Hi, this is Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant and together we are Thanks for Visiting

and this is the Hosting Hotline. If you want to get your business questions answered here in the Hosting Hotline, go to hostinghotline. com, ask your question just like Jilayne did and we are going to be so excited to answer it here on the podcast because you help so many other hosts, business owners who tune in to the Thanks for Visiting podcast each and every week. Today we have a question about organizing, which I love.

Hey, Sarah and Annette, this is Jilayne with the Nest Collective. I have an operations question for you ladies, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Sarah will be the one that answers this question because I know that you are a lover of a good Google Drive organization. So my question is, and I started thinking about this listening to your podcast actually on the VRMA recap, when you're listening to things, when you're walking properties, when you're talking to other people, et cetera, and you have some ideas, whether you're jotting down an app that you want to look at, whether you're thinking about a marketing technique, a social media, reel idea, or things like that you need to purchase, for one of your properties. What app, if it is an app or program, do you guys use that can either voice record or create to do list items, check boxes, reminders, etc? what do you guys love? And do you have any recommendations for me? Thanks so much. Talk later.

Yes, we have recommendations. Before we get to the recommendation, though, I want to give a shout out to Jilayne. She has been a part of our community for years, and she was a part of our hosting business mastery membership. And when I say she is someone that showed up, took action. Her properties are crushing it. She bought a new property that is really going to crush it. And she lives in Colorado, but bought a property in Michigan to really expand her portfolio. She dipped her toe and helping people design and co hosting. I've never been able to tell her that we see her and all the hard work that she is putting in. And it is like, Night and day from when she joined us originally and I would be remiss to not let the listeners know that she is a full time She works a full time. She is a mom and she has been doing all of this On the side so she is crushing it. So Basically, what I want to say is she is a no excuses person, and that's what Sarah and I love. But, Jilayne, we know you still have room for improvement, so we are going to help you and help everyone. We are going to give you what we love to use for organization. Sarah, I'll, I'll drum roll for you. Well,

I also wanted to say too, yes, Jilayne, and Jilayne knows She's been on numerous zoom calls with our group coaching and all that sort of stuff. So she knows, and you guys probably do too, cause I mentioned the podcast. I love organizing. I love being organized. I love getting organized. I used to be a professional organizer when I was trying to find myself back in the 2010s. Uh, but when we played Jilayne's question Annette really Like your face like opened up. What is it? What I'm looking for? You lit up, you lit up because, and I do not mean to offend Annette right now, but I think she would, she would say that she is maybe not a naturally organized person. Would you agree with that? That's fair. That's fair. I don't know that I, I mean, I don't know that I agree with that because her, her home is always tidy and she cares very much about the calendar being in order, but I have to work on it. I got to work on it. But that's what I was going to say. Yeah. You mentioned that you work on it

does not come natural to me. And I still am working on it. But you

get so excited about tips and tricks and things that work for you that she lit up, Jilayne, because I would share tips with her about what works for me or what I would share with my clients back in the day. So anyone out there who feels like they are not, you know, naturally organized or they don't think about organization when they wake up or when they're looking at their computer desktop or their closet, but you know that you want to be or to get there or to make it a little better each day.

Progress over perfection there. Cause I used to just quit if things weren't perfect and I've stopped that. Yeah, I have stopped that. And we have some, we have some tips here, Jilayne, cause I want to steer you clear right now. It really isn't Google drive where, We hang out and organize. We use, we use Asana, A S A N A everyone, Asana. That is our, um, additional team member that we use and there are. free versions. So we always love being able to give an organizational and tech tip that is free. We also love being able to share with you that not only is it free, but it is available on desktop and mobile. We love that they have an app. So anything that we can have at our fingertips, especially as a host, Uh, in the property and, and things that our team, it's also very easy for you to start on your own. And if you need to share it with your team, super easy to get them up and running and have someone else sharing tasks with you and, and super easy for everybody to learn, which we love. We love that too.

Let me just say too, there are 1, 045, 824 billion organizing apps. Mm

hmm.

Are there better ones in Asana? Is there someone right now listening to this podcast being like no, no, no, no, Evernote is better. We don't care.

We don't care. This is what we use. We gotta stick with it.

Exactly. That's what I was gonna say. Sometimes you just have to decide and honestly that's what I did. So I have a cousin, Megan, who is in, she is more organized than I am. That is true. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put you, I'm gonna, and she types

faster than

you. She

does. We've competed and she beats me. And she, she might have a higher RQ. So when she

told me what she likes, I was like, I'm just gonna go with MeganLynx. Cause I was like Monday. com, like all these options. Sometimes you guys, you just have to decide.

