Category: Motivation

Monday, January 14th is National Clean Off Your Desk Day!

Monday, January 14th, 2013 is National Clean off your Desk Day!  Spend an hour and make your Desk work for you!  Focus on visual results, and save acting on ideas for another day. Corral your papers into meaningful places, so you can see what you have and start getting things done.

Most folks are capable of sorting and piling papers into categories of their own choosing. But mid-sort, they find they need to reclaim their work space, and the papers get piled together again and set aside, instead of finding a new home. So the desk stays a mess, and they never feel “done”.

Another challenge with papers is that they typically represent something else, like a memory, an event, a task to complete or an idea we want to keep. Acknowledging that, you need a physical storage system for your papers and ideas, and the motivation and perseverance to finish and maintain your system. Here is what you need to do:

  1. Remove non work related items from your desk.
  2. Set up a physical system for Passive Papers (Idea from Freedom Filer, and tweaked for my clients!).
    1. Passive Papers have been acted upon, and now wait for a pre-determined time until they are no longer needed for reference (e.g., receipts, paid bills, balanced bank statements, etc.).
    2. The storage system consists of 24 hanging folders in an open top vertical holder on your desktop (preferred) or a very near desk drawer. Label the folders 2 for each month, with a “- Even Year” or “- Odd Year” tacked on the end. You will end up with two full years of folders, one set for this year, 2013 (ending in “- Odd Year”), and one for last year (“ – Even Year”).  “January – Odd, Februrary – Odd” etc.  The Even Year folders will hold last year’s papers from your desktop, and the Odd Year folders are for adding to during 2013. Few papers need to be kept longer than one calendar year.
  3. Set up a physical system for Active Papers, also in an open vertical folder holder on your desk top, with folder names based on What Actions To Take or By Project, or sometimes, both! For Example:
    1. What Actions To Take: Receipts for Reimbursement; Calls to Make; Bills to Pay; Forms to complete and return; or Coupons, gift cards and shopping ideas.
    2. By Project (examples from my desk): Past clients to check in with; Proposal for Home Office and Productivity Class Series; LLC Research and Paperwork; Event Folder, May Communion Party.
    3. Strategic Management, product development ideas
  4. Set up a box for Archival Papers / Treasures. Archival Papers are long-term record keeping papers, like home purchase papers, filed taxes, appliance manuals and warranties, wills, etc. Treasures are school project, travel papers, received greeting cards, photos, etc. These are all projects for another day, get them off your desk.
    1. Grab two bags, one each for papers to shred later and recycling, and start distributing your desk papers to their new homes. Grab a notebook and jot ideas down as they occur to you, do not get distracted and lose focus.
  5. Now, Get Up and Put Your Stuff Away. You have distributed your papers to your new folders, but you may have other items that need to go elsewhere in your home or office. Get up and Put Them Away in their final homes. Even if this 10 minutes is in the middle of your project, Get Up and Put them away. Then bask in the glow of your clean desk top, and keep going. A fellow organizer calls this the Stand And Deliver step, but I can’t find out who that was, and I would happily give her credit. The point is…. Embrace “Done”! And feel good about your efforts!

Happy New Year! 7 Ways To Clear Clutter This Week

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I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays, but I also love the calm and clarity that follow.  Here are 7 ways I’m clearing clutter this week, give one or two or all seven a try!

