How To Take Control of Your Paper Piles | Sunday Basket Masterclass | Organize 365

Welcome everyone to the Sunday Basket Masterclass. We are going to talk about taking control of your paper piles and eliminating your to-do list. My name is Lisa Woodruff and I live here in Cincinnati, Ohio with my husband, our 2 teenage children who are 17 and 19, and our dog Hunter. And I love to talk to you about all things organizing, and I do that on 2 podcasts. Our Organized 365 podcast is 3 and a half years old. We just hit 4 million downloads. That's a lot of people listening to me talking about organizing your house. I talk a lot about organizing your house, productivity, your time. I love to take what you think you know about your house, turn it upside down, and make you look at it completely differently. So that your mind is open to new possibilities to get it organized, especially if you're entering a new phase of life. The second podcast I have is called the Sunday Basket Podcast, and it is an episodic podcast. It only has 28 episodes, and if you start at 1 and go to 28, it will literally walk you through getting all of your paper organized. A lot of what I'm going to be telling you in this podcast is available in the first 8 Episodes of that podcast. So if this makes sense and you're like, okay, I want even more individual, go to that podcast. And then after that, you would actually get the system. Now, in addition to talking, I also like to do writing, and I have written 2 Amazon number one bestselling books. The first one is The Mindset of Organization: Take Back Your House One Phase at a Time. And this book was written after I had organized over 100 houses in Cincinnati, and I noticed that I could be organizing an 8-year-old in her bedroom Or an 80-year-old in her house moving into a retirement community center. And there were— even though we were organizing bedrooms, the bedroom changes as you age and as you move through different phases of life. And I have identified 4 phases of life: childhood, accumulation, survival, and downsizing and legacy. This book talks about all of those, those phases of life, what it's like to move from one phase to the next. And how to talk to people in your family that are in different phases than you are. This is why if you've lived in your house more than 15 years, it used to be organized, but now it's not, and you can't figure out why the organization isn't sticking anymore. The second book that I wrote is called How ADHD Affects Home Organization. And this one is about the 8 executive functions of your mind. None of us have them perfectly. But when you are diagnosed with ADHD, it means that the deficit is enough that it's affecting your everyday life. Well, as a teacher and as a parent with 2 children with ADHD, I noticed how that affects home organization, and I put that in a short book because it's for ADHD. So today we are going to be talking about the Sunday Basket. The Sunday Basket is a system I personally have been using for 16 years in my life. And I didn't really realize it was the thing until I realized that's why I am able to be still so proactive and so productive. And I really don't even have a to-do list anymore. At the end of this webinar, I'm going to tell you all about how you're going to get these free printables. So stick with me all the way to the very end. All right, today we are going to cover 5 things. We're going to talk about paper piles. I know you have them. Where are they? What are we going to do with them? Number 2, I really honestly believe you can buy time. I think this is the lie that the media has been selling us is that we don't have time. You can never get more time. Totally disagree. Organization always, always, always gives you more time. Number 3, how to get started with paper organization. Number 4, why I think the Sunday Basket is going to be your new best friend. And number 5, how our whole system can help you get your home organized once and for all. All right, we are going to do a couple of polls. So first of all, was there a question there? Yeah, we're going to talk about paper piles. Let me give you a few statistics first. Where did all this paper come from? Raise your hand if you think that— if you believe back in the '80s and '90s they told us we were going to be like a paperless society. I don't know about you, but I have more paper now than I had then. 95% of all the information we process is still processed in paper form. And 25% of people save things in piles rather than in files. Type in the chat, do you save things in piles? Or do you save them in files? Which one do you prefer to save them in? And 80% of what we keep, we never use. Oh my gosh, you guys are saying files. I need to learn from you. Lots of piles, piles, both. Definitely an ADD piler. Piles, piles, both, both piles. I'm a piler too, you guys. I totally, totally pile things. You know why? Because out of sight is out of mind. Like, as soon as I put it in a file, I call them little vertical graveyards. I I don't care how cute or colored or labeled they are, like, I cannot find that stuff again. So now if we're going to talk about these paper piles, do you have more, more than one paper piles? Like, do you have like piles that are for certain things? Like, this is the to-be-done-now pile and this is the project pile and this is the pile to go through? Yes, right? So it's actually like filing only, it's taking up So much counter space, or every flat surface in your house is like a place for a new pile. So let me ask you, how much time do you think it would take you per week? How much time do you think you spend looking for paper, specifically for papers? Like, we look for stuff. The average is 55 minutes a day the American looks for stuff. But how long does it take you to look for papers? That bill to pay, that letter to send in the mail, that receipt you need for return. How long does— I love this answer. Not anymore since I have a Sunday basket. So we have a lot of people on the line that already have Sunday baskets. You may have signed up for this masterclass, you already have a Sunday basket. This is just going to reaffirm why you're using the system and maybe you will glean some new ideas as to how this can help you some more. Too long. I just gave up. Too much time. Okay. So then let me ask you this question. Do you categorize yourself as an organized or unorganized person? Like personally, if somebody says, are you organized? Do you say, yeah, I'm organized? Or do you say, no, I'm not organized? Okay, we're getting both. Love it, love it, love it. And if you're saying organized, were you organized before you started the Sunday Basket? If you're already using the Sunday Basket. Love it. Organized, but I must work at it. You know, I love that answer because so often we think that organization is something that we can check off our to-do list and be done. And organization is a lifestyle, kind of like You can lose 30 pounds, but then if you just go back to how you were eating and living before you lost the 30 pounds, you're going to gain it back, right? Organization is the same way. Once you're organized, it's so much easier to maintain that organization, but it's not something that you're never going to do again. So these systems that you put in place are going to keep you organized once you get organized. Here are some of the common side effects from disorganization. Late fees, time spent looking for things, forgetting, forgetting birthdays. Have you ever forgotten a birthday or a major event? This happened one time. I found a little kid's birthday party invitation