Cause then

you can hack the software to work for you. That goes with your PMS. That goes with your operation software. Dynamic pricing software. All of it. You know, you just gotta decide sometimes. So there's, there's a first tip for you. Second tip for you. We use Asana. There is a free version. There's an app. There's a and here's the thing. I know as a co host and even as a host, we're not just sitting behind our computers back in the day like you would in like 1996 running a vacation rental, like you are at your property or you're at work running your property or you're at the soccer game running your property. So it's really important that whatever you decide has an app, Jilayne, and so that's why we love Asana too.

Your first, the first part we want to let you know that you, we actually researched ahead of time and thank you because we are not using this and we're going to. You absolutely can voice. There is a voice memo, um, feature in Asana. Asana, when you go to create task, you will see a microphone pop up and you can talk into it and create that task. So that is step number one. That's what we love being able to give you this answer that that it sounded like that voice memo is something that you use often, you can go straight to the app and add those tasks. Here are our pro tips, though, that we really want to like Hammer home here that will change the game for any of your any any of your tap task apps.

Yeah,

so pro tip number one So even if your voice texting or typing in Sarah taught me this and it I literally this is one thing that I have Adhere to, is always use a verb or an action in your tasks. So let's say it's change air filter, update Instagram, review dynamic pricing. You always want to have the action that you need to take. Call plumber. You know, whatever that task is, make sure it starts with an action with that verb, so you know exactly what you need to do. to do. It's not just like a note there, you know, um, very similar to an old school handwritten to do list. You know, you would always put, you know, what you need to do. It's what to do. So that action, what action do you need to do that will change the game. Because before Sarah taught me that in Asana, I was kind of like typing sentences and like thoughts. And especially when you share tasks with other people, you want to be able to get out of the gate what they need to do.

It's also that subconscious. Telling you what to do. It's called a call to action in marketing, right? We need to tell our guests what to do. In your, in your listings, book now, summer goes fast, right? That verb, telling them what to do, the same works for us. Yeah, especially

with your task list. So, yeah. The next tip I'm going to share, I had resistance, still have resistance to, I'm a work in progress here, but we're gonna work on that this year, is every task needs to have a due date. And this should give you, this, this should feel empowering because when you go into Asana, it has infinite amount of time. So if you know it's something that's just like an idea list, you know, that could be something, hey, I'm going to look at that at the end of the month. And maybe you put something on your calendar, it's like review end of the month Asana ideas. Um, or tasks like this needs to get done today, you put it there. So it really also, the due date. I believe helps clear up clutter in your mind of how important is this? And it helps you to start prioritizing. Well, is this something I need to do immediately? Or could I give myself a week or two? Where this becomes really useful is when you are assigning tasks to other people on your team. It, you start to decipher like, well, do I really need that done immediately? No, you know, they could do that as long as it's done by next Friday. Or, you know, especially let's say it's things about your property. Okay, I know I need to change the filters, but that could be, I could wait till these next two guests check out, but I can't wait to, um, call the plumber. You know, you can, those due dates help you start to think through importance levels and things that need to get done. Because sometimes if you're, if you are me, I'll have a giant to do list. None of them have dates. So if you hand write to do list, it's probably very rare that you actually put a due date on it. You're just kind of knocking them out. But that's what I like about Asana. It forces, it doesn't force you, but we want to force you to put a due date on every action or verb or task that you're creating for yourself. Even if you know it, it's not a media or maybe it's just an idea, still put it a calendar. A calendar date associated with it.

And it's nice in a sign of the way, at least I've set it up and I've made, 'cause I am a bossy lady, made my team sign up where it is. You have a today section. Mm-hmm a next week section, and then a later section. Okay. So you can kind of visually see, and then you have the unassigned section. So when you first create a task, it's unassigned even when you sign a date and then you tell it what section to put in. And there's some automations in there so you don't have to tell it. It just knows. But, and I think that's interesting too, to see visually what you've got going on. 'cause we. We think we can get a lot done in a day and then that day happens like today. Annette and I are experiencing that. We're like, how is it already, you know, 12, 20 PM when we're recording this? And so that's natural. And, and that, and that's what happens. So you can start learning if you feel like time management isn't your strong suit. Looking at what you actually got done and what things we're going to get, this is going to be a little precursor to the next tip. What things do you keep bumping to the future because you're not getting it done? That's a little nod to yourself that you are

over scheduling yourself. Right, putting too many tasks. on certain due dates. So I'm going to let Sarah riff on this one because I am virtually waving, like raising my hand through the airwaves here that this is a big issue that I have got to confront and look in the mirror and fix.

