Category: Life Hacks

What Does “Ready” Look Like For You?

What does Ready look like for you?

In one of my favorite short presentations entitled “How to Never Be Late Again”, I list 4 ways to never be late again. I feel like that presentation would make a great podcast around back to school time in August, so stay tuned!

For today, though, one way to never be late again deserves it’s own article and podcast episode!

The idea is to “Prepare to leave again as soon as you arrive home.” Get back to “ready”, return to ready, whatever that looks like for you.

This is my typical strategy for most things in life, so I don’t even think about it most days. But a friend recently mentioned that my firefighter analogy resonated with her because she had gotten out of the Back to Ready habit during the pandemic and was slowly getting back to it.

So, here we go:

Consider ambulance drivers and fire fighters. They clean up and reload their rig after every call. Now, for the rest of us, Life is not an emergency, but it’s easier to be flexible when we know we’re prepared.

Did you know? I have a firefighter family. My dad is a retired firefighter, his dad was a firefighter and my oldest brother just retired after 30 years.

I remember visiting my dad at the firehouse when I was a kid, and there was a tower for the hoses. It seemed tall to me. Most things do.

When the rig comes back from a fire, from using a fire hose, the hoses are washed and hung up in the tower to dry, to unkink and smooth out, etc. Because you have to take really good care of fire hoses.

The pressure, the amount of water that courses through those, per minute is astonishing when they are being used to put out a fire. They need to be well tended so they don’t burst.

That means washing them, drying them out between uses, hanging them straight so there’s no kinks or folds, letting them hang out and dry and then rolling them up.

Once the firefighters hang out the recently used hose, they restock the rig with the clean and dry ones. Immediately upon returning back from a call, they also restock the rig with supplies, their turnout gear, safety precautions, and medical equipment. And imagine an ambulance, right? Same deal.

So if you called 911 and need an ambulance or a firetruck, do you want to imagine that they are standing in the bay of the firehouse, restocking the rig after you call?

No. You want them to be already on their way when you call, right?! They need to have all the things, but not too many things. They need to have everything they need and not much more because that would be a very full rig. But you, as the caller, want to know that it’s restocked and ready and waiting. And honestly, that next call could come in 2 minutes, or it could come in 2 hours, but it doesn’t matter because whenever it happens, they’re ready to go.

Back to ready. Right? Right. whatever that looks like for you.

So the idea is to prepare to leave again, as soon as you arrive home.

What I am NOT suggesting is that we need to live in this heightened state of panic, anxiety, emergency. I never want us to feel that way. And actually, what I’m suggesting – Getting into the practice of getting ready to leave – would help you to feel a lot less stressed. More prepared, less stressed, more ready for whatever the day may bring.

What I also like about this strategy, too, is that it can be personalized. You know for yourself and for your family or your office, your work, whatever what ready looks like. I think that that’s a big piece of it, is, knowing what ready looks like.

I was on a retreat in February of 2020. At one of the presentations I attended, the presenter talked about your core.

She didn’t say getting back to normal, she talked about getting back to your core, your baseline? What is your core? What is your starting point on any given day or week? What is that for you? My return to ready.

I spoke last week about helping with transitions by having a physical location to drop all the things out of our pockets and a habit around cleaning things out.

So you’re ready to repack and put things away and whatever that would be. So again, what is that for you? What is ready?

Certainly when I get home, there are things that I do. I put my bag in the same place every day when I arrive home. I unpack my water bottles and put them in the sink. I make sure that my keys are clipped onto my handbag (it’s a backpack).

And if I’ve used up anything in my backpack that needs to be replaced (gum, tissues, a pen, cash), I replace that immediately, because I am going to remember that I used something up much more clearly the moment I get home versus a day or a week or a month later when it comes time for me to leave. If I wait to check everything over again and maybe refill then I’m going to forget something. My go-to is to make sure that I have restocked immediately upon arriving home, as opposed to waiting until it’s time to leave to do the restock.

Do you see the difference? It is a big difference. It’s a different way of thinking of things. But it really does matter when we shift to being ready, no matter what, versus having to prepare when it’s time to go.

Now, if my husband’s listening to this, he also knows that sometimes when I’m getting ready to go, lately, occasionally, I have forgotten my phone. (In my defense, that “forgetting” means I walk out the back door and get in the car before going back for it, so is that really forgetting?)

