we want to blow off our good habits the most, that’s when we need them the most.  Routines and good habits help us restore order to our disorder; bring focus to our scattered brains; and prime the productivity pump when our motivation has run dry.

I was reminded of this Organizational Truth last night.  We had a truly great weekend; participated (ok, walked) in a local 5K for a really great non-profit organization; visited with guests and friends at our house and at a party; had a fabulous evening downtown with dinner, great friends and a concert of one of our favorite bands; and sang at Palm Sunday Mass.

Come Sunday night, I was very tired.  I’d earned a Sunday evening of laying around, and I could easily justify abandoning my usual Sunday night prep-for-the-week hour.  But I also deserve an organized, productive and less-stressed week.  So, even though I really wanted to blow off my routines, I knew they’d serve me well and that I needed them more than ever.  I took a breath, and got to work.  I:

  • Cleaned up from dinner and started the dishwasher.  Again.
  • Had the 10-year old pack his lunch for today, unpack his bag from camping (oh, add that to the list of fun), and get his backpack ready for school.
  • Started laundry. Again.
  • Tidied / swept the bedrooms, collecting random laundry items and stuff, and emptying trash as I went; and then the family spaces as well.
  • Wiped down the bathroom surfaces and floor, and emptied trash.
  • Checked my email accounts, and ruthlessly deleted anything that I didn’t need.
  • Checked my Evernote To-Do list, and deleted or moved to Monday everything from the weekend.
  • And THEN, I curled up with my new book. (Insert contented sigh…)

Truth be told, this isn’t the blog I had planned to write today.  But when I woke up this morning to a tidied house, the kids mostly ready for school and a clear vision of what I needed to do this week, I appreciated the great value in my Sunday night maintenance hour that prepared us for our week.

HOW, you say?  HOW to maintain your habits when your Get-Up- and-Go got up and went?

  1. Set a timer to keep you moving.  Use your smart phone or a kitchen timer, set it for your allotted time, race the clock to get your routines / habits done, then go do something fun when the timer sounds.  I use timers all the time, for myself and with my clients.
  2. Set a timer because then you know you get to stop soon.  This can help us get and stay motivated, too!
  3. Crank some tunes.  Seriously, it helps.  Not so much when I’m writing a blog or coaching phone clients, but staying on task while plowing through emails, assembling marketing materials or working with clients?  Oh yes, we need music!
  4. Enlist aid.  Get help from the humans around you, or phone a friend to chat as you fold laundry or wash dishes (hands free, of course, so you don’t drop the phone in the sink), to make the mundane routines more enjoyable.
  5. Decision making slows us down and trips us up. Determine what YOUR Getting-Started / Making-Progress / First-10-Minutes-When-I-Sit-Down-At-Work Routine looks like.  Write it down, pin it up, make it simple.

So establish routines and good habits, and then use them all the time, especially when you don’t want to!  You’ll thank yourself later!

Our Brains Get Tired. Help Yours With Better Schedule Management!

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My brain has been very busy lately (At a recent presentation, the speaker said we average 60,000 thoughts in a day!).

At brainhome, we’re adding two sport team schedules to an already busy schedule, plus potential summer activities.  Professionally, I have more clients now than I ever have before.  These are wonderful challenges to face, but they’re a lot to juggle!  So we’re reviewing and re-vamping our schedule management to accommodate.  I recommend periodically reviewing your scheduling practices, at work or at home, to make sure your own process is working as well as possible.

Why? Because

  • We’re all are busy people.
  • Our brains gets tired sometimes, thinking all those thoughts.
  • New tools come out all the time to help with scheduling, and to do tasks better with less hassle.
  • We need to make sure that the important (family, school and work) commitments are accounted for before we add anything else to the schedule.

If you could benefit from a scheduling review, too, here’s what to do:

  • Get buy in from all concerned parties (we’ll call them stakeholders). Why?  We (children and parents, co-workers, teammates, etc.,) all need to be part of the process.  Giving all the stakeholders a say in the schedule encourages ownership and responsibility, collaboration, creativity – getting lots of brains working on a challenge can be a great way to generate new and better ideas!
  • Consider how stakeholders prefer to communicate. In our family and in my business, some people prefer phone calls and others prefer to text.  Facebook is a chosen method for some people, and still others prefer email.  If a client or family member reaches out to me via phone, I try to respond in kind, at least until I can convince them to text me instead (my own personal preference!).
  • Have stakeholders commit to the new system and keeping their info up-to-date.
  • If you have more than one schedule to manage, use technology.  Why?
    • Technology is portable and pervasive.
    • We all can have access to the most current updates.
    • Technology allows accessibility from many devices.  For example, I can invite my teenagers to events via GoogleCalendar, and they can manage the invitations and their calendars from their IPods or tablets.
    • J.T., try Doodle.com for scheduling those meetings with fellow professionals
  • As with any new strategies, allow time to move along the learning curve.  For example, I am learning Google Calendar so my family can use it, but I fumble around sometimes.  Accept that you may have to run two systems – like paper and MS outlook, or MS Outlook and GoogleCalendar – at the same time for a while.
  • Sometimes the best way to establish a schedule is still face-to-face.  We just had a family meeting yesterday morning, to check in with upcoming travel, events and school projects.  We used GoogleCalendar and brought our devices to the table, but we still need to actually speak.

So look at your own scheduling strategies, and try one of these if it’s time for a change!