  1. Return stuff to other people:  Hooray!  My kitchen counter is clean again!  Last week, it held a roasting pan, a pie pan, an instruction book for someone else’s gift, a holiday cookie tin and a few other random items, none of which belonged to me.  The tin was the last to go, but as of yesterday, everything is returned!
  2. Donation / Recycling Clutter:  Drop off donations and recyclables, or at least put the next charitable donation pick-up date on your calendar and plan to have a bag ready.  Then start filling that bag!!  We have a couple of bags already filled with donated Christmas decorations, toys and outgrown kid and adult clothes.
  3. Purge cardboard:  I feel like we’ve been swimming in shipping boxes and toy packaging.  The recycling bin filled up quickly over the holidays, but there’s more room this week!  Collect the boxes, break ’em down and lug ’em out.  You’ll be glad you did!
  4. Plan a Returns Day.  Place a shopping bag by the door.  As you go through your home and routines this week, look for the items you intend to return and place them and their receipt in the bag.  If you can’t find the receipt, spend a little time looking for it, but don’t get hung up on perfectionism.  Even if you can’t find the receipt, a smaller amount of store credit or cash back is better than holding on to an item you know you won’t use just because you can’t find the receipt.  Spend an afternoon, and run those errands to return the items.  Cha-ching, money in your pocket and the clutter goes away!
  5. Clear the Catalogs:  Clean off the coffee table, reading pile and kitchen counter.   Call the 800# on the back of the catalogs or go to www.Catalogchoice.net, and remove yourself from mailing lists.  Subscribe online, if you’d like, and you may get regular promotion notices and coupons.  To avoid email notices, skip the subscription, open your web browser, create a bookmark folder called “shopping”, bookmark the page in your browser, and add it to your shopping folder, then toss the catalog!
  6. Phone clutter:  Ugh!  I am tired of the solicitation calls on our home phone line!  Register all phone numbers (cell, too) with the National Do Not Call Registry at www.DoNotCall.gov, if you haven’t done so.  And this month I will answer all calls on the home line, and request that the caller remove me from their list, which they legally must do if we ask.
  7. E-Mail clutter:  I am happy that a few people un-subscribed last week.  As a blogger and newsletter writer, it should not make me happy, but I was proud of those 4 folks on my mailing list for deciding to let go of something that was not working for them. Good for them.  Of course, now that they have un-subscribed, they will never know that I applauded their efforts.  And remember, I welcome your suggestions and comments for improvement, to keep my content meaningful and useful for you.

Yeah, you!  Look around, you’re feeling lighter and looking better already!  Way to go!

The Day the Decorations Come Down!

It’s that time of year again, When the Christmas decorations come down!  Do yourself a favor for next year, and try these 5 ideas today:

  1. Permanently purge the stuff you did not use this year. We have a pile of items we have not used for a couple of years, and most will go away permanently, via donations or recycling.
  2. Invest in quality storage containers. Stackable, sturdy plastic, bug proof.  A client had pests in her storage area over the summer, and her boxes and favorite decorations were destroyed.  Water and moisture, mice and termites are just some of the threats to your treasures.  We use 18 gal. Rubbermaid or Sterilite containers.  Clear containers are great, too, and allow us to see what is inside, but clear ones can be more expensive than comparably sized containers.  Also available are containers made specifically to store ornaments.
  3. Tag your ornaments.  We received an ornament from a friend tagged with a label listing the date, her name and a wish for us. I love that idea, and will tag a few more this year myself!  Next year and for years to come, we can remember where our favorite ornaments came from and appreciate our friends anew.  This will also help on that day far in the future when I distribute ornaments to my sons as they start their own homes and families.
  4. Last-In First-Out Box.  In a recent blog, I mentioned my Last-In First-Out box, and a few of you asked me about that.  Here is the explanation:  In one well-labeled container, I place all the things that I use for the duration of the Christmas Season.  For example, around December 1, we put up just a few things, like our nativity scene, heirloom advent calendars and table runners.  Those are the first-out decorations, and the extent of our decorations until mid-December.  They are also the last items to go back into storage.  So we keep those few things that we use for all 6 weeks in their own container.  That way, I only have to grab one container to get us started, that same one stays open in the laundry room (the entrance to the crawl space) as we put things away, too,  and is placed on top of the pile until next December.
  5. Make some notes about this year to review next year. Here are a few of mine:
    1. More Christmas cards next years.  I underestimated our numbers, and had to reorder cards and buy more stamps before I could mail my business New Years cards.
    2. I noted our menu for the various meals we hosted, and party ideas that worked or not.
    3. I listed gift giving challenges and successes.
    4. I added “Christmas photos” to my October list, to print them sooner.  I love the collage photo cards now available.  I can use great parts of a number of photos instead of relying / waiting for one perfect (yeah, right) family photo.
    5. I have a spreadsheet, too, for my holiday planning, but I make these Christmas notes in a notebook, and they are personal and reflective, more like a journal to keep from year to year.