and the birthday party had passed. And we totally missed it. And I love for my kids to go to birthday parties and I felt horrible that we completely missed the birthday party. First of all, that is a free 2-hour babysitter I missed. But second of all, My kids didn't get to experience that party and that child didn't get to have another person come and bring them a fun, neat gift. I hate that, you know? And when you miss things, I find we, especially as women, when we miss things like that, which everybody does because they are human, but we don't think, oh darn, I missed the birthday party. What went through my head was, I'm a terrible mother. Like, what mother forgets their friend's birthday party? And how horrible, like, How can I not have it together enough for my kids? You know, we totally internalize it and then we start to give ourselves all this guilt and negative talk. I hate that we do that to ourselves. So 43% of Americans categorize themselves as disorganized. And I love this stat, 80% of the clutter in homes is a result of disorganization, not a lack of space. We found this so So many times as professional organizers going into even people's storage closets. Oh my goodness, Carol was my lead professional organizer. That woman is a workhorse. She, she loves the Big Bang effect is what she calls it. You put her in any space and within about an hour it looks like you just gained 30% of space. And usually what she did was get rid of all of the empty boxes, just match life like with life. She called it corralling the animals. So she would say, you know, like, you got to get your giraffes over here and your elephants over Over here and your monkeys over here, whatever it is, whether it was paper or china, didn't matter what it was. She always called it animals. And she would corral all those things in different areas. And just by getting like with like, she was able to compact it and get it into smaller boxes and eliminate other boxes. So, so much of the disorganization and clutter in your house will feel even less, even if you don't declutter, if you match like with like. And when you match like with like, you will see when you have duplicates of things that you don't need. Now you probably know this, but statistically they are finally being able to prove it, that our disorganization impacts our health and well-being. So clutter releases cortisol, and cortisol gives you anxiety and tension, and we don't want this, right? And you know that when your house is organized or clean, Everything just seems you can handle it better. Like everything seems better. And the, and the more the clutter comes in, the more stressed and anxious you get, and the more you scroll Facebook and Instagram, and the less you want to walk around your house and deal with things. Like that is statistically proven now. And a lot of us want to make the change so that our family members feel better in our house and our family members feel more supported in our house. So let's get to this idea of buying more time. Did that intrigue you? Like the idea that you can buy more time? Like, obviously you could physically buy time. I'm a huge advocate of hiring a housekeeper. If your kids are being driven everywhere, think about hiring a driver. Like, hiring things are definitely something that I personally do, but there are other ways to gain time without actually paying for it. Remember how 43% of Americans categorize themselves as disorganization. Well, organization is a learned skill. I'm a teacher by trade. I've been a professional organizer for years. And as I was organizing people, something happened in year 2 of organizing. People would book me for like 3 or 4 days of organizing. And then on day 3, they would give me a call and say, yeah, I don't need you to come for the rest of that package. Can I have a refund? Or I'm not going to book you any more days. And I thought, oh, maybe I offended them or I didn't do a good job. But like, I mean, we were like chummy and having a great time yesterday. Like, why are they— why don't they want us to come to the rest of the week? What's going on? And I remember this one lady whose husband had taken the week off work to help her said, oh yeah, we figured out what you did in the kids' rooms and my office in the basement, and we could do the rest of the house ourselves. And that kept happening over and over. And then I realized, oh, I'm doing a better job than I thought I was. I'm not only helping them get organized. I'm teaching them how to process through a space. So not only have I helped them get organized, but I've given them the lifelong skill that they'll never need a professional organizer again. Now, I highly recommend, if you can afford it, to have a professional organizer. It will help you get your space organized much faster. But if not, I want you to really internalize this idea that organization is a learned skill. It's not a born organized or not born organized, which is how I was raised in the '80s. It was, are you a born organized person or not born organized person? I was born organized, so I was lucky until I hit my 30s and my entire world collapsed around me slowly over a multitude of years. And then I was like, well, how can a born organized person who's no longer organized anymore— like, is there any hope for me? Now let's get some of that time back. I love this statistic. I'm pretty sure it came from Benjamin Franklin. It's really hard to find the Originator of this statistic, but I know it to be true. For every hour of planning or minute or whatever, replace that time amount. For every one of something that you spend planning, you get 3 to 4 back in saved redundancy, waiting for information, not being prepared, and poorly managed checks. So if you spend 10 minutes at night writing out your, your little index card, which I always do. You will save hands down 30 to 40 minutes the next day by not repeating things, looking for information, not being prepared, not having your schedule in the right order. This 10 minutes I spend every single night saves me at least 40 minutes the next day. Now when you first do this, if you aren't used to doing it and you start to write down this little Post-it note, you're like, I'm exhausted, I'm so tired, I don't want to do this. You're looking at your calendar next day. Oh darn it, I forgot I have that meeting. Totally not ready for that meeting. And, you know, it's, it's stressful when you first do it. It's taking time out of your evening that you're used to scrolling Instagram or watching Grey's Anatomy, which are way more fun. And then you're looking at the next day, which is already anxiety-ridden to you. But what slowly happens over time is you go, okay, I'm not ready for that meeting tomorrow, but I'm going to send a note to the teacher right now because I need to find out if I have XYZ for that meeting, or, oh darn it, I forgot I'm going to talk to my lawyer tomorrow. I need to make sure that I get this from my accountant or whatever. You're going to start to realize that you're not prepared for tomorrow and you'll be able to send emails or look at some things the night before. The other thing that starts to happen, and this happened for me a lot when I was a professional organizer, is if I was going to organize somebody's house the next day, I'd be like, oh, I kind of know how I'm going to organize that, but not totally. My brain would work on organizing that house while I was sleeping. I'd wake up the next morning and I would have ideas. It was awesome. So you're going to start to do this. You're— I'll try it for a week. Try it for a week.

