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Welcome to my June 2024 productivity report, which has been dedicated to my intuition! As you may have seen on my social channels,  I spent my summer in California, and what a summer it was! In this report, you get to hear about the first half of it. Don’t forget to subscribe to follow along on my adventures, and if you want to catch up, check out where I started in October 2023. You’ll find November 2023 here, and December 2023 here. For this year, January 2024 is here, February 2024 is here, March 2024 is here, April 2024 is here, and May 2024 is here.

🌱 How I Felt Going into June 2024

Going into June, I was a little fatigued from all the traveling I had done during the spring. Between London, Honolulu, Columbus, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, the jet lag had started to really set in. But I knew I needed to go to California for the summer. Nothing was going to stand in my way – no matter how tired I was. LA was calling me home. I could feel it.

🌻 Why Your Intuition Helps in Long-Term Strategic Planning

My intuition has long been the main factor in how I make decisions. That’s how I knew I had to go to California. I could sense that this was going to be one of those life-changing trips that I would one day look back on and cherish as a pivot point in my life. And I can already tell that it will be – no question about it. I reconnected with lots of old friends that I had missed for a long time, but even better, I also met some amazing new friends who will undoubtedly be a big part of my future. In fact, I have already started collaborating with some of them, and you’ll hear more about that next month.

The beauty of getting out of your element is often what helps you grow as a person, and sometimes taking risks like that goes against all common sense. My emigration comes to mind immediately 😂. Did I know this was going to be an expensive summer? Yes. Did I know that I would go without much sleep for a couple of weeks? Yes. Would I miss seeing my immediate family for some time? Of course. But I also knew that I had to go. My intuition rarely fails me, and I trust it so much that I never ignore it. The decision to spend a couple of weeks in California went against logic and the facts at hand, but in this case, I chose to follow my heart. And you know what’s funny? When I met some of those new connections and asked them about their career paths, and how they’ve gotten to where they are today, the resounding answer was “I just followed that little voice inside.” Go figure.

Your intuition must be a part of the equation when you’re making decisions, especially on a long-term strategic roadmap. This is what my program Mindful Monday Mapping teaches as well.

Those who are more prone to looking at facts all day long often argue that your biases will cause you to confuse wants for needs, and I get that argument. I’m not saying that we discount logical factors and limited resources (like money, time, and energy). What I am saying is that we weight things equally, and don’t discount either part. You have to look at both sides for a complete picture. Only making decisions based on what you need results in unhappiness. Only making gut decisions without thinking leads you down the same road, but for different reasons. We have to consider both as a whole to find our way.

Simple intuition will usually give you an indication of what the right decision should be, but far too many hold themselves back because they’re afraid to take the risk. What is the cost of NOT taking that risk that you’re thinking about? That’s the real question, and it’s worth answering. More often than not, the long-term benefits of taking a risk far outweighs the immediate, short-term, costs.

🤔 How do you make decisions?

I’d love to know – how do you make big decisions in life? Do you go with your gut, or create a cost-benefit risk analysis? Perhaps both? What do you feel are some of the pros or cons of each option? Let me know in the comments!

🏆 How Productive I was in June 2024

June was not my most productive month in terms of projects, but it was huge in terms of recovery, and long-time strategic planning. I did put in the hours, but some of my newer projects are bigger, multi-layered, and will take longer to complete than one month. And that’s OK. I’ve chosen to approach them that way, so I can have more breathing room. Taking it a little easier this month to spend time with friends felt like the right thing to do after a whirlwind spring. I needed that time, and is just as important as putting content out. I purposefully focused on fun activities, like recording and mixing music, reading, and writing. A few late nights talking to soulmates, eating good food, and enjoying a good laugh was exactly what I needed. If that’s not productive, I don’t know what is!