So, while your memories are still fresh, take a few minutes now to reflect on and savor your holiday season.  And take a few more to make next year’s holiday season even better!

Secrets for this Week: Goodness, Strengths and Action

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time_universe_6This week brings the Winter Solstice.  In this hemisphere, it will be the darkest time of the year, with the least amount of sunlight.  We may already feel the darkness in the regular stress of the holidays or in the turmoil happening in our world.

Peace of Mind is my business name, but also my purpose, to bring Peace of Mind to my clients, so here are 5 suggestions to help you through this busy, hectic and potentially dark week:

Put Goodness into the world.

There are people suffering out there, and I wish, oh how I wish, I could take away the pain.  But I can’t.  But there are things I can do.  I firmly believe, and am reminded daily,  that if we put Goodness out in the world, it will come back to us.  That is not the reason to put Goodness out there, though, just so it comes back to you.

We should consistently put Goodness into the world because it is needed, regardless of if it comes back to us or not.  We must keep the faith, be kind to others, hold on to hope and be the light in this dark week.   There are always glimmers of love, joy and hope, if we just keep our eyes open.

Lower your expectations.

Most weeks, my message includes “Of course you can!”.  And “Of Course You Can!” still holds.  However, Christmas is quickly approaching, so now is the time to get things done.  It may be time to lower your standards, ditch perfectionism and finish!

The first rule of organizing is “Don’t organize what doesn’t need organized!”.  If you are strapped for time, energy or resources this week, focus on what you absolutely have to do and let the rest go.  Looking around my garage last week, I noticed enough accumulated E-Waste to warrant a run to the recycling location in my town.  But do I need to go the week before Christmas?  No.  I stashed my Christmas decoration storage containers back in my crawl space, and recognized that I do need to tidy up in there and purge some stuff.  But not this week!

Stick with your strengths, and stick with what you know.

I like all of you, and sincerely want you to have all that you need.  I hope, for your sake, that you do not need a handmade gift from me.  That’s not going to happen.  No hand knit sweaters or scarves, not crafts of any kind.  I can sing you a song, I am very good.  And I can bake, oh boy, can I bake.  I stick with my strengths.  No handmade gifts.  It’s just better that way, trust me.

I was speaking to a client on the phone last week (hands free of course) when I drove past two Jewels to shop at my usual one.  She asked me “Why?”  My answer was “it’s quicker to stick with what I know”.  Stopping at a new store to fill a lengthy list takes a lot longer than driving the extra block to go to the store I know really well.  I can get through MY store very quickly, and I know the speedy checkers and baggers.

This is not the time to take up quilting, open up a wood shop or try new recipes for Christmas dinner.  Stick with your strengths, with the familiar, and save yourself time, energy and aggravation this week.

Keep your routines (if they are good) to maintain health and well-being.

Take your vitamins.  Take a nap.  Wear a scarf.  Drink lots of water.  Get good sleep.  Exercise if you can, meditate if you like.   Take the time to maintain your health and well-being.

What good will it do you to make it to the holidays with all the right gifts and foods and decorations if you are too sick or tired or miserable to enjoy them?  Eat healthy food, get some rest, stay hydrated.

Choose to Act.

All the planning in the world is nothing if you do not choose to act.  If we have enough energy to do other stuff while avoiding our work, then we have the energy to do our work.  But we have to choose to act.

So, what’s it going to be?  I am glad you read to the end, but now it is time to get moving!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a lovely week.

Get Baking for National Cookie Day!

toffee cookiesDid you know?  December 4th is National Cookie Day, so this week’s blog is all about Holiday Baking!  I carry wonderful memories of baking with my mom as a child, and now my kids and I do the same!

Before you bake the first cookie, examine your personal Christmas traditions and expectations.  Do your traditions add to or detract from your enjoyment of the holidays?  Do you have traditions that you love? Do you have any that are more trouble than they are worth?

