The One-Tool Secret to Launching Your Digital Product Faster ~ How to Simplify Your Workflow So You Can Focus on What Actually Sells - Kathi Burns

In this session, you’ll discover how to cut the clutter and work 10x faster—using just one tool to organize everything: tasks, research, and collaboration. No more tab overload or wasted hours.

Website: https://organizedandenergized.com/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KathiBurns/featured

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathiburns/ 

00:03 Hello, you. I'm so happy that you showed up. Congratulations just for showing up to this summit and just for joining us, you're taking ownership of your business and your success So today we're going to explore ways to craft your perfect document organizing system So let's get going I know that you're here to learn how to simplify your workflow so you can focus on what really matters But before we start, I'd like to get really serious And talk for a minute just about squirrel Did you know that squirrels lose 42% of the nuts that they bury? That's what we do as entrepreneurs as we begin to create our online course. We get busy jumping from branch to branch, doing task to task. We create documents, we save them randomly, and then we spend hours trying to find where they save them. Right? And when we can't find them, we jump onto another branch. We begin creating the same thing again and again Because it's often quicker and easier. Or so we think You know, most first time creators spend weeks or even months stuck in the prep mode, losing information in various apps, notes and half finished ideas. Does this sound familiar? I have a quick question for you right now. How many locations do you have your files saved?  

01:19 Is it on your laptop? Maybe you have some on your desktop? Maybe a notepad so I can written How about in the cloud? How about the external hard drive?  Can you find them quickly? Do you know where they are and how to find them? That's the question  Did you know that the Average entrepreneur wastes 40 hours every year trying to find documents they know they own but they cannot find? According to  OfficeMax, a small business, owners lose one week every year over 40 hours searching for misplaced files, invoices or critical documents That's time that you could spend Growing your business, right? Another survey discovered that 19.8% of business time, the equivalent of one day per working week, is wasted for business people searching for information Adobe did a survey and they said almost two thirds of respondents say they recreated documents because they couldn't find the original Is this sounding like anything in your world? I know it is in mine Yeah, it is. It's what we do When your documents are organized, you save time, reduce stress and avoid last minute scrambling. And instead of sending out, doing a full search for that missing document, you can locate every 30 seconds or less. How's that sound?  

02:36 Being able to find something when you need it, when someone asks you for it, eliminates anxiety  Helps get that Faster It also improves your accuracy Right? Organized documents reduce the risk of missing deductions or making errors on your tax return. That's just one And how about efficiency? How about finding and filing your tax receipts? Finding what you need quickly for your CPA Will streamline your tax prep process, which frees up time for other priorities like, hey, let's get our online course done right. So I want you to start organizing your documents today so you can enjoy the benefits of having.  Peace of mind, improved accuracy, and way less stress Today, I'm going to show you how to create order inside your digital documents using a better folder naming conventions And the goal of this session is to help you turn your digital mess into a streamlined success Now, I'm positiveThat you're aware that nothing zaps your productivity like a cluttered digital workspace. Take a look right nowAt your desktop, right? How many files are there?You waste hours every single week when you can't find what you need it.   03:49 And okay, so this is the time if you want to take a minute to grab a sheet of paper and a pen. It's going to help you if you're going to want to write this stuff down.  

03:57 One of my clients helps people write books. Sent me thisAfter she learned what I'm about to teach you. She says as a writer, publishing consultant, and university professor, documents are her friend and her nemesis. YeahKathy provided me with any tips and tricks to keep my business organizedBecause in full transparency I misplaced a few receipts and filed tax return extensions Which prevented me from having a Refund sooner. How silly. She also told me later that many of her clients are not able to find their latest draft, which slows down their progress through completing their books. The same thing happens with your online course projection, right? If you can't find the files or the last one that you worked on is going to slow down your progress.  

04:44 Now you might be wondering, why am I even here talking about this? So, as an author who loves to write and I love to create, I used to struggle with files scattered everywhere Now, I'm not a person who was organized their entire life. I was once a sailor who delivered yachts to the US Coast Guard captain After that, I became a travel writer living out of a duffel bag 42 weeks a year.  

