From Overwhelmed to Organised: Reducing the Mental Load & Creating Systems That Actually Work

Feeling overwhelmed, stretched, and constantly thinking about everything you haven’t done yet?

You’re not alone, and a lot of it comes down to the invisible mental load we carry every day.

In this episode, I’m joined by productivity and organisation expert Lisa Woodruff to talk about how to move from overwhelm to clarity, reduce mental clutter, and build systems that genuinely make life easier.

Lisa’s journey is just as inspiring as her work. After starting her career in teaching and spending years as a stay-at-home mum, turning 40 prompted her to reassess what she wanted next. Inspired by generations of women in her family who had built their own businesses, she started with a simple blog in 2012, which has since grown into courses, products, and a podcast helping thousands of people get organised.

In our conversation, we talk about the real reason so many people feel overwhelmed. The invisible labour that sits behind running a household, alongside careers, families, and often caring responsibilities.

Lisa shares practical, realistic strategies to help you regain control, including:

• How to think about your household like a CEO would run a business
• Why systems (not willpower) are the key to staying organised
• Where to start when everything feels messy or out of control
• Simple ways to organise your time, tasks, and mental load
• Why aiming for excellence is far more helpful than chasing perfection
• And her popular Sunday Basket method for managing your week with more clarity

This episode is a mix of personal story, practical advice, and simple mindset shifts that can make a real difference, whether you’re juggling a career, family life, or just feeling overwhelmed by everything on your plate.

If you’re looking for ways to feel more organised, reduce stress, and create systems that actually stick, this one is full of actionable ideas.

To connect with Lisa:
Website: organize365.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lisawoodruff

Can you also find episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaGrahamCareerCoach/videos

Your host, Emma Graham, Career Coach and ex-recruiter, is here to help you with:

 💡 Gain clarity on what’s important to you
 💡 Confidently communicate your value
 💡 Build a personal brand and a strong network
 💡 Take a strategic approach to your next move
 💡 Navigate the job market effectively
 💡 Build career confidence with a repeatable success blueprint

🌐 Explore my coaching programs and free resources:
 Website: https://www.egconsulting.au/
 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/emmajgraham
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmagrahamcareercoach/

🎁 Free Resources:
 📄 CV Development Guide: https://www.egconsulting.au/cv-advice
 📄 LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Guide: https://www.egconsulting.au/linkedin-profile-guide

📅 Book Your FREE Career Strategy Discovery Call:
 https://calendly.com/emmagrahamconsulting/discovery-call

Transcript

Emma: So I'm joined today by Lisa. Thank you for, thank you for joining me. Lovely to have you here.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to it.

Emma: Me too. Be Before we get into the, the meat of the episode, as it were, I'd love to understand a bit more about your career journey and how you ended up doing what you do now. Tell me all about it.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Okay. I love how you talk about this journey and that we have a chance at the beginning of these episodes to really talk about our stories because I think especially as women, we do have a [00:01:00] journey. Like we're not very linear in what we

Emma: Yes.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: like just kinda like. All over the place. So, so I'll just preface it with like, I was kind of like all over the place, from birth, basically, I've wanted to have children, like be a mom, stay at home, mom, have children, and my first, you know, 40 years of life are all along that trek.

So you're gonna hear that in my story. But as you go back through my story a second time, you could see that the seeds for where I went from 40 on were also being laid. So knowing that I always wanted kids, my birthday wish as I was blowing out the candle was that my mom would get pregnant with another baby. I had a sister. Who was four years younger than me, but I wanted like lots of kids around. And one of my favorite things as a child was go to go up to my parents' houses, their parents' houses. My mom and dad were both the oldest. My dad was the oldest of six. And so there were

Emma: Wow.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: of kids and like my grandmother was still raising her kids as I was a baby.

'cause I was born when my parents were 22 and 23. So all of my aunts and uncles were kind of like. Older siblings almost. So I loved the kids. As soon as [00:02:00] I became 12, I was able to take the Red Cross Babysitting course, and then I was licensed to be able to watch other people's kids, which I did as my full-time job until I was 22.

Like I was always babysitting. By the time I got my driver's license, I went to all the houses that I babysat for and I said, I sold my services, okay, this summer, which day of the week do you want? And I'll watch your kids and take 'em to the pool. And I was working all the time. I loved it.

Emma: Entrepreneurial from the get go. I love it.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: And lemme just tell you, these moms are like, take the children, just take the children. So I went to college. I got my early childhood education degree, but I was a busy body, so I kept getting extra classes and I ended up with two degrees. So I ended up with an elementary education degree as well. got married, which is what I went to college for. My MRS, Mrs. Woodruff. So I got married. Super excited and I taught for a year and then I said to my husband, can we start trying to have kids? And he was like, okay, fine. Well, we didn't get pregnant. [00:03:00] So I, I taught for four years and then we ultimately adopted our kids.

And then I was a stay at home mom for a decade, so now I'm almost 40. The kids are getting ready to enter, enter middle school. We need more money working as a teacher isn't working based on the time schedule and a bunch of other things. And so I'm kind of about to turn 40. And all of my life's goals had been achieved, like getting married, having kids, being the stay at home mom, check, check, check.

Like not in the timing that I had, but it all happened and I hadn't really dreamt beyond that. Like, I hadn't dreamt beyond being the stay at home mom. And of course I could have been a stay at home mom for another decade. You know, the kids were only middle school. They weren't like in college and graduated. But I knew that I needed to earn more money and I was ready to do something. So now if I go back through my journey, I could tell you kind of how the, the business came out of that.

