Peace of Mind Organizing

The value of interim goals

28 November 2012

I’ve been working out at a fitness center lately and am starting to establish a routine there. One of the things I was thinking about today as I used the elliptical machine is how important it is for me to have small goals on my way to larger ones.

My workout regimen probably isn’t very impressive, but it’s a fairly big deal for me. It’s shaken out that I end up going three times a week. Twice a week I do 15 minutes of cardio (usually on a stationary bike and elliptical trainer), followed by about 25 minutes of strength training. One day a week is cardio only. On those days, I work out for 25 to 30 minutes on a combination of bike, elliptical, rowing machine and, occasionally, treadmill.

Today was a cardio day. I did ten minutes on the bike then moved over to the elliptical, which I used for another 18 minutes. I have to say, 18 minutes feels like a long time. So I use interim goals to make it easier on myself.

I tell myself that I’ll work out for a certain number of minutes with my hands on the moving handlebars that provide an arm workout (I don’t know what those are called) and then a different interval clutching the short stationary handles that measure my heart rate. Then I go back to the arm workout for another interval, then back to measuring my heart rate for awhile. I make each interval shorter than the last one. So if I’m doing 15 minutes on the elliptical, I’ll start out with 5 minutes on the arm workout, then 4 minutes holding the heart rate monitor bars, then 3 minutes moving the arms, then 2 minutes with the heart-rate monitor, then 1 minute with the arm workout. Before I know it, 15 minutes is up.

Using interim goals is a great way from feeling overwhelmed by a larger project. You just focus on the current goal, and move to the next one when you’ve completed it. It’s also a nice anti-procrastination technique: Rather than working on a deadline for a whole project, you can establish a closer deadline for an interim goal.

I used interim goals to help me make it easy to send my holiday cards this year. I also used it when I wrote the two novels I’ve written for National Novel Writing Month. In 2004 and 2009 I succeeded in writing a novel in a month by dividing 50,000 words (the goal) by 30 (the number of days in the month) and writing at least that number of words every day.

I know I’m not going to meet my fitness goals overnight. I know it will take dedicated, regular effort. I take it one workout at a time. But I really appreciate that my workouts are broken into small intervals so that I get to accomplish a goal every few minutes. That’s what keeps me going and will ultimately allow me to reach my overall goal.

Holiday card update

26 November 2012

As I posted on Halloween, I’m working really hard to make the sending of holiday cards easy this year. I’m happy to report that I’m succeeding!!

I used minted.com to order some lovely, personalized cards. The cards I’m sending my business contacts have my name and business name printed on them. I selected flat cards with a printed back. That leaves me just a little space to hand write a message, which has reduced the time I’m spending on each card.

I ordered stamps from the postal service’s website, usps.com and they were delivered to my house. After spending a little time working on my card list and printing out labels, I put the labels on the envelopes. My minted order included special wrap-around return address labels that come 13 to a sheet, so I set a goal of completing 13 cards per day.

I started working on this a week or 10 days ago and I just put aside my completed cards. (I didn’t want to be the freak who sends out holiday cards before Thanksgiving.)

Today, I mailed over 70 business-related cards and the first 20 of our personal cards. Since I did them just a few at a time, it felt effortless.

For our personal cards, we ordered different flat cards, with our first names printed on the front. We left the back blank so I can easily jot a greeting. Also super easy. For the personal cards, I’ve decided to hand write the addresses. And I’m doing ten at a time. It’s still November and the cards have a new year’s greeting on them, so I know I’ll have no trouble getting them out in time.

For me the key to making this easy was that I chose cards with limited room to write and with my name pre-printed. I started early. And I set incremental goals. Ten or 13 cards in a session are very easy to do, especially when you’re playing old TV shows on Netflix at the same time.

It’s not too late for you to let holiday cards be easy!

The CPO-CD® program

21 November 2012

I am very proud to have gone through the Level III certification program from the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (back then it was called the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization). I earned the credential Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® in October 2009. At that time, I wrote a blog post about the significance of the achievement, called Why training and credentials matter.

The CPO-CD® program is an 18- to 20-month mentored coaching program that culminates in a peer review. It’s a very well thought-out course of study that involves written and oral assignments, reading, practical experience, and in-depth discussions with your mentor coach. I’ve now been on both sides of the table at a peer review and I know how very seriously the program is taken.