Do it for a week.

Here's when you'll realize it saves you 40 minutes. The next week when you don't do it. Once you do it and then you stop doing it, you will totally see how it was saving you time. We don't want to do this simple little 10-minute night thing because we flat out don't have any time. You, how many of you, type in the message, do you have just extra time to do whatever you want? Do you have extra time to just spend on, if I said we're gonna go till the ground tomorrow, do you have any time to do that tomorrow? Yeah, I'm getting laughter. I'm getting, ha! They want me to read what's on my index card. You guys, what's on my index card is get up and do Facebook Live and Instagram Live, and then do my WorkBox Live, and then plan my social media, plan my team meeting, work on the Embrace sales page, which I just did, You can go check it out, do this webinar with you, and then I'm going to work on a project with Emily after this. And then I have a phone call at 4. I'm going to do email at 4:30. I have a phone call at 5, and then I'm going to go get some photos for my graphic designer at 5:15, and I'm done at 6. That's what it says. That's what my index card says. This is— I feel like I have time, and it's probably because I'm forgetting something important, right? Don't we totally feel that way? Like, I have time. This is weird. I shouldn't have time. What am I missing? I love it. So Vicki's asking, do you use this index card instead of a paper planner? I'll show you at the end that I actually do a paper planner every week on Sunday, and then I do an index card every single night. Alright, so we don't want to take time because we don't want to fall further behind. But I'm just telling you, if you can get your home organized. You're going to save yourself 55 minutes a day. That's the average that an American spends looking for things. So some people spend more, some people spend less. I have a podcast episode about how time and money are intertwined. And then just last week I recorded another podcast episode about how time, money, and motivation are intertwined. And this revelation that I'm coming to about how these different things that we feel are separate parts of us are actually intertwined. are really helping me understand how I am able to be as productive as I am. So often we prioritize our time because we're told you can't buy time over our money or our money over our time in wrong times in life. So this little thing that's going to cost me 10 minutes will save me 40 minutes the next day. Sometimes investing $100, $500, $1,000 in some program that you know is going to work Is going to save you decades of trying to do it on your own without the money. So that time and money, I really want you to start thinking about how much time are you saving and how much money are you saving. Great example I just put on the podcast was salads. So I actually, when we're done with this, I'm going to be eating my Wendy's salad. It's right here. Wendy's salad, $5. Me making a salad at home takes like 2 hours. $20 and everything goes bad. And I finally realized that it was, it was a better time and money investment for me to just get my salad every single day at Wendy's than for me to pretend that I know how to make salads and go grocery shopping again. I don't do the grocery shopping. What are you doing that you are doing because you've always done it or because that's how your parents did it? And that leads us right to paper organizing. Paper organizing. Why in the world, Lisa, are you going to start with paper? Well, first of all, nobody else is talking about paper. So it's like wide open. I could say whatever I want. No one wants to talk about paper organizing. I love talking about paper organizing because when you walk in a house and it's clean or it's dirty, that is something that other people see and maybe they judge you or don't judge you or you feel judged about or your family member sees it. But the paper, the paper is really only weighing on The female homeowner, for the most part, she is the one that knows what all are in all of the piles, and she's the one in charge of the calendar and everybody's schedule. And that paper is really causing you stress. And when you learn the skills of organization in your home, you can also learn those same skills in organizing your paper. Getting your paper organized is going to give you an immediate return on investment in not feeling stressed. So how do we get started? The only kind of paper we're going to talk about for the rest of this masterclass is your everyday loose paper. I'm talking emails, mail, any papers that are brought into your house, like for whatever reason— you went to a trade show, you brought in papers, kids bring them in from school, you got papers when you were out shopping— any papers that come in To the door. I'm not talking about your taxes or archival paper, or if you were selling your house paper, none of that. I'm talking about the paper that is— and here's where it is. It's in the living room, the dining room, it's in the car, it's in your purse. You set it down in the garage on the way into the house and you left it there. It's in your laundry room, it's on the kitchen counter, it's on the dining room table. Some of you have it in the nightstand next to your bed. It is everywhere. It is everywhere. And receipts and manuals and all of it. And I want you to go and collect all of that in one place. It is going to be overwhelming, but it's not like you're not overwhelmed already. So I want you to get it all into one laundry basket. Sometimes it's 2, usually it's 2 actually. And if you fill 2 laundry baskets, you stop like immediately, you stop. And then you do this process and then fill it up if you have more than that of actionable paper. We are not talking about files. We are not talking about binders. We're not talking about photos, none of that. We're just talking about your everyday actionable paper. And we are going to create a Sunday basket. So what is a Sunday basket? So a Sunday basket is just a catch-all place for all of your active paper, paper that needs to be acted on and go back out, not paper that needs to be filed, not paper that you need to keep for an investment or An insurance claim or something about that. It is a, a box or a basket that you keep in your kitchen, and it is the central point for everyone in your family to drop in all of the actionable to-dos. Reason why we keep it in the kitchen is because it's not just for you, it's for the whole family to drop in stuff that they need to give you. And we're not just dropping in mail, although we definitely put mail in there. We put mail in there. You can write yourself notes on index cards and drop those in there. I print out my emails that are actionable. I put those in there. Receipts. If you have something that needs a battery charged or changed, drop that in there. I'm currently redoing the basement for our daughter is moving down there as a mini apartment. So I just got a quart of paint. I put the quart of paint in the Sunday basket, like everything, all of your actionable