A Proper 100th Post

Posted by: onebagnation on: September 4, 2008

• In: self-improvement | Uncategorized
• 10 Comments

Hello! I took a little detour the other day with my “first” 100th post, but now I’d like to share the post I had originally planned to officially commemorate the 100th post of One Bag Nation.

First, my heartfelt thanks to my small but loyal band of readers and commenters; you keep me going! Some of you have visited consistently, right from the start, and I’d like to mention a few by name:

• The amazing Vered at MomGrind, who is everywhere in the blogosphere, commenting, guest posting and lending her generous support to so many fellow bloggers!
• Barbara at Blogging Without a Blog , who has created such a nice community of bloggers, and is a faithful reader, commenter and cheerleader.
• Kelly at Almost Frugal, who has listened to my trials and tribulations (aka whining) as I worked to get Vintage Mommy going, and who does an amazing job of balancing mommy-ing, blogging and entrepreneur-ing (I suspect she never sleeps) and continually inspires me.
• The quirky and kind Camilla, who may not comment often, but when she does I always wish I could meet her in person.
• And not to leave out Urban Panther and Marelisa who come by to comment regularly.

I also want to share some of the resources that have helped me the most in my quest for order, serenity and peace of mind. Although I still have a long way to go, I would be at Square One (surrounded by clutter and piles of laundry!) without their wisdom and inspiration.

Flylady saved me from going completely crazy when I became a stay-at-home mom. Her insistence on establishing routines, and her Five-minute Room Rescues, 27-Fling Boogies and words of wisdom like “You Can do ANYTHING for 15 Minutes” literally changed my life. Among other things, I learned that moving around the house picking up and straightening not only makes my house look better, the act of moving around eases my anxiety – perhaps a very small dose of endorphines at work? For those of you who are truly stuck and struggling, and don’t know where to begin, go to her site!

My Tickler File is a time and paper management technique first taught to me almost 20 years ago, which still helps me manage my paper and my obligations. The Tickler was recently re-popularized by David Allen, and you can read more about it here, at the 43folders Wiki.

Laura Leist, whose book Eliminate Chaos suggested using turntables in kitchen cupboards, and EUREKA! for $20 I eliminated a major source of stress and inefficiency! I literally got chills of delight (for days!!) when I looked at my newly-organized shelf. You’ll get chills too when you look at the BEFORE and AFTER photos.

The Daily Docket from simplemom (a beautiful and useful blog) is a wonderful tool that I just began to use and has already made a difference. It’s amazing what you learn about how long projects and tasks actually take when you plan and track your time hour by hour.

Delivered from Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell MD & John J. Ratey which encouraged me to “do something [I] love” so that focus would come more easily. They were right!

Steven Covey, who taught me years ago about putting First Things First, and about putting the Important ahead of the Urgent, and although I have a hard time actually doing this, I never lose sight of the goal!

Leo at zenhabits whom I discovered a couple of years ago while searching for ways to get my life in order, and whose simplification of David Allen’s Getting Things Done helped me strive to focus on my three Most Important Things (MITs).

And finally, speaking of Most Important Things, these words, from the lovely and talented Marelisa at her Abundance Blog, are most important to me:

Treat Yourself Like Someone You Love

Cheers! and thanks again.

Tags: proper 100th post