Peace of Mind Organizing

How Trello supercharges my Power Hour

18 March 2021

I’ve long been a fan of the concept of a Power Hour. I group together a bunch of small tasks (like sending emails, making phone calls and mailing promised things) and I power through the list in a short period of time. It feels great.

In the past, I sometimes found it difficult to get myself to do the Power Hour and when I was in the mood it would be difficult to think of all the little things I could do in a Power Hour.

My daily task management Trello board has changed that. Yesterday I had the most productive Power Hour yet, which made me want to share my method with you.

Here’s how I supercharge my Power Hour with Trello. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read my previous blog post about my task management board, linked above, so this makes sense. (And you might want to also check out my first post on my Trello task management board.)

1. I label all the small Power Hour tasks with a yellow Power Hour label.
2. I set a timer for 15 (or 30) minutes
3. I touch the F key (for filter) and then select the yellow Power Hour label. All tasks without the yellow label vanish, allowing me to focus on the Power Hour tasks.
4. When I finish a task, I move it to Done Today (and enjoy my confetti reward)
5. I move on to the next Power Hour task and work until my timer goes off
6. I take a little break and then reset my timer and start again until the Power Hour is up (or until I’ve run out of Power Hour tasks!)

Here’s a photo of a sample board with the Power Hour filter in place.

This supercharged Power Hour is one of many reasons I love my Trello daily task management board!

Challenge completed! 100 days of wearing the same dress

14 March 2021

Day 100

Saturday was Day 100 of the Wool& 100 Day Dress Challenge I started on December 4. For 100 days in a row, I wore the same dress, the Rowena Swing dress from Wool&. I’m writing this on Day 101 and guess what…I put the dress on again this morning!

The prize for wearing my dress for 100 days (and taking pictures every day to document it) is a $100 credit toward a new Wool& dress. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out which dress to buy with that reward and I’m still not sure. But here’s what I do know. It won’t be black. After 100 days of wearing a black dress, I’m craving some color.

I enjoyed wearing this dress every day for so many reasons. Here are a few of them:

• My main choice of what to wear was a foregone conclusion, making getting dressed easier.
• It’s outrageously comfortable. It’s non binding and, for me, it’s not remotely scratchy, even though its main ingredient is wool.
• It’s warm but not hot. (I’m always cold.)
• It’s machine washable.
• You don’t have to wash it often because it resists odors and wrinkles. I washed mine a total of six times in the 100 days.
• I love the way the dress looks on me and makes me feel.

One thing that was great about the dress was that I could change the look substantially. Turn the pockets out and tie them at my waist and it’s a great top to wear with yoga pants. Add a belt, scarf, tights and boots and it’s dressier and flirtier. Wear a sweater or poncho to completely change the look. Combine a quarter or a button with a hair tie and create a drapey ruching effect through some amazing alchemy that I learned about from a wonderful Facebook group called Wool& 100 Day Challenge.

I anticipate purchasing perhaps two more Wool& dresses (for a total of three) and wearing nothing else. Right now, that feels really good. I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed not having to make a big decision about what to wear each day. I look forward to many more days like that!

P.S. Click here if you’re interested in reading the other four blog posts I wrote this challenge.

P.P.S. It’s now 110 days after I started wearing the dress and I’m still wearing it!

The joy of Inbox Zero

11 March 2021

I’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with Inbox Zero. I’ve blogged in the past about the glory of Inbox Zero and how I’ve achieved it. Yet I invariably fall of the wagon. That usually happens when I’m stressed or busy or otherwise unfocused. But when I am in a headspace to be decisive, I can achieve the elusive empty inbox at the end of the day.

That happened almost a week ago, on March 5. For the past year, probably, I had a daily goal of Inbox 20. In other words, I could count myself successful if I got my inbox down to 20 at the end of the day. (I track all this stuff in my awesome Trello Daily Task Management board). There were about eight messages that just kept hanging around at the bottom of those 20. A couple were newsletters that I meant to look at and was afraid I’d forget about if I archived the message. A few were emails I was waiting to make a decision about so I could respond to. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t taking action on them and those emails languished in my inbox.

On March 5, I set the goal of getting my inbox down to zero. It wasn’t hard. Once I got rid of the detritus (like the many newsletters I receive and look at daily), I just had to make some decisions. And add a few things to my task board so I could archive the related message.

