Behind the Scenes: A Life of Organization

(Snippits from our oh so popular Digital Glue Podcast!)

Embarking on the journey towards entrepreneurship is exciting when envisioned in your mind but can be very daunting and demanding when materializing your ideas. Let me clearly state that being an entrepreneur is not for the faint hearted or those who are mentally weak. This type of career path will highlight your strengths and your areas in which have room for improvement (as we truly dislike the word “weakness”) and will force you to focus intently on bettering yourself to find success.

So, let me ask you …

Are you tough enough mentally and emotionally?
Are you prepared to work unbelievably hard and constantly keep a competitive mindset on how to better enhance yourself for success?

This is what entrepreneurship demands of you on a continual basis. Make sure you are completely prepared and mindful of what awaits you as a hopeful entrepreneur. Now, before I go ahead and dive into the reason you’re here — getting the behind the scenes skinny when it comes to living a life of organization, here are some important “tough love” tips to assist you along your entrepreneurial journey …

WILLPOWER:
Okay, so you have taken your very first steps into the big bright world of being an entrepreneur. Everything you do from here on out has broadened your horizons and reality has set in. You will now require the strength to push through anything, including setbacks and discouraging circumstances. You will have a lot of responsibilities and must wear many hats, including being your strongest advocate as well as your loudest motivational coach.

Taking that leap to becoming an entrepreneur is a competitive and demanding journey. Only those with the most determination and strong focus will succeed. Make sure you are included in that exceptional group of people.

COMMITMENT:

Every single entrepreneur out there has many days that are just plain rough. So, when it comes to commitment, there are no grey areas. Either you are committed to your ideas and dreams, or you’re not. It’s truly that simple. You will have to work all the time (especially within the first 5 years), be willing to try anything, be flexible and willing to “get your hands dirty” all the while staying true to yourself. Just remember, many of the greatest visionaries have failed time and time again but they were unwaveringly committed to making their visions a reality.

PERSEVERANCE:

It’s unfortunate but the truth of the matter is that many people will doubt your ability to be a successful entrepreneur. First, shame on them and secondly, shame on you if you believed them — even for a split second. If distractions of outside influences negatively interfere with the development of your business, then you may just be destined to fail. You must always remember to be your biggest, loudest, and most obnoxious cheerleader when things seem impossible to accomplish. Perseverance is a very important aspect of being a successful entrepreneur.

You know that saying “If at first you do not succeed, try, try again”? That means that few individuals are able to achieve great things without first overcoming the obstacles that stand in their way. Entrepreneurship isn’t always the sexy, glamorous career path it has been made out to be. It’s about not giving up and being the last man/woman standing when everyone else has fallen by the wayside. With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.

COURAGE:

No matter what you may be feeling, or perhaps even fearing, you must be determined to conquer the risk of failure.

Those who are fearful of the unknown remain in a dependent position, while those who produce answers in the unknown create freedom. Use all your feelings and fears as motivation to push harder towards the light of success.

As humans we are wired to survive and can sometimes be lazy. If we have enough in our terms, then we strive for a better life. So, if you want to accomplish something in your life you must have the courage to protect your dreams. It’s not always easy, trust me, I know. Don’t be afraid. Face your fears and the results will show.

And to put it simply, as Mary Anne Radmacher, Author, states …

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow’.

DETERMINATION:

One of the most common reasons for entrepreneurial failure — and sometimes even business closure — is a lack of determination and persistence. Those who are not determined to persevere until full-blown success tend to just jump from one idea to the next when something becomes difficult. This is not the way to place yourself onto the path of success.

Determination helps you overcome the unexpected. It enables you to keep focused and makes you dig deep down. So, don’t throw in the towel on your goals! We just plainly need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we will screw up royally sometimes — all the while understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s a part of success.

And last, but not least …

THICK SKIN:

This is a tough one. Especially if you’re a creative individual or new to putting yourself out there. To thrive in today’s society, not only in the world of business, but also in the grand scheme of things, it’s important to have thick skin.

We live in a world that can provide ample negative energy. And if all you do is dwell on that, you’ve basically become a weaker person and have moved further away from your goals. But when you find you have finally developed thick skin, the word “procrastination” will no longer be a part of your vocabulary. You will not only no longer be afraid to do uncomfortable things anymore, but they will also actually excite you. Just never forget that thick skin should come with a soft and caring heart!

So, be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.

My “untangling” team and I truly believe that one main golden key to being successful is to recognize your strengths and areas where there is room for improvement. (Once again, we despise the word “weakness”.) It will then be easier to move forward, when you know where you already are.

Remember, opportunities don’t grow on trees so make sure that you work on all these qualities so that you are excited about what you’re sharing with the world through the eyes of your business.

Now the good stuff … ORGANIZATION!

I know I talk a heck of a lot about the importance of being organized, but this is truthfully serious business! And in a previous blog post and podcast episode, I touched base on some really good Habits of Highly Organized People where I took a mini deep dive into some really helpful steps to help you keep things simple, develop routines, have a place for everything, and put everything in its place, keep a current and detailed to-do list, purge routinely, and don’t get bogged down by perfectionism.