05:06 And what I found out during the time abroad Not being encumbered by all my stuff, was I Didn't really need a lot of the stuff that was left Back in my apartment I learned that space is important And stuff can become just a little bit too much. I would get back to my apartment after being at Sea and I would purge and I'd say, there's all this, I don't even need any of this stuff, right? So So after that, you know, I kind of really knew this stuff was not as important But I didn't really know what professional organizer was. I met this woman and she was in on a healing journey and she had a year off and I had a year off to reinvent myself.  

05:45 After doing several careers. And I go to her house and she's surrounded by all this stuff And I'm like, girlfriend, you got to let loose of some of this stuff or you're not going to have the space to heal So I helped her purge And it was fun. And she goes, you know, you're really good at this. You should become a professional organizer. I I'm like, what the heck is that? She said, oh, talk to my girlfriend who's been, do you know, using a pro for years And that was the beginning of my quest to become a professional organizer. Flash forward  I've written three books, I've created four online programs. I was featured on Good Morning America as a successful woman. Startup business, that was a huge blessing But once I discovered the one place I can save everything Easily and effortlessly.  

06:31 My world shifted and my productivity locked rocked. Because What happened in the beginning, I was creating, creating, creating. But I didn't really have a system to keep all my files and my documents. And once that shifted, two years into my career I was able to publish my book. I was able to be on track And in action And so I know how very important it is To be streamlined, simplified Have less clutter, have less muck. Especially when you're creating a book or a course like you are doing right now Now, what if I told you you could cut the chaos and build your product faster  Using one online tool Now once you begin to understand how to organize your files, you can take your online program to completion.  

07:18 You can design a logical, easy to navigate folder structure You can use consistent naming conventions to save time and you can avoid the black hole of over nesting folders. Was something I used to do Eleanor Roosevelt. I don't know if you know much about her. She was the first lady of the US from 33 to 45 She was an instigator of social change and she had a seemingly endless supply of optimism Stubbornness And steady ceaseless effort. She just kept going on and on and on and she profoundly changed the role for women who followed her for the better This is her quote that I just love. It takes as much energy to wish As it does to plan So let's go ahead and plan Because we might as well spend that energy doing that instead of wishing we could plan, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah So let's talk about your goals. When it comes to creating a good digital filing system You want to be able to find your files quickly. You want a logical, easy to navigate structure And when you create a logical folder structure, and it will reflect how you think about your work. And you'll be able to work with your files and save times again and again and again because you'll be able to find what you need when you need it.  
 
08:32 Now, an easy to follow Hard drive organization will look like this. You only have four Main folders Put on your seatbelt and write this down 4 main folders is what's going to keep you organized. You'll have a business folder, a personal folder Possibly a client folder if you have clients, and a financial folder. Okay? So you go into your hard drive and I highly recommend that it's a cloud based drive And you create these big folders Once you get those folders, it's going to be really easy to organize within them. It'll be easy to file, easy to find and reusable So let's talk about creating this system Now, you don't want your system to be a huge hierarchical mage, right Maze You want it to be fast and easy And so you can save your files and your system won't cause friction with your brain Or with your time You want your system to make it easy to find the file or folder you need Either by poking through folders or using search And whenever possible, you want to reuse the same templates and the same naming conventions Both which will support the previous two goals effectively So what you want to do Is Create a logical, easy to navigate folder structure, right? So to start out, it helps to develop naming guidelines based on how you think and the words that you use.  

09:56 You can decide how you're going to organize. And this is why I love my career. Every single client is unique, right? You get to choose what works best for you But I do want you to consider categorizing by project, client, client, date, or type of document Please use those main four folders because skipping that step is going to cost you money and time And think abou Librarians, right? They manage large digital collections And they do it. They manage it easily by using consistent Meaningful and descriptive names to identify what's in each file, right? So they're consistent with their naming They make sense. It's meaningful and it's descriptive, so they know what the heck's in there Right? So these consistent filing Naming conventions will save you time. Okay. It'll give you instant searchability Consistency You'll save time. And this is a cool thing that the Offshot of it, you're going to look at professional Because when people ask you where things are and what they need, you can like, boom, go to the file, find it Get it even with your eyes closed. Juggling, right? So let's talk about professionalism. You know, well named files Reflect that you're organized and you have attention to detail Which is really important.  