Emma: Please. Yeah, I'd love to.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Okay. So it's kind of like those, remember those choose your own adventure books where you go to a different page and then you're like, okay, I'm gonna read it over.

I'm gonna choose [00:04:00] different stories. Well, my

Emma: I used to love those books.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: yeah, they're so fun. This is our lives, you guys. We get to do this. Yeah, it's so great. So I was focused so much on kids and getting married and being that stay-at-home mom. as I looked back through my story again, I saw different themes emerge like as I'm 40 and I'm contemplating, I know it's time to start my own business.

Why do I know it's time to start my own business? Well, the reason I knew it was time to start my own business is because as a fourth generation female college graduate, my mom, my grandmother, my great-grandmother all had college degrees. unusual, like just period.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: none of them used the college degrees.

They all started their own businesses from scratch. So for example, in

Emma: Interesting.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: grade, my mom took a credit card, went to New York, bought samples, brought 'em home to our basement, hired people. They worked in our basement. She started a business that she sold when I was in eighth grade, like this was

Emma: I love that. Yeah. It's in your DNA as well.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah, I play in

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: basement. [00:05:00] There's fabric everywhere, and she had started a company in the seventies for home EC students who needed fabric and thread for their home ec projects. So there's like thread and fabric everywhere. Like playing business in my mom's and my grandma's and my great-grandmother's basements was like my childhood, like women

Emma: Yeah,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: in their basements is so

Emma: so cool. I love it.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah. And I was like, well, what is my business going to be? And I realized that I was successful in everything that I did because I either was organized or I helped someone get organized, not just related to children but organization. So I started the company organized 365 as a blog in 2012.

No idea how I'd make money, and that's how I got started. Just time to start my own business. It's all gonna be about

Emma: Love it. I absolutely love it. There's so many parts of that story that I just think is, is awesome. And as you said, you know. I, I, I'm trying to think if I know anyone who's had this, you know, very linear career journey and no one's coming [00:06:00] to mind because pretty much everyone similar to you, similar to me, has, has had this kind of weaving, you know, weaving roads.

But the point that you made there, which I think is so true, is that often in hindsight we look back and you can see the connecting threads, you can see the seeds that were planted. You don't necessarily know it at the time. Somehow those, those things kind of all come together and, and that's been true in my own, journey as well.

And I, I just love that there's something I don't know, so interesting about that and, and kind of working out what those, what those threads are. And I absolutely love that. The part of the story with your, your mom, your grandmother, and your great-grandmother, I mean, you were kind of destined to, to start your own business, weren't you?

I mean, you were seeing it everywhere.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yes. It was very unusual, but normal for me. Like I didn't

Emma: Yeah. Absolutely.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: business of filling out UPS books as part of their, you know, allowance money.

Emma: I think it would've been more [00:07:00] unusual had you not done that, actually, given, given what you'd, what you'd seen around you. And, and the other thing that I think is really interesting about it is, When you hear people say, I want to start my own business, and you know what, that, what is that business going to be?

I think quite often in, particularly in the conversations that I have, again, back to the point about the threads being there and the seeds being there, it's probably something that you are already doing. It's probably something that is just a kind of a, a natural strength, something that's really kind of innate in you, and you kind of have that moment of, you know, the light bulb moment of like.

Oh God. Like this is, this is the business. Like this is what I should be doing. I, is that how it kind of came about? Was it that light bulb moment? Was it a slow burn idea? Do you remember how that idea kind of crystallized for you?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I think it was a light bulb moment as in like, I have to

Emma: Hmm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: doing. Like I always knew

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: someday, and I'm like, okay, well you're gonna be 40. When the heck do you [00:08:00] think you're gonna start this thing? So pick one

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: just start it. And I didn't really know what it was gonna be, but I knew that I wasn't gonna give up like I had. I had nine Schedule Cs on my tax return in 2011, the year before I started this business, which in the United States means that I told the IRS, there were nine different entities that were paying me more than $600 a year. So I was like, okay, Lisa, pick a lane. Like any lane, it doesn't matter. Just pick a lane and everything you do is gonna be under this one umbrella from here going forward.

Like you can't be, who do you think I am all the time when you meet people, like, how do you wanna pay me money? you have to pick a lane and then. I would say it evolved from there because often when we start, we have an idea of what we wanna do or maybe what we have a, a, some innate talent in.

Otherwise you wouldn't start it. Like, I definitely

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: than my friends. I was good at organizing. I actually had been organizing people's houses and getting paid. I just didn't realize it. I was organizing their direct sales businesses, their direct sales

Emma: Ah, yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: But it's [00:09:00] not till you like do it. Put the reps in that you actually get that, okay, I'm an organizer. There are a lot of people that are organizers, but once you do it for five years, 10,000 hours, okay, now you've got a unique spin on it. Do another five years, another 10,000 hours. Okay, now you've got a double uniqueness and you get to the point where you're, where I am, where I have and products that have never existed before, just because I kept doing the same thing for so long.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a really interesting point, and again, I think that's been true for me as well, of you, you have the original idea and it, it's certainly a very similar thing, but it's not exactly the same. It does as you kind of, you know, test and learn. It's out in the real world. It's interacting with real people.

You are, you know, you're taking that feedback on board and it's, it's kind of changing ever so slightly. And, yeah, as you say, certainly as, as time goes on, it, it grows. And I know for you has, has also grown into a podcast and books and kind of all the other things [00:10:00] that, that go into that. Tell me a bit about that.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: So I like to, I love Montessori education. I wasn't Montessori trained in college. I didn't go to Montessori school. The first time I actually saw an a Montessori school was an international school when I was in Beijing, China. And I was like, what is this? It was the coolest school I'd ever seen. So when our kids were little, I put 'em in a Montessori school and then I went back to school and got my Montessori degree.