Well, you just don't want to let things go overdue. When you, when you assign yourself a task, and this is not me Annette is an incredible star, and I, and I, we should do an episode of all the things that she's annoyed with me about. So, just to let you guys know that it's not just me always getting on her. But, when you let things go overdue, you are not putting, you're not giving that task respect. Right? Like, if you said that you wanted it done, you know, you sign up for tomorrow, tomorrow comes, okay, maybe one day, you, you push it to the fore, you push it forward by a day. You don't do it, you push it forward again, or you let it just drift into the ether of the past, That thing wasn't that important, and maybe that's the truth. Maybe it's not that important, and sometimes we do need software to kind of slap us in the face and say, You don't, you're doing fine without doing this thing, it's probably not that important. I do have, in my asana, I have a junk drawer. It's, it's titled Junk Drawer. What? What have

you been hiding? I didn't even know about a Junk Drawer. Yeah, but

I assign a task to myself, like you said at the beginning of this episode, to review the Junk Drawer.

You be holding out on me.

You

can

review the Junk Drawer every month.

You know my Junk Drawer would be over for it. I know. That's why you didn't tell me.

Okay,

that's

alright. I respect it. But you just don't want to let things get overdue because you're just not giving that task respect. You're also not respecting your time. And so, don't let them get overdue.

And I can share, you guys. So, I think Um, there have been times where I like, well, Sarah and I, I don't know, we'll be at dinner or talking. I'm like, Hey, by the way, there's this Asana task. It's I, can I like, I haven't done it, but this is where I'm at or do we, and then we'll like come together and say, okay, that's fine. Like consider it done or remove it or, you know, like, Hey, I like admittedly, this is late. This is why I'm going to move it. And that's the other thing too. You just don't want to start moving. If there's other people on your task, you want to. Communicate with them like, hey, I'm moving this, but this is why. Like, I have an email out or a call out. They're not responding, but I put a note in there like, I'm moving this. So, um, that is, that is definitely something that I have a problem with right now, and I want to share with everyone. This is, um, really a huge work in progress for myself, and I think this will be helpful to so many people. I have, I am trying to switch to where my first thing. That I go to, uh, after, and I, I'm not just saying this because we're partners with them, but after a relay bank account every morning, I go to my email and I want to stop that. I want my first habit, my reaction to go to my asana because those are tasks I've created for myself or my team has created for me. When I go to my email, it's who knows where and who. I mean, I'm getting junk mail, spam mail, all the updates. All the emails, and that to me is just everybody else needing information, needing things from me. That's kind of like playing defense, where when I'm in Asana, that's me playing offense for the things that are important and me getting the hour. Like you've decided are important. Right, and so, right, exactly. So when I'm in email, it's just getting everything done for everybody else. And I know maybe some days that's not so realistic, depending on check in, you know, we all have a lot of things going. But if you can start making it a small habit of getting to a sauna earlier in the day or first thing in the day and just being as, cause that's where I need to switch my habits of like checking a sauna more regularly, like living in a sauna, not living in my email. And I, that's like part of that recognition of getting better.

Okay. You can email, you can send an email from email to Asana and make it into a task and then you decide when you respond to that email. You can have an automatic response, actually one of our private coaching, um, clients told me that this stuck with her. I have in my signature that, uh, do, I don't know the exact wording, I don't have it in front of me, but I do the nature of what I, what I do for a living that, uh, to please allow me 48 hours for all responses. Now, obviously our guests get a different, they go to a different email. So, like, I am very compartmentalized, right? And I meet my customers, which are my guests, where they're at because that's my business. But when it comes to, like, Sarah as the business owner and, like, someone wanting to reach out to me to do a software whatever or an, uh, you know, whatever it is, you can compartmentalize, but you can email things from your email to your Asana and then you can make it a task. You can even create a filter in your email and say, like, if anything comes from, I don't know. You know, uh, Airbnb, if you wanted it to, it would automatically forward it to your sauna so that, I'm just making some, I don't think I have that filter up, but you get what I'm trying to say here. You can make it work for you.