In the intervening six days, I have achieved Inbox Zero each and every day. It’s been a joy to empty my box by making decisions immediately, replying as necessary and deleting, archiving or filing immediately after I’ve read something that doesn’t require a reply. I am now using my task management board, rather than my inbox, to stay on top of my tasks. It feels great!

It’s hard to describe the satisfaction of maintaining a lean inbox. It makes me feel more in control. It stops me from delaying decisions. It keeps me on top of my correspondence. And my tasks are together where they belong, on my task-management board, not split between Trello and my inbox.

Inbox Zero may feel elusive. But if you’re inspired to go for it, check out this blog post that describes in detail how I emptied my inbox in 20 minutes at the end of 2019. Or take a look at the more detailed post linked in the first paragraph of this post.

It feels so great to be on top of my inbox. I’m now deleting messages as soon as I read them, trying to empty my inbox many times a day. If that sounds appealing, I encourage you to give it a try. Any effort you make at reducing your email backlog is beneficial!

Another chance to participate in Declutter Happy Hour!

8 March 2021

Each Wednesday in February, my podcast co-host, Shannon Wilkinson, and I enjoyed Declutter Happy Hour with a group of 15 lovely participants. It was such a success, we’ve decided to offer it again. The next session of the four-part class will be held April 7, 14, 21, and 28 from 6 to 7:30 pm central daylight time. Click here to learn more and buy a ticket.

As I wrote in January prior to the first session, Shannon and I created Declutter Happy Hour way back in 2009. It started as a teleclass then morphed into an ecourse before we retired it. And it ended up being a precursor to our podcast, Getting to Good Enough.

We were thrilled to be invited by our friends at Fly Paper to bring Declutter Happy Hour back to life, this time via Zoom. And we’re doubly delighted to be offering a second session!

Declutter Happy Hour is a live experience where you actually get some decluttering done. I think it’s really special because it infuses the decluttering process with a secret ingredient: mindset change courtesy of Shannon’s mad skills in hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). And I guarantee that there will be plenty of fun and laughter.

Each of the four sessions starts with a discussion led by Shannon and me about an important aspect of the decluttering process and the mindset shift that can go along with it. Then, during the class, you get time to work on a small decluttering project. You could work on paper, a small space like a drawer or cupboard, or even your hard drive or phone apps. Whatever you decide to work on, Shannon and I will stay in the Zoom room, ready and waiting to answer any questions and provide support and encouragement during the decluttering portion of the class.

By the end of four sessions you’ll have let go of more than just stuff and you’ll have the tools to take on decluttering projects on your own.

Again, Declutter Happy Hour runs on Wednesdays in April starting at 6 pm central time. You can register at Eventbrite. Attendance is limited, so please don’t procrastinate if you want to sign up. We’d love to have you join us!

New organizing swag!

4 March 2021

My friend and colleague, Jodi Granok of Organizing Magic, LLC® here in St. Louis has launched a series of organizing-cartoon products. Jodi bought the full line of organizing-themed cartoons that were commissioned by Donna Smallin Kuper of Organized Greetings. Donna, who for more than ten years used the cartoons for greeting cards, has now retired. With this acquisition, Jodi is introducing products that go beyond (way beyond) two-dimensional greeting cards.

To see the full line of products visit the Organizing Magic Cafepress site. You’ll see she’s offering 30 different products, from pajamas to clocks to face masks (as well as the more traditional t-shirts, mugs and, yes, greeting cards), each emblazoned with one of the cartoons. Here’s a mug, for example:

Jodi is marketing to professional organizers, but of course anyone who loves a particular cartoon or cartoons can purchase these products.

I wish Jodi the very best on this venture!

Worth repeating: My secret for making car buying easy

25 February 2021

Back in 2017 I bought myself a new vehicle. (I’m still driving it!) For someone like me who is easily overwhelmed by choices, buying a car is never easy. But this time I feel I made it as easy as possible on myself and I wrote this post at the time to share how I did it. If you’re in the market for a car, I hope this will be helpful!

I bought a car on Friday, June 9! That doesn’t happen very often and it’s very exciting. I’m 54 and this is only my fifth car. There’s a picture of me with the new ride, taken at Carmax, the used-car dealership where I bought it.

I decided to get a new car because the car I was driving, a 2008 Honda CR-V with 105,000 miles on it, was getting a little long in the tooth and it didn’t have as much cargo space as I’d like. I carry around a lot of bins and storage solutions and it was sometimes a tight fit. This meant I had to schlep bins from my garage across my back yard and into my basement on a regular basis and I was getting tired of it. The lack of cargo space also meant I wasn’t able to help my team members take donations for clients when the client was letting go of a lot of stuff. So I was ready for a car with more cargo space.