to-dos. If you would write it on a to-do list. You will put it in this basket. You have a prescription that needs to be filled, take the empty prescription bottle, dump it in the Sunday basket. This creates a space for all of your ideas and your to-dos, because while your paper piles are overwhelming you, you also have your brain full of to-dos that's also overwhelming you. And we want to get all of that in one place. Initially, it might cause more stress and anxiety. Because you're going to see the totality of all the things you've put on your to-do list. But over time, you are going to be able to consciously decide which things will stay on your to-do list and which things will go. So I created the Sunday basket. I told you, 16 years ago, Joey was 2 and Abby was 6 months old. I was running a direct sales business. I was a leader. I was probably working about 40 hours a week in my business. Joey had extreme asthma. So we were giving him breathing treatments every 3 hours around the clock for like months and months and months. Both of my kids were adopted. So we had adoption paperwork, just, just so much going on. And I had piles everywhere. I had piles everywhere and I just could not keep up with the piles. So one night, it was a Sunday night at 8 PM. Greg had gone to bed early. And since I went to bed last night at 8:30, it was just exhausted. He went to bed. Miraculously, Joey was asleep and he never sleeps. So he was asleep and Abby was a great sleeper. So she was already asleep as well. And I had some extra energy. It was a Sunday night, 8 PM. And I decided I was going to take those paper piles, which didn't even have paper clips in them. They were literally— it was like a 12-inch pile of paper of just papers, orders and receipts and bills and adoption paperwork and medical all together, like no rhyme or reason whatsoever. I took it into the family room on the floor, laid it all out and started piling it. Okay, these are all receipts. Okay, these are all orders to place. These are all, you know, and I made piles. I ended up with 40 different piles of actionable to-dos. And because I was a teacher, I had these things called slash pockets. So a slash pocket is just a plastic binder insert with a tab on it. And I had these slash pockets. And I just put everything in a different slash pocket. I mean, this was, you know, 16 years ago. I didn't have the system developed yet. And I grabbed a basket that I had because I had a Longaberger obsession, and I put the slash pockets in a basket. And then it was like 11 o'clock at night. I had to go to bed. So I was like, all right, well, we'll see if that works. The next day, Joey fell asleep in the swing because that's where I had him take his naps. No judging. And he sleeps for like 18 minutes. And I went over and I grabbed Any slash pocket. I grabbed one, called the person, got everything done in that slash pocket, emptied it, and he woke up 18 minutes later and I started shouting for joy. Oh my gosh, salvation has come. I'm going to be able to survive as a mother of 2 little kids with just a basket and slash pockets because I was able to finally get something checked off my to-do list. I mean, I looked in that basket. I knew it was gonna take me like 6 weeks to get on top of these 40 slash pockets. There was way more work there than I could possibly ever do. But I at least now had a system. And every time I got any time at all, I would go over and grab a slash pocket and I would do what I could do. Well, over the last 16 years, I have refined this system. And I have, as a teacher, I have created it to be duplicatable for you. Because like Laura just asked, how do you know what categories need a slash pocket? How detailed is it? This is something I just intuitively knew as an organized person and a teacher. But in order to teach this system to you, I had to actually create it and make rules with it. So slash pockets are plastic folders that are see-through, easily portable. And here I'm going to hold up one. So you could see, you can add anything you want in there. Like you can add half pieces of paper, you can add Index cards and see, they're not going to fall out because it is sealed on 3 sides. Plus it's translucent. So you can see what's in there at a glance. You could see what is inside of that slash pocket without taking everything out. They're awesome. I just love slash pockets so much that I now manufacture them. So in order to create this system, if you go to an office supply store, you will quickly find out that you cannot get 6 pink slash pockets like this. You can't get them where they're all the same color. I manufacture these. I just ordered 3,000 more sets. That's like 120 boxes of slash buckets are going to arrive at my warehouse. And I manufacture them in pink, purple, blue, and green. And then we have some rainbow ones that teach you how to get this organized. So let's back up a minute. What goes in this basket? Anything actionable. What is the definition of anything actionable? You have to do something with it. Like, it needs a response. It needs a check. It needs something like— it's, it's on your to-do list. It's an ongoing project. So some things that might be in your Sunday basket are like a PTA fundraiser that's for next fall, but you keep getting ideas for that. So it's not actionable today, but it's actionable by next fall. Anything that's a regular maintenance task. So in my Sunday basket, I have my planner, and in my planner has my weekly and monthly checklist. Or an idea. And this is the game changer. We do not have a place for our ideas to go. You try to put ideas on a to-do list, but then it makes it a task. Or— I'm not very good at electronic storage. If you are, that's great, but I'm not. I'm a paper pencil person. So I'm constantly writing little notes on Post-it notes or index cards, and then I'm dropping them in my Sunday basket. And truth be told, Half of what ends up in my Sunday basket is a Post-it note or an index card with an idea on it. So then what's an archive paper? An archive paper is a completed project that you need to save, or taxes, or documentation that you would need if you were to move or be audited or file an insurance claim. It's whatever you would put in a filing cabinet, but I don't do filing cabinets. We do binders. Alright, so your Sunday basket is one central location for everything. And the only rule we have for the Sunday basket is, as you have any brilliant idea and you write it down, you ask yourself one question. Can this wait until Sunday? If this brilliant idea can wait until Sunday, you drop it in the box. If you get a new set of pens and you don't need them before Sunday, drop it in the box. You need to refill a prescription, but not until Sunday. Drop it in the box. Anything that can wait until Sunday must, must wait until Sunday. And here's why it must wait until Sunday. Are you getting your to-do list done? I want you to type in the chat the last time you actually crossed the last thing off of your to-do list. Go ahead, type it. The last time you completely finished your to-do list? Never. LOL.