I’m glad I got my CPO-CD® for a couple of very important reasons. First and foremost, I learned a great deal that has helped me help my clients. Secondly, it differentiates me from my competition. I happen to be the only CPO-CD® in the St. Louis area. I think that’s quite a distinction.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because enrollment is open for the next CPO-CD® class. The application deadline is November 30 for a January start date. That class will graduate in the fall of 2014.

In order to participate in the program, you must:

To participate in this program you must:

• Have been working as a professional organizer for at least two years
• Be currently working professionally with at least two clients.
• Have experience with five (5) CD clients.
• Be a current ICD subscriber
• Have received CD Specialist Certificate within the last 2 years. (A waiver is available.)
• Apply by the deadline
• Be willing to earn a total of 50 ICD service points

For more information and to download the application, visit the Level III CPO-CD page® on the ICD website.

Using my iPhone during international travel

19 November 2012

As I’ve mentioned, I went to Barbados the week of November 5. As I’ve also mentioned, I’m in love with my iPhone 4S and I would have had a hard time doing without it. Plus, since I ditched my landline a few months ago, my cell phone is my business line, so I knew I couldn’t just turn it off or leave it at home.

So here’s what I did (along with the lesson I learned):

My cell provider for my iPhone is AT&T. I simply gave them a call and told them my situation. I learned that there were three categories of communication I needed to concern myself with:

• Voice
• Text
• Data

I learned that for voice, I would pay $2.29 a minute, unless I signed up for the World Traveler program, which costs $5.99 a month. With that program, phone calls would be $1.69 a minute.

I learned that all my incoming text messages are counted against my domestic texting plan. I have unlimited texting, so that meant I could receive an unlimited number of text messages without incurring extra charge. Outgoing text messages, however, would cost 50 cents each, unless I chose an international texting plan. I chose the $30 a month plan for 200 outgoing text messages (with an overage charge of 35 cents per text).

When it came to data, I would pay 19.5 cents per kilobyte of data, unless I bought a package. I could have paid a $30 monthly fee for 120 megabytes of data or $60 for 300 megabytes. I knew that the villa where we were staying had free wifi, so I chose to forgo a data package.

That turned out to be a mistake. Of my friends with whom I was vacationing, mine was the only smart phone that actually worked in Barbados. When we were going out to dinner one night on the north end of the island, we realized we needed some mapping help. So I turned on data and got us to the restaurant (we’d ended up taking a wrong turn). I’m so glad I was able to do that!

I got my bill today and there was good news and bad news in it. The good news was that the monthly charges are prorated, so I paid only an extra $7.20 for the extra voice and text monthly fees. I did use the phone a little, and there was an additional charge of $10 for that usage.

The bad news was that the one little foray into data usage ended up costing $25.78. I used 1.2 megabytes using the maps app on my phone. If I had signed up for the global data plan, it would have cost me just $6 and I would have 118 more megabytes of data to play with. Oh well, lesson learned.

My takeaway from the experience is that the international charges from AT&T, when planned for properly ahead of time, are really fair. They’re well worth the expense for the convenience of being able to use my phone.

That’s reason number 2,220,897 why I love my iPhone!

The personal trainer/professional organizer comparison

16 November 2012

As I’ve documented ad nauseum here, I’m not a natural exerciser. For the first few decades of my life, I didn’t exercise much at all. My metabolism helped me remain slender without it, and I’m pretty lazy to the core.

Then, when I hit my 40s, I knew that I needed to get off my butt. I was still slender, but I had wised up to the health benefits of exercise for healthy aging and to stave off osteoporosis (something both my mother and grandmother have suffered from). So I bought a Wii Fit and endeavored to exercise at home. I liked it—I had no interest in going to a gym and having to interact with others. But I sometimes had trouble motivating myself to exercise.

In September, I turned 50. And, for the first time, my stomach has become a little less than perfectly flat. I realized that the workout I was managing to do might not be enough.

So I asked my husband, as a 50th birthday present, to give me a gift certificate to Take Action, the small fitness studio just two blocks from my home. It felt like a splurge, because I could piggyback onto my husband’s YMCA membership for less money. But I knew that the convenience of this studio’s location would make a big difference. And I loved that it’s small and not crowded.