One of the bigger decisions I made in June was to scrap the free trial on our Quarterly Planning membership. We used to have a 90-day free trial, so that new students could participate to see what a difference good planning makes, but due to blatant abuse, that’s now a thing of the past. It’s a shame, but I really think my decision is for the best. Now, when participants sign up, it’s a straightforward offer. They pay and participate directly, so I think we’ll have a lot less problems that way. It’ll help show us who really values the help and who does not.

This goes back to one of the business principles that I value the most – to “fail fast,” and quickly fix what’s not working. During the past year (as we had the QP free trial in place), we clocked over 46 hours of admin work dealing with problems caused by it. That’s not good. That’s close to a $23,000 loss if we translate it into cash value. Ugh. Now that this problem has been identified and eliminated, I’ve essentially bought back that amount in time, and by implementing the payment system immediately, I’ve also increased revenue over time. Think of how that will compound over time. Ka-ching! 💰 That’s long-term planning for ya. 😉 

📁 Projects Completed 

In June, I completed four projects. All of them were quite sizable in energy, but not so much in time. Therefore, I was able to complete them all even while traveling. My goal for the past few months has been three per month, but I often work on many more than that; it’s just that some of them are bigger and still in progress.

The idea that some projects are more labor intensive in some respects (but not others) is a good reminder. For example, one project was very labor intensive in terms of the energy that was required because I had to be “on” and meet people. As an introvert, that requires a lot from me. However, the event itself didn’t last very long, so it wasn’t a big investment on time. 

With enough project management experience, you’ll be able to evaluate your projects based on resources required in the planning stage, which then helps you understand how to prioritize. You see, projects don’t exist in a vacuum – at least not most of the time. You have to make sure they harmonize with all your other commitments, and the only way to do that is to get the planning phase right. I teach more on that in Mindful Monday Mapping, so be sure to join us there if you need to up your project management skills.

🚀 My Favorite Project in June 2024

My favorite project this past month was rewriting my course The Organizing Formula. It’s been on my radar for quite some time to update, and since I was on the road, it was the perfect opportunity. I have bigger plans for it too, which is exciting! For the past eight years, it has existed only as a free course on my academy and for my email list, but it’s time to release it into the wild. You’ll hear more about this next month, but let’s just say, my YouTube channel is about to get an upgrade.

⏳ Hours Worked in June 2024

This month, I worked just under 120 hours, which is close to 30 hours per week. That’s more than I normally clock, so how is it that I didn’t feel like I worked much? Actually, I know the answer to this…

This month, I knew I would do a lot of networking, so I included all that time… just for fun. It wasn’t “working time” per see (or part of a project), but the stats will be useful to have a few years from now. I wanted to measure it because I could feel that this was a pivot point for me, and I’m curious to see how it will stack up against its future ROI. Long-term thinking here. When – at some point – a project materializes from it, I want to be able to trace it back and see what type of time investment and decision-making led me that specific outcome. It’s one of the ways I like to test my instinct and prove its worth. Something (i.e. my intuition) told me that it would be a good idea to do this time around. Let’s see.

If we remove the extra networking time, we end up at 92 hours, which is more in the normal range for me. Before I wrap this section, I want to note that it’s not necessarily the time spent that’ll make the difference, but the activity. I could have spent an extra 28 hours doing whatever. I chose networking for a very specific reason. It’ll be interesting to see how that extra time makes use of itself. I think it’ll pay off in spades.

⌨️ Digital Images Organized in June 2024 

In June, I took 3612 photos and videos, and got rid of 1364 of them (on the go), leaving me with a net sum of 2248 new files. That was a lot, but (as usual) that number included many new promotional photos for my business. Since I was on the road, I made the decision of not organizing any of them, but instead wait and do that on my big iMac at home. In other words, more culling to come next month.

In the meantime, here are some of my favorites:

One of the more common questions I get as a Certified Photo Organizer is: “How to keep your media organized while traveling?” The short answer is: you don’t have to. You can, yes, but it’s challenging because there’s so much going on. If you’re a photographer or pro, it’s one thing because you may have clients to deal with…. but if you’re just a regular average joe on vacation, don’t even worry about it. The key is simply to stay continuously backed up, so your memories are safe. We can always sort out a mess, but we can’t do much if you lose it… so as long as you’re keeping your phone (and other devices) safely backed up, there’s no harm in waiting until you get home to organize your archive.