Ha.

Never. Before kids. Never, never, never, never. Yeah. So my dad used to call it a never things you haven't done yet list. Somebody said yesterday. Okay, you get an A+. Yesterday, thanks to you. Don't remember. Before I had kids. Never. As soon as something is done, another thing replaces it. Um, never. Here's the thing. Stop, stop living your life by to-do lists. Stop making a to-do list. You know what you do when you make a to-do list? You make a list of everything you possibly could do with your time that is not done yet, and then you run like a hamster on a wheel trying to get that done. You are not a robot. You are a human being, an inspirational, multi-dynamic person that has all these hopes and dreams and ambitions. You're so much more than accomplishing things on a to-do list. Furthermore, you're never gonna get it done. Sometimes I get my to-do list done. You know what, that is the scariest thing ever. Because then I walk around going, I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored. And anybody on my team is like, oh no, she's bored. She's gonna create a whole nother company. When, when Abby said she wanted to be homeschooled, yes, puzzle time for sure. When Abby said she wanted to be homeschooled, my husband and my son said, oh no, that is going to destroy your business. My team was like, yes, do it. And as soon as I said I was going to do it, they were like, yes, because they knew that I'm a creative being. Like, I need to have my outlet. You know, this— doing this project with Abby in the basement has created a whole new to-do list, and I love doing it. It's making me a better homeschooling parent, a better business owner, a better wife, because my time is spent doing things that I love doing. You need to reduce the amount of to-dos that are being thrown on you. So the Sunday basket becomes the holding place for all of your ideas, all the requests on your time, all the requests on your money, all the requests on your energy. And then one time per week, we're going to look at all of it and we're going to decide in the next 7 days, this is how much money, time, and energy I'm giving to all these things and everything else that can wait until the next Sunday. Must wait until I decide how I want to spend the next week. Um, okay, I went a little— I talked a little bit much. Alright, so if it can wait until Sunday, it must wait until Sunday. This is where you're learning organization. If I had a cute printable for you to use for a to-do list or a way for you to get more done this week than you got done last time, I'm not truly teaching you how to live a productive life. I'm just teaching you how to be a better robot. And what I want to teach you is the ability to decide each week how you want to spend your time, money, and motivation. How do you want to spend it? Now I say it needs to be done on Sunday. I find Sunday to be the easiest day to do the Sunday basket for multiple reasons. Number one, if you have— in my, in my family, Saturday tends to be the day when everybody wants to go out and do stuff as a family. By Sunday after church, no one really cares what mom does anymore. Like, the kids and husband have had enough fill of her. I kind of want my own space anyway. Like, Sunday afternoons always has been the time where everybody kind of does their own thing while they're at home. So that was my own time. So that's when I would pull my Sunday basket in and do it. Tends to be universally the best time. Now for you, it may be Monday when you have the house to yourself or Tuesday after work. It doesn't matter. But you need to pick one day and time per week that you can consistently do every single week. That is the key, a day and time that you could consistently do. And the first thing you're going to do after you've dumped everything in here all week long is you're going to completely empty out everything out of that Sunday basket. And we're going to go through the next couple slides. I'm going to overview how we're going to do this. Remember, you can listen to the podcast. To get more detailed of what to do in each of these stages. And then I have a complete Sunday Basket system which has video training as well to walk you through each of these steps. Number 1, I want you to empty everything out. You're going to open all the mail and you're going to make piles and you're going to fill your slash pockets. We'll talk about slash pockets in a minute. You're going to review anything you had told yourself the week before that you were going to get done. If it didn't get done. Why didn't it get done? Did you put too much on your weekly to-do list? Do you not really have the motivation for doing it and it's an obligation you're just kind of stuck in and you can't figure out how to get out of it? Like, why is it that you haven't gotten done what you said you were going to get done? And then I want you to look forward to next week. What do you have going on next week that is non-negotiable? An interview, a trip, a meeting. These things are non-negotiable. They have to end up on your to-do list. And then how much extra time do you have in order to put other things from the Sunday basket on your list? Here's the bummer. You're never going to have the amount of time you want for how much stuff you have in the Sunday basket. I'm going to repeat that. You are never going to have enough time during the week for how much stuff you have in your Sunday basket. So if you think you're doing the Sunday basket wrong because you still can't get through the Sunday basket, this is holding all of your actionable ideas and to-dos for the rest of your life. I certainly hope you can't get through that in one week. I hope you can. Furthermore, when you start the Sunday basket, it's going to be holding like emergency fire things that you haven't been doing, like returning things on time. Getting the bills paid on time. Like you're, you're behind the 8 ball. You're just constantly behind the 8 ball. You're dropping balls. Things aren't working. After you do this 4 to 6 weeks, that stops happening. Now you know what you need to do. And now you're getting more into the routine tasks. Of doing the Sunday basket. As you get in the routine tasks of doing the Sunday basket, let's fast forward. Maybe some, some of you've been doing it 5 or 6 months. Here's what's going to happen. You do your Sunday basket, and I am going to record a podcast about this. Sunday Basket 3.0 is coming. And all of a sudden, there are actionable things in there and you never want to do them. Like, they just keep getting put back in there. Yeah, I can wait. Yeah, I can wait. Yeah, I can wait. Get rid of it. What— why is it still in there? And the reason it's still in there is because somebody else has asked you to do it. Somebody else is counting on you to do it, or you feel that your perception of yourself is someone who does that thing. So on the podcast last week, I said that I gave up working at church 15 years ago. I have plenty of time now. I still don't work at church. Luckily, someone DM'd me on Instagram. This was so nice. And she said, I'm pretty sure that you financially give, and I know you give of your time to us and And you're growing organized 365, which is usually a ministry. And I do give financially to my church. I thought, how nice is that of her to reach out and say, Lisa, you are still giving. Just because you're not giving of your time in the way you did in your 20s doesn't mean that you're not giving to the Lord right now. I want to hear— I want you to hear me say that because there are things that are in this box that you feel that you've been on the PTA for the last 8 years and you're tired of it. You don't have to be on the PTA for your 4th child to go through school. Do they even really care? Maybe you're not on the PTA, but you actually walk around the carnival with your child this time. Like, you could do something different for the 4th child. My kids have been in every single kind of school possibly there is, so I don't even stick to one school. So what are these obligations? And this is a great time of year to be doing this. If you're watching this in real time or quickly after it's been recorded, it's the spring. It's the decluttering season. So this may be the time where you say, I'm not going to be on the PTA board next year. I'm not going to run the Daisy troop next year. I'm not going to do the marathon this summer. We're not going to take the family vacation there. We're going to take it over here. We're going to start new memories. Like, what is it you want to let go of? You just don't know how to say no. All right, let's dive in. Let's dive into practicality. You know how I like to get all philosophical on you. There are 5 different kinds of slash pockets in the system. The first one are rainbow slash pockets: red, orange, yellow, green, blue. And this is the 1.0, the basic setup of the Sunday Basket. You will do these slash pockets every single week. Why is it called 1.0? Because when you manufacture your own slash pockets and you're running your business from home, you don't have a lot of cash. So you, you buy these slash pockets first and then you buy the other ones. But now it's stuck. So 1.0, these are the basic 5. You're going to sort your stuff into these slash pockets. And every single week you are going to fill them and you're going to process them. So anything that has to get done this week, anything that's going to go on the calendar or be done on the computer, any errands you have to run outside of the home, your money, and things that you're waiting for. Now this is an awesome, amazing system that completely works, but it does take time. And I don't want you to think that this is, oh, I'm going to get this system and then these things are magically going to be done for me. If you're not opening any of your week— all week long mail, all week long, like I don't— if you're dropping in all your receipts, all of your ideas, all of your to-dos into a box, type in the chat box, how long do you think that takes to go through this box on Sunday? Open all the mail, put everything in the right