The most likely reason that I have forgotten my phone is because I am distracted, often by people. The second most likely reason is because it wasn’t where it belonged, which, if it’s not on my person, is supposed to be my desk, unless I’m in bed and then it’s on the table next to me. So I have habits around those things. That’s what ready means to me. Ready to go. This is truly the opposite of, an emergency.

I mean, it’s still an emergency if somebody calls 911 and needs a fire truck or an ambulance. My other example is from when my kids were little. And if you ever had to take a child to the ER, you don’t want to have to stop and pack the diaper bag. If you want to go, you need to go, right?

You also need to have an idea of what stocked looks like, right? So, again, it’s not that I packed a million outfits or whatever, but, for example, a stocked diaper bag for the babysitter’s house was six clean diapers. The wipes were wipe container was full. There were two sleepers, two outfits, two pairs of socks, let’s say two blankets, let’s say five burp cloths, whatever that standard level of packed or ready was.

And I knew what that was, and as soon as we would get home from going places or the sitter, I would make sure that it was restocked and ready to go. I would replace what had been used and make sure we were back to ready. I didn’t pack a million things. I just made sure the essentials were covered, bag was packed, we were ready for whatever whenever!

If we needed to just up and go, we absolutely could. And that was so freeing. We could go in an emergency but we could also just head out the door and go to the park or go to the library or whatever, and I didn’t have to fumble and repack because that was already done. And we didn’t get stuck anywhere without the essentials. We could set it aside and forget it, which is great. That is what Ready meant for us.

So how do we translate that into our everyday? Where is it in your life? What goes with you? What is it that needs to, be easier? Where would this idea help you? Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you!

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!

Distraction: The State of Being and The Thing That Distracts

February is National Time Management Month. My goal to dig deeper into Time Management strategies this month means I am also publishing all new content. Whew!

And that means that, even though I tend towards distractibility, I need to manage myself and my attention if I am going to continue to produce content and services efficiently in the time frame I intend for it.

Cue, today’s topic: Distraction. Reflecting on “Distraction”, I realize this is another instance of ‘Words Matter’. Distraction can be a state of being distracted, and also the thing that causes us to be distracted, that thing that prevents us from giving full attention to something else.

Distraction IRL (My own personal reflection today):

It is ironic to me that I was managing distractions as I wrote this article.

What I WANTED to focus on is writing the article. However, my attention was being pulled elsewhere. For example:

  • My morning had not gone as planned, not by a long shot.
  • My Monday morning to-do list was long (as always!) and ideas were popping like popcorn in my brain.
  • My first appointment for the day needed to be rescheduled as the fellow participant was feeling poorly.
  • My second appointment started late and therefore ended late as well.
  • A family member in another state was having a minor health issue RIGHT NOW that I hope stays minor and I was waiting for news.
  • My husband had a planned day off AND was sick, so worry for him is certainly a distraction.
  • My window was open as it is unseasonably pleasant here in Chicago this week (and I want fresh air to clear out the germs), and my neighborhood was bustling with activity.
  • And then, well, clients texting me and notifications on my computer screen and occasional phone calls, etc!

Oh.
My.
Goodness!

And I just wanted to finish this article, and do a good job on it, and then move on to the other 14 dozen things I need to do today and this week.

Ugh.

So, let’s pick this example of distraction apart, learn from it and use some tools to make it better! The question comes down to, How to manage distractions or at least get back on track more quickly when distractions happen?

