Hasta La Ideas

Three years ago, the first printing of my book Unclutter Your Life in One Week hit bookstores. Since then, I have been working to get an audio version of the book available for purchase. My publisher passed on doing one, so I had to wait for the audio rights to revert back to me and then finance it myself to make it happen. After receiving some help from an amazing group of people, I’m am extremely pleased to report it’s finally available:

• Buy MP3 version (with PDF worksheets) for $8.99
  167 MB Download | Encoded at 64 kbps
• Buy Apple Lossless version (with PDF worksheets) for $8.99
  938 MB Download

Since I’m in control of this arm of the project, I have decided to release the audio version of the book in a bit of a non-traditional way. My hope in doing this is to make purchasing and listening to it a truly enjoyable experience across the board.

First, it means that anyone in the world with access to PayPal can buy the audiobook. If the print version hasn’t been available in your country, this is no longer an issue for you if you have a PayPal account or can use their credit card payment function.

Second, there is no DRM on the file, so you can listen to it on as many media devices as you choose. However, it also means you could give it away to someone for free. I’m asking you to please not share the audiobook with anyone outside of your household. As I mentioned previously, I financed this audiobook personally. I spent thousands of dollars on voice talent (the incredible Bhama Roget), a professional recording studio (Cedar House Audio), editing, the server space to house the files, the creative designer to make the cover for the audiobook, etc. I need to sell hundreds of copies of this audiobook to even recoup my costs. I’m not complaining — as I very eagerly took on this expense — I’m just requesting that you please respect what we have created and pay for the audiobook if you plan to listen to it.

Third, speaking of price, I was able to set this since I decided not to go through Audible for distribution. This means the audiobook is currently priced at a fraction of what it would have been otherwise. The $8.99 price is a special sale price that will exist until January 15, 2013. On that date, the price will increase a dollar. (Most audiobooks entering the market on Audible are in the $20 to $30 range, and often require an ongoing monthly subscription.) The price of the audiobook also includes the PDF worksheets, which I couldn’t do with the print or digital versions of the book.

Finally, I was able to ensure the audiobook includes the full text. It is unabridged and just shy of being six full hours in length. This means it’s a little weird in a couple places where the charts are read word-for-word, but I know we have numerous Unclutterer community members who have visual impairments and I didn’t want them to miss out any parts of the book. And, if you are sighted, the PDF worksheets contain a visual representation of those charts for you to reference.

Again, I am truly delighted to be able to offer the audio version of Unclutter Your Life in One Week for sale. If you purchase it — and thank YOU so much if you do! — I hope you enjoy the book and Ms. Roget’s reading of it. I think the finished product is truly top notch.

• Buy MP3 version (with PDF worksheets) for $8.99
  167 MB Download | Encoded at 64 kbps
• Buy Apple Lossless version (with PDF worksheets) for $8.99
  938 MB Download

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

A couple things we want to bring to your attention:

First: When Unclutter Your Life in One Week was initially released as a hardcover, it was also released as a Kindle version through Amazon (and a number of other e-book reader formats, too). Much to my frustration, the Kindle version had numerous layout issues that made some of the pages significantly difficult to read.

I am pleased to announce that these layout errors have finally been corrected by my publisher, and a new Kindle version is available for download. If you have already purchased the Kindle version you will NOT have to repurchase it to get the update. If you were waiting to purchase the digital book until the Kindle version was fixed, now is a great time to do it.

You should automatically receive an update message from Amazon, and all you’ll need to do is select “Yes” to indicate you would like to download the changes. If you do not receive this message, I believe you can do it manually by going to “Kindle” and then “Manage Your Kindle.” Here, you can select “Your Orders” and then on the drop down menu next to the title choose “Deliver to …” and select your device.

Second: I have donated a signed copy of my book to the Red Cross fundraiser through Writers for the Red Cross. My book is part of a basket of books from writers represented by the Sanford J. Greenburger Associates literary agency. All of the books in the basket, except for Dan Brown’s, are signed by the author. If you’re interested in a signed copy of my book and helping out the Red Cross, you can make a bid in the comments on the Writers for the Red Cross website.

Additionally, if you’re a writer putting together a book proposal, my agent has donated a critique of a nonfiction book proposal or novel to the same fundraiser. You can make a bid in the comments on her auction page. Both auctions conclude this Sunday, March 27.

Thank you to anyone who makes a bid!

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Back in early January, I marked the Ides of March as when I would officially check in on my first set of resolutions for 2010 and finalize my resolutions for the second quarter. In the post “Increasing energy: Erin’s first set of 2010 resolutions,” I outlined what I planned to do for January, February, and March.

For the most part, I’ve kept to the resolutions I created. Unfortunately, I had to take six weeks off from the gym and withdraw from the race I planned to run in April because I kicked a rocking chair and significantly injured my foot. I’m just now getting back into a modified gym routine and can wear regular shoes again.

