What Is an Organizing and Productivity Coach Anyway?
You may have heard of a Professional Organizer, but what about an Organizing Coach? And how does productivity fit in?
If you’ve seen shows on TV that involve Professional Organizers, you know that the typical relationship looks like this:
They come to your space, and you give them an awkward, embarrassing tour.
They discuss your organizing goals and how the space got to be the mess it is today.
They come up with a plan and either work with you on one item at a time or bring in a crew as you stand in the corner shaking.
Piles of things to keep, toss, etc., are scattered around, creating a bigger mess than before.
Their multi-hour session is over, they leave, and you’re left to live with your piles until they come back.
If they did assign you homework between sessions, you’re unsure of what to do by yourself, you lack the motivation to do it, and nothing moves forward.
A Coach, on the other hand, helps you identify the solution that’s inside you. Sounds corny but hear me out.
Coaching is about exploring with a client a current problem, challenge, dilemma or situation and guiding the client to connect with a course of action that feels comfortable, doable and impactful. It’s about thinking about things in new ways and connecting to the feelings at the heart of it all. This results in the client opening up to new approaches to the situation and owning them.
Coaching explores what you’ve tried before and what you’re willing to explore now. We stay in the present, focusing on solving the root problem and eliminating the blockers preventing you from creating new organizing systems and letting go of things. In each session, we establish a reasonable mini goal and desired outcome and come up with doable action steps that inch you closer and closer to your over-arching goal.
Best of all, since you own the solution, you are much more likely to act on it, be responsible and accountable for doing it and notice the positive energy shift and emotions that this journey of transformation brings.
And, did I mention that I coach through the interwebs? Yep, no need to come to you because you are empowered with the vision, action steps and, above all, alignment with the plan to be motivated to work on it on your own time, with the support and accountability of your Coach to help guide you.
Now, let’s talk productivity.
We all know that there is a plethora of apps, planners, journals, trackers and time management gurus out there to help you be more productive and get more stuff done. Which tool you should buy? Which expert should you listen to?
And let’s back up a bit—do you even know what the issue really is?
As a Productivity Coach, I collaborate with you to determine what productivity means to you, where you feel you aren’t being very productive, and which strategies speak to you to try. We may need to tweak ideas and suggestions until they are the best fit for how you think, feel and live. We may need to release some shoulds and evaluate our priorities. We may need to find the perfect glittery journal with a unicorn on it for you to smile at your list of things to do instead of curse it out. This is all right up my alley!
The peanut butter to your jelly
Organizing and productivity go hand in hand. They’re both about setting up new systems to improve ease and flow—whether that’s your time, your clothes, your hundreds of to-do lists or your junk drawer. We just may start our partnership with working on tackling your overgrown collection of Precious Moments figurines, but we may roll that right into setting boundaries and priorities around your time to make more of your own precious moments. (See what I did there?)
In short, as an Organizing and Productivity Coach, my approach involves helping you:
Clarify your goals and values and why they matter,
Break goals down into doable tasks,
Identify tools and support to stay on track,
And most importantly, celebrate your progress and help evolve your plan for even greater success.