An example:

My mom made frosted butter cookies every Christmas.  There was mixing, chilling and rolling of dough; frosting and sprinkles; assembly and display.  It was a lot of fun.

A few years ago, in addition to our annual favorites, I decided to add the butter cookies to our list.  Yikes, what a chore!  I quickly realized the secret is the time spent together in loving and creative ways, not the actual frosted butter cookies.  So we now stick with our specialties, I call and thank my mother, and I let others frost and sprinkle.

One meaningful family tradition that we keep is making lemon bars on Christmas Eve.  The story goes, I was making lemon bars on Christmas Eve many years ago when I realized I was in labor for our oldest son.  He loves that story, so the tradition stays.

After you examine your traditions, Create Your Plan!

Pick your cookies.  Keep the list reasonable, don’t go crazy.  Here are our favorites:

Look at your list, read all the directions and ask yourself some questions (my answers are listed, too):

When can I bake?

  • I realized  that baking on a weekday in addition to regular life is just too much, so  I’m sticking to weekends.
  • Then again, I can prep my cookie dough on weeknights when I am making dinner, ball it and freeze the balls, then bake them on the weekends.

For what events are the cookies needed? 

  • We give cookies as gifts, plus serve them at various parties.  The first party is December 16th.

What cookies freeze well?  Make those early.

  • Toffee cookies and biscotti.  So I will make those soon, bag them up and freeze them.

What dough requires chilling?

  • Magi’s turbans.  So I assemble that dough first on baking day and chill it while baking the others

What recipes tie up my pans for a long time?

  • toffee cookies tie up my cookies sheets for hours of cooling, so I make 4 pans all at once, and nothing else

What recipes use specialty pans (and free up the cookie sheets for other things)?

  • Peanut butter cup cookies require my mini muffin tins, so the cookie sheets are free for something else.  So I will probably make those on the same day as the biscotti or Magi’s turbans.

So, considering my answers, here is my plan:

  • Today      – toffee cookies (4 pans cooling on the counter right now)
  • 12/9           –      2 types of biscotti, peanut butter cup cookies
  • 12/15        – magi’s turbans and just-for-fun cookies
  • Oreo           truffles are optional for the day after Christmas for a late-in-December party

Other tips:

  • Share specialty spices, supplies or baking dishes with friends or family to defray baking costs.
  • Enlist Aid.  Most of our specialty cookies require some type of candy.  My sons are great about helping with assembly and un-wrapping, and we all enjoy the time spent together.
  • Assemble cookies all the way to placing the balls on cookie sheets.  Instead of baking them, put the cookie sheets in the freezer and freeze the balls.  Store them in a freezer bag, and when you want fresh cookies, make a dozen or two as needed.  No need to defrost, the frozen dough can go straight into the oven!
  • Don’t store peanut butter cookies or mint cookies with anything else, or everything will taste like peanut butter or mint.
  • Try a cookie exchange:  Plan an event with 5 or more friends.  Have each attendee bring many dozens of their specialty cookie, and then swap at the cookie exchange.  Everyone goes home with a variety of yummy homemade cookies, and you can concentrate on one type you make really well.

Enjoy your baking and have a great Christmas season.  As for me, I need to go clean out my freezer to make room for the first batches of cookies!

How Would Ben Franklin Spend Today?

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Can I tell you a secret? Even as a professional organizer, I am conflicted, struggling with Time. Ironic, eh? I help others with time management while puzzling it over myself. Is time arbitrary or fixed? Is time finite or infinite? Is my time mine to spend, or not mine at all? In each case, it is both.

Time is both arbitrary and fixed.

I recently read an article that proposed the merits of waking with the sun instead of an alarm clock. The writer presented sound arguments, and it sounds like a lovely idea, but the concept is so ludicrous to me and my life that I laughed out loud. Before the time change, here in Chicago it was dark until 7:15 am. If we all waited to wake to natural light, my husband would be fired and 2 of my sons would be habitually late for school.

With the time change, it is light again at 7 am but will be dark at 4:30. If I wake with natural light, does that mean I get to go to bed with natural dark? 4:30, good night? Right. I think the idea of letting the moon and sun and stars dictate when I get up or not is what rankles me, truly. The inconsistent nature of getting up when there is light in my window or not offends my sense of purpose.