But the way that Montessori education looks at things is they look at 'em in three year cycles. So students are actually in a classroom with three different grades. So first, second, and third grade would all be in the same classroom and they would all

Emma: Oh yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Let's say every year in October, they're gonna learn about dinosaurs, but the first graders are gonna learn like what kind of dinosaurs are they?

What do they eat? What are their names? And then the second graders might do a dinosaur report, and then the third graders are gonna do something like related to an archeological drug. Help the first

Emma: Help.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: their animals. So it's a very, circular curriculum and it's very collaborative in how people support each other in the classroom. [00:11:00] Well, I think we are lifelong students, and I founded my business about every three years. The company morphs and changes. So the first three years I was pretty much just in-home organizing and doing the blogging. Then I added the podcast at year four, and so for three years I was doing the in-home organizing.

I was doing the podcast, and I was starting to create our physical products. Then the next three years I trademarked, patented, manufactured, and we started selling physical products and courses that went along with that. Then we had COVID, so then we had like a year break, and then I went back and I just spent the last three years getting my PhD and we're now moving what we're doing.

You know, the change that we're seeing anecdotally. Not even anecdotally, right in front of my eyes. The transformation that's happening with people inside of Organized 365. Can we run scientific experiments and find support for the executive function support we're seeing in these products? There is no scientific studies being done for A DHD in adults, and we know that our [00:12:00] products are showing support for people's executive function.

Can we show that at the academic level? That's my next challenge.

Emma: Awesome. Yeah. And you, you very casually kind of dropped in there that on top of all of this, you've, you've been studying for your PhD, which I think you recently, recently completed in all your,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah.

Emma: in, all your free time.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Well,

Emma: Okay. Almost there.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: you get organized, here's the thing

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: and you plan, you open up more and more capacity and time. And I told you my kids are grown now, so my kids are grown. And

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: you know, it's 25 hours a week to get a PhD. If you want one, it's 25 hours a week to get a PhD, find the time on your calendar and then you could sign up.

So that's what I did for

Emma: I love it. I love it.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah.

Emma: it, it, it kind of goes back to the, it, it's walking the walk, not just talking the talk, isn't it? You're practicing what you preach and it's obviously, you know, working for you in, in your own life, which is, I guess, the, the ultimate proof, isn't it? I, I love, I think that the foundation, to use that word, Lisa, of, of how you've kind of, come to [00:13:00] this and, and particularly what we're gonna talk to, talk about today, the, the idea of kind of escaping overwhelm.

And I think we all sort of reach a point in our life. And it's interesting, you know, a lot of what you were referencing in your story was. When I reached 40 as I was turning 40. 'cause that does seem to be when it, when it kind of starts to come up for people. as you say, it's, you know, people have got kids, it's kids.

It's perhaps as parents are starting to get older and there's that out there as well, obviously juggling work, career. And I do think, yeah, those feelings of kind of overwhelmed and you use the phrase mental clutter as well, which. Really, really resonates. So if you could, yeah, just kind of frame it for me and, and for the listeners, viewers, this kind of sense of overwhelm and where it's coming from and, and what's, what's happening.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah, there's, there's no lack of defining the overwhelm that women in their late thirties, forties, and early fifties are feeling like you can't turn on TikTok or [00:14:00] Instagram or TV or open a magazine

Emma: I.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: hearing someone talk about the invisible labor, the mental load. A lot of the, the preeminent researchers are in Australia where you are, that are talking about the invisible load. It is the mental remembering, rehearsing, planning, monitoring, making sure, ensuring, you know, it's taking my grandson to swim class. I don't even have to stay there when, when he is in this three hour swim class, you can go to the gym or whatever. I just happen to be just sitting there reading and doing my, my, Work while he's in the pool. Just kind of want watching him, you know, when kids are around water, I'm like, you know what, I'll, I'll just

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: watching. He's, he's

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: let's just say that. And he's a boy. So then they get out and they do the snack and I'm like, oh, yes, snack. Well, no one asked me if he has food allergies, which he does. EpiPen allergies. So I just wander on over and I'm saying to the swim coaches, I'm like, oh, you mind if I look at that box, you know, we've got a few allergies. They go, allergies. Does anybody have allergies? And they're all like four and 5-year-old kids. Do you guys have allergies? Anybody allergic to anything?

Are you did, where are your [00:15:00] parents? Did we ask? 'cause they realize they have an that. And so I think

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: that is the mental load that women have.

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I know that the grandchild has allergies now, if grandpa had brought him. He'd be like, here, dude, here's a snack. have. He wouldn't have thought about that.

So there it is. Also a lot more on women than men. Now, here's my thing and why I'm getting my PhD. Academics are really, really good at defining the problem and raising awareness of the problem. They aren't good at applying it to a solution. There's no solution to overwhelm. The only solution that's being proposed in media right now to overwhelm is to get men to do more.

Have you ever tried to get somebody else to do anything?

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: so you're laughing. You can't

Emma: Particularly something they don't want to do. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: No one wants to do it and it's invisible. It's in your head. So now you have to make it visible. Now we're stressed out about making it visible, so then people will teach us how to make it visible.

Now we're even more ticked off because now we know what it is that we don't know. Anyway,

Emma: Mm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I am like, oh, okay, there's gotta be yes, women do more. [00:16:00] Yes, it is mental. However, let's solve the problem. Like I wouldn't in business be like, this is Reddi ridiculous. Facebook ads don't work anymore. Somebody should pay for my TikTok ads?

