Body Doubling and “How Does Finish Line Friday Work”?

How Does Finish Line Friday Work? And, What Is Body Doubling?

I’d like to reintroduce body doubling. 

I was driving to a client appointment as I started to dictate this content out loud.  One benefit of slowly easing back into in-person clients this week is that I increased my commute time. I don’t really look forward to commuting time, but it is also uninterrupted time for me to think, and that is helpful! 

I like to be productive with my time. And while I love quiet uninterrupted time, there is still something to be said about working with other people, too! Enter, body doubling.

My phone has a name, my laptop has a name. Believing that there is somebody on the receiving end of what I have to say anchors me to the space. Believing that someone is expecting me and someone’s on the other side of that anchors me so I don’t get distracted.

A new community member reached out to me via email.  I believe she has started following me and my content in the last few months at one of my recent presentations. She visited a recent Finish Line Friday and wasn’t sure how it all works.  So, this is for you, Karen. I will endeavor to explain more clearly what exactly Finish Line Friday is, and how we use the strategy of Body Doubling and the Pomodoro Method of time management to increase productivity.

Body doubling is a productivity tool, a strategy, call it what you would like. In my own experiences and with my clients, body doubling helps us be more productive. Body doubling is one of the many perks of working with a professional organizer because having a person with you in your space as you work can be very motivating. It anchors us to the work and the space.  

Same goes for coaching. Body doubling is absolutely vital. For example, early in the pandemic lock down, a number of my clients struggled with the new phenomenon of unattached work time, of working virtually for the first time and it was not working for them.  They did not feel that they were being as productive as they could be, because it turns out that being around other people who were also working on similar things helped them to stay on track.

There were hours when I would sit in a zoom room or on Facetime with a client and they were doing their work and I was doing my work, and that would help my client stay on track. If a question came up, I’d be happy to answer it or I was ready to listen attentively. One client in particular would sometimes need to verbally work through something because she’s a verbal processor, and we would do this parallel play, this body doubling, for a few hours at a time because she knew that she needed support around some of the tougher projects.

Body doubling isn’t needed for every task.  You are a capable, productive person.  But some tasks are harder to tackle than others, and that is when we bring in tools. 

My middle son lives alone, but in community, in theater housing. He has his own apartment but he and his fellow actors all live in the same apartment complex.  He mentioned that there are times when he needs to get things done. Maybe he needs to tackle a project that he’s having some kind of mental or motivational block around, and he’ll have his friend come over and she can work on whatever she wants to work on or play video games, it really doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. he point is, having somebody else physically in his space keeps him from getting distracted.  She doesn’t have to remind him, it’s just her presence that will remind him.   He calls it Parallel Play, like when two year olds play next to each other on the floor with some blocks.  They’re developmentally too young to play together but they play with their own thing side by side.

Finish Line Friday is like parallel play. And here is how it works:

Finish Line Friday uses the Pomodoro method of 25 minutes of work and five minutes of rest.  Studies have shown the most efficient and effective ratio of work to rest is 52 minutes and ten minutes. For every 52 minutes of work, we need ten minutes of rest. And after three or four cycles of that, we need a longer period of rest. Imagine you start your workday at nine. You work from nine to 9:50 then take a 10 minute break. You work from ten to 1050, take a 10 minute break. You work eleven to 11:50, and then maybe you take half an hour for lunch. Right?  So, this cycle is something we may already be familiar with.

As a participant in Finish Line Friday the other day said, we know these things, but it’s really helpful to hear them said out loud by others.

Finish Line Friday helps us get into the healthy and productive habit of 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest. 

In practice, for Finish Line Friday:

  • We all hop into the zoom room at 9 am;   
  • We arrive with our own work for the 2 hour session;
  • We spend a few minutes chatting;
  • We set our intentions for our first 25 minutes of work;
  • I share my screen with a 25-minute countdown clock, counting down to the next 5 minute break.
  • Then, I mute all of us, though we can stay on screen.  That’s how that works.
  • We work for the 25 minutes, check in for the break with another 5 minute countdown clock, and start all over again.
  • And we just do that for four cycles. 
  • There are not assignments, at least not from me!  Come to us with your own agenda, with your own work, with your own ideas about what you want to get done.

Yes, I’m happy to talk to you about productivity or triaging your to-do list or prioritizing.  We can absolutely do that in the breaks or in the chat.  I facilitate productivity, but we are working side by side. We are working together on our own things, myself included. We all come with our own agenda, and I supply the structure and the community. 

I supply the structure and the community. That’s Finish Line Friday. 

Recently, the work has included: 

  • one participant was uploading artwork to a shared drive;
  • another was getting ready for houseguest and was grateful for a 2 hour block of time, knowing that they would get some stuff done, maybe talk to people on the break, and have fun (and that is FLF does for them);
  • a first-time participant was excited to get through a couple of planning tasks and then start working on a professional project; and
  • I cleaned out my in-boxes, wrapped up messages for the week, then moved on to writing presentation content for a project I’m working on for my national association. 

Now that I have more fully explained Finish Line Friday, please assemble your to-do list and plan to join us for a Friday morning of getting things done!

