Peace of Mind Organizing

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

Gone fishing

2 November 2012

I haven’t really gone fishing…that’s not my idea of a good time. (I feel sorry for the fish.) But I might look at some fish next week through a mask, because I’m going to an island, baby!

My college buddies, Dede, Denise, KC, Ann and I, are going to celebrate turning 50 this year by spending six days in Barbados. It feels like a miracle. Since we graduated from Mount Holyoke 28 years ago, we try to get together once a year, but it’s usually a long weekend. In recent years, a half-marathon location has been the destination.

But this time, we’re celebrating bigger and we’re actually going on an agenda-free, responsibility-free, relaxation-centric vacation.

I never do this. My travel almost always includes either work or family (not that I don’t manage to have fun). But to go to a warm place when it’s cool at home and lounge about with some of my favorite people? Heaven.

I’m struggling with whether to shut down completely or try to keep up with my business to make things easier when I return home. I’ve decided to take my computer so I can do family history research at my leisure (that’s my idea of fun and relaxation). I’ll keep up with the news—particularly since we’ll be gone during election week.

But I’m not planning to blog. And I’m probably not going to participate in organizing-related social media.

I’ll get back to my regular three-days-a-week blogging the week of November 12. In the meantime, think of me on the beach, swimming with fish, or sipping a tropical drink.

It's holiday card time

31 October 2012

I’m thinking about holiday cards for my clients and colleagues and I’m whispering to myself, “Let it be easy.” In the past, I’ve tended to make holiday cards way more complicated than they need to be.

My friend, Margaret Lukens turned me on to Minted.com, which sells lovely personalized cards. Lots of different designs. So I spent some time there considering the offerings and was starting to feel overwhelmed by the options (as usual).

So I’ve boiled it down to these first tasks:

• Decide how many cards I need, even if it’s a ballpark number
• Stick with the design I’ve already chosen and customized
• Make final decisions about the last trivial options
• Submit and check out and stop worrying about it

I’m going on vacation next week (more on that later this week!) and the cards should arrive shortly after I get home. Then I’ll have time to update my list, print my address labels and enjoy the task of getting them out in a leisurely fashion.

No need to get myself tense about this. Thanks to the internet, I can create beautiful, customized cards without even leaving my desk. Now that’s easy.

How about you, have you started thinking about your holiday cards and how easy you can make them? (Hint: Not sending any is the easiest option and a perfectly viable one.)

A year without cable TV

26 October 2012

It’s been just about a year when we took the plunge and canceled our subscription to cable TV. I wrote about it a couple of months into the experiment in a post called Life without cable TV and again seven months later in a post entitled Update on the cable-free life. On this one-year anniversary, I thought I’d give you the latest.

The most important thing to know is that I love TV. And I watch a lot of it. That was true before we canceled cable and is still true today.

In the July post, I mentioned that the thing I missed most is a DVR. Well, I took are of that. Shortly after I wrote that post, I took advantage of a special offer from TiVo for a TiVo Premiere, for only $50. And they offered six months free Hulu Plus (which we were already paying for), which essentially made the device free. We do pay $15 a month for the service, but to me it’s so worth it.

Having a DVR has made a big difference. I no longer have to sit in front of the TV at a designated time to watch the network shows that don’t replay on Hulu live. And I don’t have to watch as many commercials. (Hulu has commercials that you can’t fast forward over.) I love the Instant Replay button. And I love that I can record Jeopardy every day and watch it in the evening with my husband.

Another little glitch we had was that our $50 indoor antenna stopped working well. I don’t know why, but suddenly PBS was not coming in at all and FOX was pixelating like crazy, which was especially bad during post-season baseball. As it got worse, even our beloved Jeopardy became almost unwatchable, due to the pixelation. So Barry went out and bought a bunch of different potential antenna solutions, including boosters and so forth, and the very first of these solutions that I tried, this $20 RCA indoor antenna, worked like a dream, on the first try. All six of our network stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS & the CW) come in clearly. Our long pixelation nightmare is over.

So a year in, I can say that I’m really glad we gave up cable. I do miss my HBO and Showtime shows, but I sure don’t miss spending $135 a month on cable TV!

Don't let paper pile up on you

24 October 2012

On Monday, I bloggd about 5 questions to ask yourself before getting rid of paper. My intent was to encourage you to part with most paper, because you can get it again if you need to.

Today I had an intense day helping a client with a lot with paper, and the “less is more” philosophy really hit home. The other important message is that if you’re going to keep paper, have a simple filing system in place that will help you find a home for it and retrieve it. (I like the Freedom Filer system a lot.)

Back in my March 2008 newsletter, I supplied information on what papers to keep, along with some links to some resources on paper retention. I’ve asked my fabulous intern, Kate Koberna, to research newer resources and when she’s finished with that I’ll blog about them and do a new newsletter article.

But in the meantime, check out the older article for guidelines on what to keep. And please, pretty please, let go of paper that you don’t need!