As John Maxwell cleverly states …

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret to success is found in your daily routine.

I would not be where I am today if it were not for my crazy nerdy organizational skills. And I don’t preach … I live by those rules. And not just those ones. That being said, today I want to elaborate on this a bit more.

So, grab a coffee and let’s get started …!

#1. THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING A “TO DO” LIST.

Doing this will help you focus and be organized in your approach to getting things done. Before technology took over, it was all paper and pen, but now there are so many technical options to help make time saving “to do” lists even better. However, I like to do both. I have my desk calendar for my important reminders and events (meetings, client contract renewals, birthdays, holidays and other goodies). Then I use my inbox calendar for much of the same — but with extended details/notes and then … I co-combine my Outlook calendar with my phone calendar and tasks app. And just if this doesn’t sound crazy organized enough … I add in Asana. This way I have all my bases covered, ease of access all over my office (and home) and they effectively all speak to one another.

So, there is no excuses for missed deadlines, meetings, birthdays or personal appointments and deadlines.

#2. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT GETTING ORGANIZED BUT STAYING ORGANIZED.

Now of course there’s only a million and one ways to STAY ORGANIZED so I’m just going to touch on one that I know will be beneficial to all you entrepreneurs listening this. YOUR EMAIL. Here’s the steps …

Review your daily accomplishment list and decipher the priorities.
- Is there a deadline?
- Multiple deadlines?
- Meetings in between?
- Personal business needs/goals?
Next, create yourself a “today” list (or folder) and add all those things into it.
Colour code your priorities (I like using red for “urgent”, yellow for “very important”, green for “billing”, and light pink and teal for VU related items) and then from there I code the rest of the list in other colours that make sense to me for my personality type — really just preference for the rest.
Review the list again now that it’s sorted.
- Do you have some items that can maybe wait until tomorrow?
- Or later in the week?
  - If so, go on and create yourself a “tomorrow” folder and plunk them all in there.
- Rinse and repeat this step for the rest of the week, month, year or whatever tickles your virtual fancy.

This is where I choose to use Asana as it helps one organize based on client (or personal business needs) and has the ability to add extra notes, subtasks, timelines and reminders, send notes to team members, and all in an easy and fashionable order — just how I like it!

#3. CREATING A SIMPLE STRESS-FREE ENVIRONMENT.

If everything has a “home” you won’t need to spend any extra time looking for them when needed. So, the key here is to keep things organized and stick to it. And don’t be afraid of sorting things too much. There’s no such thing! The more categories of things you come up with (whether labels, tabs on folders, buckets in drawers, dividers, notebooks, etc.) the easier if will be to find exactly what you need and when you need it.

A good example to imagine this being at its fullest potential is tax time. No more searching through endless piles, boxes or envelopes of paper. This is exactly why I always stress how much everything needs a “home”.

Oh, and not to mention the health benefits of putting organization into place. I bet most of you haven’t pondered on all the long-term effects of this (well, maybe in the back of your mind but not forefront).

Doing this will:

Lead you to better eating habits;
Give you that much needed energy boost;
Make you feel happier and less introverted;
Improve your sleep habits; and
Lower your heart attack risk by up to 30%

So, as you can see being organized can really save your life! By adapting to some of these habits you will be able to reduce your daily, weekly and yearly stress therefore saving yourself years on your life. Plus, it also keeps you sharp! You will be able to tackle all of life’s details with better organization!

To us here at VU, being organized isn’t about getting rid of everything you own or trying to become a different person; it’s about living the way you want to live, but better.

Granted, it may take a bit of effort (or a lot depending how out of sorts things have gotten) but organizing your life will allow you to use your time and efforts more efficiently. You will become the master of your time and money — not the other way around. And not only that, but the more thought out your schedule (and even budget) is, the less you will need to worry about it!

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Crystal Kordalchuk

Crystal is an artist, a writer, an organizer, a dreamer, a doer, and down-right proud of it NERD!.

Struck with a love for #AllThings creative at a very young age, Crystal dreamed of a life fueled by her passion for creating and bringing the stories and images in her mind into reality.

As she worked toward her dreams, she earned a diploma as a Computer Applications Specialist then another in Graphic Design and from there began to develop her extensive background in multimedia and the arts. She began her worked in the magazine industry as a layout designer and had a succession of design jobs thereafter. It was her role as a graphic/web designer that gave her the first real glimpse of her future. Soon she began a side job as a freelance designer while keeping one foot in the corporate world. A spark was lit! She turned her freelance gig into a full-time business combining design work with her other passion: creating organization from virtual chaos.

Crystal is one of the most organized individuals on the planet. She is by all means a Zen master of her crafts. She excels at helping others become “untangled” and provides her clients with tools to run their businesses smoothly while she takes care of the details behind the scenes. Thus Virtually Untangled was born. A successful business where her work as a top notch creative in graphic and web — with a twist of virtual assistant — married into one amazing place where clients can come with their virtual messes and become magically untangled. Crystal can always make sense of even the most unorganized chaos and offers a virtual detox of order and peace, so her clients can get busy doing the work that they love the most.

Behind the Scenes: A Life of Organization

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