Eliminate Brain Clutter With A Cranial Cleanse

In a recent Finish Line Friday session, one of my regular participants mentioned she was working on “The Smalls” during our time together.  She explained that it was the end of a very busy week.  She had been home long enough between events and appointments to make piles but not to put away the piles. She said “Every room had a pile of smalls.”

And the other participants nodded understandingly because we’ve all been there.  Regularly!

That always makes me smile. Not because someone is struggling, but because most of us understand what “The Smalls” means.

And because the words  – The Smalls – sound funny to me and many people express frustration about The Smalls, in sometimes passionate and colorful language! For example, I have another friend and client who, when I ask her what we’re working on today, will occasionally say “The Smalls, Coll!  It’s The Smalls!” with perhaps some frustration and colorful words!

Here’s the thing:

The Smalls can be physical things in our spaces.

They can be a jumble of papers on the kitchen counter, the pile of Lego bits, Barbie shoes and puzzle pieces at the bottom of a bin of toys, or the contents of an everything drawer in the kitchen. (I personally don’t call them junk drawers, because if you call it a junk drawer, guess what ends up inside?)  If the person I mentioned in my first example is like me, the smalls in every room that she mentioned are bag contents from meetings and events, random clothing items or shoes at the back door that have been cycled through and now need to be put away, neglected amazon boxes and mail at the front door, etc.

Bear in mind, none of these items is technically clutter.  They are all things we obviously need, use or love – they just need tended to.

But they pile and they distract and they call out to us for attention and energy.

Which leads me to – The Smalls can be thoughts and ideas in our brains.

“Small” doesn’t indicate importance, or in the definition of “small”, perhaps un-importance, but instead their size.  “The Smalls” means that SO MANY MORE can fit in a space.  Like I have 100 ideas or to-dos or tasks in my brain and they’re all crammed in there making each look small. And they’re all clamoring to get out!

Some of the challenges with The Smalls, either on the kitchen counter or in our brain:

  • There are MANY.
  • They aren’t just clutter.  They are likely important and require care and attention.
  • Right now, they are unsorted and un-categorized.
  • They are not prioritized in order of importance.
  • We believe that the small are important.  And we don’t want them to get lost.
  • We fear The Smalls will get lost.  We fear that brilliant blog post idea that just came to us will disappear, then we worry about that so long that it does disappear, or we forget other things while we spend mental energy on trying to REMEMBER EVERYTHING!
  • The Smalls DO get lost, and then we forget appointments, emergencies happen, feelings are hurt, etc.

Another regular participant in my Finish Lind Friday productivity sessions has used great imagery when we talk about what we plan to accomplish that day.

Imagine a room full of helium balloons with strings attached.

Now, gesture with your hands to collect those strings.  That is what she is often working on, on a Friday. Gathering loose ends, she calls it, with that gesture. Gathering them together.

And a coaching client, in our time working together, even created her own Loose Ends List, to collect The Smalls and all the other ideas / thoughts / tasks that occur to her and then require completion.

I want to applaud all four people that I have mentioned – they identify The Smalls, they identified the need to consistently collect The Smalls, and they have habits and ways to collect and deal with them.

Two Big Ideas this week.

In the interest of writing this article this week, I opened up my copy of “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen, thinking I needed to re-read it to write this article. And I am … proud? Relieved? Yes, those feelings and more, to find out that since I read this book many years ago, I implemented and am still doing many of the things he talks about (and he talks about them clearly and concisely and the book is totally worth the read.) And I can do better, and I will share more about this book and his process in future podcasts and articles.

First big idea, this is a great book, check it out (and I mean, actually check it out of your local library – no need to buy it!).

To get started, though, in Getting Things Done, David Allen talks about collection. How first, we need to COLLECT all the thoughts and ideas in our head and get them out of our head and into a more user friendly, time specific, prioritized form.  He mentioned, among other things, a Mind Sweep.

Others call it a Brain dump, though I find that an inelegant phrase. My friend Jen recommended Cranial Cleanse when I asked my community for a better term for Brain Dump.

Whatever we call it, Mind Sweep or Cranial cleanse, it is a great place to start.

And it requires a place to put the collected items. For me, that means my Bullet Journal first, to collect items.  Then I insert them into my master to – do list to prioritize and take action.

But let’s talk about the collecting. I no longer do a cranial cleanse like David Allen recommends, as in, an event, because it is a constant process for me – I am ALWAYS doing a cranial cleanse.

For example, when I am working or out running errands, thoughts occur to me, like an idea or a task that needs completed, and I quickly jot it down.

Because…

Have You Noticed? Another problem is that very often a thought or idea or task occurs to us at a moment when we do not have time to act on it.

This

Happens

To

Me

All

The

Time.

I have noticed that certain events generate more thoughts and ideas.  For example, when I am driving.

When driving, my brain is focused on driving but also open to outside stimuli (which is a good thing while driving), subsequently ideas often come to me while I drive.  OR while I cook, or while I’m in the shower.

This goes back to the recent podcast and newsletter that talks about If I Don’t Write It Down, It Doesn’t Exist. 

The other side of that is, If I don’t capture and collect the ideas when they occur, they continue to float around in my brain with nowhere to go, and that makes things very crowded up there with all The Smalls! 