slash pockets, and then to actually do these red, orange, yellow, green, blue slash pockets. Okay, an hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours, 3 hours. Correct. It takes me for sure 2 hours, sometimes 3. Okay, 12 hours. Maybe not 12 hours unless it's your first time. But yeah, I mean, we're looking at a 90-minute to 3-hour investment every Sunday. The reason why is because you're going to stop opening your mail and processing through this stuff Monday through Saturday. You're literally going to just drop everything into the Sunday basket and save yourself at least an hour every single day from dealing with these actionable to-dos if they can wait until Sunday. Then when you get to Sunday, we have to deal with it. So we open everything, we divide everything into the slash buckets. That usually takes me about 15 minutes. Then just to do these 2, just to do the calendar and the money. These both take me personally 45 minutes every weekend. So the calendar is looking at the calendar. Figuring out what I'm going to do with my time, what work things need to be done, what homeschool things need to be done, what household things need to be done, all of that. Like, how am I allocating all my time this week? And then money. It takes me 45 minutes every week to go through our bills. They are mostly automated now. I'm probably down to 30 minutes now that I automated everything. But, you know, we aren't debt-free yet. And so I'm playing the money shell game and it takes me about 30 to 45 minutes a week to play that game. I don't know if you've ever played it. Most Americans do. I think it's 85% of us are playing the shell game. Takes a while to play the shell game. It's all I have to say. Then once you learn how to do that, those are your actionable things that have been dropping through the cracks. Then we have these slash pockets like I showed you, the pink that are all 5, and we have them for 4 different categories. And this is what's set up in the videos inside of the system. The purple slash pockets Are for your home. The blue slash pockets are for your family. The green slash pockets are for any money or financial— like we have a bunch of LLCs, stuff like that. And the pink are for you. So I told you this box is to go through your actionable, your actionable stuff, which is your mail and your to-dos. But quickly you will realize that a lot of your actionable is, oh well, in the summer I want to have a garden, and in the fall we want to travel here and We're having a graduation party for our son and our daughter is going to have First Communion. And, you know, like all these different things. Where does all those projects go? And for us, they go in the Sunday basket. So the one that you probably have never done, which is why I always like to focus on this in the free masterclass, are the pink slash pockets. When I created the system, I never had pink slash pockets for the last 14 years because I was just dealing with whatever paper I had. That's how I filled my slash pockets. But when I was really creating the system to teach you, I thought, okay, well, those are the slash pockets I have. But if I'm creating a system for ultimate productivity and proactivity, then the ultimate goal is that for the time that we free up, for me to invest in myself. And it could be my age, you know, I'm going to be 47 this year. Could be the age of my kids. They're 17 and 19. I have one in freshman year of college and one a junior in high school. I'm thinking about me. I'm just going to be honest. I have devoted the last 19 years of my time, money, and motivation to these other 2 humans, and I feel a little sucked dry. It's time for me to live my next act. Like, what is it? And when I started my own program, I could not— I could not for the life of me figure out what to put in these pink slash pockets. That's, that's so selfish. Like, all of my time should go to my spouse, my house, and my children. Like I should not be pulling any of my time, money, and resources for myself. Well, over the last 2 years, I've decided that is not selfish. I have given and given and given, and it's not like I'm taking now, but I am developing myself into the person I want to be and the person I want my children— I want them to develop themselves as they become adults as well. And so some of the things I've started collecting in my Sunday basket when I think about my pink Personal slash pockets are I'm upgrading my wardrobe. This is a cute little jacket that Greg got me for Christmas. I've totally redone my wardrobe in the last 2 years from literally hand-me-down clothes that I would buy at a consignment shop to buying at a real store with a coupon. Like, for 15 years, I did not go to a real store. I went to a consignment store because, ladies, it's easy for us to get really nice hand-me-downs at resale shops. So that's where I shopped. My exercise and fitness. You've heard about that recently on the podcast where I've lost 7 pounds and I'm— my exercise, you guys, don't get too excited, is 20 pushups and 100 crunches and then 100 of these little leg things. I don't even know how to describe them. That's my exercise routine, but I'm feeling a lot stronger and a lot healthier. And then travel. I love to travel and I have not traveled for the last 15 years. Partly because of money, but also because I was a mom that needed to be home and run everything. And now they don't need me here to run everything. These pink slash pockets are revolutionary because it's about you. Like when you do the Sunday Basket system, you have the rainbow slash pockets that you do every week to make sure that your household is running smoothly. And then you have pink slash pockets for you, purple for your house. Blue for your family and green for your finances. So you can really see in front of you all of your goals and aspirations for what you want your family to do now and in the future versus living your life off of a to-do list. When you live your life off of a to-do list, you know what you have to buy at the store and meetings and all of that. But when you have a Sunday basket, you will see slash pockets that say travel on them. And every single weekend I'm like, that's right, I'm a woman who travels. That's right. That's a woman who travels. Somebody's asking what color is your business. That's a whole nother box that's over here. So we have 7 work boxes and those are for any different kind of box. This is to run your household. Do not muddy it up with your business. That needs to be a separate box and a separate day. All right, after you go through your box and after you go through your slash buckets, then you're going to do planning. So if you're in the 100 Day Home Organization program, we actually have a planner. And this is where you would do your planning sheets. If you are not in the 100-Day Home Organization Program, you're going to use the free printables I'm going to send you at the end of this masterclass. Even if you're watching a replay, you're going to get these free printables. And these are the 2 free printables. I'm holding them up in the little screen right here. This one plans out your week. And this one is your weekly checklist and your little to-do lists. They're little to-do lists. Because I don't want you to write 800 things on them. I only want you to write like 10 to 12 things that you're going to get done this week, if that. The other reason why the Sunday basket works so well is I do the majority of these tasks on Sunday. That's why it takes, you know, 2 to 3 hours to go through my box because I actually pay all the bills, put everything on the computer, mail all the mail. Like I do all of the things on Sunday so I don't carry them over till Monday or Tuesday. The only things I can't do that with are errands or things that have to be done outside the home or any phone calls I need to make to places that are not open on Sunday. Okay, so let's just review that whole thing real quick. First, you're going to empty the box, open everything, sort them into the slash pockets. Then you're going to go through the rainbow-colored slash pockets every single week. If one of the items on your to-do list matches another slash pocket, you're going to pull that out as well. You're going to look at what you did last week on your calendar and make sure that you followed up with everything you need to do there and what you have coming up on your calendar next week so you know how much time, money, and motivation you have available for additional tasks. And let's talk about how much time this is going to save you. I have, I have numerous times in this presentation told you that this is going to take 2 to 3 hours on Sunday. I don't want you to be surprised that this is going to take time. So who could do the math over in the chat while I'm doing it? If we spend 2 to 3 hours on Sunday planning for our week, how much time, according to Benjamin Franklin, should we be saving next week in execution? Drum roll, please. Okay, Mary says 4 to 6 hours. 6 to 8 hours. 6 to 8 hours is the winner. Winner, winner, winner. So anywhere between 4 and 8 hours, which is anywhere between half an hour to an hour a day. I guarantee it. Now the first month that you do the Sunday basket, you will not feel that you are getting that much time back because you are learning a new organizational skill. I talk often about growing your organizational muscles. These are the muscles I love to grow, you guys. My arm muscles getting a little good, but my productivity muscles. Black belt. So this is going to save you 4 to 8 hours a week, eventually an hour every single day, because you're just dumping it in here and you're doing all of that work on Sunday. And again, just like this little Post-it card, if you do this for 6 weeks and then you don't do it, you will immediately see how it was saving you so much time. Um, so the Sunday basket is going to have a huge impact on your day-to-day organization level. Emily, let's stop here. And take a couple questions, and then I'll talk about how the Sunday basket really is part of the bigger Organized 365 system in general. Sounds good.