No, I mean, I'd be like, okay, so clearly I have

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: start a substack or I have to do whatever, like how do I solve my problem as A CEO? do women solve their problem as a CEO of their household? I'm not saying this is like men don't have to do it, but also I don't think it's a female only problem.

There are a lot of single dads. There are a lot of single moms that don't have a spouse to pass it off to. So. The invisible load is in our brains, and we are using our brain like it's a calculator instead of a computer. You're wondering why AI can think because it's not trying to remember your to-do tasks. those out onto paper and let's start using our brains like they're supposed to be for the thinking and the creative problem. Solving for how to reduce your invisible load. Part of it will go away. If you're in the act of parenting years, part of it will lessen when you're out of the acting.

Parenting [00:17:00] years, but that takes forever. And then you'll be in the caregiving with your parents. And there's sometimes, you know, that's decades. So the solution for me really is every time I'm overwhelmed, it's like, okay, what am I in control of and how can I change my circumstances? You know, how can I better fuel my body so that I'm not cranky when I get home from work?

Because, you know, my single, my, my daughter who is a single mother and the grandchildren want my attention, okay, well, I can get you to snack on the way home. Now. I don't walk in starving. I'm fed so I can actually meet their needs and then move on with the rest of my day. Often you have a lot more power in reducing the. Of the situation, even if you can't eliminate the situation.

Emma: Yeah, it's such a, it's such a critical point, isn't it? And

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Mm-hmm.

Emma: interesting. In the middle of that, you, you said the words paper and I think so often when we are thinking about, you know, [00:18:00] being organized or productivity hacks or you know, that that whole kind of sphere. It's some kind of digital solution, which actually probably adds to the mental overload because then I've got 50 apps on my phone.

I've got information everywhere. I'm trying to remember a password. I don't know where I put the information, and in some ways it probably makes it worse and it was just lovely to to hear, say paper.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: does for me. It does for

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: is not a single scientific study I can find that says writing things on paper is. a bad way, like every single study says if you're gonna put it digital or you could put it on paper, you're gonna remember it written on paper every single time. Like, there's no question that, that, that definitely is a solution.

Emma: It, it's the act of writing, isn't it? It it's like thinking back to whether you were at school and you are, you know, cramming for exams or something. It, it's the act of writing that that kind of makes you, makes you remember. And I have to say, you know, I know I mentioned [00:19:00] it when we were, chatting before Lisa, that this topic is, is right up my street.

'cause I, I love being organized. I love a list. I have a color coded wardrobe. This is, this is very much, very much a topic that I, that I resonate with for, for those people listening that are, you know, hearing you talk about the overwhelm and going, yeah, tick, tick, tick. That's me. What, where do they start?

Like what's the, what are the first kind of steps that they can take, as you said there, to, to take back control of the things that they can take back control of? How do they do that?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah, the book Escaping Quicksand will really walk you through the 10 steps that I did in my forties that are more like long lasting, but here are two things that are not in there that will be much more immediate. The first one is. Grab a stack of index cards. I prefer index cards. You could do a list if you want.

I really prefer index cards. And then get a coffee or a wine or whatever is your beverage of choice. 'cause this is gonna take 30 [00:20:00] minutes to 45 minutes and a pen and just start writing down every single thing you're remembering in your brain. All of it, write it all down until there's absolutely nothing left that will come out of your brain. Because until you do that, your brain cannot be used for thinking. It is so busy trying to remember everything for you that that clarity and that emptiness in your brain that will allow new things to come can't happen. So that's something like,

Emma: That's something like,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: and you're like, oh no, but

Emma: oh no,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: like 200

Emma: 200.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: that need to be done.

Yes. That is your mental load. Like now you have it physically, that is your mental

Emma: Yeah, and it's probably quite confronting when you see it.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: right. nice thing about it when you have it on paper is then you could go back through those cards and there's a little bit less emotion 'cause it's not in your brain. And you could start sorting, oh, you know what?

This is junk. I'm not gonna do it this. This is for three years from now. I could keep it, but I don't need to be looking at right now. These are the things for this week. You could start sorting them into piles. second thing that I think is really [00:21:00] empowering is to, before you go to bed at night. Just get out a simple little sheet of paper or even an index card and write down your schedule on it for tomorrow.

Like open up your Google calendar or your planner and write down where you need to be. Now, here's a few more things I'm gonna have you do. Now I want you to write down if you have to drive there, so I want you to write down all the driving. Then bonus points if you check the weather and you pick out your clothes like you're in fourth grade. So you

Emma: I do that.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: clothes. Okay. And here's the last one, and this is the really important, if you can start doing it, when and what are you going to eat? you're gonna look at it, you're

Emma: Now you're gonna look at.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I was gonna go to two meetings that are half an hour apart, but I only gave myself 15 minutes to get to one for the other.

And it's during lunchtime and I had nothing planned to eat. At least you could throw a protein bar in the in the car, otherwise you're just starving 'cause you don't have time enough for fast food and it's too expensive and you're just spinning and now you're starving and everything's worse when you're starving. So that's

Emma: Isn't [00:22:00] that the truth?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: could

Emma: Mm-hmm. Do you know what I was thinking? As you were were saying that. It's something that I think a lot of people do and actually were probably taught to do. 'cause I think I was, that's, I think that's where it came from at work. You know, as you are finishing your work day,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: yes,

Emma: you know, you tick off your to-do list and you think about tomorrow.

And last thing I would do before I leave the office is right my to-do list for tomorrow. Great idea. Why are we not doing that outside of work as, as you just illustrated there. It's, it's the same idea and, and it's really powerful at work and it's super helpful. 'cause then you are not going home thinking about those things that you need to do because they're down on the piece of paper and, and doing the exact same thing in your home life and your, your personal life, I'm sure has the exact same outcome that it's, it's not floating in your head anymore.

