My roommate Kathleen Alessandro, www.energized-solutions.com

It's been a busy month! In March I attended the National Association of Professional Organizer's (NAPO) national convention in Boston, MA. What a wonderful time!

On the "Ask The Organizer" Panel

NAPO President Barry Izsak and myself.

Imagine 900 organizers together in a hotel! I always tell people we have such fun - in an orderly fashion!

I was honored to be a presenter on two panels. The first panel was the "Ask the Organizer" panel where 7 other organizing experts and I answered questions from 300 participants. The other panel I participated in was about using and developing products in our business. It's always a pleasure to visit with the president of NAPO, Barry Izsak of Austin, TX. We had a great closing keynote speaker, Stuart Ellis-Myers, and he had us all laughing with our red noses!

The best thing though about conference is catching up with wonderful friends I've made in this profession. I came back from Boston realizing how thankful l am to have a career that I love and getting to help people at the same time!

My biggest news is that I am a brand new author! My book is Organize with Confidence and I have an accompanying manual that gives you all the forms you need to reclaim order in your life. I would like to share with you an excerpt from the foreword by my wonderful friend, Glenna Salsbury.

"Personal joy in living unfolds one day at a time. If you are on overwhelm your joy factor may be missing. Don't waste one more day. Give yourself the gift of dreaming new dreams. Take hold of the tools that will transform your surroundings. Your life will take on new meaning and fulfillment."

Thank you, Glenna! And she is absolutely right. Don't wait any longer to take action. Whether it's through giving yourself the gift of my book and manual or through some other means - know that it's Your Time! Take action today!

Do you notice that whenever you think of doing something out of your comfort zone you feel fear? It may be just a touch or a LOT of fear. But chances are your fear is totally unfounded.

Fear stands for:
Fantasized
Experiences
Appearing
Real

I read somewhere that of all the fears we deal with, only 5% really come true.

When I first started my professional organizing and speaking business, I wanted to get my name out in the community but did not have any budget for advertising. I knew that my information would be great for morning TV news shows but that would mean I'd have to get on TV! Talk about wanting to do something out of my comfort zone!

After a year of thinking about this I finally had the nerve to call up a local TV station and pitch my idea. They loved it and I was soon on their morning show! Was I scared? You bet! Did I walk into the station wishing I had never thought of this idea? YES! But I did it, it went well and subsequently I've been on many of the morning shows. You can see two of the spots at www.elizabethhagen.com/press.html

Perhaps you've tried to get organized before and it didn't work and now you fear trying again. STOP that feeling! You can do this.

Face your fear and do it anyway.

I have all the tools and strategies for you. You can read past issues of my newsletters and free articles at www.elizabethhagen.com/free_resources.html.

Or treat yourself to my brand new book and manual "Organize with Confidence" at www.organizewithconfidence.com and find out how to get the book for free!

Make one trip to the card store and purchase all the cards you need for that month at one time. Then put them in your tickler file (www.theticklerfile.com) in the dated folder that you want to send them and you are good to go!

Want a great way to view all the programs you have running and then pull up the one you want right then and there?

All you have to do is press Alt + Tab and it will bring up all the programs you have open. Continue holding down the Alt key and pressing the Tab key to scroll you way across the programs, highlight the one you want, release the Alt key to bring up the window you want to view. Fun and easy!

I'm excited to be presenting "Organize with Confidence" on Tuesday, May 9, 2006.

This is a women's only workshop and it is absolutely free! The last one was full with 100 ladies there and we had a great time!

Here is what some attendees said from the April 4 workshop:

"The workshop was awesome and inspiring. I came away with confidence that I could accomplish my goals" – Jan Persson

"It was fun! What do you have to lose? Maybe just some clutter!" - Michelle Adrian

"I would encourage friends to attend your workshop. What a breath of fresh air. Thanks for the encouragement – I feel empowered" - Cyndy Johnson

I want all women to experience the joy and fulfillment of living in confidence and having an organized life so you can come as my guest. "Organize with Confidence" will be from 6:30pm-8:30pm in the Carlton room at the Holiday Inn Express, 2501 S. Shirley Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD (by the Century Theatres).

You will learn:

• How to be confident in every area of your life.
• Conquer procrastination and perfectionism.
• The S.T.A.R.T.™ Method to organize any area in your home.
• 7 Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed.
• The 3 simple decisions to tame the paper tiger once and for all.
• How to prioritize your day in 60 seconds or less.
• Save time in the kitchen and at the grocery store.
• To totally organize your closet in 4 easy steps.
• How to use the Life Balance Wheel to set goals.
• Organizing systems that work!

It's going to be a lot of fun-please join me! This workshop is free but you must register to attend. You can register at www.ElizabethHagen.com/OrganizeWorkshopregistration.

See my upcoming speaking engagements at http://www.elizabethhagen.com/speaking_training.html.

I'm in the process now of booking fall speaking engagements. If your business or organization would like to start off this fall being more focused, organized, and productive please visit the Speaking page on my website.

It's time to make your life easier!