Peace of Mind Organizing

A few technical changes to the blog (and an RSS favor)

4 December 2008

I wanted to draw your attention to the new “Tools” section of the right-hand sidebar to the blog. You’ll see an RSS Feed button and Follow Me button and a search box. We’ve reconfigured the RSS Feed for the blog with some new options, like the full blog post appearing in the feed, rather than just an excerpt that requires you to go the site to finish reading the post. Data reporting to me has been improved as well. If you’ve already subscribed, I’d appreciate your grabbing the new feed. If you haven’t subscribed, please do!

The Follow Me button takes you to the my page on Twitter, in case you’d like to follow me there.

We’ve also moved the search box (to search the blog) into the Tools section. I love that it turns orange when you mouse over it!

If you’re looking at an individual post (rather than the landing page for the blog), you’ll also see a ShareThis button, which will allow you to share the post using StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, Facebook, del.icio.us or a host of other services. You can also use ShareThis to easily post a link to that post to your blog or Twitter. And there’s a Send/Email button that allows you to email the link easily as well. I encourage you to use share any post you find helpful! And, of course, I love comments.

Thanks very much to my great web designer and tech guru, Nora Brown for her help with all this.

"The simplest time management method"

3 December 2008

I’ve written here before about my love of Mark Forster’s book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (there’s a link to the book on the right hand column of my blog). For at least a year now, I’ve been working on integrating elements of his system into my life. One of those elements is to create a “will-do” list of tasks that I actually expect to accomplish on a given day. These are individual tasks, as well as daily tasks like responding to yesterday’s email, voicemail and snail mail.

I’d been keeping my list of tasks in a daily task diary, a page-a-day bound calendar. It takes real skill to determine how much I can actually accomplish in a day and the fact of the matter is that I was not always successful. In fact, I was unsuccessful more often than not. Those tasks that weren’t checked off were, in theory, moved to the next day’s page. But sometimes I’d turn the page without moving them and they’d languish in the past. Occasionally, I’d thumb through past days, rounding up tasks that never got accomplished. Clearly, I wasn’t working the system perfectly.

One of the things I like about a daily list is that I avoid creating an endless, daunting, to-do list that was never fully checked off. Nor was it prioritized. Mark Forster himself has come up with what feels like a great solution to this problem.

In a recent blog post, The Simplest Time Management Method, Mark outlined another way to handle a to-do list. Here’s how it goes: On a ruled pad, start a list. When you come to the end of it, draw a line on the bottom. Then start doing everything on the list, in whatever order you want. When new tasks come to mind, write them beneath the line. Here’s the key: don’t allow yourself to do any of those new tasks until you’ve done everything above the line. When you’ve check all the above-the-line tasks off, then draw a line below the new list and get started on it. Rinse and repeat.

I have to admit I couldn’t really get my mind around the benefits of this method at first glance. Then I read the conversation in the comments to that post (which include input from Mark), as well as a discussion of the new method in the discussion forum on Mark’s website and I decided to give it a try.

About a week into it, I’m loving it. I find that not being able to do the stuff below the line makes me want to do them. So when I finish above the line, I’m anxious to dive into the new list. Also, it provides accountability. I realize that for the first time ever, writing something down means it will actually get done. I find myself hesitating to write things down, thinking to myself, “I’m going to have to actually do them.” That makes me question whether I actually want to do that task. So far the answer has been yes, but I can see it as a great screening tool, allowing me to eliminate unimportant things from the list.

I don’t know if this makes any sense. But if your way of handling to-do lists isn’t working well for you, I urge you to read Mark’s blog post and give it a try. It’s had an amazingly motivating effect on me. Maybe it will for you too.

Mindful gift giving

2 December 2008

The horrifying tragedy at a Walmart on Long Island the day after Thanksgiving represents holiday shopping at its worst. Folks waited in line for hours, then broke down the doors, actually trampling an employee. All in the name of getting a good deal, I guess.

Now I like a deal. But this year I’m encouraging myself (and you) to practice mindful shopping when it comes to the holiday season.

Here are some guidelines for mindful gift-giving this holiday season:

• Take a good look at your holiday gift recipients list. Are there people on it you could propose to just stop exchanging gifts? Taking the pressure to give off a friend or family member might be a gift in itself.

• After you’ve pared down your list, think about each person, one at a time. What are their interests? Their passions? Is there anything you can give that would really speak to those passions?

• Consider creating a gift. Bake something delicious and give it as a gift. Or, if you’re crafty, create a one-of-a-kind gift for a favorite person. (But, please, make it something they’d really enjoy, because you’re giving them something they’ll probably have trouble parting with.) Even if you’re not crafty, maybe you have an ability they don’t have. You could offer to help them clean out their files. Or paint a room. Or trim their dog’s toenails.

• Give the gift quality time together. Could you go out to lunch with a favorite friend or family member, rather than exchanging tangible gifts? Splurge a little on the lunch and make that the gift. Or maybe you could see a movie together. Or even have a fun night in with DVDs and popcorn.

