Peace of Mind Organizing

The Lori Hall Steele Fundraiser Blog: Blog of the Week

10 September 2008

This week’s blog of the week is very different from the organizing blogs I usually highlight.

This blog is raising money for a freelance writer named Lori Hall Steele, a talented writer who is a part of the same online freelance community I belong to, Freelance Success.

Lori’s essay in the Washington Post, which was published on June 23 of this year, is a testament to her beautiful writing. It’s also heartbreaking (please read it) because Lori is gravely ill.

A year ago, she lost the ability to move her feet. The paralysis has spread and, after a diagnosis of severe Lyme Disease, the doctors now think she has ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). Because of the disease, she cannot work. At this moment, she can’t get out of bed and she’s on a respirator. She’s a single mom and the bank is threatening to take her house.

She has received some emergency support from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, but she needs more. A group of writers has started a campaign (hence the blog) to raise money for Lori. We’re encouraging everyone who’s touched by her story (and please, if you’re not touched, do read that Washington Post essay) to contribute $25.

It’s easy. I just did it. There’s a PayPal button on the Lori Hall Steele Fundraiser Blog. I know times are tough for many people. But they’re extremely tough for Lori. I’m hopeful this campaign, which has turned into a blogathon, will save Lori’s house.

Too pooped to blog

8 September 2008

Last week I worked on an intensive multi-day, multi-organizer project. I was on my feet for eight hours at a time and when I got home I pretty much did nothing but eat and sleep (and drink wine). I didn’t even knit!

So that explains my sparse posting of last week. I’m back on the four-to-five-posts-per-week bandwagon now.

Since I’m busy playing catch up, I’ll leave you now with a video that I first saw on Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish. I got there via Freelance Success. This video is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Healed!

1 September 2008

Just one week ago today, I sat at this computer miserable because my face was all scraped up from a fall.

It wasn’t easy going out in the world looking like that. My appearance generated lots of sympathy, which was very nice. But at the beginning of the week it was difficult to smile, which was tough. I actually had a client email me later to say I seemed “distant” and to check to make sure I wasn’t disappointed in her progress. That certainly wasn’t the case…I think I just wasn’t smiling much because it hurt. Doesn’t that speak to the power of a ready smile!

As the week went by, the oozing stopped, scabs formed and the injured area started to shrink.

Things started looking up on Thursday, when the big scab on my upper lip fell off. Charming, I know. But it made such a difference in my comfort (and appearance). Then on Saturday night, the scab between my nose and lip fell off. Then yesterday — hooray! — the giant scab on my chin fell off, as did the small one on my nose. Now I’m just left with pinkish patches in those places, as well as scabs on my hand and knee.

Here’s a picture that I just took with Photo Booth:

Looking better in just a week!

For comparison purposes, here’s that same face exactly a week earlier:

I have sort of a Charlie Chaplin thing going on under my nose.

I’m amazed (and very grateful) at how well it healed in just a week.

I wasn’t going to post today, since it’s Labor Day, but here I am posting. I’ve got a crazy busy client week this week, but hope to post at least three more times. Hope you’re having a great holiday!

Ouch!

25 August 2008

Yesterday I was taking my standard poodle, Kirby, for a walk and I tripped on a curb. Down I went onto the sidewalk, landing first on my knees, then my hands, then, unfortunately, my face (primarily nose and chin). Ouch!

I dropped the leash, but Kirby, being a good boy, didn’t go anywhere. When I touched my face, I saw blood on my hand, so Kirby and I hurried home. I figured it wasn’t good when I walked past a woman who smiled at my dog, looked up and me, and looked horrified.

I have red scrapes on the end of my nose, the area between my nose and upper lip (which I just learned, thanks to Wikipedia, is called the “ergotrid”) and right in the middle of my chin. I also have a fat upper lip.

It didn’t hurt so much at the time and it doesn’t hurt much now, but what is hurting a little is my ego. I’m sort of loathe to go out in the world looking like this. I have to get my hair cut at my fancy salon today and I’m sort of dreading it. And I find myself grateful I don’t have any new clients this week.

I figure I’ll put an adhesive bandage over my chin and that will help. Since I know you’re dying to see it, I used PhotoBooth to take a picture this morning. Here it is:

I have sort of a Charlie Chaplin thing going on under my nose.

Of course, it could have been so much worse. I could have hurt my teeth, even broken my nose. My glasses could have poked into my face. This is all cosmetic and will have no lasting consequences.

With any luck by tomorrow I won’t be obsessed with my appearance and we’ll get back to regular programming here.

Commitments

12 August 2008

Deadlines used to rule my life. When I was making my living as a writer, deadlines were absolutely everything. I didn’t start a story earlier than necessary to make my deadline. I don’t think in 12 years (and well over a hundred articles, along with eight books) I turned anything in early.

This is nothing to brag about. It was just a fact of life for me as a writer. So now that I don’t have the deadlines in my life that I once did, how do I get anything done?

When I was a writer, deadlines were how I kept my commitment to others. Now, as a business owner, I need to make commitments to myself in order to make things happen. Occasionally, I’ll use my blog to make them publicly. But essentially, deadlines have been replaced by commitments, which I think is a healthy shift.

Case in point: the Knitting Olympics. I set up the challenge and commitment to myself to knit the remaining six lace squares in my Learn-to-Knit Afghan during the time of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It doesn’t sound like that much, but these squares were so challenging they’d brought progress on my afghan to a screeching halt. I knew getting over the hump of the lace squares would not only help me learn to knit lace, they’d get me to the point where I’d finish this large project, which I began back in February 2006.

I trained by knitting the Branching Out scarf and starting on the Estonian Garden Wrap in the week or two prior to the Olympics. I think that was essential because I got used to the rhythm and challenges of lace.