The other reason I wanted a new car was that I sick and tired of walking around the open back doors of the car when I was loading up bins. I have a petite two-car garage. (This is a major factor in this story.) I decided I would benefit from driving a van with sliding back doors.

So what’s my secret for making car buying easy? Limit your options!

One of the hardest things for me about a big purchase (or sometimes even a small one) is dealing with all of the options. I’ve learned that I’m much happier making decisions when I have fewer options.

Going into this, I knew a few things:

• I want to park in my garage.
• My garage would accommodate a car no longer than a 2001 Honda Accord (which we used to have).
• I wanted a van (but as a non-mom I didn’t like the idea of a traditional mini-van).
• I needed to be able to carry at least three passengers, since my husband’s car is a two-seater.
• I needed a bench back seat because my big dog, Bix, likes to lie down when he rides in the car.
• I require heated front seats (I swear I turn the heat on 300 days a year).

Sifting the first four factors together, my research revealed there were about two cars that fit the bill. Hooray! My options were immediately limited.

Those two cars were the Ford Transit Connect Wagon and the Dodge Ran Promaster City Wagon. Both are city-oriented, smaller vans (I live in a city) and both are meant for passengers. My two-car garage was just big enough to accommodate the long wheelbase model of the Transit Connect. The other small van is the Nissan SV200 but it’s a cargo van only without a back seat.

I visited a Dodge dealership and test drove the cargo van version of the Promaster City. I quickly ruled it out—I was looking for more amenities than the Dodge offered. So I had it narrowed down to the Ford.

A little more research revealed two things:

• Heated seats come in the Titanium (top of the line) Ford Transit Connect Wagons only
• Ford stopped making Titanium wagons with bench back seats in 2014

That meant I had two choices: Get a custom-made 2018 car and wait five months (and pay $30,000). Or buy a used car that is at least three years old. I chose the second option.

So I knew what I wanted. I just had to find it. I looked at craigslist to no avail. But I had a better choice. Carmax. I was able to test drive a 2016 version of the car I wanted and then have a 2014 with 23,000 miles transferred from the Columbus, Ohio, Carmax. I paid $250 for the transfer, but wasn’t obligated to buy it. That car had literally everything I wanted on it and then a little more. It was just under $20,000. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the color—it’s a boring silver. But it could be worse. They make it in a bright red that I really don’t like.

Carmax made everything really easy. And it was a no-haggle, no-pressure situation. I sold my CR-V to a friend and brought home the new Transit Connect just a few days ago. I’m tickled pink.

I started my research on May 27 and brought home the car on June 9. For me anyway, that’s fast and painless.

So my secret to easy car buying is to figure out your wants and needs and limit the options to those things. Then find that car, buying used if necessary. Usually compromises need to be made, especially when you’re buying used, but in my case I made none, beyond the color.

I’m hoping for many good years with this van!

Two game-changing iPhone hacks

18 February 2021

I thought I’d share a couple of little iPhone hacks I’ve learned about that made a big difference for me. This first one works on the iPhone and iPad. You can use your iPhone’s space bar like a cursor. If you’re typing on your iPhone or iPad screen and you want to go back to edit what you’ve typed, simply press and hold the space bar and a little vertical pointer will appear. Then move your finger slightly on the space bar (while still pressing and holding) to move the pointer to the space that you want to edit. This has made correcting all my dictated messages so much easier! Try it. I bet you’ll love it.

The other is for people who use multiple Apple devices. I just learned about this one a week or two ago and it’s already been a huge help. It’s called Universal Clipboard and it’s useful to those of us who have more than one Apple device connected by iCloud.

With Universal Clipboard, you can copy something on one of your devices and paste it to the other. So if I see a website on my phone that I want to view on my MacBook, I can simply highlight the URL, touch Copy and then on my computer open a browser, click in the browser window and select Paste. (I use the keyboard shortcut Command-V to paste.) The URL shows up, I press enter and then I can easily the website it on the big screen.

Another example might be if I’m starting an email on my phone and find it annoying to use the little phone keyboard. I can select the text I’ve already written, touch Copy (or Cut), then paste it into an email on my computer. It works for photos, images and videos too! I found that it worked like a charm on the first try because my preferences were already set for it. If you try it and it doesn’t work, try clicking on the link above for instructions on adjusting your system preferences (you need to enable Handoff).

If these are new to you, I hope you find them as useful as I have!