As with anything, it’s also really key to have the right tools for the right job. I find that there are two main advantages to using my big iMac at home: 1) better screen size, and 2) better tools. First, the bigger screen helps me really see the details of each photo and decides on which are the keepers, which results in a better culling experience. It’s too hard to see who is blinking in what photo on a mobile device. Second, I have access to my mouse and more tools on that machine, for example, PhotoSweeper – my favorite deduplication software. I can’t run that on my phone. That’s a huge time saver. There’s always a trade off somewhere, right? You can choose to do things faster with better equipment, or slower with less efficient equipment Time is my number one priority, so I tend to lean in favor of saving as much time as possible, even if it costs a little more.

If you’d like to learn my workflow for organizing photos, join us in DPO PRO: The Ultimate Photo Organizing Masterclass. In it, we cover the entire digital photo organizing process, plus go in depth on the three most popular software options on the market: Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, and Apple Photos.

👟 Steps Walked in June 2024 

How was June 2024 in terms of steps? Pretty good. This month, I walked a total of 249,009 steps, which breaks down to about 9800 steps a day. This was no doubt thanks to being on the move over in LA.

True to the theme this month, I decided to look more in depth at the trend for the past six months to see which direction it was headed. It’s always useful to zoom in and look at things month-to-month, but long-term thinking is what matters when it comes to health goals. Therefore, it was time to review the first six months. How was my year going so far? What would the big picture tell me.

The graph was quite inspiring:

As you can tell (and as I’ve stated many times before), the weather has a huge impact on my activities. You can clearly tell by looking at this graph when I was in colder vs. warmer climates. It lines up almost exactly to my travel schedule, and that’s pretty funny. At the same time, that tells a pretty clear story. I do much better when I have access to a walkable city in a better climate. I suspect everyone does, but I think it’s important to state it outright. Otherwise, it’s easy to attribute that type of inactivity to some other factor by mistake. The environment you are in has a massive effect on you – just look at what happened in November’s report. This is a big consideration for me overall, and may lead to a move down the road.

The big takeaway from these results though is the trend, which is positive. There were a few weeks here and there that slipped (to be expected), but overall, I’m starting to get better at staying above 5K steps per day, which is the goal. With a bit more practice and tenacity, I’m hoping to consistently stay above that line. Onwards!

🍋 Home-Cooked Meals in June 2024

This category was more of an ouch for me in June at 56.2%, so I didn’t meet my long-standing goal of 75% per month. However, I saw that coming a mile away because of traveling. I anticipated it. I did mostly have Airbnbs with kitchen access, but I still opted to eat out quite a bit. In the past, I’ve mad the mistake of buying way too many groceries that I didn’t get a chance to use up, so it was a bit more budget-friendly to just choose healthier meals outside. I focused largely on meals that gave me leftovers for the next day – simple ones that were affordable and healthy.

Sometimes, we have to make trade-offs, especially when we’re trying to implement new routines or upgrade a habit. There are a lot of variables that can change at any given time, so you have to be comfortable with making adjustments as you go, or (in my case), reverting to more flexible goal-setting over time.

With long-term health goals, it’s the big picture that matters. Once again, we’re back to the same theme. Progress over time is what matters. I find it a lot more productive to consider my overall year as a whole rather than focus on one of two months of anomaly behavior, so I’m OK with these results. I made the choice informed of the consequences. As long as I keep an eye on this every month, and make sure the trends don’t go in the wrong direction, we’re good.

🎧 Books & Learning in June 2024

This month, I listened to the audiobook version of The Long Game by Dorie Clark. I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know Dorie directly, but we have mutual friends, and we were both featured in Tallal Gondal’s book TurboCharged Networking.