My suggestion, then, for all of this week – the Second Big Idea – is to have a trusted place to collect the ideas and cultivate a habit of collecting them.

I love my Bullet Journal, and that will be a live webinar sometime soon to look at how to make Bullet Journaling happen for you – but the take away is that I have ONE PLACE to write things down. 

It goes with me everywhere.

It is always ready to collect the ideas and safely hold on to them. To get all The Smalls out of my brain so there is room and space to actually get some work done.

And then I have the regular daily habit of reviewing those ideas, prioritizing and activating those ideas and putting them into  my master-to-do list or on the calendar, etc.

We can’t avoid The Smalls, and really, we don’t want to.  The Smalls are where it’s at, sometimes!  The genius is in The Smalls!  But not when all of the Smalls are cramped together in our brain. 

We need the habit of moving The Smalls out of our brain and into a trusted collector. And then the habit of prioritizing and acting on them, too!  This is how we get things done.

Everything? Sure, But Not All At Once!

I was chatting with one of my Finish Line Friday participants last week before everyone else arrived in my zoom room. Not surprisingly, we were talking about goal setting for the new year. I said out loud, as a reminder to her and to me, that “2024 is 12 Months Long.”

Meaning, we have a lot of time and opportunity to make positive change and we don’t have to stuff everything into the first week.

And that really resonated with her.

Because, of course, every year is 12 months long. January, even when we try to pack all sorts of new habits and change in, is 31 days long. No more, no less.

Some years, we start out strong and believe that we need to change EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE when the new year begins. And we set our selves up for failure or major anxiety when we think that way. Instead, let’s consider pacing ourselves.

On the other hand, I had grand plans for EVERYTHING at once when it comes to strategic planning in January.

6 weeks ago, I made sure to block out time on the calendar last week and this week for hours of strategic planning time to work on my editorial calendar, get ahead on my writing and plan my year in detail. And… as is often the case when it comes to big-picture strategic planning, more urgent issues squeezed into the space instead.

This is not to say that I am not planning strategically for the year this week. It IS to say, that I am using smaller pieces of time to do the planning. And as an aside, I will block MORE time at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 to ensure some sacred space for planning!

The balance seems to be, then – Everything? Sure. But NOT ALL AT ONCE!

Here goes – this week, I am working on the Qs.

I use a Bullet Journal. I have mentioned it in past podcasts and videos, but I haven’t delved too deeply. And I feel that it is time to delve deeply!

And one of the features for the Bullet Journal is called a Future Log. As we set up our Bullet Journals, we start with a few index pages (a topic for another day), and then we set up our Future Log.

I, like many others, break my year into quarters. Quarter 1 is January, February and March, Quarter 2 is April, May and June, etc.

This year on my future log so far, I have:

  • Q1, a procedure in February
  • Q1, coaching certification to complete by March 1
  • Q1, Liturgy planning for Easter on March 31
  • Q2, a wedding in Maryland
  • Q3, family vacation
  • Q3, moving my son to his college apartment
  • Q3, a trip to Massachusetts

There are also doctor appointments, presentations, client appointments and board meetings on the calendar for 2024. But those are typical items and don’t need to be in the Future Log. The Future Log and the Qs are for tracking big projects.

Working with quarters helps my brain every day.

Some of us stumble into all or nothing thinking, and that sort of thinking can disrupt our reason, our logic, our productivity and our peace.

With the Q’s and the future log, I have a consistent and reliable place to park ideas that are AMAZING but that do not need to be worked into today’s plan or this week’s, or even this month.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with my social media manager. We are working on a big launch for Q1, but then she asked (without knowing what this week’s topic was going to be) if we could look at Q2 and beyond as well. YES!!

We don’t want to lose track of the good ideas we have, but now or even this quarter may not be the time to tackle them.

I have a big project for a professional organization I am affiliated with that will take time in Q1 and Q2, so any other big projects will need to be planned for Q3 or Q4.

I also look back at last year’s Q’s, the plan for each quarter and also the list of things I completed. And I can learn from that, as I plot my Qs for this year as I look ahead. For example,

  • Last year, especially in the second and third quarters, I was helping my mom downsize and move to her new very cute apartment. I will not need to do that this year, as she is already settled. More importantly, my son and his wife got married the end of September! Amazing, but also not something I need to plan for again this year!
  • On the other hand, also 3rd quarter last year, we spent a lot of time with one of my sons and his friends at the lake, and that was awesome, so I should make note now on my planning for July to spend weekends with them, if they’d like.

We can zoom out from the day-to-day or even week-to-week planning, and look at our year in broader strokes or as a bigger picture. We can pair up what we want to accomplish this year with the time that we have available. We can cut ourselves some slack and recognize that we can accomplish great things AND not wear ourselves out and doom our goals before we even begin by pacing our work and our energy for the longer term.

We can let our ideas flourish by giving them a resting place until we are ready to act on them.

Consider your 2024 Qs this week and this month, and set yourself up to succeed in 2024!

Finish Your Week Strong With Finish Line Friday

Did you know? I host a free weekly productivity session, “Finish Line Friday”, for my community.

Based on the ideas of Accountability and Body Doubling (both recent Weekly Themes), my participants and I spend time together working side by side on our own tasks.

