The importance of an alarm clock

One of the last things I always ask my husband before we fall asleep is, "Is your alarm set?" It's probably an unnecessary question...after years of my asking it only a handful of times has he said no, and gotten up to set it. But I like to think that those few times saved him from starting off the next day poorly. While alarms might be unpleasant for some of us to wake up to, the consequences of not getting up on time are usually much worse.

I'm not a fan of the sleep function on alarm clocks. I think alarm clocks are most effective when they are set for the time that you must get up, or perhaps ten minutes earlier, so you can at least lie in bed for a minute and collect your thoughts if you like. If you tend to fall asleep again immediately after shutting your alarm off, placing it out of arm's reach so you have to get up in order to turn it off really does work.

I'm also not a fan of using one's cellphone as an alarm clock. This works for a lot of people, but it means that psychically we're dependent on our phones, even as we sleep, and that doesn't seem healthy. Personally, I like an alarm that wakes me up by gradually increasing the volume of preselected music...it's gentle and effective. I consider myself a morning person and when I'm in a routine, I often don't even need to have an alarm set in order to wake up at a predetermined time. But I set one anyway.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Alan Cleaver.

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Lelah With An H on social media

It's been a while since I posted my profiles to the various social media outlets that I belong to. Let's get connected on the ones you use, too!

Facebook: Lelah Baker-Rabe, Professional Organizer
Twitter: @lelahwithanh
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Gifts for people going paperless

Over the last week or so I've gotten a lot of requests for advice about scanners, which made me think about the best gifts to get for people who have expressed the desire to go paperless. Since going more paper-free myself, I've inspired others in my family to shed their paper files and embrace their digital ones. If you know someone who is trying to do the same thing, here are some gift ideas:

• A scanner. You can't go wrong with the Fujitsu ScanSnap series. I have the S1500M (for Macs) and love the scan quality, user interface and software. Mine is the top-end desktop feed scanner, but for more portability the S1300 or S1100 are great, too.
• The Paperless Document Organization Guide from DocumentSnap. DocumentSnap is a website for all things paperless, and they have some helpful information products to help you jump start your paperless journey. I was interviewed for the guide and think their content is great!
• An external hard drive. Anything over 500GB will be lots of extra storage space to help someone backup their digital data safely and regularly.
• If they have a mobile device, credit at their app store of choice. Droid or PC tablet users might want an Amazon credit or credit at the Android Market. iPhone or iPad owners can always use iTunes credit to use at the App Store. This will allow them to experiment with new productivity/paperless apps like Bento, Pages, Evernote, Remember the Milk, Things, etc. which often cost money.

Finally, give your encouragement. Striving to have less paper in a paper-dependent world can be difficult. Support your paperless friend by sending them links to articles you think they'd like instead of clippings, or perhaps getting them ebooks instead of paperbacks.

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DocumentSnap's Paperless Document Organization Guide

There is a great website out there called DocumentSnap, run by Brooks Duncan, that is a one-stop-shop for all things paperless, such as scanner reviews and free tips and tools. Brooks interviewed me as part of his new product, the Paperless Document Organization Guide. The guide is meant to answer "now that I’ve scanned my documents, what the heck do I do with them so that I can find them again?" A few professional organizers, including me, were asked to be a part of this cool information product. If you want some motivation and encouragement for getting started on a paperless path, I encourage you to check it out.

I had an awesome time talking with Brooks (though if you listen to my interview, I was recovering from a cold and sound pretty gravelly) and sharing my insights into what makes a paperless system trustworthy and workable on a day-to-day level.

I truly believe that a (mostly) paperless lifestyle is the future and that we now have tools to make it possible that didn't exist for the consumer even a couple of years ago. It's an exciting time!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Tips: Camping reservations

Camping is a wonderful way to take a break from the routine, and to take a break from the always plugged-in lifestyle we have come to embrace. I grew up camping in California, and the state is blessed with extraordinarily beautiful and varied regions to explore. My husband and I have long wanted to make camping more of a priority, and until yesterday we had everything you'd need to go car camping except a tent. After a trip to REI, we now have a tent and are raring to go.

