Peace of Mind Organizing

Mixed feelings about this season

24 October 2008

I’m an unabashed warm-weather person. I get cold easily and, according to my husband, I complain a lot in the winter about being cold. So why don’t I move somewhere that’s warm year-round? My husband is a cold-weather person. He hates summer. So we’re equally miserable in four-season St. Louis. Equality is a good thing in a marriage.

Here it is October 24 and it feels as though autumn has arrived and, to my way of thinking, winter is just around the corner. This makes me a little sad (have I mentioned I hate winter?). I think it’s self-evident, but here’s a short list of some of the things I hate about winter:

• Getting up in the morning when it’s dark out
• Having it get dark at 5 p.m. (though that has its benefits, see below)
• The necessity of dressing in layers
• Paying high gas bills to stay warm
• Being cold!
• My husband’s disdain for my corduroy pants (the swishing sound drives him nuts)

But, over the years, I’m come up with ways to compensate. I’m a glass half-full kind of person, so I’ve identified some advantages that winter has for me. For example:

• Being cozy under a down comforter
• Wearing my hand-knitted items
• A shorter work day (I have a policy of not working after dark)
• Getting to wear corduroys outside of the house (I love corduroys!)
• Getting to wear my cozy, super-soft bathrobe
• Having a hobby (knitting) that keeps me warm
• Not feeling guilty about staying inside on a beautiful day (because, if you ask me, there aren’t any in the winter)

My policy about not working after dark evolved because of my dogs. I prefer walking them before dark, so in the winter, they’re by necessity walked early. Then they need to be fed and then I need to be fed and, bam, the workday is over. So the shorter winter work day forces me to work more efficiently. And I do realize that I could impose an earlier stop time in the summer. I just let Mother Nature do it for me.

So this winter when I’m inevitably tempted to complain being cold, perhaps I’ll just wrap my cashmere shawl around me and think of this list. And maybe knit yet another item to keep me warm.

Gift wrap: Keep it simple

23 October 2008

Lately I’ve been having conversations with clients about storing their gift wrap. Personally, I bought a couple of organizers from the Container Store that hang from the rod of a spare closet. One is for rolls of gift wrap and the other for flat wraps and gift bags.

They’re working great and accommodate pretty much all the wrap I’ve accumulated.

However, today I was inspired when I read a post on Unclutterer (part of a “one year ago on Unclutterer” entry) which talked about keeping gift wrap simple. In his book, It’s All Too Much, according to the Unclutterer post, Peter Walsh recommends using brown kraft paper to wrap all packages, and keeping just a few colors of ribbon around to fancy up the packages. I remember his recommending that on Clean Sweep. The idea fascinated me then and it’s fascinating me now.

There were some great comments in that Unclutterer entry, including the suggestion of using white or any other solid-colored paper instead of kraft paper, and wrapping packages with old road maps or the comics section from the Sunday paper. (I remember when I was a kid wrapping gifts with aluminum foil.) One reader said that she keeps a roll of paper on an IKEA easel and after her kids have drawn or painted on it, she uses the art as gift wrap.

One commenter suggested the site Paper Mart, where you can buy 100-foot rolls of solid gift wrap very economically (as low as $18 for a two-foot wide roll). They sell printed gift wrap as well, along with 1625-foot rolls of kraft paper (two-feet wide for about $35).

I love these ideas and I think they boil down to a principle that’s easy to remember. When it comes to gift wrap, keep it simple. It will pay dividends in easy storage as well as in time it takes to wrap a gift. Just think—you could be free of the decision of which wrap to use when it comes time to wrapping!

I’m seriously tempted, after I finish using the paper I’ve already purchased, to buy a single large roll of wrap and use it for my default wrapping paper. I’ll probably buy a wrapping paper roll dispenser, once I figure out where I can store it for easy use. And I’m also going to keep my eyes out for ways to wrap with attractive paper (like maps) that might otherwise be thrown away.

Get Everything Done: Blog of the Week

22 October 2008

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of Mark Forster. He’s a time management and personal organization guru who wrote the time-management book I most adhere to, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (link at right).

His blog, called Get Everything Done is this week’s Blog of the Week. Lately, Mark’s been really amping up the frequency of his posting, which makes this blog a real resource.

I particularly like his recent post on Effortless Action. Notice how he and share a fondness for a tidy desk! And I also have to brag that he mentions my recommendation of the Time Timer in his entry on that timer.

In my opinion, the Do It Tomorrow system is really effective. It’s a different way of thinking about time management and it’s really helped me become more productive. It’s always been a little tricky to purchase, because it’s published in the U.S. But Mark announced earlier this year that the book now has a U.S. distributor. If I’m reading Amazon correctly, it should be more readily available in the U.S. on November 1.

By reading his blog, and the DIT yahoogroup, you can get a free sample of what the system’s all about before purchasing the book.

The R word

21 October 2008

Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I write here (or in my newsletter) about the importance of routines. It’s just that I’m reminded very frequently about how much of an impact they can have on order, productivity and overall peace of mind.

My crazy travel and conference-going schedule of late really brought that to home. It started on September 18, when I went to Portland for a conference, returned to St. Louis for a conference, went to Chicago for a trade show and then immediately went to Walla Walla, Washington, to visit family. I returned a week ago and am still struggling to get back to normal.