Statistically speaking, the most productive ratio of work to rest is 52 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest, repeated in cycles. In Finish Line Friday, we use the Pomodoro Technique (read more here!) for productivity. The Pomodoro Technique takes the 52 / 10 ratio and breaks that into cycles of 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest.

We work through 4 cycles of 25 and 5, and then wrap up and taking a little longer break before getting back to work.

Some of the benefits of Finish Line Friday include:

  • Camaraderie and a pleasant group to work with:
    • And some positive energy to share!
    • I am a verbal processor and it helps me to say out loud to others what I want to work on for the next 25 or 50 minutes
  • A deeper dive on Time Management:
    • Participants report arriving at a better grasp of just how long certain types of task take, and getting better about budgeting the time to get things done.
    • Similarly, participants have mentioned that FLF helps them to know what 25 minutes feel like. Or 50.
      • Which, again, helps us going forward with planning our work and our time.
      • We don’t often know what a certain amount of time feels like.  And since we all have many responsibilities, it is helpful to know how long to dedicate towards a project before we need to pause that work and switch to other work.
    • Breaking down projects into 25 minute chunks keeps us making progress without feeling overwhelmed!
  • Building the Productivity Muscles!
    • In life, we don’t always get to complete a task or project.  But making progress on it today, even if we just get to work on it for an hour or two, is still better than not working on it all.  And the more progress we make, the better idea we get of just what is left to finish until we can call the work complete!
  • Conversely, we’re reminded that productivity improves when breaks happen!
    • Using the Pomodoro Method helps me be better about taking breaks.  Whoo boy, I am seriously terrible about this sometimes!
    • I love it when I seem to hit a stride in my work and can just focus and keep working on getting a project complete.  So I have been known to just commit to work and sit… at  my computer… for 3 or 4 hours straight with hyperfocus.  And then… the brain starts to get fuzzy, my shoulders are tight and I have a headache, I’m starving, my feet fell asleep, my water glass has been empty for hours and now I am completely spent.  So, as much as I LOVE a good focus session when I am in the zone, I MUST get up and move around at regular intervals.

Consider joining us for Finish Line Friday, for productivity and a supportive community! Email me to sign up, Colleen@peaceofmindpo.com!

Body Double: Prepositions and Productivity

Let’s talk Prepositions.

And Productivity.

Prepositions and Productivity.

Last night, I had an epiphany: I realized I should think of this week’s topic as a podcast first and THEN an article, and not the other way around, which would be my usual approach. However, sometimes things are just easier to say than they are to write.

For example, what I want to talk about this week is something called Body Doubling. Body Doubling is… well, it’s many things. It’s an awareness. It is a strategy. It is a tool to use for greater productivity, if and when you need it. And isn’t that the best sort of tool or strategy, the one you can use as needed? And it all starts with awareness.

Another term for Body Doubling is “Parallel Work”, and I really like that term as well. Let’s face it, the term “Body Doubling” sometimes sounds like we’re talking about space aliens in some b movie from the 80s.

Body Doubling is the phenomenon? idea? awareness? that sometimes we work better with others. We may work better with others even if we aren’t working on the same work. With others, among others, around others, beside others, by and near other people, and any other prepositions we can use!

We can be motivated, inspired, accountable and anchored to our work simply by the presence of another person or persons. We can model the productivity to others, or be modeled to, to get the work done. We don’t necessarily have to work with people on the the same project. We can each work independently on what we need to complete. But just being in the midst of other people working can help us to stay more focused on our own work.

I’ve noticed an increase lately of conversations and articles about body doubling, probably from a similar increase in remote working and more generally accepted conversations about neurodiversity, since body doubling is a strategy that can work for all people, and also people with ADHD and other neuro-diversities.

My youngest son is away at college. While he was home for break, I mentioned that I had to hop on a zoom call, that a group of us were working on our own projects but together so we’re more committed to getting things done.  He said, “Oh, body doubling”.  Like it was obvious. I love that this idea is readily discussed and is accessible to him.  Body doubling is not news. Obviously, people have been working together for better productivity for EVER. But the idea that this is actually a strategy that can be used as necessary might be news to you.

Let’s look at different instances when Body Doubling shows up.

  • Before I had a name for it, I recognized that sometimes my sons needed to work at the dining room table together with me or with each other to get their homework done. And sometimes they needed to work alone. And it was helpful to know we had a choice.
  • Just yesterday, body doubling occurred when my husband asked me if I wanted to take a walk. Did it occur to me to take a walk on my own? Maybe. But since we agreed to walk and discussed when and where to go, we were more likely to make it happen (and we did!).
  • Years ago, a client and friend said it would be enough for me to just come and sit and read in her living room while she organized, because having someone there with her helped her to focus on the projects.
  • A bookkeeper friend shares office space with a friend during tax season because she knows she is less likely to get distracted when she is working side by side with someone else working on taxes.
  • A friend struggled early in lockdown when his office went fully remote. He had been unaware of the boost to productivity he experienced working side by side with coworkers until that was gone and he struggled to stay motivated and get things done.
  • A friend realized that a partner and friend along for the ride would make a dreaded errand less dreadful. So she enlisted a friend to join her for the errand and they made an afternoon of it. And the errand was completed.
  • As an organizer, I have known about body doubling for years because it is a strategy that comes from working with a professional organizer. Making an appointment to organize makes organizing happen. I am not doing the work for my clients but WITH them, anchoring them to the space and to the work.

