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Peace of Mind Organizing

Make space. Find peace. Feel joy.

Articles tagged with planning

My 2024 Word of the Year

5 January 2024 | Comments [0] »

I find it really valuable to come up with a guiding word every new year. This year’s word is ACTIVE. I want to focus this year on taking the more active option in any given situation. I’m looking to feel more nimble, less stiff, and all around more vital

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My Word of the Year for 2023: SPACE

12 January 2023 | Comments [0] »

This year, my word is Space. I wanted added space in my physical surroundings, my brain and my schedule. I think this will translate in to committing to less, buying less and letting go of more. It feels right for me this year.

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The value of preparing for the end

8 September 2022 | Comments [0] »

My father, Gene Adams, passed away on August 20. He was just a few weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. (I took the picture at left in January 2022. He was such a cheerful and adorable man!) Gene had moved into assisted living three months prior and his passing was swift and peaceful. I’m so grateful I was able to be with him when he died.

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Are your affairs in order?

22 April 2022 | Comments [0] »

I published this article in my newsletter this month and, based on the feedback I received, it struck a chord. It’s an important message, so I thought I’d share it here.

Last fall, my aunt asked me to be her Power of Attorney for finances and health.

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What's your Word of the Year?

3 January 2022 | Comments [2] »

Why do I take the time and effort to come with a Word of the Year? (It’s not usually as easy to come up with one as it was this year.) A Word of the Year serves as a filter through which I make decisions throughout the year. It helps keep me on track. It’s my North Star.

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Planning a long road trip

26 July 2021 | Comments [0] »

When I took my epic drive from St. Louis to Walla Walla, Washington, last September to help my dad celebrate his 90th birthday, I planned the heck out of it as you might imagine. I recently wrote a blog post for Meori’s blog about how I planned it.

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Building ease with daily habits

1 February 2021 | Comments [1] »

My word of the year for 2021 is ease. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more appropriate word. I’ve set the intention of trying to build more ease into my life and also use ease as a parameter around which I make decisions. For this particular time in my life it feels great.

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Taking a day (or two) for planning

24 December 2020 | Comments [0] »

Every year for the past decade or so, I take a day this time of year to reflect on the past year and plan the coming year. I call it my personal retreat. (Here’s the post I wrote in 2017 about my retreat). Before this year, I would go from place to place around town (coffee shops, the library, the botanical garden, the floatation tank) for various of my planning. It was solitary and it was fabulous.

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Do you have a word of the year?

17 January 2020 | Comments [2] »

Every year during end-of-the-year planning time, I select a word of the year. I typically use Christine Kane’s Your Word of the Year Discovery Tool but this year I used the Power Sheets Intentional Goal Planner from Lara Casey of Cultivate Your Life to help me set my 2020 goals and decide on a word of the year.

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Worth repeating: Have that difficult conversation

9 July 2018 | Comments [2] »

Three years ago, shortly after my mother passed away on June 17, 2015, I wrote a post about helpful it was that we had talked about what kind of arrangements she and my father would like after their deaths. The workbook we’d filled out was invaluable and since then my father and I have gone through it again to make sure it’s up to date. The issue is so important, I thought I’d share the post again today.

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Taking the time for yearly planning

28 December 2017 | Comments [0] »

I love this week between Christmas and January 1. I’ve always been inspired to organize and plan during this special week. Yesterday I took a whole day to focus on my goals for the coming year. I call it a personal retreat.

In order to stay focused on this, I knew I needed to get out of the house. So I planned a little itinerary, so I could shift locations as I shifted my planning focus or activity.

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Worth repeating: Five ways to make packing easy

9 February 2017 | Comments [0] »

I travel every month or two and over the years I’ve managed to make packing fairly stress free. There are five practices that I’ve adopted that have helped make packing a piece of cake.

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Floating: My secret weapon for goal setting

15 December 2016 | Comments [0] »

I love taking some time at the end of the year to create order and set some goals for the coming year. (I wrote in my newsletter about it today.) I’m setting aside next Friday as a retreat day and the centerpiece of the day will be my appointment to float for 90 minutes at F.L.OA.T., my favorite flotation tank in St. Louis.

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Worth repeating: Making travel mornings smoother

19 May 2016 | Comments [0] »

Tomorrow morning I fly to Atlanta for the annual meeting of the National Association of Professional Organizers. (Woo hoo!) So it seemed like an appropriate time to repeat this post, written a couple of years ago, about using a checklist to make packing easier. I still use that checklist each time I travel and it’s worked out well for me.

