"Sorting People's Lives For A Living"

The Seattle Times

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Article By: Steven Spenser

Sunday, April 6, 1997
"Fueled by corporate layoffs, the explosion of home-based entrepreneurs and telecommuters, and movements to make do with less, the business climate has never been better for professional organizers.

"The 90's have been a time of downsizing in both corporate and personal life. The big wave is to have less, not more," said Ellen Langan, a Seattle professional organizer and owner of Langan + Associates. "People are finding they can't be it all, do it all or read it all. Many people are overwhelmed with their options, and they need a professional to come in and help."

Organizers provide a variety of services, ranging from helping people conquer their clutter by clearing out messy desks to teaching time management and office-organization techniques. Once shown how to work more efficiently at home or the office, clients gain more time and experience less stress."

-Steven Spenser
"Resolution Revolution"

By: Mary Bigelow

January, 1996
"This is the time when we make resolutions for the New Year – resolutions we usually don't keep. When we don't keep them, we count that as failure. And failure, especially perceived failure, is the biggest sabotage of success.

So what do we do? Never make a goal? Never set our minds to accomplish anything? NO! However, let's begin to look at goals realistically.

Let your business, your job, your life, be represented by a triangle. The foundation is what makes your job, your life, your business, the corporation. your family?stable. It is the basis of why you do what you do both personally and professionally. In corporations the foundation is reflected by the mission statement; for team, individuals, families it's still a mission statement or personal vision that is the foundation: the WHY."

- Mary Bigelow
"What's The Color Of Your Desk?"

Law Practice Management & Technology Newsletter

Volume 7, Number 4 Winter 1999

Article By: Ellen Langan
"How long has it been since you've seen the top of your desk? Are there piles six inches deep on your credenza, windowsill, client chairs, and on the floor?

Or maybe you are one of those people who go for the "neat" look, with all of your unsorted piles in banker's boxes. The boxes have multiplied of course, and are now stacked five feet high along the wall. At the current rate, you will not be able to get to your desk, let alone have a client in your office.

Have you come to the conclusion that you have always had clutter in your life; that it must be one of those hereditary genes; and there is nothing you can do about it? Here's the good news. Disorganization is not hereditary. It is a learned behavior. Therefore, one can learn to be organized."

-Ellen Langan
"Possibility of being buried alive in e-mail all too real"

Puget Sound Business Journal

Article By: John Wolcott

February 10-16, 1995
"Vacation over, a manager in a Puget Sound business returned to his desk after three weeks of travel, turned on his computer and found more than 800 electronic mail messages waiting for him.

Faced with the time-consuming task of scanning through each one and making more than 800 read-save-delegate-or-delete decisions, he wisely dumped the whole batch without reading them.

That anecdote is one that professional organizer Mary Bigelow uses to illustrate what's happening with e-mail overload in today's offices."

- John Wolcott
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