Even when you know you’re in the right place with the right people, attending a new event or joining a new organization can be challenging in that you have to figure out the lay of the land and determine with whom to connect first. Way back in 2008, when I attended my first conference with the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals, Julie Bestry made that so much easier for me, enthusiastically welcoming me with open arms and connecting me with those members who I needed to know. Julie’s energy and passion are contagious, whether it’s her care for others, her desire to do things well or her genuine interest in what matters to those around her, including clients and colleagues alike. Julie has a gift for helping clients in Chattanooga, TN, to get organized, and provides productivity as well as paper management coaching services to clients worldwide via video conferencing. Plus, you don’t want to miss her Paper Doll blog, where she peppers her writing with popular culture references to make organizing and productivity advice more fun. It is my honor and privilege to share Julie’s awesomeness with you. Enjoy this peek inside the mind and heart of this absolute rock star!

About Julie Bestry

Julie Bestry is a Certified Professional Organizer®, Evernote Certified Expert and president of Best Results Organizing in Chattanooga, TN, providing guidance in all aspects of organizing and time management. For twenty years, Julie has helped her residential, home-office, small business and corporate clients save time and money, reduce stress and increase productivity. Julie particularly loves eliminating paper chaos, motivating clients with the motto, “Don’t apologize. Organize!” Her clients don’t just learn from the hands-on organizing services she provides — they also learn skills that allow them to maintain their new, more organized and productive lives in the future. In addition to working one-on-one with clients, Julie teaches workshops and webinars for companies, professional organizations and volunteer groups to help them achieve their organizing and productivity goals. Julie has blogged as Paper Doll since 2007 and has authored a number of books, including 57 Secrets for Organizing Your Small Business, Do I Have to Keep This Piece of Paper? and Tickle Yourself Organized. Julie loves organizing paper and setting up filing systems, hates paper clips and does not answer the telephone during prime-time TV. She believes in controlling her schedule instead of letting it control her and is decidedly NOT a morning person. Locally, she sits on the board of directors for Chattanooga’s Partners and Peers for Diabetes Care. Julie is a native of Buffalo, New York, and holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and a Master of Arts from Syracuse University.

First Friday Female Founder Feature:

Julie Bestry

How would you describe your company and the products / services you offer?

I’m a Certified Professional Organizer and productivity specialist, so the services I provide help overwhelmed individuals save time and money, reduce stress, and increase productivity. My work is varied, and I might spend one day helping retirees downsize the family home, and the next day training clients to use Evernote or re-envision their entire work calendar.

While some people think of professional organizing as moving things around, I really look at it from a different perspective. I tell clients that tidying or housekeeping is about the “stuff,” but professional organizing is about the person who owns the “stuff,” and that stuff might be tangible or temporal or cognitive. People have a lot of excess, not just in their homes and offices, but also their schedules and thoughts. My role is to help them let go of what doesn’t serve the lives they want to lead, and use my expertise to help them confidently make decisions about what goes, what stays, and how to arrange it all for better spaces, more efficient schedules, and happier lives.

Why did you start your company?

My first career was as a television program director, but after about a dozen years working at local television stations, I was experiencing less and less of what had drawn me to that career. Soon after 9/11, so many people I knew in television were re-evaluating what they would do with their “one wild and precious life” (in the words of poet Mary Oliver), and I felt the same.

I’d spent my whole life up until that point, in college and graduate school, internships and jobs, in one field. I just knew that I wanted a professional opportunity that allowed me to use my organizing and communication skills to inspire change and help people achieve their dreams.

People don’t believe this story, but a few weeks after I retired from TV, I went into a bookstore and pulled a book called “Cool Careers for Dummies” off the shelf. It literally opened to the page about professional organizers, a career I’d previously not known existed. It was like a lightning bolt! I immediately knew where my next career would take me.

What has been the most rewarding part of your journey in founding this company?

Since the beginning, clients have reported that our work left them feeling happier, lighter, and more able to be who they wanted to be. A few months into working with my very first client, I was greeted in the driveway by my her 5-year-old daughter, who said, “I love it when the organizing lady comes. Now Mommy has time to play with me!” Wow! One of my current clients meets me at the door almost every session saying, “I wish every day could be a Julie Day.” I’m floored and delighted, because it’s not me, per se, but the work. People need the expertise and accountability I provide, my reward comes from knowing that I bring positive transformation to people’s lives.

About what are you most proud?

Beyond helping people? I suppose I should say that I was able to make a huge career shift in my mid-thirties and keep myself financially afloat for 21 years. But as much as I love organizing, I joke that my real superpower is writing, so having published a book and several small e-books, and having written my blog for 16 years — that is a real point of pride.