  • First, we need to understand that distractions will occur. We will distracted sometimes! And that’s ok.
  • In addition to acknowledging that distractions occur, we need to actively plan for distractions.
  • And we need to get good about coming back to productivity from distraction.
    • To circumvent distraction at the root, it helps to know what is and is NOT important to us. Recently, I shared the idea of the Eisenhower Box in my newsletter and podcast to help us determine our high priority activities.
    • Relatedly, I have also recently discussed Knowing Our Focus Areas and sticking with them!
    • Routines and To-Do Lists
    • And obviously, when scheduling, we need to leave extra time to get things done on deadlines.
  • Look at your interactions with others, and ask: With what other people are you distractible?
    • For example, I am a verbal processor and I find that when I am with other verbal processors / extremely chatty people, I can easily get distracted.
    • And for a very long time, I believed distractions were just a part of parenting small children and to some extent, they are. But I don’t mind so much now, since what could be more important than focusing on our family? My family, my sons still win – meaning, I welcome distraction by them – even though they are grown, because they’re most important. And I can get back on track when the distraction has passed.
  • Look at other situations in your life and where you get distracted.
    • For example, we all may get distracted by external drama and the internal processing of it. Meaning, when things are going on in the world around me, even if I limit the external stimuli or reminders, my head and my heart still know and are still processing. This is good awareness to have if I find myself wandering off task.
  • In coaching terms, I have spent a lot of time working on self awareness around my own distraction this week! I thought perhaps I was distracted by visuals in my own home / office environment, as in emails, the little red circle on my phone screen, etc., but what is truly the root of that is the “notification” part of those visuals. The notification that someone might need me to respond quickly, or that I may need to do something to act on the notification. The perceived urgency and possible importance of the notification distracts me!
    • Wow. Mind blown by that one. The belief that I never have enough time to do what needs done and therefore the perceived need to multi-task to get it all done.
  • Understand your Learning Styles and Processing Modality.
    • The 4 most common Learning / Processing styles are auditory (hearing), verbal (speaking), visual (seeing), and kinesthetic (doing).
    • I am easily distracted by noise. AND I can use noise, like white noise or my calm app for the sound of ocean waves or forest rain to help me get back on track.
    • I am distracted visually by visual clutter or unexpected movement, AND I can use a calm visual or a mandala to help me refocus after being distracted.
    • So, what distracts you? And what can bring you back from distraction?
  • Knowing our Learning Styles can help us strategize reminders to bring us back from distraction. For example, I am more likely to respond to an auditory reminder. So I use timers and alarms ALL THE TIME to keep me on track. I use timers to remind me to do something (so actively distracting me from what is in front of me, on purpose!) but also as an opportunity to check in and make sure I haven’t gotten too far off track, and to recommit if I have!
  • What times of day are you more distractible? Personally, I am aware that I get fatigued late afternoon and again in the late evening, therefore my focus wanders and my productivity is more susceptible to being derailed by distractions. I can choose to group and complete several small and simple tasks during those times, or take extra breaks and head to bed as appropriate!

Like so many things in terms of Better Time Management, the challenge and even the solutions to the challenges all start with awareness. We need to be aware of distractions, so please ask yourself some of the questions I just posed! But also be aware of just how many tools and strategies there are to bring us back from distraction to focus and productivity!

The Word “Overwhelm” Is Not Specific Enough

Words matter. And there are so many possibilities! However,

In presentations, I used to say that “if I had a nickel for every time someone said to me ‘I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t know what to do!’, I would have a lot of nickels.” And I would.

But I am increasingly annoyed with the word “overwhelm”. Not with the people who say it, of course, but with the word itself. It’s too vague. The word has become so broad and ubiquitous, it has lost meaning. In addition, all of the ways the word is used have negative connotations. (And for the purpose of today’s article, we’re discussing “Overwhelm” as not a momentary panic but a longer term state of being.)

Google says overwhelm means “to bury or drown beneath a huge mass; to defeat completely; and to give too much of a thing to (someone); inundate.” Maybe it’s positive, like when we are overwhelmed with someone’s generosity or when our team victoriously overwhelms another team, but “overwhelmed” is overwhelmingly negative.

“Whelm” has somewhat negative connotations, too: “verb: engulf, submerge, or bury; or noun: an act or instance of flowing or heaping up abundantly; a surge.”

Ironically, even “Underwhelm”, the seeming opposite of “overwhelm”, still has negative connotations, “fail to impress or make a positive impact on (someone); disappoint.”

There is no middle ground.

In sharing this article idea with my accountability partner last week, she said “Using ‘overwhelm’ sets us up [in a negative] mindset”. It ends up being an excuse, a blanket statement, a catchall phrase. And with such subjective, negative, vague and undefined meaning, it’s often difficult to see a way out of the feeling.

Saying you’re “overwhelmed” can be a starting point, but it is NOT the answer to the problem. And while there is no judgement about saying we’re overwhelmed, it is not some place that we want to STAY!