The other night at dinner, my 12-year-old announced that “time is an illusion, thought up by the minds of men”. Yes, son, it is, an illusion to describe and give structure to the immense scope of the infinite. It is an arbitrary, completely human construct. But your bedtime is still 9:30, and you’re not allowed to be late for school. Time is arbitrary, but the passage of it is fixed, and can still be measured and managed. So go do your homework.

Time is both infinite and finite.

On any given day, I can admire the concept of infinity and still struggle to find time to get things done. Go figure. If I run late, driving fast is really not going to help me. Short of breaking the sound barrier in my minivan, there is no way to recapture the 5 or 10 minutes past. In the vast backdrop of the infinite, it seems ridiculous to worry about a minute or two, anyway. And, realistically, getting stopped for speeding to make up a moment wastes more time. On the other hand, as a musician, I respect the importance of even a moment’s hesitation.

I am working towards appreciating the gift of infinite time, instead of focusing on the finite restrictions of seconds and minutes.

 Our time is both ours alone to spend, and not ours at all.

In my holiday planning class, I mention that our time is the only gift that is truly ours to give. Everything else is just stuff. And yet, I also feel my time is on loan from everyone else, that I can’t really claim any of it for my own. Did I mention that I was conflicted? Yeah, I know. So what is my point to all this?

Our perception of time is determined by our choices of how we spend our time. What is the best way to spend the next hour? Exercise? Read to improve my mind, or relax? Help my son with his homework? Prepare for ministry, or a Cub Scouts meeting? Veg out in front of the TV? All are worthy and wonderful and necessary. But because our to-do list is so long, most days we still have to choose between one worthy way of spending an hour and another.

Over the weekend, we participated in a discussion of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Mr. Franklin listed 13 virtues he was perpetually working on, in addition to all the other amazing things he created and accomplished in his life.

Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues.

1.TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2.SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3.ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4.RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5.FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6.INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7.SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8.JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9.MODERATION. – Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. 10.CLEANLINESS. – Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11.TRANQUILLITY – Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12.CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13.HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

An impressive list, though I might swap out a few, adding my own, but I like the idea of Mr. Franklin choosing to continually improve himself in addition to getting married, having kids, running a business and oh, right, building our country.

So, how will you choose to spend the next few minutes, hours, days or weeks? It’s your choice, make it a good one!

BOO! Starting Your Projects Doesn’t Have To Be Scary!

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Does this sound familiar? “I am so disorganized, I don’t even know where to begin” Or “I walk into my [office, closet, kitchen, basement], and it is so overwhelming, I turn around and leave.” Or even “I am sure my house is the most disorganized house ever.”

Starting your organizing projects doesn’t have to be scary. Even if you don’t know where to begin, I do. Or we can figure it out together. Here are 3 ways to make getting started less scary!

Before you begin your project, take a few moments to envision the end product.

If you want to organize your child’s room (something we have to tackle soon, to make room for new toys!), envision what “clean” and “organized” look like. Clothes away, books on shelves, toys in storage containers, right? If you consider that end picture, you realize you require clothes storage, a book shelf and some storage containers, and the habits to make it all happen. Like magic, there is your plan!

Is your end product an efficient home office environment? Perhaps the vision for your office is more about process instead of actual space. Perhaps you envision yourself working at your desk, managing multiple projects, being creative, competently taking care of business. That Vision helps you decide what you want to do with your office space, too. Dream big! Then sketch it or write it down, to help you stay motivated.

With the vision of your End Product in mind, you are better equipped to tackle the project.

Choose a Donation Destination for your extra items.

Purging clutter is much easier when we know that someone else can need or use the items. Is your clutter paper? Imagine bags or boxes set up with these labels: “Recycle, trash, “shred event” or shredder, magazines for the dentist office or nursing home.”

Closet project? Perhaps your destinations are “Cleaners / Repair, off-season storage, donate, give to friend/sister/neighbor”. Choose a destination for your items; resale shop, charitable donation, garage sale, etc. Once we know where things are going, it is easier to let them go!