Now that we know that body doubling works, let’s look at how to work it into our productivity practices.

  • The First Step Is Always Awareness:
    • Identify that body doubling is a strategy, and realize that you might be a person who benefits from it!
  • How To Use the Tool:
    • Ask yourself, How Do You Do Your Best Work? Identify what types of work benefits from body doubling.
      • For example, for me, intense brain work tasks and final edits are best done alone, silent and with no distraction. But most other types of my work benefit from working alongside others. So I plan accordingly.
    • Enlist Aid:
      • When looking for a body double, find someone who matches or improves your energy. If you’re struggling to get things done, reach out to someone who is motivated and positive!
      • “Phone a friend” but be choosy about the friend! Phone a friend, but make sure that friend will be someone who is supportive of your productivity!
      • Everyone Can Win: Set up an arrangement, like you will body double with your friend for her organizing project this week, and she can come over and be your body double for your closet project next week!
    • Join a Group!
      • A client (a college professor) has been part of Writing Groups for years. Fellow academics get together regularly, either in-person or virtually, and dedicate time just for goal setting and writing.
      • I joined Momentum Sessions (https://focus-sessions.momentumdash.com) so I can hop into a focus group to get work done. Seeing other folks on the screen in our zoom room helps me to stay on track!
      • Join me for Finish Line Friday every Friday morning!
      • For another way to feel like you have a body-double, try https://coffitivity.com/
    • Start Your Own Group:
      • A friend started a morning walking group in her neighborhood, to help her friends (for sure!) but also to help herself commit to walking!
      • Start a group at work!
        • Most office environments are geared to parallel work, but you may want to discuss how to avoid disruptions if you start a group.
        • Set up boundaries for group work, for example, quiet or silence for part of the time, expectations from the different group members, length of time per session, etc.
    • Check out your usual haunts – do you find that you can be more productive at your local coffee shop, library, college campus, etc? Make an appointment with yourself to work from there!

Now that you know more about body doubling and how it works, it’s time to step back and look at your tasks and work for this week and strategize how to make body doubling work for you!

Not Done Yet? Pay Attention to Your Neglect!

Wow, there is irony here. I drafted this article originally in early 2021. And it was neglected until now. And yes, I am absolutely paying attention to my neglect this week!

There are many things that I will never do or projects I will never complete, even if perhaps at one time I thought I would complete them.

And I am ok with that.

I’m encouraging you to be honest with – and OK! with – your self about those tasks or projects that you will never do, either.

Of course, if you know me and read my articles or listen to my podcasts – you know that I’m a big fan of goal setting and aspirations and dreams and plans. We all need them, and I will be your biggest cheerleader as you work towards them.

However, I also want us, you AND me, to mostly be realistic. (But still dream and aim HIGH!) Because, being realistic about the things we WILL NOT complete helps us to focus on and make time for the projects that we will do, that light us up and make our hearts sing!

This week, I challenge us to learn from our neglect.

For example, I own books that I have not yet read. I bought them upon the recommendations of others or glowing reviews or because they looked interesting. Perhaps they were a gift, or a loan from someone who thought I should read this book. I still have to choose if I am going to read the book or not, but I have also gotten much better about not taking on a book I probably won’t read. I can learn from my neglect of those books on the “To Read” shelf, parked there for years. Marie Kondo would say we can learn even from half-read books – we learned that we don’t want to read that book. And clearing away the books that I have neglected and that still don’t appeal to me moves the other books that I want to read up the priority list.

There has been other learning, as well. For example, I started writing this article 2 years ago. I had learned that, when I have a lot more free time, like in lockdown or while recovering from surgery, I still will not put together a jigsaw puzzle or elect to do an art project. So, if I come across a half-completed project in a drawer or cabinet, I will never say “Ooh, yes, this! Yeah, glitter!” Or whatever…

Now, again – don’t get me wrong: perhaps you are organizing a space and come across a project or a book or a long lost idea and say “Yes! Thank goodness I found this!” Sure, you got distracted or forgot about it but now that you have found it, you can’t wait to finish! Go for it!

I have certainly acted on neglected items in the last year, so this is NOT an article where I tell you to give up on your dreams. Long neglected, I thought about starting my own Finish Line Friday productivity session for months before picking a date and time and offering the first session. And I talked about starting a podcast for YEARS before actually launching mine back in November.

But, getting clear on what we do and do not want to spend time on is an important productivity concept. (For more on this, check out my article on Focus Areas.)

Where else can we learn from our neglect?

  • Clothes in the closet that are never worn can tell us what colors or fabric types we prefer or not. OR they can tell us that the events the clothes were purchsed for either need to happen (so schedule them!) or the item needs to go!
  • To-Do items on our task list that continue to crop up without completion may be the sign that that task is not as important as we thought it was.
  • Or, Road trips dreamed of, but never planned, or foods purchased towards a health goal that has never coalesced.
  • Piles of clutter in our home or office that started out with good intentions and now just languish and cause us anxiety.

