Lisa Griffith
Owner & Founder at Griffith Productivity Solutions
Professional Training and Coaching
Education: BA, Hobart & William Smith Colleges - MA, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Providence, RI, USA
Biography
Lisa S. Griffith is a speaker, trainer, productivity consultant, and Certified Professional Organizer®, whose career has spanned over thirty years as a teacher, director, and administrator of performing arts in schools, churches, and community organizations. She now utilizes her extensive skills to inspire, coach, and teach those who want to understand how to best organize their work spaces, inboxes, calendars, and to-do lists in both their professional and personal lives.
Lisa has presented for many distinguished organizations such as Fidelity and Lifespan Corporation in RI, at numerous women's conferences, such as the Connecticut Business Women's Forum and the Bryant University Women's Summit in Rhode Island, and at academic institutions including Brown University and the Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School. She offers highly interactive programs for both in-person and virtual venues.
Lisa's signature organizational system for both stuff and time - the IN ORDER™ system - offers a unique, memorable and easy path to clearing the clutter from your physical space and your calendar, and has proven to be a highly motivating presentation for many people in both their personal and professional lives. Very interactive, its
simple, yet effective components work beautifully any situation.
Where others see mayhem, Lisa sees potential and a pathway to productivity. Her mission is to generate positive change in people’s professional lives by helping them create sustainable structures and systems that encourage and stimulate growth through outer order and inner calm.
Passion
While music is no longer my vocation, it is definitely my avocation. I am still a musician and performer, which means I’m super comfortable speaking to groups large and small. I particularly enjoy singing and making music with choral groups. In addition, because of my lengthy teaching career, I'm a major advocate of education in the arts, because I've seen it change so many children's lives in such a positive way. Because I spent many years as a performing arts director, I understand the challenges that occur when juggling multiple responsibilities in staying organized and being productive in those roles.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
Topics
Best Story
The "Drawer of Shame"
Working with a physician client in both her business and home offices, we were discussing the best ways for her to manage her time and keep track of the multitude of tasks she needed to accomplish in her busy life as a physician and a mother. At one point, she decided she was comfortable enough with me to show me her "drawer of shame" (her words.) Internally, I'm thinking "Yikes!" Externally, I sucked it up and put on my most non-judgmental, productivity coach face. Well, she took me over to a huge chest of drawers and opened it up with a grand flourish, saying, "Voila! My drawer of shame!" I, rather hesitantly, looked inside. To my great surprise (and relief), it was full of........PLANNERS! All kinds, all shapes, sizes, and design. Daytimers, old Franklin Coveys, simple, fancy, complicated and basic. They all had one thing in common - they were only partially filled. Every single one had been abandoned after only a couple of weeks of use. Every time she came across a bright and shiny new planner, she bought it, thinking "this is the ONE! This is what will help me get organized!" She had been searching and searching for "the one thing" that would change her life. "The one tool" that would help her manage her time better. And when it didn't, she threw it in the drawer and just felt like a failure again.
So we had to have a "Come to Jesus" kind of conversation, where she had to realize that it's not about the tool. It's about establishing new and better habits. It was about her attitude towards her time. We always think that the newest app, or the shiniest planner, or those pretty matching bins are the solution. But it's not about the "stuff." It's about dealing with the clutter in our heads, not in our spaces, or our calendars. It's never about the stuff.
Origin Story
I first spent 20 years as a teacher, so my communication, teaching, and training skills were tested and honed over and over. It taught me patience and how to discover someone’s particular learning style which proves invaluable when I’m teaching clients new and more productive ways of doing what they do. In 2008, I established my business, The Organized Way, and then rebranded in 2019 to Griffith Productivity Solutions (GPS) to fully capture the work I do with individuals, teams, and corporate entities to improve personal and professional productivity.
My time as a performing arts director still informs how I take in information, assess situations and personalities, and create and present motivation, inspiration, and practical solutions for whatever group I'm speaking to.
Example talks
The Seesaw Life: It's Not About the Balance, It's About the Sway - Finding the Elusive Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is a term that is flung around everywhere these days. From folks who have given up and are just “putting in time” at work, to those who are running on that hamster wheel in an attempt to keep up with both their personal and professional lives, achieving “balance” is nearly impossible. What is work-life balance, anyway? For some folks, work IS life. For others facing burnout, the prospect of “quietly quitting”, putting in the bare minimum in order to save physical and mental health and rescue some semblance of a personal life, is the only thing keeping them in their jobs at all. In this presentation, participants will learn about the five obstacles to maintaining a balanced life and how to overcome them. From dealing with decision fatigue, to avoiding procrastination, to finding peace in their physical space, participants will acquire techniques to help them build expertise in managing life’s sway without having to quit quietly (or out loud!)