• Look for gifts that aren’t mass-produced. Sure, you could give the Hottest New Thing. (I’m so out of touch, I don’t even know what that is this year.) But even more special are hand-made gifts, even if you don’t make it yourself. If you don’t have a local craft fair you can attend before gift-giving time, check out Etsy, a marketplace for hand-made items. There’s great stuff there.

• Help a small business person. Naomi Dunford, over at IttyBiz has just created a gift guide chock full of unique gifts from small businesses. There are some unique items there.

• Consider a donation. In this difficult economic environment, non-profit organizations are surely suffering. Perhaps you could carefully select a charity to make a donation to in the name of your gift recipient. Or, you can let the recipient choose his or her own charity. Jeri Dansky has put together a fabulous post on donations as gifts on her wonderful organizing blog.

Remember, it really is the thought that counts. The thought and care you give to selecting a gift, not the physical item itself, is what makes it special.

The tragedy of stuff

1 December 2008

This weekend, the National Public Radio program Weekend Edition aired a thoughtful essay called The Tragedy of Stuff, The essay was written by Cathy Duchamp, whose ex-husband, Maury, died suddenly, leaving behind an apartment full of stuff. Cathy and her friends were left with the task of clearing it out.

One poignant element (for me) was that among the stuff Cathy found in Maury’s apartment were a couple of flyers from the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization. Maury knew (or at least suspected) he had a problem.

Or you can listen to the essay, or read a transcript, here. There’s also a short slideshow. If I’m not mistaken, the audio has a little more to it than the written version, so I’d recommend taking a few minutes to listen.

Thanks to NSGCD member April Welch for posting a link to the story on the NSGCD private email list.

Gratitude

29 November 2008

Thursday was a wonderful, self-indulgent day for me. I don’t take part in the cooking or prepping part of Thanksgiving, just the eating and drinking. We eat every year at the home of dear friends, and my husband does all the cooking for our contribution. We didn’t go to dinner until 5:00. So while Barry worked in the kitchen, I got to sit in front of the TV and knit. Guilt free. It was wonderful. (I watched two movies on cable, The Sting which I’m seen at least 20 times and love every time, and Charlotte Gray the wonderful Cate Blanchett/Billy Crudup WWII movie, which I actually saw in the theater.)

I was going to put together a post about the importance of gratitude and the fact I’ve started keeping a gratitude journal (though I just realized that I forgot to do that last night…it’s clearly not a habit yet). And I was thinking about listing the many things I’m grateful for, like I did last year. I’m still grateful for those things so that list is still valid.

But I think instead, I’ll just brighten my blog with a photo I love of my sweet poodle, Pip. This photo was taken a few months after she came to live with us, back in 2001. She was three years old and had been abandoned at a boarding kennel in Utah. I found her on Petfinder and once the adoption was approved I flew to Utah and drove her home. My fabulous friend Shannon Wilkinson flew from Portland to Salt Lake City, drove with Pip and me back to St. Louis, then flew home. It was an adventure: it was December and the Rocky Mountains were involved.

We’re approaching the seventh anniversary of that big trip, which started on December 4, 2001. So in honor of that, here’s Pip:

Pip's a good girl!

Disorder 2 Order: Blog of the Week

26 November 2008

I’m returning to my blog of the week format, after a couple of Wednesdays away from it, with Disorder2Order, the blog of Megan Spears, an organizer in the Portland, Oregon, area.

Megan is a fun, cheerful person whom I enjoy seeing at the NAPO conference. Her blog is also cheerful and full of meaty advice for organizing your home and your life at home. She’s a wife and a mom, as well as a business owner, and uses her own experiences to help illustrate the organizing principles she’s writing about.

I especially like her recent 5 steps to simplify a holiday post. (Do read the comments, Jeri Dansky makes a great one.)

Megan highlights products in her “Friday Finds” feature.

If you haven’t read Megan’s blog, check it out!

Atwitter over Twitter

25 November 2008

My friend and life coach Shannon Wilkinson convinced me a couple of weeks ago to give Twitter a try. Until I spoke with her, I didn’t get it. Why would I want to post short little messages to a social networking site? And why would I want to read what others were posting? Sounded like kind of a time suck to me. Somehow I felt a little too old for it (which turned out to be ridiculous).

But Shannon was so enthusiastic—and I trust her judgment so much—that I decided to give it a shot. She recommended using Tweetdeck as a platform on which to read Twitter, so I downloaded it immediately. I looked at the folks she was following (in Twitter parlance, you subscribe to people’s updates by following them) and signed up to follow some of them. I found the Twitter names of some of my favorite organizers (like Erin Doland, Scott Roewer, Geralin Thomas, John Trosko, Krista Colvin, Brandi Kajino, Lori Marrero and Allison Carter) and immediately started following them. Then, to my surprise, people started following me!

And I’m starting to get it. It’s quick and easy to glance at the updates from my network. Often there are links to great websites, blog posts, and resources I might not have otherwise seen. I’m getting to know these folks a little better, it feels. Blogs are more personal than websites and tweets (Twitter posts) generally feel more personal than blog posts.

I’m still challenged about what to post myself. But I know I’ll get into the swing of it.

If you’re not already on Twitter, I encourage you to join. Feel free to follow me (my Twitter name is janinea) and check out the people I’m following.