For charitable giving, it helps to put a personal face on our items. Knowing a homeless man will be warmer this winter helps us let go of those old overcoats in the closet. Old glasses gathering dust in our homes can go to the Lion’s Club for redistribution. My clients often have drawers of old cell phones, ink cartridges and broken cameras that they gladly send with me to be recycled at our local elementary.

We had just received a huge influx of hand-me-downs from very generous friends when Hurricane Katrina hit. Friends in Gulfport, MS told us of a family, with two boys about my sons’ age, who lost absolutely everything. My then 7-year old ask me why I was packing things up to send away, and when I explained, he thought for a moment and then pulled out toys to send to those boys who had nothing. Extra soccer balls, games, books, etc. How easy it is, even for a child, to let go of extra things to others in need.

Pick a Starting Spot and Stick With it.                                                                         

Have you ever spent an hour or two working on an organizing project, but when you step back and look around, you don’t see any visible improvements? Or you cast about a room, here and there, crossing and re-crossing your own path, spending lots of energy for little gain.

Often, my clients start our session with “I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t know where to start.” So, typically, I will walk in the door of the space we are working on, turn to the immediate left of the door, and declare that very spot as our starting point. We progress steadily around the room from there. Left to right, right to left, top to bottom – this is not the secret, though I prefer Left to Right around the room. Just sticking with the starting point and working around the space makes your next starting point obvious, too, so you can continue next time.

So, don’t be scared, starting an organizing project can be easy if you just keep these tips in mind!

Prep Your Car, Closets and Home for Cold Weather

It was 80 degrees on Thursday, with a high of 51 on Friday.  Must be October in the Midwest!  There are lots of things you can do to make the transition to cooler weather go smoothly.  Try one of these ideas this week:

In your Car:

Pack your Winter Car Safety Bag:  I always carry the basics, like jumper cables, first aid kit and bottled water.  But as I pumped gas this morning in the thin and chilly 37 degree air, I wrote a note-to-self to re-pack extra gloves and earmuffs, additional blankets and sweatshirts, and a replacement box of granola bars.

In Your Closets:

  1. Swap out warm-weather clothes for cold-weather clothes in your closets and dressers.  Review the warm-weather clothes, and purge old, tattered, stained or otherwise undesirable items now before putting them away.
  2. Do the same for your warm-weather shoes.  Purge old or uncomfortable ones now.  Take all shoes that need repairs to a reputable shoe repair shop, and put the rest away for the season.  You’ll be amazed at how spacious your closet is without the summer clothes and shoes!
  3. Take warm-weather clothes that require dry cleaning to your cleaners now, so you can store them clean this winter.
  4. Find your winter coats and blankets, and take in any that require cleaning now instead of on that first really cold day!
  5. Make a note to pick up all the repairs and clothes at the cleaner in a week!

In your Home:

We tend to have a party in October, which offers great motivation to super-clean my house.

  1. Un-furnish / Clear out:  In addition to regular cleaning, I un-furnished a few spaces, stored window fans, cleaned the ceiling fans, purged old electronics to the E-Waste recycling in my area, and generally cleared the decks.  It felt great, and the house feels lighter.
  2. Make service appointments this week:  Have your furnace checked, the gutters cleaned, the landscape winterized, etc.  Make the appointment, or do it yourself, but do it SOON!  A few weeks ago, we had the HVAC guy out to clean the furnace, and I had the carpet cleaners out the same day, so we’re looking good!
  3. Set up a Reading Area:
    1. This is a personal goal I want to share.  I have a backlog of professional and non-fiction reading on my reading shelf.  I get through fun fiction because I read that as I go to sleep, but I’m not getting very far on the professional reading I need to actually retain.
    2. We are a houseful of readers, and I am so glad.  The most important determining factor for raising a child who is a reader is If There Are Books in your home.  We have LOTS, and we have always encouraged reading while modeling the behavior ourselves.
    3. I want to step up my reading, get through my pile and learn new things.  I need dedicated space for reading, like a corner of my loved but underutilized living room.  I am adding a new lamp, another snuggly blanket, an attractive basket to hold my books and a coaster, of course, for my coffee or tea.  Also in the basket will go a pad of paper and pen, since I get lots of really great new ideas when I read new things!  I also need space in my schedule to make it happen, so I’m adding some blocks of time.