11:15 For working for business and for people who might want to play with you and help you promote your online course, let's say, right? So you get your course done And then you need to send them. So you have people that are going to help you promote the launch, and you need to send them swipe files Where are the swipe files? Where are the files that you need to send your affiliates so they can actually help you promote? You need to find those fast. You need to have them in action and ready to go And then you're pro Right. If you can't find what you need to find They're like, why should it? You know, how's this course going to be that I'm helping you promote? Right Yeah Okay So if you're in doubt, try this. This is a really simple naming convention. Write this one down. So remember, you're going to have your four files Okay? Business clients Attacks, financial So what you're going to do is you're going to just try this The year The month, the date The name of the project and what type of document it is Right If you get used to doing.  

12:15 You can do whatever you want, Right? You could do it. Project name, year, month, date, document type. But use it over and over and over. Okay? You want to create the naming convention that you're going to useOver and over and over. That's the key To this whole thing So figure out how you're going to name it. Be descriptive. Okay? So take for instance, you know, year, month, date. Project name is like taxes, 20, 24, right? You're going to put it in financial Document type. Maybe it's a spreadsheet. Okay? So think about that, how you're going to do it One of my clients wrote this in a Yelp review Unsolicited, she says, Kathy's helped me get more advice, more organized, in fact, more than I would have ever dreamed. She's innovative in using tools you already have That you thought might be not be useful.  So she highly recommends me. I work with her and we actually helped her create Some online programs as well At this point in time, you might be asking yourself, wow, this sounds great, but how much time will it take to get me to organize all my files?  

13:22 Here's the thing, depending on how many files you have It could take a while But it takes time to make time The more time You spend organizing The more time you'll have later In fact, studies have showed That there that for every hour you spend organizing, you get four back More recent. And that Abe Lincoln's one of my favorite guys. He knew this. It was a one in three for him. He said, every hour I spend in preparation Saves me three hours in perspiration Nepo, my national association of Professional Organizers, did the one to four thing. Every hour you get four hours, and that's statistically proven But then one of my clients Michael Gerber, said for every hour You spend organizing, you get 10 fold results So that's one in 10 Bare minimum. You're going to get one in four. So you spend an hour in your hard drive, you're going to get four hours back later, guaranteed. So it takes time to make time, right? So you have to stop Slow down Get organized. It will save you all that time later.  Now, I told you a little bit about over nesting. That that was one of the things that I did a lot.  

14:35 And here's the thing. After you develop your naming convention, you want to be careful not to over nest. Over nesting means folders within folders within folders Now, folders within folders can be useful But you have to be cautious not to overdo it, right? Too many nested folders Can make it harder to find files, not easier Too many levels can make it difficult to Locate your files, and it could lead to confusion because you're way deep in your files and you don't know where you were to begin with or how you started there So when you're creating folders, think minimal, okay? Most files can fit somewhere in your hierarchy if you've done a good job of initially mapping it out Okay? In general Only create new folders if you find yourself repeatedly coming back to save similar files in the same place Only to find that it doesn't exist yet. Right? So in other words, you have your client section in your hard drive, right? And You You keep going back to Lori, let's say Lori is your clien. And  

15:40 You, you know, you keep going back to that one document. But, oh, all of a sudden, Lori now has three documents attached to her name That would make sense to put her in her own folder within the client folders. But we're not going to go deeper than that, right? Lori is just going to have her own folder with all the stuff about Lori in that one folder, which is one level deep under Client Right Now within the folders, you're going to name them Like.  
16:08 Whatever it would be 9, 3, 20, 25 Lori proposal Right? And then it could be 9, 5, 20, 25 Lori's work document So on and so forth, right? So So you're going to keep it really simple And you'll know when it's time to create another level. Like you'll know when you, when Lori has three folders this time to maybe give Lori her own folder under clients. But if Lori only has one document, there's zero reason To create another folder within that folder. Just keep it as Lori This is making sense to you, hopefully. Okay So you know when it's time to create another level in the hierarchy.  

16:50 But don't do it until you really think about it. Okay? So don't, don't try to create a vast, extensive, multi layered tree before you need it. That's basically the over nesting idea, which I would do. I used to do that all the time and now I just stop Because it's too confusing. You know, you, you're going like five layers deep and you're like, what was my main layer? I don't know. So that's all been resolved in my It saves me a boatload of time Speaking of that, the results are going to be that you're navigating. Navigating to the files is going to be really simple. You're going to save a lot of time You're going to not reduce your overwhelm, right? Because you're not going to be searching and seeking and then saying, oh my God, I don't even know what I'm doing And bail out. And it's going to be better visibility. Okay? You're going to actually find things really quicker.  