The 7 P's for Powerful Productivity
When your vision is greater than the time you have to achieve it, it’s time to examine your approach to your productivity and how you can reach the goals you’ve set for yourself. Productivity can be a tricky beast. Feeling productive and actually being productive are not always the same thing. If finding time for the things you want to do in addition to the things you need to do isn’t happening, you can be fooled into thinking you’re being more productive than you actually are. Sometimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day grind of the small stuff that we let the big stuff linger, undone. At the end of the day, do you look up at the clock at 5, 6, 7 pm and think, “what the heck did I get done today?” Fight back against that overwhelm with concrete solutions. This presentation offers seven productivity-boosting tools for getting stuff done. From big-picture concepts to help you establish your priorities, to practical, walk-out-and-use-it-today tips to get started, participants will learn not just how to get things done, but how to get the IMPORTANT things done to turn their vision into reality. Participants will learn how to identify and establish priorities for best use of their time and energy to accomplish both day-do-day tasks and work towards achieving larger, long-term goals. Specific time management practices for increased productivity will be offered for concrete, practical, immediate use, and stumbling blocks to improved productivity, such as procrastination and over-commitment will be addressed.
Take the "Crazy" Out of "Busy": Time Management for Today's Professionals
When people ask you how you’re doing, is your answer always “crazy busy”? Do you have more to accomplish in a single day than most people have to deal with in a month? Does your to-do list never get done? Do you lie awake at night wondering how you will ever manage to get through tomorrow?
We all have the same twenty-four hours a day, but sometimes it seems like everyone else is getting more done (and more sleep) than you are! This presentation will help you learn how to better manage your time so you can be more productive and less overwhelmed. Find out how to deal with your to-do list: what does and doesn’t need to be done, what’s important and what’s not, and how to figure out the difference. Get an idea of what products and apps are out there to help you manage those important tasks. Learn how to choose the best calendar style for you and what kind will work with your life and learning style. And most importantly, discover how to better manage your work-life balance: can you really get it all done in the time you have? Learn how to get your schedule under control and make time for the things that you really enjoy. Participants will learn a system for establishing priorities for their time and how to discern the best ways to accomplish their goals and make the best use of the time that they have. A variety of task management and calendar options will be presented so that participants will be aware of the best applications, both digital and paper, for their lifestyle. Specific time management practices will be offered for concrete, practical, daily use. Stumbling blocks to increased productivity, such as procrastination and over-commitment will be addressed, and we will discuss the realities of “work-life balance”, and what it means for today’s business owners as they tackle the challenges of daily living while striving to achieve the best for themselves and those in their lives.
Get Your Space & Time IN ORDER™
If you are struggling with disorganization in your home, your work place, or your schedule, you need a system to help you get it all under control. It can be so frustrating to feel that you’re wasting time, money, and energy due to being disorganized, but not knowing how to make it better makes it even more overwhelming. You’ve read all the books, surfed all the sites, and watched all the organizing shows, but you still don’t know how to get going. The IN ORDER™ system is designed to help you get started and walk you through the process of organizing both your spaces and your time in a simple, straightforward way so that you can accomplish your organizing goals. With a plan in hand, you will know where to begin, how to move forward, and how to finally get it done. Stop spinning your wheels in the mire of disorganization. Discover the confidence that comes with knowing that you can find what you need when you need it. Find more room in your space, and more space in your day, so that you can focus on work, family, leisure – whatever it is that brings you joy!
The Optimized Office: From Piles to Productivity
Is your “to file” pile taller than your filing cabinet?
83 dried out pens, 54 broken rubber bands, ripped envelopes, old coffee cups – wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a functional workspace instead of a cluttered mess of a desk?
This presentation will help you get your work space under control, whether you work from home or in a more formal business setting. Discover paper management techniques that will enable you to turn your cluttered desk into a functional and efficient workspace. Tips for managing your physical office layout will be offered to increase its functionality. Learn how to organize both physical and digital documents for efficient and easy retrieval. Find out about the "5 D's for Quick Decisions" so you can rapidly sort and make decisions about any incoming mail and paperwork. Clear your space, and gain function, time, and productivity. Participants will be given specific techniques for organizing their home or business office space for maximum efficiency and productivity and will learn a system for rapid and simple decision-making for dealing with mail and other daily incoming paperwork. Best practices will be offered for establishing and utilizing various filing systems, as well as tips on how to maintain a newly-organized space.