One of the highlights of my first-quarter resolutions was discovering new recipes for my healthy meal plan. One of the things I did was add the Canyon Ranch Cooks cookbook to my collection. With it, I have successfully made and enjoyed dozens of new recipes. During the doldrums of winter, it was nice to keep mealtime interesting and nutritious. Additionally, simply having more energy has been a wonderful thing.

The theme for my second-quarter resolutions is “Embark on new adventures.” Now that I have the much needed energy I was craving, I’m excited about putting it to use. The following are the resolutions I’ve set for April, May, and June:

• Plant and tend to an herb and vegetable garden.
• Take a knife skills class.
• Go rock climbing.
• Accomplish all 67 tasks on the “Spring Cleaning for the Overachiever” list on pages 189 and 190 of Unclutter Your Life in One Week.
• Go through my entire home and office and play the uncluttering game I’m moving overseas! (Just to be clear, I’m NOT moving overseas, I’m simply playing the game.) Essentially, take on a full-home minimizing project.

To help me achieve these resolutions, I’m going to reference the post “Creating a plan to achieve your 2010 resolutions.” I’m also going to keep up with all of my first-quarter resolutions to maintain the energy levels necessary to help me with these second-quarter goals.

What are your resolutions for April, May, and June? How are your resolutions progressing for 2010? Share your resolution stories in the comments.

We have had a wonderful bump in traffic recently, and we thought it might be a good idea to talk about our history and all that we do here at Unclutterer for the benefit of our new readers. Obviously, there is our daily content on the site and in our feed, but the fun doesn’t stop there.

Brief history:

Unclutterer was started in January 2007 by lawyer Jerry Brito. In March of that year, he sold the website to the Dancing Mammoth company, brought on more writers, and Unclutterer went from being a website with posts a few times a month to a thriving site with content every weekday. In November 2007, Jerry left to start the food blog Crispy on the Outside and Erin Doland was named the new editor of the site. Erin has been with Unclutterer since March 2007 and loves her job more than she can properly express with words.

Unclutterer services:

• Unclutterer Forums — Our active online community where you can gather to share your successes, struggles, suggestions, and smiles. My personal favorite section of the forums are the challenges that people set for themselves.
• RSS feed — All of Unclutterer’s content delivered straight to your RSS reader of choice. If you aren’t familiar with RSS, check out our primer to learn more.
• E-mail feed — All of Unclutterer’s content delivered to your e-mail inbox. Unlike the RSS feed, however, this content is usually delayed 24 hours from when it was initially posted to the website.
• RSS feed without the A Year Ago posts — If you do not wish to receive the A Year Ago posts in your RSS feed, you can subscribe to this content feed. You can also learn how to create custom feeds for any website using Yahoo! Pipes.
• Follow us on Twitter @unclutterer — In addition to our daily content from Unclutterer, we also provide information and links that catch our interest over the course of a day.
• Nest Unclutterer — This free service blocks all of those annoying spambots and advertisers that follow you on Twitter.
• Erin’s column on Real Simple magazine’s Simply Stated blog — Every Tuesday and Thursday Erin produces original content for RealSimple.com.
• Keyfiler — Keyfiler is a web-based service that securely stores all of your license information in one place, for easy reference from anywhere in the world. You can also use it to generate customized reports, export your license information to handy formats like Microsoft Excel, and manage passwords for your favorite websites.
• At the Big River — AtTheBigRiver.com allows bloggers to create intuitive, functional, and humane URLs on the fly, without interrupting the flow of your writing to stop and find the “correct” URL.
• FixMyHTML — HTML code can quickly become a depository for useless tags and slower load times. For an easy way to figure out how to clean up that chunk of HTML code that has been giving you a headache, give this service a try.
• Unclutter Your Life in One Week — Erin’s 7-day plan to organize your home, your office, and your life. Available at major retailers. Published November 2009 by Simon and Schuster.
• Unclutter Your Life in One Week PDF worksheets — If you would like PDF copies of all of the worksheets that appear in the book (so that you don’t have to spend time recreating them yourself or write directly in your book), you can purchase them through our site for $2.50.
• Less is More and Simplicity is Revolutionary T-shirts — If you need a shirt, these are great for spreading the simplicity message.
• Unclutterer icon for iPhone and iPod Touch — With this snazzy icon, you can have Unclutterer as a link right on your main desktop.

We hope that you enjoy all of what Unclutterer has to offer!

A reminder that tonight is the first stop on my Unclutter Your Life in One Week book tour:

Chicago

The Book Cellar. 4736-38 N. Lincoln Ave. I’ll be there from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

Again, there isn’t a speech or formal presentation, so come when it’s convenient for you during the three-hour window. Also, Unclutterer team members PJ, Brian, and Gary will all be able to make it to this event. You can hang out with us and other Unclutterer readers, grab a drink, have your book signed (if you’re into such things), and enjoy a post-holiday happy hour in Lincoln Square.

Also — I’ll be on WGN’s Midday News around 11:10 a.m. on Tuesday, so set your DVRs.