Well, that turned out to be a great decision. The membership initiation fee included three sessions with a personal trainer to establish a workout routine that suits me and fits in with my goals.

That got me thinking about the similarities between personal trainers and professional organizers. I’d often thought about that the fact that both trainers and organizers provide guidance and help in areas that many clients feel they should be able to do themselves. But when I sat in the client’s chair with personal trainer Jeanna Jackson, I realized that she was helping me in many ways I help my clients:

• She helped me clarify my goals.
• She taught me what exercises to do that would benefit me and how to do them properly. (It made me realize that I had a bit of fear about doing things wrong and messing myself up.)
• She selected a course of action for me—based on our discussions—thus cutting through the immense number of choices when it comes to exercise that had overwhelmed me.
• She listened to what I had to say about what works for me and designed a program around that, rather than giving me a cookie cutter routine.
• She strengthened my resolve: The fact that I’d made a financial commitment has deepened my commitment to regular exercise.
• She’s there for me when I have questions.

After our three appointments, I’m working out on my own at the studio. Jeanna’s there with a smile and encouragement, but my workout is on my own schedule. Since I have a plan that we worked out together and she trained me to do, I have the confidence to keep working, little by little, to achieve my fitness goals.

Working with Jeanna gave me an extra appreciation of how professional organizers help their clients. I’ll keep you posted as I meet my fitness goals!

Six years of blogging

14 November 2012

I started my blog on November 10, 2006. I was in Barbados on my blog’s actual anniversary, so didn’t post about it that day. But today, I thought I’d do my annual blogiversary post.

In the six years since I started my blog, I’ve created 784 blog posts. In the last year alone, I wrote 169.

Back in 2010, I blogged about my favorite posts of each year. This year, I’ll just tell you what my favorite post of 2012 (so far) is:

• Working with an organizing team, which was published on February 14, 2012. Maybe this post especially appeals to me today, because I had the pleasure of leading a really terrific team this morning. So far in 2012, I’ve led 35 team projects and it remains one of my favorite things to do. This blog post explains how the team approach can benefit the client.

I am so happy that back in 2006 my web designer, Nora Brown, suggested I start a blog. It takes some effort to post with the frequency I do (three times a week, for the most part), but it’s been really beneficial. It not only helps establish credibility, it allows potential clients to get to know me better. It helps with Search Engine Optimization. And it’s led to other great things, like being invited to be part of Rubbermaid’s Professional Organizer Squad.

In June, I launched a second blog, Organize Your Family History, to share my enthusiasm for and lessons about my family history research. If you haven’t checked it out, please do!

Ten things I learned on my vacation

12 November 2012

As I mentioned in my last blog post, last week I went to Barbados with my college buddies, to celebrate our 50th birthdays.

It was glorious. Barbados is a lovely island, full of friendly people. Our accommodations were top notch. We kept busy, but not too busy. I did virtually no work, save checking email occasionally and responding a tiny bit.

It made me realize how long it had been since I’d taken a real vacation. And that I need to do it more often.

On the last day, I dangled my legs in our little private pool and jotted down ten things I learned on vacation to share with you here:

1. It’s okay to take off your watch and not know what time it is.
2. Unwinding completely is possible—and beneficial.
3. Under certain conditions, I actually am a beach person.
4. Vacations are worth the time and money.
5. You can create memories without documenting them. (It killed me to leave my camera at home when we were in the water, but I couldn’t risk injuring my precious iPhone.)
6. I don’t particularly care for snorkeling (but I was glad I tried it).
7. It’s okay to admit that snorkeling isn’t for me and stay on the boat while others snorkel.
8. There’s no room for the word “should” on vacation.
9. Being among your most long-standing friends who know and love you is a wonderful thing. (Well, I already knew that.)
10. Luxury doesn’t have to be outrageously expensive.

We stayed at a lovely villa booked through Villas of Distinction. I’d go back to it in a heartbeat. A beautiful accommodation for a low price (since there were five of us).

Here’s a photo of the five of us at a restaurant on our last night on the island. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends!

KC, Dede, me, Denise and Ann