Peace of Mind Organizing

Life can get in the way of productivity

8 May 2007

Do you ever feel like you could really get some stuff done if only you didn’t have to deal with life? I got home from my organizers’ conferences all revved up with big plans of implementing big ideas.

Then I had to deal with life. Happily, it’s not unpleasant, just time-consuming. We decided to refinance our house, which requires some deliberations, decision making and what feels like lots of phone calls.

On top of that, I decided to sell my car. In an effort to see where we could tighten our belts, my husband and I talked about the fact we have a lovely Honda Accord in the garage not getting driven except on weekends, since he works from home. So I’m going to sell my wonderful Honda CR-V and buy a fuel-efficient older car for the weekends. And then I won’t have a car payment!

(If you have any interest in a fabulous 2005 Honda CR-V with only 27,000 miles on it, check out my craigslist ad.)

Dealing with the financial details of my life may be keeping me from being innovative in my work life, but it’s not stopping me from knitting. Here’s a preview of my current knitting project. In very short order, I’ll be posting a photo of it in completed form. It’s the Wobbly Circles Tote from Interweave Knits, spring 2006 issue. When that issue arrived more than a year ago, I knew I wanted to make this intarsia bag. And, at last, it’s almost finished. I’m weaving in the ends, then I’ll sew up the seams and felt it.

Can’t wait to post a picture!

All revved up!

29 April 2007

I just returned from six fabulous days of training, education and networking with my colleagues in the organizing profession. I attended the annual conferences of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization and the National Association of Professional Organizers. I also attended a one-day training workshop for a great filing system called Freedom Filer.

Picture this: 800 professional organizers under one roof. The conference was held at the Minneapolis Hilton and the place was buzzing with energy. The majority of POs are women…generous, friendly women. Vibrant women entrepreneurs. Can you feel the energy? It was absolutely exhilerating, if a little tiring.

So what am I going to do with this rejuvenation, this enthusiasm? First, I’m going to try not to lose it as I reenter the stresses of daily life. I’m going to formulate big goals and I’m going to take bold action to achieve them. I’ll use the conference as fodder for this blog for awhile.

In addition to wonderful personal-development and business-building advice, the conference also provided excellent information for helping me help my clients. I look forward to implementing some of the ideas to provide even better service for my clients.

The conference has prompted me to think about what it is I enjoy doing in my work. First and foremost, I love making a difference in an individual’s life. I especially love working with people for whom clutter and disorganizaton are real problems. I like to help them try to make a shift toward order and peace.

After these conferences, are sorts of ideas are swirling in my head. I’m the opposite of stagnant. But what needs to emerge — and it will, in the coming days — is focus. I’ll pick the areas I want to try out first and go for it. I’ll make mistakes (one thing I learned in a wonderful session from Dorothy Breininger of the Center for Organization and Goal Planning in Los Angeles is, “She who makes the most mistakes wins”), and if I don’t pick the right thing I’ll move onto the next idea. My business is dynamic and I want it to stay that way.

Thanks to NSGCD and NAPO, I have friends and colleagues all over the country I can reach out to for advice and inspiration. Thanks to these conferences, I know more than ever about organizing. And I’m poised to put that knowledge and those connections to work so I can find even more way to make a difference in my client’s lives. I’m all revved up!

Coaching, anyone?

12 April 2007

Earlier this year, I made the smart decision to take a nine-week telecourse, The Coach Approach for Organizers taught by the fabulous uber-organizer and coach Denslow Brown and the equally fabulous ADD coach, Cameron Gott.

The nine weeks just ended; we had our last class yesterday. It’s got me thinking about what I’m going to do with this newfound knowledge. In this class, I learned general coaching skills, I learned about organizing people with ADD and I learned about coaching people with ADD. Fascinating stuff, particularly since so many chronically disorganized people have ADD.

One of the distinctions I see between coaching and organizing is that organizers are hired to help solve problems for their clients, while coaches help clients come up with the solutions themselves. In our classes and practice sessions we were encouraged to squelch our “expert” and instead guide the client to their own insights. I think all of us in the class had a little difficulty with that, since we’re so used to being hired for our expert opinions. But we all saw how powerful it is when the solutions to problems come from within the client.

So what am I going to do with knowledge I gained in this class? I’d like to offer coaching to my organizing clients. I can see weekly phone coaching, for example, used to keep the client going between hands-on appointments. I see using phone coaching to work with organizing clients who live outside of my geographic area. And I can also see integrating coaching skills, particularly the potent one-two punch of powerful questions and accountability, during my hands-on organizing appointments.

As I figure out what I’m going to offer, I’ll be adding a coaching section to my website. I’m really excited about using these skills…and gaining more skills…to help my clients achieve lasting peace of mind.

Scary pet food

5 April 2007

The current pet food recall has dog and cat owners scrambling to find something safe to feed their pets. It’s tragic. But it may have a silver lining. I’m hoping it will shine a light on the pet food industry and the fact that it’s virtually self-regulated, by the Association of American Feed Control Officials, the trade group that has established the industry standards. And I’m hoping that will change. Already, through this recall, we’ve learned that many pet foods are made in the same factory. And I bet I’m not the only one a little surprised to learn that some of the ingredients come from China.