It's now down on the [00:23:00] paper. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah. Well,

Emma: I'd imagine people sleep better as well. Yeah,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah.

Emma: absolutely. Yeah. You, you mentioned that before the, sorry to interrupt you.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: No, I was gonna say when you said you'll sleep better, what I also

Emma: Hmm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: yes, you definitely sleep better, but also what I find when I write down what I'm doing the night before I review it before I go to bed, sometimes I'll wake up and a problem that I'm gonna solve the next day. Like especially when I was organizing homes, I would be thinking about the house I was gonna organize and I would wake up, I'd be like, I have an idea for this house.

Or like, oh, I have an idea for that podcast episode or whatever. So often like you're priming your brain for what you're gonna do tomorrow. Your brain will literally work for you while you're sleeping. It's so awesome. I do it

Emma: Yeah,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: great.

Emma: I. It is the best thing ever that I do that sometimes as well. If there's something I'm really struggling to solve. It's kind of that, that kind of instruction to your brain to think about it while you're asleep. And as you say, it's the best feeling ever when you wake up with that [00:24:00] solution and you just think, oh, I love this.

It feels like a, feels like a, I don't know, like a real sort life hack of like

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Mm-hmm.

Emma: to, how to maximize your brain function but also your, your time 'cause it's doing that work while while you're asleep. you. You mentioned before the, the economic power of your household and, and thinking of yourself as, as the CEO of, of your household.

Tell me a bit more about that. How, how do you sort of think about that more, more broadly?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yes. I'm not sure what the numbers in Australia are, but 68% of us, GDP is household spending. And I told you, when we were meeting before this, that Australia is the only country that has larger houses. Per capita than the United States. When I did a little bit of research, I realized that your

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: just a little bit bigger than the, the United States, which makes sense.

I mean, you're a huge country, just like the

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: is a very,

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: large country. but I like to say that because like you said, that that is a business hack, that you would do that before. I was like, wow, that's a great idea. I should do that in business. I never worked in corporate, so like I wasn't trained [00:25:00] that way.

I'm like, oh, but yes, yes, yes. We are an economic entity, a significant economic entity, and so we should plan our work. As much as we do at work, if not more, because like, we're gonna live in our household our whole entire life and like the plan that we're making is for our life. It's not even just for a business or for a paycheck or whatever.

So yes, anything that works in business is what's missing in the household. That's what I've really realized over time, is that, yeah, okay, you can organize your closet, it's gonna look great, or, or you could do a one-off project here, there, and everywhere. We need a complete. Organizational system in our house.

Like you have an organizational system in business, we need a financial system like a CFO at work. We need someone that's not just making the budget and the bill pay, but also thinking

Emma: But also.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: the strategic savings for retirement and vacation and, you know, and allocating energy of the different families and, and overseeing medical and like all of those things, like, and, and take our role seriously, like the CEO of the household that we [00:26:00] are.

Emma: I think the other thing with that, with systems and, and processes is that you get consistency. you are, as you said, you're, you're not relying on having to remember it or it just becomes part of the system, part of the process. It's no longer mental clutter because it's, it's just what you do.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: That's the, that's the system and the process. good

Emma: and I love a system and a process. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah.

Emma: You mentioned, I think it's, chapter five, or you use steps, don't you. Step five in the, in the book is to, to focus on a particular three spaces in your house when you're starting to think about kind of organizing your, your space, talk me through that.

Tell me, tell me what we should be doing and which, which spaces they are.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yes. Okay. And it doesn't matter if you have children or you don't have children. I've organized houses of all different kinds. And what I found was, you know, we are all trying really, really hard to get our houses organized. We are spending a lot of time, effort, research, money, like on getting our houses organized, and yet we're all falling [00:27:00] short. the first study I did in 2021, I asked people. know, if they believed organization was learnable skill, 87% said yes. I was like, wow, this is great. I didn't know. Everybody knew it was learnable. This is wonderful. And then I asked them if they were done organizing in these four different categories, and the results were abysmal.

It wasn't even Fs. We were like 20% and below. And I was like, okay, this is demoralizing. You think it's a learnable skill, but you're failing in every single category. I'm like, no wonder that we're like, forget it. I'm not gonna get organized. I'm just gonna go out for coffee, or

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: a run, or I'm gonna

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Well, as a teacher, I feel like if you believe something is learnable and you can't learn it, that's my fault. That's not your fault. Like somewhere along the way we haven't given you the tools to learn it. You wouldn't say to a child in second grade like, oh, well I guess you didn't learn to read. It's not the teacher's fault we gave you books.

No. The teacher would teach you how to read and there'd be an intervention. There'd be, there'd be an intervention. I realized that. Women are putting in a lot of effort in their houses and they're not receiving good [00:28:00] results. So I kind of started to observe what was happening and how did I finally get organized all the time.

I'm, I get all the way organized, why am I getting all the way organized? And you're not. And I realize it's two things. Number one. We do Swiss cheese organizing, so this is step four. Swiss cheese organizing is where you reorganize the same exact areas every single week, hoping to get different results.

Like I walk in the family room's a mess, the kitchen counter's a mess. I'm gonna clean out the refrigerator, I'm gonna go, you know, run the laundry like you're doing housework, but you think you're organizing.