And guess what? I’m racing through my challenge. I’ve completed four of the six lace squares and am 25 percent of the way through the fifth. It’s very clear I’ll have no problem finishing what I set out to do, so I’m going to up the ante: Right here and now I’m moving the finish line. I will now consider the Knitting Olympics a success when I finish all the squares of the afghan by the end of the Olympics (that will be a total of 13 squares). What a thrill that will be!

Another way that making a commitment has paid dividends is in the frequency of my blog posting. Back on March 22, 2007, I blogged about how hard it was for me to post because I lacked a deadline. In that entry, I committed to posting twice a week. That lasted about two weeks. I don’t know if it’s because twice a week wasn’t frequent enough or if I just didn’t believe the commitment.

Fast forward 12 months. On March 18, 2008, after hearing Michael Neill state on his podcast that he’s found it’s easier to write on a daily basis than a weekly basis, I decided to give it a try. I committed to blogging five days a week.

I haven’t always kept that commitment, but since then I’ve almost always posted at least four days in a week. Here’s my Don’t Break the Chain chain for blog posting:

The purple squares indicate the days I blogged

And you know what? It really has been easier for me to post daily than it was when I didn’t have any real commitment to frequency. I’ve noticed that blog traffic has certainly increased since I started doing this.

My challenge to you is to identify something important, but not urgent, that you’ve been wanting to do. Then make a commitment to yourself to make it happen in a certain period of time. See what a difference a serious commitment to yourself can make!

The games have begun!

8 August 2008

The 2008 Summer Olympics started today with the Opening Ceremonies at 8 p.m. Beijing time. That’s 7 a.m. in St. Louis, my official start time for the Ravelympics 2008. More than five thousand (5,651 to be exact) knitters and crocheters have signed up, taking on the challenge of completing a project of their choice during the Olympics.

I set my alarm for 6:15 and was up, morning routines completed and caffeinated by 7:00. At exactly that moment I turned on the Today Show (it appears the Opening Ceremonies won’t come to my tv before this evening) and heard the Olympic Anthem. I cast on 32 stitches for Square 51 (called “Faggoting and Fancy Lace”) of the Learn-to-Knit Afghan and within 15 minutes had knit two rows, unraveled both and cast on again. By 8:00 I had completed one pattern set of eight 8 rows, though I’d had had to unknit and reknit a few rows to get there. This reminded me of why I’d put down the lace section of this project on more than one occasion.

I stopped to walk the dogs and post here, but I’m jazzed to get back to it. I’m fully confident I’ll complete the lace section of the afghan by the end of the Olympics.

I took some pictures of some of the squares I’ve made over the past 2.5 years of working on this afghan. I’m going to share, but first let me remind you that some of these squares were knit years ago, before my technique improved.

Square 20: Scale Quilting

Square 8: Rose Fabric

Square 9: Horizontal Chain

Square 35: Lacing Cable

I’ll plan to post the lace squares as I finish and block them.

What's stopping you?

7 August 2008

Most of my clients have a to-do list for organizing tasks. (Some clients can’t figure out where to start, but we take care of that in the first session.) At the end of a hands-on organizing session, we talk about what they plan to do between sessions to further their goals.

When I arrive at the next session and ask for an update, chances are pretty good that they didn’t do the things they thought they would. Why is that?

Of course there are many reasons. Sometimes getting organized, or decluttering, is highly emotional. Some of those clients just can’t do it on their own. But often it’s more mechanical than that.

Take something as simple as sorting the mail as it comes in and getting rid of the junk mail. For some people, the mail is scary. There may be notices from creditors, reminders of past failures, fear that a spouse will see a credit-card expenditure. That pile of mail becomes emotionally charged and it’s easier to just tuck it away or ignore it. Even though the client’s rational mind knows they’re just delaying unpleasantness and undermining their efforts to get organized, her irrational mind wins. Getting past these types of issues can require the help of a therapist or a great life coach or, sometimes, a terrific organizer.

More often, though, there are no emotions involved with the mail. Maybe a little obstacle is getting in the way. I like to work with clients to identify those obstacles. Sometimes it’s surprisingly simple. In the case of the mail, it may be that the client knows that credit-card offers need to be shredded, but the shredder’s in a different room. Or the desk where she’s sorting the mail isn’t near an outlet, so the shredder’s across the room. Rather than walking to the shredder, she’ll put down the pile and say, “I’ll shred this later.” So the piles persist and multiply.

The solution? Move the shredder or move the area where mail is processed (or both), so the two are near one another. Same goes for a trash bin or a recycling bin. Have the necessary tools nearby, to make accomplishing the task as effortless as possible.

This hit home to me recently when I set out to sort and weed the guest-room closet, which typically houses bedding and fancy dresses and shoes that aren’t worn often. I was up for the task when I discovered that the closet’s light bulb, which is way out of reach in a high ceiling, was burned out. That required my getting out the step ladder, finding a light bulb and changing the bulb. By the time I contemplated that, my enthusiasm for the project waned. And guess what? It didn’t happen that day. (It eventually happened and the closet looks great.)

The solution? One option is to muster up a “just do it” attitude and get out the step ladder and light bulb and carry on. Another is to store the stuff where you use them. In our case, we have a big house so we purchased an extra step ladders and more light bulbs so that we’d have them on each floor. That way, we lessen the risk of putting off the job out of a reluctance to run up or down the stairs for the item.

If you’re faced with an item on your to-do list that never seems to get crossed off, ask yourself why. If it’s something that you know would further your goals, see if you can identify the obstacles to your doing it, then address those obstacles.

In his book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (link at right), Mark Forster offers all sorts of tricks to overcome obstacles to productivity. I blogged about his advice for getting started and keeping going on projects. It’s interesting reading.