I’m one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to worry much about it. I started feeding my dogs home-prepared food back in 1999, when my now-departed standard poodle, Kramer, was very ill. You can read my thoughts on that in my now-defunct column over at thepoop.com.

But just last year we started including some kibble in the poodles’ diet, mostly because my husband felt that they wanted it for the texture. Sure enough they do like it and it’s so easy that they do get it every now and again. We feed Innova EVO, a human-grade, grain-free kibble whose ingredients are surely a cut above what was available in the late 90s. Our kitty, Joe, is ape over the feline version (he used to eat the dog EVO out of the dog bowl, so we bought him his own.)

My poodles do get commercial treats (Milkbones and Greenies), so I’m keeping a close eye on the ever-growing recall list at Menu Foods website, as well as the pet-food recall page at the website of the Food and Drug Administration.

Back to that silver lining. This scare might well shake people’s confidence in the pet food industry. Pet owners had somehow been convinced that commercial pet food was safe, that “complete and balanced nutrition” was available in any bag or can. It’s time that pet owners took an active role in their pet’s health by scrutinizing labels and applying a little critical thinking about what’s inside that bag or can.

Common sense tells us that a food whose first four ingredients are grains is not a natural diet for a dog. I encourage you to educate yourself about your pets’ diet. You don’t have to prepare the food yourself, if you don’t want to. But take this scare as an opportunity to be shaken out of your complacency. Your animals will thank you.

How do knitters get anything done?

2 April 2007

I swear I could spend entire days weeks months reading knitting blogs and patterns, shopping for yarn, organizing my stash and needles and, oh yes, knitting. When I win the lottery, I might just do that.

It’s amazing how much I think about knitting when I’m not doing it. Typically, except on weekends, I don’t knit during the day. I wait until after the poodles’ p.m. walk. I’ve never been one to do actual work after dark, so knitting fits perfectly into my evening activities (which also involve watching television or movies).

Right now I’m working on the Wobbly Circles Tote, an intarsia felted bag from Interweave Knits.

But during the day, when I’m at my desk, it’s the knitting blogs that sometimes divert me from work that might actually result in being paid. Favorite knitting blogs include:

Mason Dixon Knitting

Crazy Aunt Purl

Yarn Harlot

Knitty

And I subscribe to the high-traffic Knitlist email list, which I skim/read daily.

That’s not a ton of reading, but it takes time, albeit enjoyable time.

So it seems that, for me, the answer to guilt-free knitting is to start making money from knitting. Then I can call it work! Unfortunately, I’m not a good enough knitter for that. But who knows, if I knit and read about knitting enough, maybe some day I will!

At last! I made a wearable garment!

27 March 2007

When I picked up knitting again (after several decades) at the beginning of 2005, I was pretty fearless. Mostly out of ignorance, I think. I started out with a scarf, then a pretty terrific felted bag knit in the round. Then I made my first garment, The Einstein Coat, from Sally Melville’s Knit book. As I’ve documented, that didn’t turn out so well, and not too long ago I ripped it out.

Later that year I tried a drop-sleeve sweater and that looked like hell. So recently, I ripped that out—I’ll use the yummy Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky for something else.

Burned by those two experiences, I’ve been working on non-garment projects, like scarves, bags, and, of course, the wonderful Barbara Walker’s Learn-To-Knit Afghan.

Last year I saw a sweater vest I liked in the Boden USA catalog. I liked it so much I was willing to shell out $58 for it (on sale!) but they were sold out of my size. So I determined to make one.

I’m proud as punch to report that I finished the vest, it’s not unlike the one I’d wanted to buy, and I can actually wear it without embarrassment.

Here it is:

It's not perfect, but it's wearable!

I made it from this great free pattern on knitty.com. I used Lamb’s Pride Cotton Fleece (80 percent cotton/20 percent wool) and US6 needles (US7 on the neck and bottom ribbing).

This vest has boosted my knitting confidence. Who knows, maybe I’ll try a sweater again one of these days!

Accountability

22 March 2007

I earned my living as a freelance writer for ten years before starting my organizing business. Writing comes easy for me. So you’d think that having a blog would be a piece of cake. After all, I get to write whatever I want, whenever I want. So why haven’t I posted an entry in over two weeks?

I know exactly why. It’s the absence of a deadline. As a writer, I was terribly deadline oriented. It was the kiss of death if an editor told me turn a story in whenever I wanted (thankfully, that didn’t happen often). I needed a deadline to get started and to complete a story.

Apparently I still do. There are no deadlines with blogs, unless I impose one. There’s no urgency to write. And I’m not writing very frequently. Obviously, my blog will do me no good—from either a business or personal perspective—if I don’t write in it.

So right here, right now, I’m making a commitment. I will post an entry on this blog twice a week. If I’m so inclined, I’ll do it more often. But at the very least I’ll post twice a week. Starting with this entry, today. Which means that on or before March 29, a week from today, there will be another entry, in addition to this one.

In the fabulous Coach Approach for Organizers class that I’m taking (taught by Denslow Brown and Cam Gott), we talk about holding our clients accountable for the actions they promise to take toward their goals. By declaring my blog-posting goals here, I’m hereby making myself accountable.

Watch this space.