In coaching, change and progress start with awareness. This week, let me propose that we work a little harder and come up with different words for our feelings of overwhelm so that we can start to make things better. When someone tells me they’re overwhelmed, I ask if we can explore that a bit and get more specific. For example, if you’re overwhelmed, you may be more specifically or also feeling:

  • confused,
  • overstimulated,
  • unclear,
  • discouraged,
  • frustrated,
  • despondent,
  • that’s there’s just too much to do (inundated),
  • unprepared,
  • vulnerable,
  • unsure,
  • overscheduled,
  • incompetent,
  • hopeless, or
  • helpless / powerless.

Consider, too, that you and I may feel multiple emotions, and even conflicting emotions concurrently. Of course we do, we are humans after all. We are fabulous and complex creatures, capable of feeling many emotions at the same time! We can feel both excited about a new work opportunity and also terrified of change! OR proud of the people our children have grown to be and also sad because we miss them!

(Or, as I read in a fellow bloggers post just this morning, “Sticking to your guns and compromise are not opposites. They’re both important tools. Both tools will need to be used on the path to your desired future. Sometimes at the same time.” (https://www.gabethebassplayer.com/blog/tools-for-the-path-ahead))

You also may be feeling something REALLY STRONGLY, and the strength is what is engulfing you.

And, when we’re feeling overwhelmed, we may also or actually be tired, sad, ill, depressed, grieving, etc. And a situation that would not overwhelm us on any other day overwhelms us today. Just the other day, I spoke with a client who said she was feeling overwhelmed and then realized that “on any given day, [her] situation would not feel overwhelming but [she] hasn’t slept well the last few days and her emotional reserves for dealing with life are just low right now.”

So, let’s look at this.

There are so many more specific and therefore useful words out there! When we drill down and get more specific, then we can identity the actual problem and then start working on solutions. Because, with unspecific feelings or measures, how do you ever know when you’re done feeling overwhelmed? “Overwhelmed” needs a time limit!

Let’s move out of OverWhelm and on to something better!

Let’s get more specific about how and what we are feeling so we gain some insight in how to start to make life better. Ask yourself:

  • What does “Overwhelm” mean to you?
  • What else are you working on or dealing with right now?
  • Where do you feel “overwhelm”, and what does it feel like? What is your body telling you? (a great question from my coach Laine!)
  • For example, my stress and therefore my overwhelm shows up in my shoulders and in migraine headaches.
  • Are you struggling to take a deep breath? Are you tired before you even begin a task?
  • These are all questions that can help you gain insight into what you are really feeling.

And, most importantly, what tools are you using to handle the feelings of overwhelm?

  • First step is awareness. Take a few minutes and ask yourself those questions about what you’re really feeling!
  • What are some of our other available tools in the moment!
    • Call your therapist, your friend, your coach!
    • Meditate or do some deep breathing;
    • Take a “nature break” and take care of actual physical needs like hunger and thirst (my hiking guide Kevin used that term first and I kept it!);
    • On a larger scale, make sure you’re managing sleep, nutrition, exercise., etc.
    • Look outside of your own situation and do something kind for someone else.

Let’s dig a little deeper this week and get more specific with the root of our overwhelm. And empowered with that awareness, we can start to conquer those feeling and move toward something better!

“What’s The Plan?” (I just need to know there is one.)

What’s your plan for 2023?

In my Time Management and Productivity Presentations, I talk A LOT about planning. Two quotes I share in those presentations are:

  • “By failing to plan, you are preparing to fail”.  (Ben Franklin)

    And
  • “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

In this quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, he uses “plan” and “planning” as both nouns and verbs. For today’s purposes, “a plan”, the noun, is “a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something” (per google) or “a set of actions that are intended to achieve a specific aim” (per Cambridge Dictionary).

Considering who I am, it is no surprise that I love a good plan.

Why do I love a good plan?

A good plan orders our steps. It calms our fears, knowing that there is a plan. It motivates us and keeps us on track. A good plan is not a perfect plan. A good plan is flexible and should be able to – sometimes expected to – change and evolve. And even if a plan may be subject to change, it’s still vitally important to go through the planning process.

For example:

When I text my clients to confirm our appointments, I often ask “What on the agenda?”

Here’s the thing – I ask this question many times a week. I ask my clients about the plan, but… I don’t actually need to know the plan until I arrive for our appointment.

