Peace of Mind Organizing

Super simplifying travel

5 December 2014

I’m traveling to visit my parents next week and, unfortunately, I fell and injured my wrist a couple of days ago. It’s a suspected fracture, possibly just a sprain, but I’m in a splint and a sling. Luckily it’s my left arm, so I’m getting by.

But as I think about this trip I’m taking, I realize that traveling one-handed is really going to force me to simplify. Pants with zippers? No thanks. More than a couple of bags? I don’t think so. Shoes that tie? Maybe not.

My plan is to pare things down to an easy-to-wrangle carry-on (that I’ll check), my computer bag, which fits over my shoulder and also hooks on to my suitcase, and my purse. That should be a bit of a challenge, since I’ll be away over a week. But I know I can do it, because I really need to.

So that leads me to wonder: Why I don’t do this every time I travel? If I can do it this time, perhaps I can do it the next. Perhaps packing lightly my necessity will transfer to future trips, as I enjoy the ease simplicity can bring.

Lessons learned from writing a novel in a month

1 December 2014

Yesterday, I completed the novel I was writing for National Novel Writing Month. I had 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel. I had no doubt I would finish the novel in time—this is the 3rd one I’ve written over the last ten years, so I knew I had it in me. (I do it in five-year increments.) But it still feels really good.

I was much busier with work this year than I was in 2004 and 2009, so writing my novel required me to get up an hour early to squeeze in my words.

I got to thinking this morning about some of the lessons I learned from this year’s experience. Here they are:

• Strive for imperfect. By embracing imperfection with this novel, I took the pressure off myself. For me, it was about achieving the goal of completing the novel, not about writing something amazing.

• I can find an extra hour in the day. It took me about an hour each day to write my word quota. I almost always did it at the beginning of the day, which meant I just got up early. If I can do that to write a novel, I can do it for other activities like, say, exercising. (“I’m too busy” is feeling like a lame excuse not to exercise.)

• Short term goals are easier to achieve. If I’d set out to write a novel in a year, I probably would have quit after a fairly short time. Knowing I had to do this for only 30 days made it a lot easier to start. I think this applies to all sorts of habit-creation goals. If I tell myself I’ll do something daily for a week (or even two days), I’m a lot more likely to be successful than if I set a one-month or six-month goal.

• Setting interim goals and tracking progress is really helpful. 50,000 divided by 30 is 1667. So I knew my daily word quota. And, thanks to the awesome spreadsheet my friend Shannon Wilkinson created for us in 2009 when we were working on a NaNoWriMo novel, I knew exactly where I stood each day. Filling in my word count every day and seeing if I was above or below my daily goal and my running goal for the month was really rewarding. It felt much more powerful than just keeping an eye on my total word count of the book.

• Slow and steady wins the race. I talk with my clients all the time about how if they work on decluttering or organizing just 15 minutes a day, they’ll eventually get it done. I wrote this novel 1667 words at a time. On my biggest writing day I wrote 2053 words and on my most challenging day, I wrote 976, in an airport, waiting for my flight. But generally I wrote between 1600 and 1700 words each day.

• Getting the big task done first thing in the morning can be powerful. I would not have wanted my words hanging over my head all day. If I hadn’t been able to write first thing in the morning, I bet I would not have finished this novel. (There were some days where I couldn’t get all my words in before leaving the house and I finished them at the end of the day. But every day I at least started.) A couple of months ago, I decided to blog every morning before doing anything else and that has really helped me get my blogging done. For me, anyway, the eat that frog theory of non-procrastination is very powerful.

I don’t feel the need to prove to myself every year that I can do this, because, frankly, writing a novel in a month isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. But every five years I seem to get the itch. I’ll have to start thinking about what other seemingly impossible month-long activities I might try in the alternate years!

Inbox Zero is achievable!

28 November 2014

Yesterday I had a lovely Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday and I think it’s just wonderful that we take time off as a nation to celebrate gratitude. It got me thinking about how grateful I am for a habit I developed in January of 2011. For almost four years, I’ve been clearing out my email inbox, taking it to zero (or near zero) virtually every weekday.

That habit means that I stay on top of my email and never feel pressured by it. It means that I’m a good correspondent. And it means that information or requests I receive via email rarely fall through the cracks.

Back in 2012, I wrote a post with the nuts and bolts of how I maintain my Inbox Zero habit. I’m pasting it here, revised slightly for the times. But essentially nothing’s changed in the four years I’ve been practicing this habit. Inbox Zero is achievable and, for me at least, quite easy to maintain.

In May 2011, I blogged about why I love clearing out my inbox every day. You can read more detail in the post, but the bottom line is that clearing out my email inbox every day is easier than not clearing it out. Each day my inbox has only new messages in it. Nothing lingering. No time bombs. It’s fantastic.