If you have a pile of uncompleted projects (UFO’s per a friend who quilts, or “Un Finished Objects”!) or uncompleted tasks on the to-do list, here is how to think through the process.

  • Identify the tasks or projects that are neglected. Recognize the neglect is occurring.
  • Ask yourself some questions!
    • Is this project or task my responsibility to complete, or someone else’s?
    • Was this my idea or someone else’s?
    • Do I really want to complete this project?
    • Does this project / task still fit into my goals or vision of myself and my future?
    • Will the outcome make me happy or am I doing it for someone else or under someone else’s expectations?
    • Is this unfinished because I lack the tools, or the time or the know how? (And how to remedy this!)
    • If resources were unlimited, would I complete this project? (This one is super helpful! If time / money were not object, would I jump at the chance to do this thing?!)
  • Some of the questions may be answered with a “Yes, this is my idea and I still want to do this thing, and here is when I will do it!” And that is awesome.
  • And some of them are not, so Let go of the guilt. Let go of the expectations. Let go of the clutter that goes with them. Make space for the things that you do want to do, that are YOUR choices and that will light you up!

[(I find this so fascinating – when I first started this blog article, I was listening to a live-stream from Adam Ezra group, and he is talking about prioritizing and making the work we do joyous! (https://www.adamezra.com/) ]

Looping back to the beginning, for example, even though I won’t craft or put together a jigsaw puzzle, I WILL: read voraciously, learn how to play the ukelele, post Facebook Lives with songs solo and with my hubby, learn about new musical artists, etc. THOSE things will happen. And the books that have sat neglected for too long and that I no longer want to read have been purged from my reading pile to make room for the books I DO want to read!

Look around this week, identify your neglected items and ask yourself some questions to Learn From Your Neglect!

What My Producer Learned From Me About Organizing

I recorded the 15th episode of my podcast last week.

15 episodes.

15 Episodes!

Since I launched my podcast in November, the process has become smoother. Thank GOODNESS! Not that the process was hard, but getting over the initial fears and and bumps in the road took a little time. Everything was new and different, so I had to adjust and also learn how to make the process a sustainable habit integrated into my typical weekly schedule.

And I learned. Hooray!
And I had help. Also Hooray!


My producer Chris Lanuti with BroadcastBasement.com set up my accounts across all the podcast platforms and created my graphics. He makes me sound good every week, writes my descriptions every week (I like his better than mine), and continues to guide me along the podcasting path.

I am gratified to say that while I have been learning SO MUCH from Chris, he mentioned that he has learned a lot from our time together, as well. He is present as I record every episode and then he produces the episode, taking out all my goofs and ums / ahs, adding my theme music, etc. So the poor guy listens to me at least twice through every episode and content area! And he has learned a few things in all that listening!

As I grow professionally and grow my podcast, I would like to have guests with me for some episodes. Chris offered to be my first guest, and here are highlights from our recording session!

What My Producer Has Learned From Me About Organizing:

Prioritize Your To Do List!

Chris says he has always been a list guy, but sometimes he would look at the unprioritized list, only cross off a few things in a day and feel frustrated that he didn’t get anything done.  And yep, I feel the same sometimes!

But the better quesiton is, for Chris and for all of us, did he get done the work that NEEDED to be done TODAY? After listening to the organizing podcasts, he is better about prioritizing what is on the list.

For example, using the Eisenhower Box idea (Podcast Link, Blog Article Link), his tasks are broken into three categories: “Top”, “Next” and “Ahead”. And he gets more done more easily, without tasks slipping through the cracks.

  • “Top” tasks are both urgent and important and need to be done today.
  • “Next” tasks are important tasks that can perhaps wait a day or two or more. They’re important but they are not yet urgent. And
  • “Ahead” is a parking place for ideas for later, in the next month or two, or longer.   The ideas are safely kept on the list until it’s time to work on them.

How can you better categorize your to-do list to get more done?

***********************************************

Client communication / Newsletter:

In January, as we recorded one of my episodes, we were discussing “unsubscribes” from our client email platform (we both use Constant Contact).  I think we both had maybe 2 unsubscribes one week. He mentioned he didn’t usually click to see who unsubscribed but he did that week and was suprised to see they were people he knew pretty well and saw occasionally. And it felt personal!

So we both had to get over the fact that Yes, subscribers may come and go sometimes, especially in January when folks are cleaning out their inboxes! But that lead to the conversation around newsletters and communcating with our clients.

A Podcast is a tool of communication in itself!  But we have to communicate more directly, too, so let’s talk newsletters!

We both use newsletters to reach out to our community. Consistent, value-added communications are the best way to keep in touch. Recently, he changed the format of the newsletters he sends out. He said he “stole” the idea from me, but it’s a generally accepted practice, so I called it “incorporating a good idea”: In the same way that I have sections of my weekly newsletter to highlight my different product offerings, he now has info on the current episodes, an “if you missed a recent episode, here’s where you can listen”, and calls-to-action to check out and actually subscribe to the podcast plus check out other podcasts he also hosts.

