Peace of Mind Organizing

Perils of a new alarm clock

1 April 2008

I got a new alarm clock recently, and I really like it. It allows me to wake up to a CD (right now, Lyle Lovett) and its snooze interval is six minutes rather than ten.

But it’s a little tricky when it comes to changing the time the alarm is set to go off, particularly if it’s dark in the room because someone’s already asleep and particularly if you’re bleery eyed because you fell asleep on the couch with a cat in your lap. That was me last night. The result? The alarm didn’t go off this morning and I ended up getting up a full hour late.

It’s been quite some time since this happened, but the panicky feeling I had when I jumped out of bed was familiar. I have a new client this morning, so I can’t be late.

Luckily, I took a shower yesterday evening and, miracle of miracles, my hair doesn’t look slept on. So I can forego the morning shower. I think I can get my husband to walk one of my dogs. But I can’t get him to write a blog post for me, which is why this one is going to be short.

The lesson? I’m not going to switch my wake-up time. I think I’ll set a time and stick with it for weekdays. The alarm clock has two alarms, so Alarm 2 can be the one I switch around on weekends. But on a normal weekday, I’ll simply have to touch the Alarm 1 button to set it to wake me at my usual time.

Gotta dash.

Oldies but goodies

31 March 2008

I like sharing new websites and shortcuts for making life a little easier. But there are some older sites that you may not know about that I’d like to share. These are sites I use regularly to make my life easier and more enjoyable. I hope you will too.

• Tiny URL. If you a giant web address you want to email to someone, it can be problematic. A URL that spans more than one line sometimes isn’t clickable. That’s where tinyURL saves the day. It converts any URL want to a small one (with, say, a total of 25 characters).

• Bug Me Not. Sometimes I want to read an article on a newspaper’s website, but they require me to register and give them all sorts of personal information. No thanks. If you’re like me and you resist registering, you can go to Bug Me Not and enter the website you’re trying to gain access to (say, www.washingtonpost.com). They’ll give you a username and password that’s been donated by another user. And you’re in.

• Retail Me Not. From our friends at Bug Me Not comes a website with instant discounts on shopping websites. Enter, for example, anntaylor.com and you’ll get a list of coupon codes for Ann Taylor, supplied by other users. Even better, you can sign up for email alerts from Retail Me Not for your favorite stores. Never miss a discount.

• Google Maps. In my opinion, Google Maps blows Mapquest right out of the water. Not only do its maps look great, you can get satellite views and, in some cities, street-level views. In my experience, the directions are very good. Here in St. Louis, we had a major highway closure (for an extended period of time) and Google Maps was right on it. From the first day, its routes bypassed the closed highway.

• Pandora. Pandora is a place to listen to music, free of charge. It’s like having a radio station whose fabulous DJ cares only about you and the music you like. You start by entering the name of a song that you love. It then makes suggestions for other songs you might love. You get to listen to those songs, give each a thumbs-up or thumbs-down and create your very own radio station of music you love. Pandora rocks.

• Ravelry. If you’re not knitter or a crocheter, skip this entry. But if you are, and if you’re not yet a member of Ravelry, go there. Now. Register for the waiting list and respond immediately when you get your invitation (it’s currently in beta testing mode). Trust me on this. I think of Ravelry as a social-networking site for knitters. But it’s more than that. It’s also an organizing tool for all things knitting. It’s a place to find inspiration and assistance and community and it’s just wonderful.

If any of these sites are new to you, I urge you to give them a try. You won’t be sorry!

Recharging the batteries

24 March 2008

I took the day off yesterday. Completely.

I hadn’t had a day off since March 6 and I was feeling the need to recharge my batteries. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have a client appointment scheduled in a couple of weeks and I just wanted to hang out. So that’s what I did.

I watched a movie on cable (Sliding Doors). I watched two episodes of HBO’s excellent mini-series John Adams during the day, then the third when it aired last night. I took a nap. I did a tiny bit of genealogical research (probably sparked by hearing the name “Adams” over and over again during the mini-series…there’s no evidence I’m related to the first and sixth presidents). And while I was watching all that TV, I knitted. (I’m working on Knitty’s Tempting II.) Ah, the joy and relaxation.

There was much I could have done work-wise. At the very least I probably should have worked up my will-do list for the week. But I didn’t. There’s time for that today.

I feel relaxed and more focused than I have in about a week. I have a full client schedule this week, and I’m facing it with eager anticipation. About a week ago, I faced the new week feeling rather tired and overwhelmed.

Taking a day off at least once a week has always been a priority for me—I know taking two days off a week would be even better. But this month I let demands on my time take precedence.

Based on the great effects of yesterday’s R&R, I’m renewing my vow to take at least one day a week off: no clients, no working at my desk, no work-related web surfing. The beauty of owning my own business is that my schedule is my own. It’s time to reassert my personal priorities into my scheduling!

Priority management

19 March 2008

On the You Can Have What You Want podcast I mentioned in yesterday’s post, host Michael Neill and guest Steven Pressfield mentioned something that keeps coming to mind this week.

Time management isn’t about managing time. It’s about managing priorities. We all have the same amount of time in a day to deal with. How we use it is an indication of our priorities.