Dorie and I are so alike that I found myself thinking “Wow, I could have written this book” as I was reading it. Clearly, she is much more experienced than me, but we have such similar thought processes and attitude towards life. In this book, she talks a lot about career waves, including learning, creating, connecting, and the reaping the rewards of that. This is basically the production cycle that I teach in Mindful Monday Mapping. No wonder that resonated so much with me!

Another concept I really enjoyed reading about was how much time it takes to develop your relationships. Dorie states that it takes about 50 hours to go from acquaintance to friend, and develop enough trust. Then it takes another 90 hours or so to cement a really great friendship from that, and then another 200 hours or so to become really close. I have an easy time making friends because I naturally trust people immediately, but that doesn’t mean its returned. It takes time to get to know someone, and during that time, you have to develop trust, honesty, loyalty, and genuine care among other things. I have that in spades, so that’s not a problem, but I do have to remember to give things time.

One of my favorite quotes from this book was: “We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, but underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.“ I stand behind that in my Productivity Coach role, and encourage you to take it to heart. Pick this book if you can because it’ll help you really see the benefits of long-term thinking.

☕️ Meaningful Conversations in June 2024

In June, I had so many meaningful conversations, both in person and online.  In this section, I’m highlighting only the FIKA with Caroline ones. Those are the “hot cup catchups” I do with people on my mailing list just for fun. It’s fun and helps me connect better with my audience. 

This month, three very familiar faces took me up on the offer. First, I chatted with Bruce Jacobsen, one of my Searching Sweden students. We talked about family history, his volunteer work, and his recent publishings in the Minnesota genealogical society’s newsletter. All great stuff! Bruce has a fabulous blog here if you’re interested in learning more about his discoveries.

I also spoke with my dear colleague Lida Bunting of Znimka Creations about horses, cicadas, and traveling. Lots of fun, especially when I’ve been out of Chicago for so long!

Finally, Dionne Merriott and I talked about Montana and adapting to other people’s schedules. She runs Captured Memories over in Texas, and we’ve been colleagues for years.

Enjoy these cuppa photos below….apparently, I have ONE look. 😂

⭐️ Success Celebrated in June 2024 

While in California, I noticed something about myself that I want to celebrate this month, and it’s the fact that I can now spend a great deal of time around anyone, with complete confidence in myself. I can walk into any room (regardless of who else is there), and feel like I belong. That’s pretty huge.

For many years, I had a default stance of inferiority, meaning that I didn’t want to take up any space. Somehow, other people’s needs, thoughts, opinions, etc. were more valid than mine, so I would wait to speak up, forfeit my turn to do things, and avoid asking for what I needed. People would often mistake me for shy, and that would bother me because I’m far from that. I love to perform, for example. It wasn’t a lack of confidence in my abilities because I’ve always known I’m very capable; I just chose to not speak up as much because “what was the point? Nobody would listen anyway.” In hindsight, that was a terrible attitude. I’m not sure how or where it originated, but I’m glad to say that it’s now a thing of the past… It’s taken a lot of time and personal development to get to this point, but we’re here now, and it’s a spectacular place to be.

When you notice things like this about yourself that feels like a full 180, take note. It means that something fundamental in you had shifted, and it’s worth celebrating those milestones just as much as any work-related project. Perhaps even more so.

😍 This Month’s Favorite Hubs, Tools, Services, & Products

What hubs, tools, products, and services do I use to be more productive? A great question! In an effort to be really transparent, I have a few recommendations below. Some of these are affiliates links, others are not, but I would recommend them regardless – they’re just awesome. Check them out!