This question is not for me, or for my benefit, it’s for my client. In organizing, I am the expert about organizing but my client is the expert about themselves and their situation.

If you’re my client and you have a plan, I can make some assumptions.

  • Awareness: I can assume you have have the necessary list of possible projects or life situations you would like to improve or accomplish.
  • Prioritizing: I can also assume that you have thought about the priority for these projects and situations.
  • Ownership and Agency: I can assume you have reviewed the list and the priorities and decided on what task or project or objective we should work on that will help you the most today.
  • Flexibility: We can always add to or subtract from the plan, and I can also help you with any of these steps as we work together, but the assumptions remain.

I was chatting with my son in the kitchen yesterday. I take him back to college for his second semester this coming weekend and I asked him if there was a plan for moving back in.

And then I leaned over to him and whispered “I don’t actually need to know the plan right now.” And he knew that, too.

Why?

Because this process, this moving-back-in event, is not my process or my event. It is his process. I will always help, of course. I can help him craft the plan, I will support his plan and implementation, I will do whatever he needs me to do. BUT, the plan is not my plan. It’s his plan. He is super smart, he is excellent at problem solving and HE knows his needs at college far better than I do. Essentially, a week before we hit the road, I only want to know that he is thinking about the process. I don’t need to know the plan, and it’s likely to change in the next few days anyway. I just need to know that there is a plan.

Awareness. Priorities. Ownership and Agency. Flexibility.

So, what’s your plan for 2023? I don’t need to know what the plan is, but for your sake, I really – for you – want to know that you have a plan.

And if you would like to craft that plan, and would like a listening ear and partner in the process, drop me an email at colleen@peaceofmindpo.com and let’s talk about organizational and productivity coaching in 2023.

Recombobulate With Routines and To-Do Lists

Recombobulate. Is that even a word?

Ever feel discombobulated? A little off, a bit scattered? Me, too. For example, just today.

We run a humidifier all winter. It’s great for our health, and the added bonus is the white noise it makes that helps me sleep better. I woke up long before my alarm to the sound of silence. And not just the lack of white noise, I mean SILENCE.

According to the electric company service text I received at 3-ish am, we had a power outage due to a damaged line in our area. So… SILENCE. No white noise, no furnace. I’m unclear whether it was the chill or the silence that woke me, but something surely did.

And we still needed to get ready for work, take candlelight showers (hooray, new large hot water tank!), make instant coffee (thank you gas stove and Starbuck’s Via packets), and get the cars out of the garage together since the opener won’t open without power.

First world problems, I know. Truly, no major crisis. Sounds like an adventure, I suppose, but I was also wondering how I was going to coach today with no wi-fi and a slowly draining laptop battery. Thankfully – hooray! – the power returned just before my first virtual meeting so I was back in business and didn’t have to set up camp at a local coffee shop. But the whole experience just made the rest of the day feel… off. Weird. Unsettled.

Which makes me more grateful than ever for my Routines and To-Do lists.

When the power came back and as I worked to gather my thoughts and get back on track with such a strange start to my day, I made the conscious decision to check in on my routine tasks (that apparently require electricity!) and make sure that, even though the day had started bumpy, I had completed all of the routine tasks that keep my day and week running smoothly:

  • Made my healthy smoothie;
  • started laundry;
  • checked the charge on all my tech items; and
  • put my car back in the garage, cleaned it out and repacked my work gear for the work week.

The routine tasks were completed at NOT routine times, but I was grateful to know exactly what I needed to do to keep my day and week on track.

Then, after the routine tasks that keep life moving were completed, I returned to my To-Do list for the day.

My consistent, reliable and drama-free To-Do list, always available and waiting patiently for me to act. And since yesterday’s Colleen had put it together and her day had not started out so bizarre, the plan and paths were clear. And all day long, when I was feeling discombobulated and found my focus and energy wandering, I turned again to my To-Do list to get back on track.

The moral of the story? Spend some time today and this week, hopefully in times that you are NOT already feeling discombobulated or a little scattered, looking at how your current routines and to-do lists can help you stress less, get back on track when you veer off course and stay on track to get things done with more ease.

Find Your Focus Areas!