Are you naturally organized, was it a skill you learned or is it something with which you regularly struggle, and what tips or tools do you use to stay your most organized?

If you’d asked my mother when I was a teenager, she’d laugh at this, because I had not yet mastered the wisdom behind, “Don’t put things down, put them away.” But I think I’ve always been organized and craved order. When I was in elementary school, I’d go to one particular friend’s house and her mother would bemoan the state of the enormous playroom, and I’d persuade my friend that we could make a game out of sorting the toys and organizing them. She had younger siblings, so the space didn’t stay organized, but creating order there gave me much more joy than playing Barbie’s.

I think it’s essential that you know yourself, your energy patterns, and how to commit to the systems you embrace. I have never been, and never will be, a morning person, so I structure my day so creative work gets done in the quiet, undisturbed nighttime, and the next day’s work is prepared such that I can be a zombie in the mornings with few obligations before my client work begins.

I blog as Paper Doll, and I use tangible planning tools, like a paper planner, paper to-do list, and tickler file. My most popular ebook is Tickle Yourself Organized, about how to use a tickler file, and I really evangelize that. However, because my clients have different lives and needs, I also test various digital scheduling systems, task apps, and productivity tools. I love Evernote because it allows me to capture absolutely anything and organize it in a way that I can find things via search or structure, however I need.

Who’s the one person who changed your life and why?

Everyone in my life (family, friends, and colleagues) has been so supportive, but I’d have to say my mother, known to the blog and social media community as Paper Mommy. She’s been my champion my entire life, telling me since I was very small that, “I love you and am proud of you before you even get out of bed in the morning.” I try to channel her positivity and caring when I work with clients who need that kind of support.

Julie with her amazing mother, Sheila Bestry

What words of wisdom would you have for someone who is overwhelmed with staying organized and / or productive?

Overwhelm comes from an overload of sensory inputs — too many, too much, too often. I’d encourage someone to turn their attention to one small space, maybe one foot square, or solve seek a solution to one small, addressable problem (the one causing the most anguish), and focus just on that. Turn off all notifications, and set expectations that you’ll be unavailable (except for true emergencies) for the next hour.

Instead of working in a chaotic space, pick up a box or laundry basket of random things and move yourself to a calm, quiet place in your home, and just work on sorting and purging those things. Figure out where these items should live to best suit your needs, take them there, and repeat the process. If the chaos reigns at work, take just what you need to accomplish your task and step away from your desk — book the conference room or move to some other quiet area. Feeling like you have control over just one factor in your life and reducing interruptions and sensory overload will make each step easier to take.

Do you use technology to help stay productive or organized? If so, what’s your favorite program, app or tech tool?

I’m famous for being an analog person — the week this interview goes live on your blog, I’ll be presenting Conquering “Paper Shame” — Embracing Analog Productivity Solutions in an Increasingly Digital World at the 2023 Task Management and Time Blocking Summit. But I’m also an Evernote Certified Consultant, and use Evernote to capture and organize my research for my writing. I’m expanding my use of Canva to make my marketing and video presentations more streamlined, Scrivener and Wordpress to keep my writing organized, and Trello for plotting out big-picture project management.

However, I find the human-powered “technology” of accountability partnerships to be my most powerful tool for conquering procrastination. I have an accountability partner, am in a mastermind group, and attend weekly co-writing sessions.

How do you feel about work/life efficiency or integration in your life, including any tips or challenges for managing the personal and professional commitments in your life?

To be fair, I should acknowledge that as a single person without tiny humans, I am blessed with free time and fewer obligations than most other women. So, my own work/life balance means that when I’m not actually with clients, I have complete control over when and how I do my work, and when I play. My life is usually pretty efficient because I rarely have the stressors in my life that overwhelm most people; I absolutely have an internal locus of control.

That doesn’t mean I never have conflicting obligations. We all have meltdown days. I’m involved in a lot of different professional groups and am tech support (by phone) for my fabulous 86-year-old mom —and all of us living in the 21st century struggle with the expectations that we will be always-on and always available. I think the keys are 1) planning one’s time to account for all needs, wants, and obligations, 2) adding enough margin or buffer time for transitions that support emotional and physical capacity, and 3) limiting interruptions based on the old Eisenhower Matrix concept of whether something is urgent, important, both, or neither.

About what causes are you most passionate?

In general, equity. Every since I was very young, I’ve been moved to anger and to action by unfairness and injustice, and while I’d like to say my responses are more mature when I encounter injustice at my age vs. half a century ago, I’m a work in progress.

I’m on the board of Partners & Peers for Diabetes Care, a Chattanooga-based diabetes education group, and am eager to help expand healthcare and financial literacy so that people can make wise decisions based on the most accurate (and understandable) information.