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Instant gratification vs. the joy of anticipation

16 November 2015 | Comments [1] »

My husband and I are getting a standard poodle puppy on December 13. Our beloved poodle, Kirby, passed away on March 1 and since then, for the first time in 23 years, we’ve been living without at least one poodle in our family.

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Why do we overpack?

6 August 2015 | Comments [5] »

I just returned from an eight-day trip to visit family in Walla Walla, Washington and attend my high school reunion. I had a great time, but I’m glad to be home.
As usual, I packed too many clothes. (That’s a photo of my suitcase on this trip as I was facing down repacking it.) I was getting frustrated, so I started to ponder why I (and I assume others) do this. It’s an irritating practice because it actually makes life on the road harder. As I’ve written about it before, there are benefits to packing light:

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Trying to catch up

14 July 2015 | Comments [3] »

So that’s a long-winded way of saying I’ve done no admin work for almost a month, my email is piling up and who knows how many balls I’ve let drop. Thank goodness I don’t get much snail mail, so I don’t have a daunting pile of mail to deal with.

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Have that difficult conversation

23 June 2015 | Comments [12] »

My mother, Betty Sue Brown Adams, passed away on June 17. She’d been living with Parkinson’s Disease for years and the end of her life was swift and peaceful. My father, brothers, and I took great comfort in that.

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Worth repeating: Five ways to make packing easy

2 April 2015 | Comments [1] »

I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for a week-long trip and need to plan and execute my packing today. Happily, I have a system that makes it easy for me. This post, which I originally wrote last year, is a handy reminder, so I thought I’d share it again.

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Making travel mornings smoother

23 May 2014 | Comments [0] »

This morning, I had a flight that departed at 5:50, which meant I needed to leave for the airport at 4:15. That meant I needed to get up at 3:15. In the morning. Actually, I probably should have either (a) arisen earlier or (b) packed absolutely everything but morning essentials the night before.

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The power of planning

7 April 2014 | Comments [2] »

I’m leaving today for Independence, Missouri, to do research at the Midwest Genealogy Center, part of the Mid-Continent Public Library. I’ve been doing almost all of my genealogy research at home on my computer and I’ve decided it’s time to branch out and look for documents not available on the internet.

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Five ways to make packing easy

14 February 2014 | Comments [4] »

I travel every month or two and over the years I’ve managed to make packing fairly stress free. There are five practices that I’ve adopted that have helped make packing a piece of cake.

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What's aging in your medicine cabinet?

14 January 2013 | Comments [0] »

I have a cold. I’m happy to say that I don’t succumb to colds often, but when I do, I seek relief from the over-the-counter medications. I store my supply in a bin labeled “cold/cough” in my bathroom closet.

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Building ease into a trip

1 August 2012 | Comments [5] »

I’m writing this from the Denver airport, on my way from St. Louis to Portland. When I booked this trip, I had a choice of a Denver-to-Portland flight that would mean a 2.75-hour layover or with a one-hour layover. I purposely chose the longer layover so I wouldn’t stress about missing my flight if my outbound flight was delayed.

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Taking a big-picture day for my business

26 October 2011 | Comments [0] »

I’ve blogged before about Maryann Devine’s Society of the Secret Play Date. Maryann, owner of Smarts & Culture is a friend and I just love the concept of her playdates in which you set aside time to focus on a project, and do something creative to jumpstart or facilitate the whole process.

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Closing out 2008

29 December 2008 | Comments [0] »

As I posted a week ago, I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Traditionally, it’s the week that I get my ducks in a row, plan for the coming year and basically get my act together.

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A special time of year

22 December 2008 | Comments [1] »

Nevertheless I love this time of year. In particular, I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. First, that week is bookended by two days off, which is fabulous. And in between, no one really expects anyone to get anything done. Free of expectations of others, it’s time I can use any way I want. I’ve always used it as a time to get my ducks in a row. It comes right before the new year, a time ripe for goal setting, good intentions, and new beginnings.

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Stock up on Forever stamps!

21 March 2008 | Comments [0] »

On May 12, the U.S. Postal Service will increase the price of a first-class stamp to 42 cents. In 2007, when they raised the rate from 39 to 41 cents, they introduced the “Forever stamp” which sells for 41 cents. This stamp, as its name implies, can be used even after a rate increase.

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