Let me just pull that spreadsheet open for you. I was adding a few things to it.

Okay, awesome. Somebody is asking if I plan my menu on Sunday as well. Both in the planner and on this free sheet that you're going to get, it has you pick out your top 3, home or work— not and— home or work tasks and chores. And in here, yes, you plan out your dinner all week long. If you've listened to my podcast at all, you know I don't plan dinner right now. I'm just eating eggs every single night for dinner, and Greg is in charge of dinner and cooking. Highly recommend outsourcing, by the way.

Okay, are you ready?

I'm ready.

I was wondering if I could ask you for some advice. When I do my Sunday basket on Monday, it takes me about 4 to 5 hours to complete all the tasks that need to be done. By the time I finished, I feel overwhelmed that it has taken so long. I've only been doing it for about 5 weeks now. When I try to schedule all the leftover tasks, it feels overwhelming. And then there is the slash pockets that I keep out to try and fit in somewhere during the week, but they don't get done because they're not urgent, but things that I would like to achieve. I do feel that it has made a big difference in my organization, as now I can find things and feel more organized. But the overwhelming feeling after doing the Sunday basket and realizing that I don't have enough time really gets to me. Also trying to keep up with a 100-day challenge. Could you please give me some of your amazing wisdom and advice? I have— I'm a mother of 14-year-old girl, 10-year-old boy, dog, chooks. I'm not sure what that is. Orchid, etc. Husband works away during the week and sometimes longer. I do all the books as a part of our business, personal and business finances. Mail and everything that a home CEO would do— cooking, washing, cleaning, running around after kids for after-school activities and appointments, etc. I do have a cleaner once a fortnight. Thanks for all you do. It does help us change our lives.

And what I would say to you is, you are not Superwoman. You're not Superwoman, and your family thinks you are. And so you are literally Burning yourself out trying to be— you're trying. It's not the system that is broken. The Sunday basket system is bringing to light the fact that you are trying to do the work of 4 humans, literally. So statistically, without children, without children, the Pew Research Institute says it takes 28 hours per week for cooking, cleaning, laundry, house care, all of that. 28 hours per week. When Greg and I did a time study, it was 36 hours for us without children. That is when I was like, game on, we are getting a house cleaner. Because that saves me literally 8 hours a week. There's nothing wrong with the Sunday Basket system. You are getting hard, cold facts that there is too much on your plate. Running your house is more than a part-time job. Being a parent is more than a part-time job. Your spouse is not available during the week. He travels. So you can just make now the children a full-time job because you don't have somebody helping you with that. You're running books. So you actually have a job, but you're not counting it as a job because you're doing it in your spare time in the bedroom or whatever. But it really is a job. You literally do not have enough time. So then it comes down to math. And if you are running the books, if you're running the books for your company. Saving however much money that is, then can you pull $60 to $100 every 2 weeks out to get a housekeeper so that you can have your house cleaned, which is going to save you 8 hours a week? I don't know how this math works, but I'm telling you, a 3-hour housekeeper every other week, which you said you do have one, but add more, add her more, will save you double that time. I don't, I don't know how that math works, but totally, if I clean my own house 8 hours, somebody else does it 3, I don't get it. So I would up her hours. I would consider not doing the books or not doing all of the books, or if you really do have to do the books, then start using paper plates instead of dishes. Like, where— somewhere you've got to save yourself some time. You physically obviously don't have enough hours now. As you get the 100-day program done, as you get the Sunday basket running, you are definitely 100% going to get more time, probably another 8 to 10 hours a week. But I still don't think that's going to be enough for everything that's on your plate. So then I think it is a cold, hard look at like, okay, well, if we got a mother's helper on Tuesdays and Thursdays because your husband always travels. And this mother's helper picks up the kids from the bus stop or school and takes them to the library and does homework with them. And then takes them out and they get to get pizza one night and Wendy's the other night. And you have that night where you don't have to worry about dinner and you eat a protein bar or eggs or whatever, like I do. Or they bring you home dinner, even better, and you work on your bookkeeping business during that time. See how you're somewhere along the way, you either need to give up something or get more help because you can't keep going at this rate.

I'm sure she is not alone. Question number 2, Mary Beth from Facebook. I have a question about the various printables in the Sunday basket section of the member dashboard. In particular, there are single color pages, 9 colors. Containing narrow boxes with 3 checkmarks in each box. Single color pages containing narrow boxes with space to write but no checkboxes. Single color pages containing 2 columns of wider boxes with 7 checkboxes, each box a little smaller than a 3 by 5 card. Single color 3-column like number 3 above but without lines or boxes. Pages titled Sunday Basket 2.0 divided into quarters. I would like a greater explanation of how these pages could be used. Maybe this could be addressed in the masterclass. Thank you.

Okay, so I know what she's talking about. I just ran away and got them. Um, so once you buy the system, I give you a whole bunch of printables. First of all, for that person, watch the videos, video training again inside of the dashboard. That will explain the 2.0. But also, you're talking about these. These are so fun. Oh my goodness gracious. These are just They're just fun. They're just to print out to be added with whatever page you want to add them to. So like, let's say for your calendar, you have a lot coming up in the summer, you could just print this out. And then on this orange sheet, you would just write down all of the things that need to go on your calendar for the summer. So there's no like master use for them. They're just fun and you can add them to your slash pockets if you want to. It's just a bonus.