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: then the next weekend you're like, alright, I'm gonna start again. I'm gonna start again. Well, when you're doing those same spaces over and over and over again, you never get enough time and momentum to get into the spaces that you never go into. The storage room I was like, okay, well what if you just started in some of the areas that no one ever goes in? You don't wanna do that because you're like, well then people would realize my family owned my kitchen are mess. Yes. So what so is theirs. That's the thing. So is theirs. Stop worrying

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Everybody's is a mess. So if you can, if you can step over that mess [00:29:00] and go to another space and start organizing, and the spaces I tell you to do are your bathroom, your bedroom, in your closet. If you organize your bathroom, your bedroom in your closet, all the way until they're done, which could take six weeks, I'm giving you six. Weeks. you keep going back for 15, 20 minutes at a time, you'll keep doing a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And what happens is you will get all the way done. get to the point where you're like, there is nothing left to declutter and organize in this space. It's done. First of all, it will shock you.

You'll be like, oh my gosh, I'm done. Like, can I be done? Am I allowed to be done? You'll keep going back. I'm sure there's something else. You'll get to the point where there's nothing else you can do. Now, these spaces will stay organized for a minimum of four months. Because seasonally you're gonna go through and change out your clothes about every four months.

Your bedroom can stay organized for five years. If you do your storage room, the way I do a storage room as a prepaid store, it'll stay. It'll stay organized forever. What you

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: may change, but the structure won't. And once you have these different areas of your house organized where the system has been set up, [00:30:00] and you got all the way organized in this phase of life, it will stay organized until you have a new phase of life. Until if you have kids that go to full-time school or they leave home change jobs, move, get married. Get divorced, whatever. You know, like, then you're gonna have to redo your systems, but it'll never be as long as it took you to do it the first time. Now, the first time to do the whole house, it's gonna take 18 months to three years because

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: been neglecting a lot of these areas.

You've, you've never put a paper solution in place. You've never done your storage drum, your storage room doesn't look like a store. Your storage room looks like a bunch of boxes.

Emma: It does not

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah, right.

Emma: my, my wardrobe on the other hand that that's good. But so a dream. I've, I've never got that far. I just, I just throw things in there. Your your point.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: like, go ahead.

Emma: I was just gonna say, your, your point about all the way done, is, is spot on because I know I've done that [00:31:00] myself. I've, I've kind of started something and I've kind of tinkered around the edges and gone Oh yeah.

And then I've, I've never really finished it all the way through, so I've never really got the benefit of, of having done it. You know, you get that moment of feeling slightly virtuous 'cause you, oh, I, I tidied that thing like, go me. but actually never. Never all the way to the end. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: And I think 'cause we don't have solutions, like most people have gotten their closet organized at least once because of course there's Marie Kondo who was the expert at it. But also there are like hundreds of organizers that tell you how to organize your closet. How many tell you how to organize your storage room?

Emma: Mm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: tell you how to organize your paper? So Marie Kondo would say, how do you organize your paper? She said to have three file folders and get rid of the rest. I like had a heart, heart attack. Do you know how much paper Americans have? A lot. We have a lot and we need it. So Japanese have, electronic birth certificates. We

Emma: Oh, okay. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: We have social security, like we've got a whole bunch of paper that we gotta [00:32:00] keep track of. And so you've gotta look at what does your country need? America needs a

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: a lot of things, and so we have to have a paper solution that's going to work for American kind of paper and it's

Emma: Mm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Emma, I mean, do you really wanna spend 18 months to three years organizing? I'm gonna trick you into it. You don't initial it, you don't. You don't, but I'm gonna trick you into it. 'cause I'm, I'm a fun teacher. So you're gonna start following the podcast and you're gonna be like, okay, fine. I'll do my bedroom, bathroom, and closet.

And then you're gonna be like, wow, this really is good. if I could do the rest of the house this way. This

Emma: Yeah,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah. And then you're gonna,

Emma: because,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: want it.

Emma: yeah, and I think as well j just thinking about it from, from my own perspective, when I've done that, it's, it's the time you get back. I think that's the, that's the kind of the boost you're like. Oh, I, I've, I've got all of this time back because it doesn't take me 10 minutes to find the thing that I want to wear.

I can see it, it's right there. and, and the same with, I don't know, when you're putting your [00:33:00] makeup on in the morning, like it's right there. It's ready to go, or doing your hair or like whatever, whatever it is. I think it's when, like anything, I guess, isn't it when you start to see the benefits that that's when you go, oh, okay, I can see that it works.

I'm getting something. Back and I would assume that what you, what you are getting back is, is time as, as well as relief from, from some of that mental overload.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: yes. So our mission is to help you get organized so that you have time to do what you're uniquely gifted and created to do. Organizing is a current investment of time for a future exponential re return. Return on time. Yeah.

Emma: I love that 'cause, it's, it's gonna sound a bit morbid and I dunno why it just came to me maybe 'cause it's my birthday in a couple of weeks and I always think like this when it's close to my birthday. But, you know, it's that, that classic thing of the only thing you can't get more of is time.

Like it is the most precious resource that you have in your life. And if there's a way to, to get more of that or claim some, some more of that [00:34:00] back, why would you not do that? Like, that's the biggest, one of the biggest gifts you can probably give to yourself is to, to free up time, to, to do the things that you want to do, to spend more time with the people that you wanna spend it with, to start that business idea that you've had in the back of your mind for five years.

Like whatever, whatever it is. But yeah, I love the way that you said that. That was great.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Time and also, you know, peace of mind. The mental clutter and the invisible work that we do is not gonna go away. But when you organize your environment, then it doesn't add to it and it actually can support it. So when you externalize things from your brain to your environment, like on these index cards, and I like them to end up in Sunday baskets, if they have a place to go and a purpose, then you have a system that is flowing that supports your mental load as opposed to trying to remember and when your physical spaces are organized, like organization is actually an executive function.