If you’re not accomplishing as much in a day as you’d like, take stock of how you’re actually spending your day. Are you at least getting the important stuff—the stuff that reflects your values and goals—done? If not, time to examine your priorities in relation to how you spend your time.

These aren’t earth-shattering revelations, I understand. But sometimes it’s important to take a step back and take stock of how things are going. Personally, I have some catching up—and some priority management—to do. (Mark Forster, whose Do It Tomorrow time-management system I’m in the process of implementing, calls it “going through the audit procedure.”)

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been so busy with clients I’ve not had as much desk time as usual, so I’m falling behind on tasks. The great satisfaction I’ve been feeling over really accomplishing what I set out to do has been starting to evaporate.

Time to hunker in, see what’s going awry, and manage my priorities. While I have a lot that I need and want to get done, I can say with all honesty that right now, taking a little time to relax is a high priority!

The tyranny of the blog

18 March 2008

I love having a blog. The freedom to write whatever I want is wonderful. (Way, way back in the day I had a column in PetLife magazine in which I could write whatever I wanted. It was exhilarating.)

But that freedom is a two-edged sword. With little structure surrounding what to write, and no deadlines, it can be very difficult to (1) take the time to post to my blog and (2) come up with something remotely meaningful to write.

Yesterday, I was listening to the podcast of success coach and author Michael Neill’s radio show on Hay House Radio called You Can Have What You Want. (That’s also the title of his first book, whose link you can click on at right.) Anyway, the episode I was listening to yesterday was called The War of Art and the guest was the author of the well-known book by that name, Steven Pressfield.

The interview was full of gems, but the one that’s sticking out to me today was the notion that daily writing is easier than weekly writing. Michael said he used to send out daily tips, then changed the frequency to weekly. After he did that, he said, the writing of the tips became much more difficult.

That speaks to the power of routine and habits, something that is so important for creating and maintaining order.

Since I’ve been having difficulty making the time to come up with the content and write this blog, I’m going to try an experiment. For the next week, I’m going to post here daily. Perhaps I’ll even start a chain in Don’t Break the Chain for it. If it works well for a week, perhaps I’ll try another week (never mind that the next two weeks are really busy for me, in terms of client load).

Watch this space to see if my experiment is a success!

At the risk of being redundant

11 February 2008

I just have to write once again about the joys of my clean-desktop lifestyle.

Just a few moments ago, I was drinking a latte while eating a pumpkin muffie from Panera Bread and reading Unclutterer.

Then a potential disaster struck: I inadvertently tipped over my latte. It was still in its paper cup with the sippy-cup type lid, so I didn’t lose too much latte, thank goodness. But I was able to grab my napkin and wipe up my desk and nothing was ruined. Two months ago, the desktop would have been covered in paper (which wouldn’t have stopped me from drinking a latte) and when the spill occurred, I would have been trying frantically to save the paper. I doubt I would have had a cloth napkin handy. (I brought that from the kitchen when I put my muffie on a plate.) It would have been a sopping, day-ruining mess.

Yet another reason why I love the fact that I’m able to clean my desk off every evening.

The amazing power of a clean desktop

13 January 2008

The habit I’ve been trying to instill with the Don’t Break the Chain method that I wrote about in a recent post is clearing my desktop at the end of the workday.

I know full well that this can be a huge productivity booster: when I sit down in the morning at a clutter-free work desk, I’m able to get right to work. When I’m greeted by teetering piles of paper and other clutter, I usually try to do some tidying up first or just feel overwhelmed and go get a cup of tea. Sometimes I try to ignore the clutter and work around it.

In any case, I’ve long told my clients of the wisdom of taking a few minutes at the end of the day to clear the desktop. Trouble was, I couldn’t seem to accomplish it myself. After a day or two of trying, I’d always need to walk away from my desk for some reason and wouldn’t bother clearing it. Just a day or two of accumulated clutter and clearing the desktop started to feel like a chore I needed to schedule time for.

Everything changed on January 5, 2008. That day, I actually took every single item off my desk, filled three small boxes, dusted my desk (the cat hair!) and put back only those things I actually use. I took the suggestion of taking everything off the desk from an interview John Trosko, NAPO LA chapter president, did with BusinessWeek.com. That podcast is on John’s terrific blog. Truth be told, I had a backlog of papers from my desk that I placed in a decorative box and went through little by little throughout the week. The box was not stored on my desk and it is now empty.

I know you’re dying to see the clean desktop. I took this picture this morning and I didn’t do any photo styling. It’s exactly how I left my desk last night.

My desktop this morning

So once I had a clear desk, it was a breeze to keep clean. In the past week there was one day where I went back down to my office after dinner to clean up my desk, motivated by wanting to highlight that day in red on my Don’t Break the Chain site. Here’s my chain as of this morning:

My clean-desktop chain is now eight days long!

The power of the clean desk has been amazing. I have a list of things to do in the morning in the hour or so after I get up and make coffee and before I shower, walk the dogs, and go see clients. Thanks to the clean desk, I’m actually getting through that list. I know it takes more than a week to form a habit, but this one is so rewarding that I’m very hopeful that it’s actually going to stick.