(Want to watch me share this article? Click here for a FB live: https://www.facebook.com/MColleenKlimczakCPO/videos/812165770032446)

It always delights me when someone quotes me back to me! At a recent meeting, a friend mentioned that her brother had attended one of my Stress Management presentations. Of course, she also mentioned that she asked him to do something and he said “No, that isn’t in my Focus Areas”! (No names are mentioned, for anonymity!)

In my Stress Management Presentations, I recommend identifying and then sticking with your Focus Areas.

The idea is to identify what is important to you, and subsequently, what is NOT important to you. And once you know what is important to you – what is a high priority for you – intentionally spend your time and energy and resources on the high priority areas of your life.

Being intentional on how we spend our resources is important when it comes to getting things done, decreasing stress and increasing feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Reviewing my notes, I realize that Focus Areas come up a lot for me. For example:

  • When writing an agenda for a board meeting – “What is important? What do we have to make sure to talk about?”
  • EVERY WEEK when I check in with my 2 accountability partners, I report using my Focus Areas as writing prompts.
  • In a recent conversation about the lingering effects of lock down and the pandemic, as in, “even when in lockdown for months in my home, I still didn’t want to work on jigsaw puzzles or knit a blanket.”
  • Even in casual conversations with my son. As in “Mom, you should watch this entire YouTube series on conspiracy theories.”
    • “Um, no. No, I should not.” Binge watching anything, especially something on conspiracy theories, is NOT in my Focus Areas.

What is important to you? What are your Focus Areas? If you’re unclear on what your Focus Areas are, start by checking three places: Your bank account, your calendar and your texting history. “What is important to you” is what you spend your resources on. Resources like time, money and energy.

Here’s the other side of that statement, though. Are you spending your resources on the areas of your life that you WANT to be important to you? Meaning, do you feel like building your business is important to you, but upon review of your resources, you aren’t spending a lot of energy on that endeavor? Or family or relationships or faith, etc.? As I plan my work today, I use my focus areas to determine what I DO and DO NOT want to spend my time on.

OK, so my Focus Areas are:

  • Service and Faith: School Board Work, Community Work, Ministries at church including Choir, Cantoring and Baptismal Prep
  • Home / Family: First thing first, my husband and sons. Then family and friends. And “Home” is the care and nurturing of home, cleaning, cooking, projects, holidays, etc.
  • Personal / Wellness
  • Educate Me: educational pursuits, learning new skills, reading non-fiction, learning new music.
  • My Company. I have subcategories, or business specific focus areas, too. They are Coaching, Clients, Presentations, Marketing and Business Specific.

What might your Focus Areas be? Career, Family, Health, Hobbies or a specific interest, Adventures, Friends, Money, Spiritual Needs, Personal Growth, Physical Fitness, etc..

A caveat: Our Focus Areas are an internal choice. A quick way to identify what might NOT be one of your Focus Areas is any time the idea comes from outside of you and is accompanied by a Should. As in almost ALL ADVERTISING! or “Wow, you should totally get a tattoo and run off to South America if you want to live a fulfilled life like me.” Huh? Um, no, thanks.

Additionally, our Focus Areas can change and evolve over time, just like we do as humans.

Knowing what our Focus Areas are helps us to make good decisions on how to spend our resources. They also give us a rubric for deciding on how to NOT spend our resources. Even if it means we respond to a request with “No, I am not willing to do that, it is not important to me, or part of my Focus Areas”!

take a breath and prepare

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Take a breath.

Take a breath to recover AND also to prepare.

September is National Preparedness Month, www.Ready.gov.

Daily, it seems, I encourage others (and remind myself) to take a breath. To recover from an upset, to make space for peace, or perhaps to ground or center ourselves. Maybe to simply take a moment to relax.

Just last evening, I walked a class of students through square breathing during a Stress Management class at the local community college. Deep breaths won’t eliminate our stressors, of course, but they can certainly help us manage better whatever the day may send our way.

Fun fact, in addition to professional organizing and coaching, I am also a professional liturgical musician as a cantor and a flutist.

A recent Sunday, I was reminded that, in addition to taking a breath to recover from an exhale, we also take a breath to prepare for what is coming.