Planning is actually an executive function when we talk about A DHD [00:35:00] and deficits in executive function. Planning and organization are two of the eight executive functions, so your physical space being organized, you having a place to externalize your actionable to-dos, actually supports your mental cognition as well, and reduces stress and anxiety.

Emma: so Charles, again, just as you were saying that, I was thinking that's why I, I like to be neat that that's why I like, you know, my, my space to be, it's, it's peace of mind. It, it, I find it, it's calming. I look at the space and it's tidy and that. That just makes my, makes my brain calm, I think. yeah, I, I dunno where it comes from.

It must be a, potentially a childhood thing that, you know, my house growing up was always very neat and, and maybe I've just got that association, but yeah, it is, it. it's peace of mind. There was, there's a phrase in your, book, Lisa, that I particularly loved. It's in the step six around, you're not a perfectionist, you're a woman of excellence.

And then there was a follow on phrase that perfection [00:36:00] seeks applause, excellence cements peace, and I loved that. I, I went back and I read it over and over again, and then I cut it and pasted it and put it on my wall. 'cause I, I, I absolutely love that. So, yeah. Talk to me, talk to me about step six. So you're not a perfectionist, you are a woman of excellence.

What, what's the difference?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Yeah, I think we are so hard on ourselves, like we

Emma: Hmm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: perfection of ourselves and we're always striving perfect. Or I'll just speak for myself. I was always striving for perfection. So even a little off-handed comment, like when I was done painting a remote, like, oh, you missed a spot over there. I was like, ah. know, like, I'm not perfect, you know, I'm trying to be perfect. I can't believe you pointed out something that wasn't perfect and I just, would really send me into a tailspin, you know, because I was never able to hit the mark to get the A plus. I was never an A or even an a b student. I had dyslexia.

So I had this floating C that I couldn't get rid of. Me too. And I just felt like I was less than, so I, in my forties, in my worn out depleted [00:37:00] state, I was like, whatever, I'm not a perfectionist. You're not a perfectionist either. And I was like, don't try to pin your perfectionism on me or your expectations on me.

And I didn't really like that. Like I did it out of, you know, self preservation, but I didn't like that

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I don't care attitude. 'cause I do care, like I care

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: But I just couldn't

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: the perfect mark. And I realized in my forties, you know what? I'm a person of excellence. I try really hard. I bring all of my resources to bear when there is a problem and I will, you know, do whatever I can to help you and support you. But I'm not perfect. There actually is no such thing as perfect. And in embracing that, I realized that I was giving myself grace. And everyone around me, grace and I was no longer holding myself to the judgment of perfection or living up to this unrealistic expectation and standard, and I don't judge anyone anymore, and it's so freeing.

Emma: And, and, and for yourself as well. Like, 'cause I think often the person we judge the harshest is, is ourselves, as you were saying. You hold yourself to, to such a, such a [00:38:00] high standard, unattainable standard, you, you're never gonna get there. 'cause it's impossible. and, and I think that, as you said, liberation, I think that's where that sense of, of peace comes from in your, in your, Statement there that I, that I loved so much. the other thing that you touched on, briefly that I just wanted to, to come back to was, the Sunday basket. What, what is the Sunday basket? Tell me about that.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: So you probably have a system that's very similar to this. The concept is not, you know, revolutionary. I've just made it kindergarten simple. So it's a place to put all of your actionable ideas and to-dos and projects that are in process on your kitchen counter in a basket. And it has these,

Emma: Has the.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: clear plastic colored poly folders in it, which are called slash pockets.

And each color has a different. Role that you have inside of your business. So green is the color for finances, and pink is the color for your personal goals. And purple is the color for anything household [00:39:00] related. And blue is the color for all of your family and personal, you know, people, responsibilities. And this system is really a way. Kind of like you would organize a business. You know, like in a business you have sales, marketing, operations, finance. It allows you to look at all those different departments that you oversee as a household manager and have a physical representation of them. So you remember, oh yeah, that's right.

It's so-and-so's birthday. Or, oh, I forgot, you know, we have to have the, HVAC unit checked because we're changing seasons. That kind of a thing. And then it's also a place to keep these index cards that I talk about. I, I write down index cards, like, I mean, I've, I've got 'em. I've got 'em everywhere all the time.

I'm always writing myself notes. And the rule is if it can wait till Sunday, it has to wait till Sunday. So I just drop 'em in there all week long. And then on Sunday I just go through them and are there like 50 or 60 or 70? Yeah. But I go through 'em real quickly 'cause I can like sort 'em. Yes, no, maybe, you know, put 'em in slash pockets, things like that.

And then I plan my week. I told you how to plan your day. I sit there and I do that for my whole week. I plan my whole week of outfits, my whole week of driving, my whole week of meals and [00:40:00] all of that. and it's just a basic system for planning your week. Everyone has figured out how to do this on their own.

There is no universal household system. Like there are million systems for planning your work week,

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: for planning your home and for keeping track of all the projects. Like you could do a planner that's gonna plan your week, but where do you put all of the, like the birthday invitation that goes with that, you know, or

Emma: Mm.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: for the return thing that goes with that.

So the box helps you organize all those things that go along with your plan.