Chris is better about segmenting his address list than I am.  His lists segmented by which podcast a person listens to, current advertisers, possible advertisers, etc. My address lists are segmented, depending on where I met someone (networking, classes, clients, etc), but I send out the same newsletter to all my subscribers every week.  Because…

  • I’ve been in business for 20 years, and the lines have blurred for many of my community members!
    • Organizing clients have become friends or networking partners or coaching clients, class participants have become coaching or organizing clients or friends, etc.
  • I consider you all my Community. And
  • Any subscriber can reach out to me for any reason, to hire me to coach, to organize, to set up a presention, to share an organizing or recyling resource, etc.

How can you better communicate with your community?

***************************************************

Experts: In business and in life, Find your experts.  Use your experts.  Be the expert for others.

Chris and I talked a bit about who our experts are, and how we use those connections that we have.

An example of how I use my experts is hiring Chris to set up and now produce my podcast. Since 2020, the not-knowing-how kept me from starting my podcast. Chris and I had talked about it, but it took me two years to take the leap. It took some courage, but I had the idea and the expert to help me get from idea from to finished product.

In the interview, I also mentioned how I puzzled for months over how to set up my business – C Corp, S Corp, LLC? I pondered, I read lots of information, I worried. And then I realized I had an attorney, my friend and networking partner, who could tell me what sort of business structure would best suit me and my situation. One phone call and about 15 minutes later, I was on my way (and she is still my legal expert, www.KerlinWalshLaw.com).

We must consider how long something will take us to figure out versus how someone else – our expert – can complete a task more quickly and competently than we can. This is a slow lesson to learn sometimes, but when we step out of our own way and let our experts practice their art, we can regain time (and therefore money), mitigate stress and have things done right the first time!

What expert do you know that could make your life easier today? Call Them!!!

Give a listen this week!

If you would like to know more about getting started with your own podcast, or if you want to check out any of the other podcasts from the Broadcast Basement, check these out!

Clutter Hot Spot: Your Tech Accessories

The challenge with this hot spot is that there isn’t always just one spot.

Sometimes the tech pieces

are

all

over

the

place!

The original inspiration for the Clutter Hot Spot series was client interactions in January. And in one week, I had 3 clients who had tech accessories stirred up into every space we were organizing!

IF we ever hope to find them again, we need to assign JUST ONE HOME for our less-often used tech accessories.

In my office, our ONE tech accessory home is a desk drawer. Right next to me as I write this article. It’s not exciting or big or complicated. It holds tech items that we might need again. In preparation for writing this article, I looked in there earlier today. The boxes for my Apple watch and airpods are in there (new-ish). Extra lightning charging cables (we buy these a few at a time), charging cubes, earphone covers, users manuals, the extra cord that came with my new monitor in its labeled bag. Also, mesh bags for corralling tech accessories when we travel. A few items I came across are now obsolete, like my last two Fitbits and their very specialized chargers, and those are all now in the basket in the garage waiting for a E-Waste collection event.

Let’s review the important parts of the story above:

  • One and ONLY ONE home for tech accessories you might need again.
  • The habit of putting tech accessories in that ONE home when we get them, and putting them back in there after we use them!
  • Labeling the accessory and what it belongs with to eliminate future questions.
  • Everyone in the house knowing where the extra tech accessories live.
  • The habit around reviewing the technology at least once in a while, to determine what tech accessories we need to keep and which ones need to move along to E-Waste recycling.
  • Making sure your E-Waste actually gets recycled. Check your local recycling resources for E-Waste recycling near you. If you’re near me, check out my recycling page for resources. (https://peaceofmindpo.com/2019/06/26/organizing-resources-to-reduce-repurpose-and-recycle/)

Look around your home and establish that ONE SPOT for your extra tech accessories, and commit to moving your tech clutter there as you find it!

Filing is For Retrieval, Not For Storage

I gave two presentations yesterday – well the same presentation to two different audiences – and I think I said this phrase a dozen times each. Filing is for retrieval, not for storage.

It is one of the first statements I make in my Clear the Clutter presentation, and I actually broke it down word by word for one of the groups. What can I say, I was inspired!

It can be a guiding phrase for us as we clear clutter from our home. Consider it a mantra! And here is a summary of all those 7 words can mean for you and me!

Filing.

Filing = putting things way.

Filing can be putting ANYTHING away, and not just papers. AWAY is the goal for organizing and clearing clutter. Putting clean laundry away is filing. Emptying the dishwasher and putting the dishes away is filing. Hanging up your coat when you come in the house is filing.

Filing is putting things away so you can expect to easily find them again.

Filing is for Retrieval, not for storage.

Retrieval = using again.

We put things away where they belong so we can find them again the next time we need them.

We expect to use things again, and we expect to use certain things together. We store related items together. We can ask ourselves “In what context will I need this item again?”

Sure, we could file our credit cards in a desk drawer, but that is not where we are going to use them, to retrieve them, again.

In our house, we store shoes in our closets, but we also keep a few pairs by the door because we use shoes when we leave the house. We use them all the time, and place them by the door for easy retrieval.

Not For Storage.

Not for Storage = Use your stuff, don’t just store your stuff

Most of us do not have unlimited storage.

I mean, hey – if you do, Good on you, we’re all just jealous. But most of us do not. And because storage is not limitless, we need to put limits on the stuff that we might store in our homes or businesses.