Until now, I’ve been proud of my ability to post frequently (at least four times a week most weeks) to this blog. I’d worked it into my daily routine. Most days I would blog before I left the house to walk my dogs. I loved getting it out of the way and didn’t want it hanging over my head. Because I was posting so frequently, new ideas for blog posts would occur to me all the time. I’d jot them down (or use Jott.com to email them to myself if they occurred to me when I was driving) and toss the note into my “blog ideas” file.

But my travel threw me for a loop. After I got home, I was getting up later (the fact that it gets light so late isn’t helping) and just not posting first thing in my morning. With blogging out of my daily routine, my mind didn’t seem to be on the constant lookout for ideas. So when I’d think about blogging, I didn’t feel like I had anything to say. And, believe me, that’s the bane of the blogger.

So this week, I’m going to try really hard to blog Monday through Friday. It’s clear that I’m not back into the first-thing-in-the-morning routine, since I’m writing this at 4:30 p.m. But I’m going to give that a shot, too.

I will say this about routines, though. Those that are ingrained into me came right back upon my return. I’m clearing off my desk at the end of every work day (hooray!), still running the dishwasher every night and emptying it every morning, still wiping down the bathroom fixtures every morning. Just those things adds some semblance of order to my home and life and for that I’m really grateful.

Routines are powerful. Routines work. Routines help you do once-annoying chores without even thinking about them (let alone being annoyed by them). If you’re not tapping into the power of routines, I encourage you to do so. Websites like Don’t Break the Chain and Joe’s Goals can help you form some routines.

While you do that, I’ll be trying to reestablish some routines and create some new ones. First routine: resume morning (or at least weekday) blogging.

My latest toy

20 October 2008

I know that new technology is supposed to enhance productivity. That’s usually why I buy it. But if you’ve ever purchased a new computer, you know that setting up and getting used to the new technology can really eat up time.

I bought some new technology last Friday and it’s really hampered my productivity. Not because it’s been tough to set up (it hasn’t), but because it’s so darn fun. Yep, I bought the second-generation iPod Touch. When he introduced it last month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called it “The Funnest iPod ever.” He’s right. I really liked my old classic iPod (it’s my second). But this one is way funner, if you’ll pardon the grammar.

Here’s a photo (from Apple’s website):

But fun isn’t why I bought it. Really. The iPod Touch is pretty much just like the elegant iPhone, without the phone or the camera. I like my Samsung T629 slide phone and I like my cell phone provider, T-Mobile, and wasn’t willing to switch to AT&T. What I wanted was not to replace my phone, but rather to replace my Palm TX handheld, which had stopped being willing to sync with my computer.

With the iPod Touch, I can carry with me my calendar and contacts, which sync automatically from my MacBook, through my home’s wireless network. So if I add an appointment either on my computer or on my iPod (say, at a client’s home), it automatically syncs to the other device. No longer will I be rushing to sync as I’m supposed to be walking out the door. It’s a great thing.

I was able to effortlessly import all my data from Palm Desktop, so there was no time lost there. So how has my new technology hampered my productivity? It’s all about the apps, baby. The iPhone apps you’ve read about also work on the iPod Touch, so I’ve been busy searching the app store for useful (and/or fun) applications to download right into my little iPod Touch. I have my coveted knitting row counter (called StitchMinder); a memory game (Matches Plus); a dice game (Five Dice), that allows me to shake the iPod to roll the dice; and the popular restaurant finder, Urbanspoon. I know there’s much more to come.

Once the iPod Touch starts enhancing my productivity, as I know it will, I’ll write about it here.

Great advice in tense times

16 October 2008

I’m still playing catch up and haven’t been coming up with inspiring ideas for blog posts. So instead of coming up with my own thoughts on the role of organizing in these worrisome times (though I did write a little about that in the latest issue of my newsletter, which went out yesterday), I want to share with you a fabulous blog post from my friend and fellow organizer, Aby Garvey, of simplify 101 and the Creative Organizing blog. Here’s the post, entitled, Empowered by Organizing.

And here’s a tiny snippet: Organizing creates a sense of control. It creates a sense of ease. It creates a general feeling of calm. Organizing is empowering.

Go read the post. I’m quite sure it’ll inspire you to organize something today!

The Organized Life: Blog of the Week

15 October 2008

This week’s Blog of the Week is The Organized Life, the weekly blog of Emily Wilska, a professional organizer in the San Francisco Bay area. Unlike most of my blogs of the week, which are updated at least several times a week, Emily’s blog serves as an archive of her weekly tips, which she sends out via email. The tips are so good, I decided to make it my blog of the week.

The blog offers solid advice, written with authority and empathy. This week’s entry, for instance, is on decluttering and organizing the kitchen. If you like the blog, you might consider signing up to have her tip of the week emailed to you. If you do that, you’ll see the tip a week before it appears on the blog.

Incidentally, Emily will be a presenter at the NAPO Chicago Professional Organizer Midwest Conference & Expo on November 15 in suburban Chicago. If you’re a professional organizer, consider attending. And today’s the deadline to get the early-bird registration rate!