At each of my two presentations last week, I asked the participants “What is your Next Step?  What one thing that I mentioned today resonates with you?  What will you try?”  Weather proof your car?  Finish transitioning to Fall in the closet?  Head to the Dry Cleaners?  Make some service appointments?  Dedicate some reading space?

Well, what are you waiting for?  Let’s Go!

Three Words: The Power of “Not Right Now”

(Click here to hear / see me talk about this in a FB Live Post)

Last week I offered ideas to help you find motivators and get organized.  Yet, this week I am suggesting you occasionally say “Not Right Now”.

Hmmm….. Are you wondering what changed my mind?  Maybe the organizer is letting you off the hook this week and you get to goof off?  Uh, no, nice try.  “Find your Motivators” and “Saying ‘Not Right Now’” are both tools to move you along the path to getting things done and making your life better.

Time Management expert Steven Covey uses the Eisenhower Box, via Dwight D. Eisenhower, a grid to illustrate the basis for my Not Right Now Suggestion.  He suggests there are 4 types of tasks, categorized by Importance and Urgency.

The grid reads:

1.  Important, Urgent               2.  Important, Non Urgent
3.  Non-Important, Urgent     4.  Non-Important, Non Urgent

My “Not Right Now” strategy focuses on taking care of the (#1) Important and Urgent things first, and safely keeping ideas that are important but not urgent.

Important and urgent tasks (#1) for me today were to meet a client deadline for publication, submit an ad for an upcoming charity event and follow up with an upcoming presentation host.  As a self-employed entrepreneur, important and urgent tasks almost always have to come first.  There is no one else to do the work, and my business and clients have to be my top professional priorities.

(#3) Non-important, Urgent tasks included responding to emails, and taking care of some filing so I could re-claim my work space.  And these I did take care of, just to get them out of the way.

Next are the Non-urgent tasks, both important (#2) and non-important (#4), and that is where the Not Right Now tool comes into play.  I start a typical day with 2 or 3 Important and Urgent things that have to get done.  As I work, I get ideas, great and sometimes not-so-great.  They are all important, but they are rarely urgent.  I want to respect and collect the ideas that come to me, but I don’t want to lose my focus on the current task.  I jot them down, and get back to work.

Two professional organizers whom I really respect (Elizabeth Hagen and Barbara Hemphill) recommend keeping a pile of blank index cards close at hand as you work.  As an idea or task pop into your head, jot it down on a card, a new card for each idea.  When you are done with your current Important and Urgent task and can take a break, review the cards, act on the quick easy ones and sort the others into piles for when and how you need to act on them.

I use a notebook in the same way.  When I take a break from a project, I look at the ideas listed and put them where they will be most useful.  Perhaps one of my Outlook to-do lists, or add it to my strategic planning file.  If possible, I make the idea into an action item and attach it to a date and time, sometime in the future.  The idea is important, but it is for later, “Not Right Now”.

Not Right Now can be more global, too: I am willing to step up for leadership in my professional network, but not this year.  “Keep me on the list for the next cycle, and I am your girl.  But not right now” was my actual response.

“Not Right Now” has saved me recently, too.  I’ve gotten emails that I might react strongly to, but used “Not Right Now” to hold off on responding and finish my work.  By the time I could respond, I collected my thoughts and cooled down, and responded more reasonably.  Or I wait to act on an idea, and someone else acts first (woo hoo!).

Collect and safely keep ideas and inspirations, but cut yourself some slack and recognize the power of “Not Right Now”.  I would like to travel internationally, but not right now.  I want to learn to play the guitar, but not right now.   Perhaps I’ll get a tattoo, but not right now (Ok, I won’t get a tattoo, just wanted to see if you were all still paying attention).  I want to change the world, but Not Right Now.