Emma: Does that typically take you to do that?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours. I know I just

Emma: Okay.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Don't, don't let me lose you there because when I was doing it daily, it takes like 30 to 45 minutes. So you end up saving a

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: of time doing it on the weekend. And the more you do it, just like if you've ever done a budget or a food plan or whatever, more you do it, the faster you get. the more you save money and, and get your macros in line when you're doing a food plan, or the more you're [00:41:00] able to save time and money in your budget, if you're doing budgeting over and over again, same with the Sunday basket, but some weeks it takes three hours. 'cause I mean, we're signing kids up for classes and we're thinking about summer cla or planning the family vacation or you know, calling everybody that we need to for remodeling projects.

And there's just a lot of household administration to do.

Emma: Every day. I, I think, if you were doing that every day, it would just become. Just becomes another job. And I think it would actually probably add to the feeling of overwhelm, not, not help with it. whereas yeah, weekly seems, seems a bit more sensible. And, and again, back to that kind of the feeling of peace, just knowing that it's done and, and knowing that it's planned and, and organized, I know I would feel so much better knowing, knowing that that was, knowing that that was done in the case.

Final question, Lisa. The, the time has, has flown by, but final question is always the same here, and it's what do you know now that you wish you knew then?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I think what I wish I had [00:42:00] known, like back when I started my household was that. There is no roadmap for running a household. I mean, now there is with organized 365. I wish I would've had a roadmap specifically before I started the company when my father was ill and ultimately passed away. And we were his power of healthcare, power of attorney, and I was his executor. I, I googled like, please, how do I settle in a state? Like, and there was not, you know, like there were books about what to do before people pass or like. Legally what you do, but there was no like take an inventory of the house. Like there just wasn't a, I was looking for a mad libs for adults. Like just let me tell, gimme the workbook and let me fill out the workbook, like I'm in school.

So I created it. That's what the binders are. I created it. And so I've created these things like if you're like, well, no one ever taught me how to run. Or I don't know where to get started or I, I understand this weekly planning thing that you're talking about, Lisa, but I'm not a good planner, so I can't cobble it together.

DIY it from scratch. wish [00:43:00] that these systems had been around many people say they wish that they knew that they exist now.

Emma: , You said something there. which, I think is, is true for a lot of things actually, that a lot of these, what I would term kind of really important life skills that we are not taught to do. certainly a lot of that household stuff, I think, you know, financial planning and financial management, you know, in my world, a lot of the, the career stuff like.

Writing a cv like how you, you know, how you market yourself. Like, we are not taught to do these things. They're almost, I don't know, just a given or there's an assumption that you just magically know how to do that, but vast majority of people don't. It's what? Yeah. It is actually crazy. Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: So when I think about it, 'cause you know then like I was in education, so if you wanna add a class in, then you have to take something else out. And I completely understand like wanting well-rounded students and exposing [00:44:00] students to all kinds of like science and math and all those kinds of things. But I remember, you know, and advocating with kids who have IEPs and special needs and like are really struggling in school and you're like, okay, now they're in sixth grade and they really have to know their times tables.

And I'm like, but do we really like, I mean. We have a computer in our pocket. Like if you're in sixth grade and you don't know your times table, I'm just gonna call it, you're never gonna know 'em. As a matter of fact, you're not going to ever do it outta your brain anyway. You're always gonna pull your phone out.

Like,

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: skill that we should be spending all of our time on? And this totally off topic, but as

Emma: No. It's interesting though.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: is going and where AI is going, 'cause AI is a computer. We need kids to be critical thinkers. We need as adults to be able to independently take care of ourselves and, and advocate for ourselves and know how to live life.

These are our

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: So how do we kind of, you know, schools were created for the industrial revolution to

Emma: Yeah,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: workers.

Emma: yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: They [00:45:00] weren't created for independent thinking entrepreneurs.

Emma: Yeah.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: survived school. We break schools. And so how do we change that?

Emma: I, I think, critical thinking specifically to me is, to me that is the point of education to, to, to turn people out. That, that know how to think critically, that know how to think for themselves, that know how to solve problems, to, to find information that they, that they. Don't know. and I, I don't have kids myself, but from what I, from what I understand from, from friends and what I see out there, it seems like that bit is really missing.

Like we are not teaching people how to think critically anymore. And, and that along with some of the life skills, as you were saying, that the thing that was sticking in my brain is I did Latin at school and I can remember, I think I only did it for like two years. And I can remember one thing and that is Canis Estin via the dog is in the street.

Like how is that useful to me?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: I

Emma: Like,

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: [00:46:00] Pel Elise, which is my name. I can't do anything in France, four years,

Emma: but at least, at least you might go to France. Like that could potentially be useful, you know?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: have been to France and I could not speak the language while I was there. I will tell you that for a fact. I was like, yeah, that was pointless.

Emma: But yeah, there, there must be a, there must be a way of, of weaving in some of these broader life skills. 'cause I just think they're, they're so important and yeah, as we said before, no one really tells you how to do them. Until now, Lisa, you're here.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Right, right. I'm

Emma: you can tell people how to do it. Yeah.

Brilliant segue. How can people find you if they're interested and, and they want to, to find more? where should they go? What should they, what should they look for?

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Well, if you like podcasts, I have a podcast called Organized 365. Get to know me a little bit better there. The products and courses and programs are over at organized [00:47:00] 360 five.com, and I'm most active on Instagram Organized 365.

Emma: I'm not following you on Instagram, I shall have to do that. I've been following you on, LinkedIn and really enjoying your videos, by the way. They're great. so, I shall, I shall follow you on Instagram. Thank you so much, Lisa. Really, really interesting. and as I said at the start, I absolutely love your, your story.

And, and you know what you. What you've built and what you're doing. I just think it's, it's really cool and putting things out into the world that can help people, which kind of seems to me like the, the ultimate point of doing anything. So

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Oh,

Emma: it's great.

Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365: Emma, and thank you for having me on.