Moreover, having an Inbox Zero habit prompts me to respond to messages that, in the past, I would have let linger in my inbox. It forces me to make decisions today, not tomorrow or next week. That not only enhances my productivity; it frees up my brain!

Here are the nuts and bolts of how I do it, since it seems to be the kind of thing that many consider difficult. In reality, I find it very easy.

Here’s an important note: When I talk about Inbox Zero, I’m not talking about deleting all my emails. I keep thousands of emails. But they’re filed away from my inbox, waiting for me to refer to them. They’re not mixed in with new emails.

I use my MacBook’s Mail program as an email client. All my emails are downloaded to my computer, which is how I like it. I see no reason, though, that these principles wouldn’t apply to cloud-based systems, like gmail.

1. I have many email folders (or “mailboxes” in Mac parlance). The one I use the most is called *Archive. (More on that below. The * ensures that the *Archive folder is at the top of my list of folders.) I also have folders for various volunteer activities, one called Clients, another for Prospective Clients, and folders for each email list I’m on.
2. I use rules to divert listserv emails to designated folders, so they bypass my inbox. Google groups, yahoo groups, any other group emails automatically go into their respective folders and I read them at my leisure. Same goes for messages from Twitter telling me I have new followers.
3. For those emails that do land in my inbox, I read and respond as necessary. Ideally, I respond immediately and then move that message out of my inbox. If the incoming message doesn’t apply to a volunteer activity or isn’t from a client or prospective client, I move it into the *Archive folder. If I don’t need to keep it, I delete it. If it doesn’t require a response, but I want to keep it, I just file it. If I don’t respond immediately, I respond at the end of the day when I’m clearing out my inbox.
4. By far, most of my emails end up in the *Archive folder. Thanks to the robust search capabilities of my Mac, I can always find an old message; I don’t have to be more detailed in the filing.
5. If a message requires action after the response, I flag it, add it to my task list, then file it. In Mail, when I click on the word Flagged in the sidebar, all flagged messages are displayed. No need to move it into an action folder (which I always found scary to look in) and then refile it when the action is done. (If I’m being completely honest, I’ll admit that sometimes I’ll leave that email in my inbox to deal with tomorrow.)
6. At the end of each day, I go through any emails left in my inbox, respond as necessary, file and delete. It’s that simple.

The number of emails that land in my inbox each day isn’t huge—usually less than 100—and this system works very well for me. It’s very easy to maintain. I typically take a break on the weekends, which means that I have a backlog to deal with Monday morning. (That’s not ideal, but the break feels important.) During the week, I strive for—and unless I’m traveling, almost always achieve—inbox zero.

I read my email on my iPhone and, occasionally, my iPad (using the Mail app) when I’m out in the world. I automatically blind copy myself on outgoing messages sent from my iPhone or iPad, so those messages end up in my inbox on my computer. I just file them along with the rest, thus maintaining a correspondence record in my Mail program on my computer. But I don’t worry about Inbox Zero on my mobile devices. I let the devices delete all messages at certain thresholds.

I have a secret weapon in my email success: an accountability buddy. After I clear out my inbox, I email my friend and colleague Aby Garvey about the status of my inbox. It’s highly motivating.

Inbox Zero may or may not be attractive for you. It’s certainly been helpful for me and if you’re tempted, I hope you find this post helpful!

Putting yourself first

24 November 2014

Many of us in helping professions have a tendency to put the needs of those we help before our own. It’s so easy to do.

But, as I’ve discovered recently (yet again), it’s really important to make sure that you are taking care of yourself, so that you can, in fact, take care of others.

I absolutely love the work I do leading organizing teams to create fast, significant change for my clients. I love it, but it drains me. By the end of a session, I am physically and mentally exhausted.

I learned earlier this year that two successive days of leading organizing teams is my healthy maximum. Yesterday, I completed a third day in a row of team organizing. (It was the fourth team job I’d led in five days.)

When I got home, I sat in my recliner with my laptop and finished writing the number of the words I needed to meet my daily quota for my novel. My husband was making a delicious dinner and by the time it was ready I’d rested enough to be able to get out of the recliner and come to the table. During my resting time, I renewed my resolve to not work more than two days in a row leading teams.

The trouble, of course, is that people want help and there are only so many days in a week. But I reminded myself that good self care means putting myself first on my schedule. I have marked days on my calendar with the label “No clients” so that I don’t try to please someone by making an appointment at the expense of my own physical and mental health.

What about you? Are you putting yourself first in your schedule? If not, perhaps you can mark out days on your calendar for yourself or let go of some volunteer commitments. Maybe you can delegate some responsibilities. Whatever you need to do, please take care of yourself first so that you have the energy and resiliency to help others.