Julie with fellow National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals members, Deb Lee and Emily Parks, at a previous NAPO conference

What have you found to be the most effective way to relax after a long day or super long week?

You can take the girl out of television, but you can’t take television out of the girl. I watch Primetime broadcast TV long-distance with my mom in Buffalo, NY, and then we talk during all of the commercial breaks. I walk to de-stress and aim to get about 5 miles in each day, and I am learning Italian. When social media or the news gets too intense, a few rounds of the goofy translations in Duo lingo are really calming. I’m not good at Italian, and can read and write far better than I can speak it, but even the struggle for mastery can be soothing.

What is your favorite author/book?

My favorite novelist is Jane Austen, but I’m torn between Persuasion (which is her most mature novel) and Emma (which is the funniest). That said, there is no better Darcy than Colin Firth, and I’ll fight you on that!

What is your favorite inspirational quote?

I have two, and they dovetail with one another.

“It's never too late to be what you might've been.” ~ George Eliot.

“It’ll all be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.” (The author is unknown, but it’s believed to first be spoken by Tyne Daly on Judging Amy.)

Julie with other professional organizers and productivity consultants at a conference dinner

What are your go-to accessories?

Cardigans! All the years I wore suits when I worked in TV, I felt like I was playing dress-up and playing a role. Early on, I found that cardigans allowed me to deliver my expertise with in a softer way, a sort of modern-day Donna Reed but armed with technology and a bit of sass.

What are the fundamentals of your beauty routine?

Am I supposed to have a beauty routine? My mother is still model-gorgeous at 86, and she taught me how to wear makeup and maintain good habits when I was a teenager. But I wear drugstore makeup — BB cream, blush, eyeliner, shadow, blush, and lipstick. I use micellar water to remove eye makeup and Clean & Clear foaming cleanser to wash my face. And you may be shocked that I never use moisturizer. I have very pale skin, and I generally eschew the sun. I haven’t had a tan on my face in at least four decades.

My hair, however, is the bane of my existence, and while I do the same exact routine every day, sometimes it’s exactly how I want too look and other days? If it’s humid, I look like Art Garfunkel. But I can’t sing the praises of my Revlon One-Step Volumizer enough! My only dismay is that because of the voltage difference, I couldn’t use it on my trips to Italy and the UK, and I’m vain enough to be disappointed in how my hair looks, comparatively, in those photos.

What is your favorite food?

Cheese. Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t make it through a day without cheese. For my birthday for three-years’ running, one friend has sent me 50 individually packaged Cabot cheeses from Vermont, and for the holidays this year, my BFF sent me two pounds of Cornell University white cheddar.

Of the locally-owned and -operated establishments in the place you currently live, which are your top 3 favorites and why?

Wow, only three? I hate leaving anyone out. A long-time favorite restaurant is Acropolis Grill — it’s the cheese! I love referring my clients to Always Be Recycling, a mom & pop electronic recycling company. My first stop for buying quirky gifts is Blue Skies in Downtown Chattanooga.

Julie with fellow National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals members, Janine Adams and Emily Parks, at a previous NAPO conference

What is your favorite place that you have visited?

Orvieto, an Etruscan-era walled city in southwestern Umbria in Italy. I hope to go back someday.

What streaming show or movie could you watch on an endless loop?

When Harry Met Sally. I’m a pessimistic optimist and unrelenting romantic, and I can quote “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible” by heart.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

When faced with a difficult choice, to be able to magically see, Sliding Doors-style, the effect of selecting each option so that I could make decisions without uncertainty. I really don’t like uncertainty.

What advice would you give your 21-year-old self?

There’s no permanent record. Grades don’t matter and nobody will care what you got on your GREs. Perfection is overrated. Life moves fast, so pursue joy and don’t be afraid of being wrong or looking stupid. I missed out on a lot of joy out of fear of looking stupid.

If you could have lunch with anyone (living or deceased), who would it be and why?

I’ve put too much thought into this. I’ve imagined whole conversations where I hold forth with an audience of Founding Fathers!

Ever since I saw the musical 1776 when I was in college, I’ve imagined discussing politics and world affairs with John Adams. (I consider him my secret presidential boyfriend, even though, in the words of the musical, he was “obnoxious and disliked” by all but his wife.) Adams enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 1990s, but thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton has eclipsed him. Would the lunch last long enough for me to explain that it was OK for women to wear pants and soothe his fears of electric lights and automobiles?

That said, Emily, it’s been too long since I got to enjoy a meal with you, so if you can’t arrange time for me with John Adams, I’d be delighted to brunch with you.

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