We should only be putting away the things that we actually expect to use again.

Now, sometimes we put something away, like a paid bill for reference, that we feasibly do expect to retrieve again. However, as the bill lingers, it becomes obsolete and grows less likely to be retrieved. We need to add in maintenance steps to our systems to purge those obsolete resources – papers, clothes, books, etc., once we no longer need them.

Next time you’re pondering a pile of clutter, and considering just tucking it in a drawer or in a bin, first remind yourself that “Filing is for retrieval, not for storage”. Maybe that pile of clutter just needs to GO instead of stay!

How to Break the “Just One More Thing” Habit

This is not what I had planned to write about this week, but readers asked for More! when I admitted in last week’s newsletter that I had and also conquered my tendency for “Just One More Thing!”.

You know, “Just One More Thing!”? As in … we need to leave in 5 minutes, of course I have time to write 3 emails, or start a load of laundry, or make one more phone call.

Perhaps you have this tendency, too? It is well intentioned. For me, I just wanted to get as much done as I could so I would wring productivity out of every last SECOND of my day. Except, this practice is not very productive and it occasionally tripped me up. It might only impact me or you, but the more complicated our schedules become, the more likely this habit is to impact others negatively as well.

20 years ago, I often fell into this flawed thinking, and this judgement error was exacerbated by the fact that I was the mother of small children. Even if I thought I had an extra 5 minutes, we all know how quickly those can pass as we assemble socks or shoes or backpacks for school. And I was also setting a bad example, pushing-pushing-pushing the deadline for leaving on-time to arrive on-time. (*You could swap out child references with co-workers in the above sentence and draw the same conclusions.)

What about leaving for work or for home or anywhere else you need to get to on time? “Just One More Thing” only works when everything else works exactly as planned. And we also all know that day-to-day life rarely works exactly as planned. There is a last minute search for keys or phone, slow elevators, traffic or bad weather, and as one thing leads to another, we find ourselves rushing around, arriving late and out of sorts.

I recognized and began to remedy my issue of “Just One More Thing” when I worked downtown and commuted on the train. If I drove, it didn’t matter if I left my office a few minutes late. I could just make it up on the drive or get home a few minutes late. No biggee. BUT… if I didn’t leave my office at 4:55 pm, I would not be on the Blue Line Platform in time to catch the EL train to the Metra station to get on the train that got me home by 6:05. Trains don’t care about “Just One More Thing”. Instead, I would have to take the next train that arrived half an hour later and made more stops. And that made a BIG difference.

WHY should you break the “Just One More Thing” Habit?

Why? Because you’re not a jerk. “Wait, Coll, how could ‘Just One More Thing’ make me a jerk?” Late for meetings, drop-offs or pick-ups? And what if you’re the one who called the meeting?! Unreliable? Missed deadlines?


Why? Because you respect yourself. Last week, a friend (you know who you are!) mentioned the words “self-sabotage” when she commented on my “Just One More Thing” admission. Ouch. Hard truth, but truth nonetheless. We have to respect our own boundaries. And we can’t expect others to respect our boundaries if we do not.

Why? Because there is value in “calm”. Or “On-time”, or reliable or consistent, or having time to say Hi to a friend or sitting in your favorite seat at the meeting because you didn’t succumb to “Just One More Thing”. (Find your why and remind yourself!)

Here’s How to Break the “Just One More Thing Habit”:

Realistic Time Estimates: Know how long tasks take. If you have 10 minutes, what can you really accomplish in that time? Two 5 minute tasks or one 10 minute task and nothing more. Nothing more than 10 minutes in 10 minutes! OR… one short task and take a few minutes for a deep breath and an early start. (I know we just talked about realistic time estimates in a recent article, but it bears repeating!)

To Do Lists: Keep a to-do list, so your tasks and ideas are reliably collected and you don’t have to worry so much about JUST ONE MORE THING before you leave the house, go to your meeting, etc. With a reliable list, you can pick up where you left off.

If you really only have 5 minutes right now, “send out the ships” to others first. My accountability partner uses the term “sending out ships” to describe those communications that require a reply or action from others.



I know my pace for work. I do not know, or presume to know, other people’s pace for work. Therefore, I try to send out requests or messages to others ASAP to give time to answer. Then I make a note of when I sent the message or request, when I need to follow up, tack on a great bit WAIT and then move that task to that future time or date. As I write about sending out ships, it feels like a matter of prioritizing, and perhaps it is. But this strategy helps me communicate more effectively and focus in on what really needs to be said or done. Which leads me to….

Prioritize. When we have limited time to complete a long list of tasks, we have to identify what has to get done right now and what can wait. Don’t get distracted by shiny things or loud requests. (Loud and shiny don’t make a task important.)

Know Your Absolute Deadline, and add time in from there. Check your traffic app for commute time, check the weather for possible storms, know your route and a few alternatives. No matter how well intentioned we are, we cannot travel back in time. (Trust me, I’ve tried.)

Give Yourself Grace, as you figure this out. For goodness sake, be as kind to you as you are to others and cut yourself some slack. Forgiving yourself ahead of time for NOT doing “Just One More Thing” is a good place to start!