I have been very busy lately, and busy is really great.  But now my professional tasks for the day are complete with the publication of my blog, and my “Not Right Now”s have become “Yes, Now”s  And yes, now, I really need to go clean my kitchen.

Look Inside and Out, and Find Your Motivators!

I dream of discovering One Simple Elegant Equation that every person can use to flip the switch inside, to motivate them to get up and ACT!  That one equation that would energize us to organize and actualize, to make a better life.

There are two problems with this dream.  First, there is no one simple answer because each of us is different.  Second, it is not up to Me to motivate You.  I cannot make you do anything, aside from physically moving you from point A to point B.  Your motivation comes from you, not me.

I can certainly help you find it and use it, though!  So let’s find some MOTIVATION!

External Motivation:

I have a client who relies solely on External Motivation.  She waits until the last minute to take care of business, or to clean the house for major events.  ‘Someone is coming over, I’ll clean up.’  ‘I’ll pay my bills because they came due, but they will be late and I’ll pay fees.’  She is waiting to be “in the mood to organize.”,  She states that if no one ever came by the house again, she would never clean it again.   She gets tasks done, but in a hurried and incomplete fashion.

The “mood” to organize may never come.  If that urge to organize hasn’t happened recently, why should we expect it?  Most days we can’t wait, we just need to move, to act, to organize even if we don’t feel like it.  That is when we need to find Internal Motivation.

Internal Motivation:

The next day I walked with a friend.  She and I had both been cleaning bathrooms before our walk because Friday is her cleaning day, too.  Motivation that comes from inside, from established routines and habits and the desire to do the right thing, that is internal motivation.

Motivation in general:

Both types of motivation are good.  People can find motivation in their own heads or in the world around them, or both.  I take out the trash on our weekly trash day (external) but also when it gets full and I am cleaning my house (internal).

Motivation can come from many sources.  At basic levels, motivation comes from fear.  Ever heard of the fight or flight response?   We are motivated to act to avoid pain, punishment, embarrassment or negative reactions.  But we humans can attain loftier goals than just survival.  We can find positive ways to motivate ourselves to act.   I often get asked “How do I get co-workers / my family / myself to organize?”  The answer is “find motivators”.

Professionally, motivators are easy to spot.  They include paychecks, promotions, perks and professional esteem.  Personal motivators for yourself and others may be tougher to find, but they do exist!!  Here’s where to find yours:

  • Goals and dreams motivate us.  Rome was not built in a day, and neither is anything else worth having.  Keep your goals in mind and when you need motivation to act, ask yourself what one thing you could do right now to move closer to your goal.  Then get up and do it.
  • Sometimes it’s OK to be selfish and ask “What’s in it for me?”.  If we’re talking about organizing, you will gain money from a a business venture, better planning, or a garage sale.  You gain an empty cabinet or drawer for supplies for a new hobby, a cleaner house that you can invite guests to, etc.
  • Look for something concrete.  Use “I want” statements, and be specific.  Like….
  1. I want to be less stressed in the morning, so I am motivated to create and stick to a better routine.
  2. I want more money to go on vacation or make a major purchase, so I am going to get organized in my shopping and bill paying and spend less.
  • Recognize cause and effect.  If your kids want a new game system, show them that selling extra toys clears clutter and earns money.  For you or your spouse, a clean garage means no scraping snow come winter.
  • Use growth and life transitions as opportunities to make positive change.  Transitions give us      opportunities to re-invent ourselves. New jobs, new communities, new seasons, maybe just a new day – it is always a good time to make positive change.  Personal growth encourages us to look      outside ourselves at the world around us and inside ourselves to know ourselves better.  Both kinds of motivators!
  • Peer pressure is not all bad.  So long as you like and respect your peers, wanting to be more like them can be a great motivator.  Hanging out with well-informed, well-educated, generous, physically fit people?  Sure, I want to be like them!  What can I do to be more like these  great people I admire?

So, where in your life are you looking for motivation?  Let me know, and try one of the suggestions listed above.  You can change your life, you have that power.  Look inside or out and use your motivators!