Okay, now questions from the masterclass. When you read through your index card. Yeah, that's a big card. What do you do with the index card after the day is over?

I recycle it.

Oh, good job. What if all the stuff that needs to go into the Sunday basket is bigger than the basket?

Ah, this is a great question. So like, let's say I had gotten a gallon of paint instead of a quart of paint, then I would have taken an index card and written down paint for basement and thrown it in the Sunday basket. Because if I don't do that, because I'm a piler by nature, I'm going to leave the gallon of paint right on the kitchen counter. Don't laugh, you do it too. Or I'm going to put the gallon of paint somewhere and I'm not going to remember where I put it. Don't laugh, you do it too. So anything— Literally, I don't think you guys understand the degree to which I don't think. Right now there are no extra thoughts running through my head. There's no like, don't forget to get this, make sure you do this, do you know that you have a call coming up later? There's no— my, my mind is like a man's mind. It's totally empty. Because I don't have any reminders in my head because I am— I have conditioned myself to write things on index cards and toss them in there. You guys, look at this. Look at this.

Look at this.

This is for Embrace. So this is for our national convention that's coming up in June. I got rid of this binder. Um, look at all these. I was listening in my car to music and look at all these index cards I made. These are all the songs and clips of TV that I want to show you. These are all notes. This is notes for talks I'm going to give at Embrace. This is— I mean, look at how much stuff is in this slash pocket. But I don't keep anything in my head. Like, everything gets written on an index card and dropped in the Sunday basket and then put in the right slash pocket. So when I'm ready to write my talk for Embrace, I will pull that slash pocket out and I will look at all my Post-it notes. The other one that has a ton is my podcast folder because you guys give me the best ideas for podcasts. So here's my podcast folder. Look at all those ideas that are in there. Every time you send me an email, I print it out. Every time you DM me or send me something, I write it on an index card and I put it in this podcast folder. And then I don't worry about forgetting that I'm going to record podcast Sunday Basket 3.0 because it's right in here in my podcast folder. And when I sit down to record podcasts, I can go through all of that and I'll pick out the next 3 podcasts I'm going to record and then I just record that. I can't, I can't switch to full screen and Other— I don't know why the webinar doesn't let me do that. Sorry about that. So does that answer that question, Emily? I forget the question.

Yes, and that's the perfect segue to this question, which is me holding hands with all the team members and this person. Excuse me, did you say 3.0?

Yeah, what do you mean 3.0? No, there's not gonna be any more things to buy. I'm gonna record a podcast about how sometimes what's left in your Sunday basket No longer serves the person you've become once you become an organized, productive person. And we need to do a different kind of purge out of your Sunday basket and move into 3.0 of running the Sunday basket. But there's no product with it.

I see. Okay. All right. That makes sense.

My director of marketing is like, is this something I don't know about? When is this going to happen? Next week? Yeah, no, no, no, it's just a podcast episode. Yeah, sorry. That's okay.

Someone else was asking it too. Do you only go through 1.0 every week or the 2.0/pockets as well?

I go through 1.0 every single week and I look at all my 2.0 and if any of those need to be done in the next week, I pull those out. But I usually don't. I go through my 2.0s about every 4 to 6 weeks, deep dive in those.

Okay, this is a detail girl. Sandra wants to know, on the weekly planning sheet, is there a reason why tasks Number 7, 12, and 5 are highlighted in pink. Also, why do the numbers start over after 12?

Yes. Okay, you're so good. Because those are hours of the day. So that's 7 AM. So that pink line is where you have breakfast. 12 is where you have lunch. 5 is where you have dinner. And the reason why it starts over is because that's afternoon time.

That's all I got so far.

All right, sweet. Okay, so the Sunday basket is your gateway into getting organized. Because as a professional organizer, what I found to be true is people usually, when they want to get organized, start in their master closet. I don't know, always. And here's how people normally do it. They empty the entire closet because that's what they've been taught. Like, if you want to organize a space, you empty the whole thing. Now, sometimes occasionally you do this when your organizing muscles have not been used for years. And what you end up with is a bedroom full of clothes. And then you're— and then you lose motivation and you don't know what to do. And then you're crying in your coffee scrolling Instagram. So this is not— this is not a good place to start organizing. The best place to start organizing is doing a Sunday basket, getting that, doing that for 4 to 6 weeks. Because if you have your actionable to-dos and a place for all of your ideas to go, then if you clear out the closet, which I would not empty it all at one time, but if you do that. And all of a sudden something in your family or your work comes up, you're able to step away from that and still feel like you're on top of things. That's why we do the Sunday basket first. The typical flow of people getting organized is they do the Sunday basket. And then they start doing the 100-Day Home Organization Program, which is organizing your entire house. As soon as they're halfway through the organizing of the entire house and they have a Sunday basket, all of a sudden they realize they have paper. It's like, it's like a light bulb goes on and they go, oh my gosh, I have so much paper, like binders and files and kids' artwork and my artwork and so much paper. The reason why you finally realize you have so much paper is because you didn't see it or think it before because you were so worried about the clothes that didn't fit and the kitchen that was a mess and the kids' toys that you couldn't see it. But as soon as you realize you have paper, you're like, I have got to get a handle on this paper. And then after you get a handle on the paper, you want to do your storage room. I am huge on this idea of progress over perfection. I want you to make progress. I want you— but we're not going for perfect. Like, if you want perfect, if you want it to look great on a magazine spread, I'm not your girl. I am never going to be in Better Homes and Gardens. But if you want to get more time in your day and you want to have a lot of progress. I am your girl. Just wanted to let you know that thank you for joining the webinar and that we will be sending you these printables. I'm getting confirmation from Pat if I already have this queued up for these to be sent to you automatically or not. They could— are they already? Okay.

Yeah.

So then they are in your email inbox right now. So now I'm going to turn off my PowerPoint.

They are programmed. You will get it with the replay.

All right, I think I think that's it. Okay, we are sending you a recording. We are sending you those images. Feel free to share this recording. This recording is not going to expire. We're actually going to turn this recording into an evergreen webinar. So if you love the Sunday basket, you're like, this is what my sister needs to hear. This is what I've been trying to explain to my best friend, then just send them the replay and let them watch. Okay, thanks everyone. Have a great week. Bye.