Peaceful photo by Hilary Perkins via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License

Help create a snapshot of organizing in America

20 November 2014

The National Association of Professional Organizers is conducting a survey to gauge what the public thinks about organizing and productivity. They’re curious about the general public’s organizing behaviors and attitudes and hope to create a snapshot of how organizing affects the everyday life of Americans.

Obviously, the more responses they get to the survey, the more useful it will be in helping this organization help professional organizers help you!

Can you help? If you have a few minutes, please click on this link to take the 40-question survey. The survey closes on November 25.

Swype makes iPhone typing easier

17 November 2014

With iOS 8, my iPhone got just a little bit better. For a brief time before I got my beloved iPhone (I currently use the 5S), I had a cheap Android phone. The only thing I missed about that phone was the built-in Swype keyboard that made texting easier. With Swype, you slide your finger from key to key, rather than pressing the individual keys with your finger or thumb.

iOS 8 allows for external keyboards. And now Swype is available for the iPhone. Before I knew about Swype, I’d been dragging my feet upgrading because I’m always afraid of bugs. When my friend Standolyn told me about Swype (at that moment it was available free of charge, now it’s 99 cents), I immediately upgraded to iOS 8 and downloaded the app.

It was like riding a bicycle, if I bought a more expensive, feature-laden bicycle. I immediately fell back in love with Swype. I don’t know how much of this is Swype and how much is iOS 8, because I’ve barely used the Apple keyboard since upgrading the operating system, but Swype predicts words so that you can access them with one touch. (For example, if my husband text me a question, “yes” and “no” appear above the keyboard.) It supplies easy, one-touch correction suggestions. And it corrects words you’ve already typed as you input new words, so that they’re correct in context.

And I’m not an emoji kind of gal, but if you are, you might enjoy the fact that Swype suggests pictures for some words. For example, if I type “poodle” (which I do, frequently) I’m offered the opportunity to select a drawing of a poodle. (See the photo above.) And that just makes me smile.

Here’s a little preview video of Swype:

As an aside, I heard a ergonomist speak recently at our NAPO-St. Louis chapter meeting. She suggested that it’s healthier to use a swiping keyboard on your phone than a typing one. (Apparently younger people are developing thumb problems because of the texting.)

I still love dictating my text messages; in order to access the microphone, I have to switch to the Apple keyboard, which is easy to do with a couple of touches. Dictation seems to have improved with iOS 8—I really enjoy the fact that the words now appear one at a time as you dictate them, rather than all appearing when you tap Done. But sometimes dictating a message—for example when you’re in a public place—is less than optimal. In those instances, I find Swype so much more enjoyable than typing one letter at a time.

Worth repeating: Those pesky extra buttons

13 November 2014

This blog post from last year is one of my favorites. It speaks so clearly to my mantra, “Why is it so hard to let it be easy?” Incidentally, my extra buttons remain in their little Mason jar and I’m pretty sure I haven’t accessed them since I wrote this post.

While I was perusing Facebook this morning, I stumbled onto a link to a post on organizing extra buttons on the Organize and Decorate Everything blog.

You know what I’m talking about, right? Those extra buttons that come (usually in some sort of envelope) with new clothes.

In that blog post, Leanne, the writer, details her beautifully organized and very labor-intensive method of dealing with these buttons: she either uses the original packaging or puts the button in a tiny clear-plastic envelope. She writes a description of the garment on the envelope. She does the same with the extra thread that comes with the garment.

Then she files these tiny envelopes in small accordion file, organized by color. Once a year, she goes through the accordion file and weeds out the buttons that belong to garments she no longer has.

Wow. Just wow. To me, that is a whole lot of work that, in my life anyway, would pay very few dividends. I can’t remember the last time I needed one of the extra buttons that came with a garment.

Let’s contrast Leanne’s method with my own. I have a mason jar that I put buttons in. When I buy a garment that has extra buttons (which these days is pretty rare, since I buy so many of my clothes at resale shops), I take the buttons out of the envelope and put them in the jar. And I throw away any extra thread.

In the rare event that I need one of these buttons, I just pour the buttons out of the jar and and find it. I have the matching buttons on the garment, so I can identify it.

That’s it. It takes no time.

Here’s a photo of my button jar:

These contrasting methods do a marvelous job of illustrating an overriding principle I live by:

Organizing systems should be as complex as they need to be and not one bit more.

I found myself admiring how beautifully organized the buttons in that blog post were, and the beauty of accordion file of buttons sorted by color, and then I realized that for me, anyway, that would be a complete waste of time. And if I aspired to a system like that, I’d probably just have a big pile of buttons waiting to be processed. In the case of extra buttons, simple is best.