So, we had our gear. We had a couple of free weekends blocked out on the calendar. All we needed was a campsite. Since we both like to have things arranged ahead of time, we decided to use the online registration systems provided by both the state and federal governments so we could be assured of a spot in the campgrounds we favored. From experience, first come-first served sites fill up extremely quickly on the weekends. Apparently, the reserved sites also fill up extremely quickly on the weekends. We were hard-pressed to find anything free for the weekends we wanted that wasn't in a place likely to have snow covering it. Eventually, we found something suitable, but we learned a lot in the process.

1. If you have a favorite campground and want to camp on the weekends, mark your calendar about six months in advance of your dates to check the online reservation system. That's when most reservations open up for a given campground. It really pays to plan ahead.
2. If possible, plan your trip during the week, when campgrounds are much less busy and you'll have more options and more privacy. However, in summer, even this won't always guarantee you'll be able to get in at the campground of your choice.
3. If you do want to attempt to get in at a first-come-first-served campground, have directions to some nearby alternatives in case you aren't successful at the first place. 
4. Be sure to read the online descriptions carefully for a given campground before you make reservations, and be totally sure of your dates. You don't want to arrive and find out that pets aren't allowed, or that you booked a tent spot but you have an RV.

I'm counting the days until our first trip, and am marking my calendar to remind me to block out next year's dates early!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

A multi-tasking toy

As a Christmas gift, my husband and I received a Playstation 3. We'd had our eye on the video game system for months, having decided it was the best way to solve two problems that we'd been having. First, it would replace our 12-year old DVD player that had trouble playing any DVD that wasn't perfectly spotless and new, and second, it would allow us to watch Netflix Instant on the nice TV in our living room instead of only on the computer in my office.

We opened the present with glee. Once home, the most difficult thing about setting it up was deciding on our username for our Playstation Store account, which we needed in order to install the Netflix driver. Within minutes, we were watching Gosford Park (for the dozenth time - I usually get it from the library and it skips terribly). It was like a miracle.

All in all, the Playstation 3 has performed admirably as a DVD player and a Netflix player. We don't have any games for it, and only one controller, so that can be something we add on down the road if we feel like it. The most surprising thing has been trying out Blu-ray discs. We weren't terribly interested in the format, but figured it wouldn't hurt to have the capability. Well, now, having seen a side by side comparison of the same movie in standard definition and Blu-ray, I've upgraded my Neflix account so we can get Blu-ray versions of films when they have them. It looks really nice. Still, there's no need to go out and replace our modest DVD collection with Blu-ray versions. It's all going streaming anyway, and from a clutter-control point of view, I couldn't be happier.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Technology I'm thankful for

Thanksgiving is this Thursday. I'm thankful for so much great stuff in my life, it would take a really long blog post to document them all. So here are a few techy things that I'm thankful for that make my life and my work simpler.

• Gmail. I manage several email accounts and Gmail makes it easy to do it all from one portal. I love the labels and filters features, but most of all, I love the search function and the enormous amount of space I can take up, all for free. Gmail Labs also has some awesome add-ons that really enhance my use of basic Gmail.
• Goodreads. I really like being able to keep track of which books I've read by updating my Goodreads profile whenever I finish a book. It's a great holding place for books I want to read as well.
• Bento and Pages. These two Mac programs are a joy to use. Bento makes my financial and business tracking simple and easy to search, modify and combine. Pages makes any word processing document a pleasure to create.
• Evernote. Evernote creates searchable pdfs out of almost anything that you can look at on your computer. The free version has plenty of functionality for me, but the paid version is great, too. 