Yeah. And the other part too is, um, an important thing is you, you chatted, Jilayne, at the beginning of the question about, um, um, Let's say reoccurring tasks, things like that. Like you can set things to happen the 15th of every month, the first of ever. Like you, if you would go into my Asana, cause I do all of our finances, like pay more mortgage, pay taxes, but like those are reoccurring, whether it's monthly, quarterly, um, and I have those that pop up and that is like, you know, set that up once and it's just popping up. I mean, I have what I can share and Sarah does know this, that we started using, uh, heavily using Asana last year. And it's so cool because it's January again, we started using it in December. I have tasks that I put a due date for a year to happen again, one year later, and they're coming up. Like I, we own a bunch of domain names and it's like, you know, do a domain. list scrub and I'm going through, I did it last January. I'm doing it again this January of like, do we need all of these? So that's, what's awesome is you can set these reoccurring tasks up and just your task manager will get better and better. The more that you, it's, it's just like working out. Like the more that you flex that muscle, the better it's going to get. But Jilayne, I'm telling you, this is a game changer for you. By last. Last tip as not being such an expert as Sarah, and I'm talking a lot in this episode because I think someone that doesn't use it as much, encouraging you how good it can be, um, I still, I still write a ton of to do lists down. But guess what I do? I take that to do list because sometimes it's faster for me seriously to write things down or depending where I'm at, and then I can still add them to my Asana board and then I tear up that to do list. Don't fret that you have to get rid of some of those like analog things. They can still work or you do an analog, get done what you can, and then transfer the other things to, to your digital. Especially if you're in a property, maybe it is easier for you to write things down or you're in there with a maintenance person or cleaning, or you can just, what do we need? Put those things down, but it's a, it's a game changer for sure.

One final tip, unless Nutt has any more, is you do want to make sure that your calendar matches your asana. Cause if you got this big to do list in Asana, but then you also have these appointments in your calendar, that ain't going to work my friends, unless you want to work, you know, two eight hour days or whatever you allow, allow yourself during your work day. So there is a, you can connect your, what if you use Google calendar or whatever calendar you use, you can connect it to your sauna and you can make sure that you are allowing yourself some time. Like for Jilayne, for example, if she wanted to check out a new software for her hosting company, here's the thing we always do, we want to check out a software, but we don't allow ourselves time. To watch the demo that's on their website or to schedule sales call. You know what I mean? Like we don't allow ourselves the time to do that exploration. So if that's on your to do list to check out some cool new piece of software, like a sauna, and then maybe give yourself an hour, because we also underestimate how much time we actually want to go down that rabbit hole, because if we believe. Having this software is important to us getting organized and actually you can slow down so we eventually can speed things up. We have to give ourselves enough time to explore. And so you can go down that rabbit hole of YouTube and watch, and actually there, I'll give him a little shout out. His name's Paul Miners, you guys. Paul, P A U L M I N O R S. I don't know him from Adam, but he is who teaches me Asana on YouTube. I know him because I watch him. I've been

assigned many asana tasks to just watch his videos. So that's what, just to share with you guys, that's the way that we like, I have right now in my asana books to read. I'm almost done with one podcast to listen to because that stuff gets, we used to text it back and forth to each other. And I'm like, and so it would be like, watch Paul Minor. So yeah, that's a, that's a super smoking pro tip right there.

He's actually a really good teacher. I think we all learned from different people in different ways. And that's why there's. A lot of Asana teachers can, can do their thing, but I don't want to get off track here. I wanted to wrap that up that you need to give yourself time to explore and if you give yourself, if you have that task, make sure that you are time blocking it in your calendar and there is a way to automate that, but don't let that overwhelm you either. Just when you see it show up in your Asana and it, that's, that's your day to day, then time block yourself in the morning so you can get those things done.

The last thing that I will share, I don't want to go too far down that road, but you can also, for all of you out there, you can create projects. And if you want, if you have multiple properties, you could create projects where those homes sit independent in their own project. And you could put everything that needs to happen in that home. Monthly, quarterly, annually, your to do list could all sit in those specific homes because you might have, like, for instance, I, just because I'm very familiar with Jilayne's property, she could have a project for her Colorado property versus her Michigan, because her team in Michigan is probably different than the people that help her in Colorado, and she could share those Asana projects with those teams that are keeping those organized. Maybe you have, um, you know, other people, that, that help you or even your business partner, your life partner, but those projects if you want to start building those out to, um, have been really important to how Sarah and I run things.

Start simple. Start small. And remember that, okay, if you decide to use Asana, but now you have to create that habit and that's hard in itself. And that knows like the whole team is using it. And she, I mean. Yeah. I would never know because as long as she gets the thing, you know, done or communicates, but you just, you'll have to create a habit, however you do that, right? So if she just builds a habit of, okay, after she looks at her bank account in the morning, then she goes to Asana, that's how you build that habit. You attach it to something that you're already doing on the regular. And with time, what they, what do they say? Some people say 21 days, some people say, I don't know. Until you're not even thinking about it, it's just habit, then you built the habit. Jolene, really good question.

We're excited for you. This is going to be a game changer for you and for anybody out there. Let's do this. Start using it.

Start getting your year off organized. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian. I'm Annette Grant. And together we are, Thanks for visiting.

Talk

to you later.