Here’s my list of things I loved this month:

• Notion → Where would I be without Notion? Not anywhere close to where I am now, that’s for sure. I run my entire life and business in Notion, so I wholeheartedly recommend this platform. We hosted a Building in Notion (for Beginners) event some time ago, and the replay is available for purchase now.
• Airtable → We have used Airtable for many years now – as our main hub before Notion, and now for student-facing databases, external editorial calendars, and intake forms. Love it!
• Forever → This is good platform for storing photo archives. I invested in this company when they were a startup a decade ago, and it has only gotten better since then. We have a workshop coming up on it this year, so stay tuned for more info on that.
• ShowIt → Love ShowIt! It’s the most flexible and best website platform out there, IMO. Plus, it’s run by nice people, which is a plus. Check it out if you’re a creative soul or a visual artist.
• Convertkit → This has been my email system for seven years now, and I love it. It’s so easy to use, and I love that I can keep my subscribers organized and properly segmented with just a few clicks.
• Lightroom Classic → This is a program I’ve been using for two decades. I teach it and several other solutions in my course DPO PRO. Join us to learn how to use it!
• Teachable → I’ve been a loyal customer with Teachable since back in the early Fedora days, which says a lot about how much I like their platform. It’s a great place to host your courses.
• Circle → Circle is easy to use for everyone – from students to coaches to guests. We love it as our community hub. It stands well on its own, but also integrates nicely with Teachable (see above).
• Trackabi → My new time-tracking platform, which is working out wonderfully so far.
• Toggl → I’ve just switched away from Toggl, but that won’t stop me from recommending it. It’s a great tool to use for time-tracking. The free account can do a lot!
• Audible → I love my Audible subscription for when I’m getting my steps in, and I recommend trying it out if you want to get your learning on. Sign up for a free 30-day trial through my link to get a free book (or 2 free credits if you’re an Amazon prime member!) – cancel anytime!
• Secret → This is a wonderful place for finding deals on software hubs and tools. Who doesn’t love to save some $$$? Invest a little, save a lot! I’ve saved thousands.
• Grove Collaborative → Love my Grove subscription! It saves me so much time because I can restock all my household needs easily. They write sweet messages on each box too! So cute. Get a free gift set by signing up through my affiliate link!
• Almond Cow → In 3 minutes, you can have fresh nut milk. What’s not to love?
• Nuuly → I get so much use out of Nuuly (my rotating closet subscription service). It’s like shopping, except you never get tired of it. 🙌🏻 Highly recommended! Use my link to save $ on your first order.
• Taja → I really like this AI-driven platform for optimizing YouTube videos. It’s a great starting point for coming up with attention-grabbing headlines, descriptions, keywords, and more.
• Wise → Banking as a digital nomad and international service provider can be a bit tricky, but lately, I’ve enjoyed using Wise to make things easier. If you’re a nomad or course creator, take note.

🫖 Tea of the Month

This month, I’m highlighting H&S’s decaf Assam tea. Assam is a region in India known for its full-bodied black tea, and while great, it’s usually extremely high in caffeine. I get super dehydrated if I drink too much strong black tea, so I usually opt for this version. It tastes almost exactly the same, but is a lot more tolerable for anyone who is trying to cut back on caffeine. Try it on its own, or in a home-made chai.

Harney & Sons Decaf Assam Tea

Yield: 1 Cup

Prep Time: 1 minute

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Additional Time: 1 minute

Total Time: 3 minutes

Decaffeinated Black Assam tea from Assam, India. Use on its own or in home-made chai recipes.

Print

Ingredients

• Black Assam Tea

Instructions

1. Brew hot water to 212º

2. Pour over 1 tsp of tea

3. Steep for 5 minutes before enjoying

Notes

Purchase from Harney & Sons: https://www.harney.com/products/decaf-assam

📐 Measure What Matters

Thanks for reading this report til the end! I hope you enjoyed it. Please remember that productivity is very personal, and you DO NOT have to track the same metrics that I do. Your goals and metrics could be quite different from mine, and that’s OK.

If you’d like to understand where you should be focusing your attention, join us in an upcoming Quarterly Planning Workshop to identify your own goals.

🎬 Prefer to Watch This Report?

• About the Author
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Caroline Guntur Organizing & Productivity Coach

Hi there! I’m Caroline, and I’m here to help you get organized and be more productive, so that you can live better and have time for what matters.

www.theswedishorganizer.com

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