In music, phrasing is important. A misplaced breath can cut short a note, make a sentence awkward or leave a whole phrase weak and unsupported. In liturgical music, the songs are often sloooooowwwww and the phrasing is looooonnnnnggggg. So the trick becomes finding opportunities to take extra breaths unnoticed to prepare for those long notes.

WE tend to be more impressed when someone can hold those big crescendos at the end of a song for a splashy and impressive finish. But I tend to listen for and appreciate the long and sustained and supported phrasing throughout the song.

Another fun fact, I sing at 8 am Mass. I need to warm up first thing in the morning to hit the high notes that early, sure, but the more important thing at 7 am is actually warming up my deep breathing and lung expansion to support and sustain my phrasing. That is less natural for me than hitting the high notes.

So, let’s bring this into organizing. We organize to clean up or recover from day-to-day life. But I would challenge us all to also look at what simple steps we can take this week and month to prepare for day-to-day life.

Using my own analogy, for example, I knew days ago that today was going to be a day with LONG PHRASING, so I did what I could to “take a breath to prepare” with planning my clothes and meals ahead of time and taking care of some work a day early. I am also making sure to provide a steady and firm breath (use of energy and focus) but NOT too strong so as to spend all the breath or energy or focus all at once.

So, take a breath with me and think about what we can do to better prepare for our days.

The Basics: What MUST Be In Your Pocket?

When I started writing this article yesterday, I planned to write it from the going-off-to-college perspective. But, this morning, a 4 year old changed my plan.

Can we start with the basics? 5 things, maybe 6. BASIC. But so very important.

Let’s call them our Pocket Essentials. The items that you consider essential to leaving the house. Your Pocket Essentials are personal and change with age or stage in life. So, my Pocket Essentials for leaving the house – the bare minimum without which I cannot leave – car and house keys on one ring, phone, wallet and sunglasses. Truly, I can get pretty far with just these few things. But without them, I can’t even leave the garage.

From the 4 year old (a client’s daughter), she needed her dollar bill – HERS, not her sister’s, because HERS is smooth and her sister’s is crinkly – and a pink formal long glove. Just one. And very bright pink. And please, don’t question her choice. (She and her siblings were delightful.)

This summer, my son’s pocket essentials for work are his phone, house keys and electronic time card. If he leaves without any of those things, he has to come back for them. When he goes off to college in just a few weeks, he will need to establish A PLACE and JUST ONE PLACE for his college Pocket Essentials – phone, college ID and room key.

The point:

Identify your essentials, whether you are 4, 18 or 50 something.

Establish A PLACE for the essentials to live.

Then, cultivate the habit around making sure your essentials live in that ONE PLACE when you get home so they are ready again for you when you leave.

I have a theory when it comes to organizing and time management: How we manage transition times in our day can make or break our schedule and success.

Transition times are the many instances in our day when we switch from one task to another, one focus to another, one location to another, etc. They include: getting out of bed, leaving for and arriving at school or work, heading to lunch or getting back from lunch, leaving from school or work, arriving home, making dinner or going to bed.

If you live with at least one other human or pet, you also have to factor in their transition times. And when we look at how many instances in a day we are shifting gears, it’s easy to see how many instances there are also to stumble!

So, to Recap:

Establish what your Pocket Essentials are. A short list, not too much to keep track of, but Essential nonetheless.

Then, establish ONE PLACE. By the front or back door? We have a little basket mounted on the wall by the back door where my husband keeps his Pocket Essentials. Mine are all contained in my backpack, also near the exit. Perhaps on your dresser or the kitchen counter? Pick ONE PLACE. Let others in the house know where the place is. Put a nice dish or basket there just for the Pocket Essentials. maybe a charger for your phone, etc.

Finally, establish the habit of keeping your Pocket Essentials in your ONE PLACE while you’re home so it’s waiting for you when it comes time to leave.

My habit is to take off my shoes by the back door and then take everything out of my pockets onto my desk (right next to the back door.) Keys get clipped to my bag, sunglasses go in my bag, phone gets charged on the desk if necessary. Same goes for my family members, dropping their Pocket Essentials by the door or on their dresser. If any of us find those essentials elsewhere in the house, we return them to their ONE PLACE.

And if I happen to walk by my bag and the keys are not clipped to my bag, or my phone is not where I expected it to be, I had better go track it down! Before missing my Pocket Essentials messes up my next Transition time!!