17:40 Important files are easier to spot when they're not buried really, really deep Okay, so what I'd like you to do and take away from this is to audit your folder structure today I want you to flatten it wherever it's possible Okay? Flatten it. Stop going deep because that is going to make your workflow smoother and faster. It's going to get you to the finish line of creating that online course Better, faster, quicker Later Now being organized isn't just about naming a sort of files. It's also knowing where your files are going to live So once your files are named and sorted, you get to make the big decision. Where are you going to store your backups? Right? Where are those going to be? Choose one strategy, keep it simple. Make sure one of those places is a cloud based app. Okay Now I know this topic covered a lot and I have an upcoming masterclass in September where you can learn even more.  

18:33 But Just go ahead and take some action right now, that's the most important thing. As a board certified professional organizer I've been doing this 20 years. My code of ethics, which I really stand by is I Give you Sustainable skills, like I transfer some skills to you So it's very important to me That you take action Jump into your hard drive and start organizing your files after this Now imagine this. Your files are organized. You can find everything you need. You can actually find everything you need within 30 seconds. Yeah, it's actually possible Your online program is done Organized, easy to access And all the swipe files and everything you need to start promoting that online course are right there for you This is something that is possible when you are organized You know, this summit's about getting organized to create And nothing kills momentum in creation process like being disorganized So it's time to create Peace for yourself And peace of mind around where to find your documents quickly and with less stress. I call this having destination peace of mind. You can find what you need when you need it.  

19:46 Decluttering, organizing and securing your digital data can be a big task Especially if you haven't dealt for it for a while So putting on your seatbelt, your efforts will pay off You'll not only keep your computer and devices running well, you'll likely enjoy greater productivity and peace of mind and you'll get to that finish line of launching your course One thing I've discovered after spending 20 years helping clients just like you get organized is that everyone needs to learn more about how to most effectively use their technology You know, technology is constantly changing. It's getting better and better every day. You know this And we all say that we're good to learn on our own, but are we really? Are we really? I know that I personally need support, which is why I hire coaches to help me stay focused and on track My, my motto is masters hire masters, plain and simple. We can't do everything, we don't know everything We hire those who don't know what we don't know to teach Us In fact, I don't think you'll ever meet a super successful person who's not called on others to help them grow And kudos to you because that's why you're here at this summit, right? You're here to learn how to upscale your business and how to cross that finish line of creating your pro, your program.  

21:04 So look, I really appreciate your time. Okay? I wanted to give you a few thank you gifts. Now the, the VIP that or the gift that everybody gets is a free download and it's called the ultimate productivity Checklist. The reason that I give this out is because it has my six favorite hacks that I use to get more done in less time. Now I know for a fact that you're going to download it, you're not going to implement all sets. But what I want you to do is look at it And choose one. Choose one thing that you're going to do to become a little bit more productive.    And I guarantee you that if you implement at least one of these tactics, your productivity will soar. You'll have a greater ability to make more money And because you're going to be more in control of your time in your business So go ahead and download it The Link is in the, in The links in the summit And For those of you who are VIPs, I'm offering something here. By the way, the productivity check checklist is usually $97. So for you guys it's free The VIP gift however is valued at $497. If you work from home and you have a home office, this course is for you.  

22:13 And it's generally 4 97. Use the code VIP to grab it It's my home office organization course. It's everything that I feel that you need to set up your home office properly To Getting the best from the most from meetings that you have. It has my book how to master your muck, which is an Amazon bestseller. It has a whole bunch of ST Tutorials, checklist. It's seven Seven Modules within this course to help you get streamlined and simplified.  With your Business So look, I really appreciate your time, I really appreciate your energy And I congratulate you for being here at the Digital Organizing Summit. I wish you great success Putting together your online course And I want to know what it's done Send it to me. Send me links so that I can congratulate you and possibly even help you with your launch.  

23:05 Reach out to me Remember in September I have another free masterclass Reach out to me. If you're interested in that Meanwhile, congratulations for attending this summit, and I hope to see you soon, and that our paths will cross in the future Signing off now This is Kathi From Organized and Energized. It's so good to see you, and I'll talk to you soon.