What are you thankful for this year?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Improvised nametags

I don’t often use label makers or computers to create labels or signs. A lot of my clients do as they like the uniform look it gives to their files or other organizing projects. Fair enough. I simply don’t have the patience for it, when I could hand write a label in less time and move on. (Luckily, I have neat handwriting.) However, sometimes it does pay to use these aids when creating a large file system or many duplicates of the same thing. On Tuesday, I’m hosting a business mixer through the site Biznik, of which I am a member. As the host, I provide nametags, and Biznik provides a handy nametag template, which I downloaded with the intention of printing out some easy nametags. However, when I went to Office Depot and found that their selection of printable nametags is limited to packs that cost upwards of 50 dollars, and since I only needed about 25, I decided to improvise. I chose 2''x4''  Avery Multi-Use Labels; I’ll be able to use the extras with my clients and they happen to be almost the exact same size as standard nametags. I downloaded the template that goes with the labels from the Avery website in about three seconds, had the Biznik logo pasted in after 30 seconds more. I was a bit doubtful that the entire thing was actually going to print properly, but, to my surprise, they came out exactly as promised. The entire thing was done in a few minutes and I had a low cost nametag that I’m sure the guests at my mixer won’t mind not comming on a large sheet.

Technology wins this round. Of course, we’ll hand write our names on the tags at the event. My trusty Sharpies are at the ready!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Clutter-free gifts: Technology

Next in my series of clutter-free gift ideas: technology. This category of gifts was inspired by professional organizer Monica Ricci. Her awesome series, The Big O, on the podcast Vicky and Jen: What Really Matters has a terrific episode all about clutter-free gifts that I highly recommend you check out if you want to do more research on this topic. One of the major categories of gifts she talks about there is technology, and I think it is a great idea for a lot of people.

Many of these gifts take up no space at all, except perhaps hard drive space. They are items that get used every day. They are unique without being too specific, which is good if you aren't sure exactly what kind of games, music or books your tech-savvy friend or relative is interested in or already has.

• Online music subscription or credit, such as iTunes gift cards or Rhapsody subscription
• Software (some nice organizing-related software: Paper Tiger (PC only), Bento (for Macs)) 
• Online subscriptions for services like Flickr Pro or Evernote
• Phone cards or Skype credits
• Netflix subscription
• Gamefly subscription
• ebooks
• ebook readers like the Kindle or Barnes and Noble's new Nook
• External harddrive, great for backing up data
• Gift card to get digital photos printed or books made from them (such as at Snapfish)
• Printer or photo paper
• Printer ink (always appreciated by me!)

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Tips and Tools: Media clutter

Do you have any media for which you no longer have the player? With media formats being tweaked and upgraded all the time, it's time to realize that your VHS tape collection is now totally out of date. If you don’t have a VHS player, please get rid of all your old tapes. You can donate them or unload them on Freecycle if you don’t feel comfortable just trashing them. eHow actually has some unique and useful ideas for recycling VHS tapes. Also, be sure to check your tapes for personal ones before getting rid of them. Family videos can be transferred to DVD at lots of local places and also by mail. I’ve used VHS to DVD and had a good experience, but I’ve heard good things about Costco’s service. Locally, ScanDigital has good word-of-mouth.

Don’t stop with VHS. Audio cassettes, laserdiscs, film and floppy disks are all becoming archaic, and if you don’t regularly use them, either get rid of them or safely store the ones you can’t bear to part with. By no means keep them in the prime real estate near your television, home theater or computer. Only keep current, watched media next to where you use it.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by jm3

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Tiny tech time saving tips

Here are some very quick ideas that can save you a bit of time here and there on your computer. If you find yourself spending a lot of time doing the same thing over and over, take a second to check in with the process and see if there is something you can do to automate it a little bit.

I like Firefox, too.

• Program your email provider to automatically include a signature with your contact information so you don't have to type your phone number, website, Twitter username or blog url over and over again.
• If security isn't an issue, use a web browser that offers to save your username and passwords and use that feature.
• Put your most frequently visited sites as shortcuts in a browser toolbar.
• Take advantage of autofill. Let your computer and browser earn its keep by guessing what you are typing, and when they get it right, press enter instead of typing out the word or address all the way.
• If you have new people visiting your home or business frequently, type up a thorough set of directions and save it as a pdf that you can attach in an email. Don't forget to include the full address including zip code so they can map it if they want. If you have a particularly difficult to find location, take a screenshot of it on Google Maps and annotate it with a program like Skitch if necessary.
• Use the search function on your computer to find missing files. Saving files with names that actually describe the contents will help a lot.
• Make sure your Internet connection is the fastest possible for your area.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by laihiu

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com