My Rocks are in a Row June 20, 2008

A while back I wrote about My Big Rocks, inspired by Stephen Covey in First Things First, and Leo at Zen Habits.

This week I accomplished a huge goal: I got a new job!

I’ve been working at a job for two years that’s been making me miserable, anxious and depressed. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why, then decided I needed to focus more on just making a change. I was in the middle of interviewing life coaches, when a friend sent me a job announcement she thought I’d be interested in - and I got the job!

I’m so thrilled. It’s a wonderful organization that raises money to improve the public schools in our area - a cause near and dear to my heart.

This really kills two rocks with one stone (mixed-up metaphor there); not only did I find a more satisfying and challenging job, but I won’t have to force myself to work anymore - I might even look forward to it! So . . . my third rock is still my decluttering and organizing quest, and while I’ve made decent progress there, there’s plenty more to be done! I hope that this new beginning will give me even more energy for my journey to order, serenity and peace of mind.

I Need to Stop Procrastinating and Start Working May 29, 2008

Earlier today I indulged in a bit of a poor me post about losing sight of my goals and disliking my day job. I spend more time thinking about how much I dislike it and trying to avoid it than I do working. And the truth is, once I get started it’s not all that bad, especially compared to the anxiety and guilt I feel about not working.

So . . . I had a little Come to Jesus Meeting with myself this evening and decided that I need to JUST DO IT, as the famous saying goes. Our family depends on the income, the work itself could be a lot worse, and ultimately all this procrastinating is bad for my state of mind. Neil Fiore says in The Now Habit:

Trying to escape work by procrastinating will only increase your anxiety; only work will diminish [it] . . . the only thing that really helps is to start working.

Well said, so true - for me anyway. And ironically, what I do is write about food . . . I like to write, at least here, and I love to cook and eat and read and talk about food, so I can’t figure out why this is so painful for me.

My goal is to work (a measly) minimum of 10 hours each week. Starting tomorrow I’ll aim for 2 hours a day, even if it means I work for just five minutes at a stretch - no, just kidding! Instead I’ll follow Neil Fiore’s advice and work for 30 minutes at a stretch. And in between 30-minute work sessions I can spend 5 minutes dealing with the basement project.

My blog will be my witness, and you, dear readers are welcome to cheer me on.

I’ve Dropped My Big Rocks May 29, 2008

Several weeks ago I wrote about the notion of attending to your “big rocks” first, in terms of time management and productivity. I had three big rocks, and ambitious goals.

As of this writing, I think I’m still carrying just one of those big rocks. Why?

The first rock was to work towards financial security for my family, by diligently working at my freelance job, which bores me to tears. I have to force myself to do my projects, and this is no way to live!

The second rock was to find a new job, by making one contact daily, which was probably unrealistic in the first place. But I’m so unfocused and unsure of what I want to do that I have no compass for making those contacts.

The third rock was to work on my personal serenity project - decluttering and organizing my house, doing a little bit each day. I think I can give myself a pat on the back for this one. I’ve organized my sock drawer, and my linen closet, greatly reduced the amount of stuff I had on my desk, and managed to clear the floor of piles of debris in my basement “holiday room”. I’ve taken two trips to the consignment store, put together a favorite recipe binder (two in my case - I cook a lot), and organized my spoons :-).

So how to tackle rocks one and two? A coach. I thought I had to approach a coaching relationship with goals, like: “I’m dying to be a (fill in the blank) and I don’t know how to get there”, but I’m learning that the idea is to start the process with questions. I know I want to make more money, but I’m really torn between my interest in social service work and my entrepreneurial dreams.

In the meantime, I do need to pick up that financial security rock and keep marching along . . .

Reducing Email Clutter May 28, 2008

There’s a lot of chatter on the productivity blogs about “processing your inbox to zero” and how to manage email overload. I decided that poor David Allen would hyperventilate if he saw my inbox, so I took a crack at it, and began by ruthlessly deleting mail after mail. Most of those emails represented indecision and/or procrastination; I figured if I hadn’t done anything about them for several weeks, I never would - so away they went into cyberspace.

I was able to reduce the number of emails in my inbox from 200+ to under 10. As we speak, there are 10 read (but not processed) emails awaiting my attention. Some examples of what I’m now avoiding:

• a baby shower invitation
• an email from a cousin which includes his siblings’ email addresses - which I need
• an invitation to a political fundraiser
• a request from Budget rental cars inviting me to create a profile - for fabulous discounts, of course!

One rule I try to live by when dealing with email is to never sit down at the computer without my calendar. So many emails require checking on dates and times and it’s so much easier to just look, decide and delete right on the spot. Of course this doesn’t help with the guilt of wanting to say no to something - I deal with that by procrastinating!

I get quite a few promotional emails from online retailers; I don’t unsubscribe because I’m waiting for the free shipping promotions - I wear petites which are not usually available in “bricks and mortar” stores, so I order online a lot and I try not to pay shipping if I can avoid it. I’m pretty good about deleting those right away if they aren’t offering free shipping.

I’m about to unsubscribe from Daily Candy. While I have to admire the founder for her ingenuity (a daily email focusing on just one topic or product), they’re all about consuming, and they have this weirdly smug tone-of-voice that I find annoying. And let’s be serious, I’ll never buy a $400 purse . . . so DC is going away today.

I do make use of folders to store emails; I have way too many I’m sure, but the ones I’m finding useful now are my Summer 08 folder (vacation and camp info); my Hours folder where I keep the emails I send to my employer (if I ever work instead of blog); and my Daisy Scout folder (I’m one of the co-leaders).

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your email inbox, take a quick look (remember you can spend just five minutes on this to start) and maybe set a goal of deleting anything that’s older than three months, or 10% of the entire contents - something arbitrary but quantifiable so you’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment.

For me the payoff is as high as clearing my desk or decluttering the linen closet - give it a try!

Heading Home May 25, 2008

It’s kind of scary how much I’ve enjoyed this trip. My brother was critically ill, so this was far from a relaxing vacation. And as I mentioned in my post the other day, I’m staying in a very modest hotel, but it has seemed like heaven.

And I haven’t had any real responsibilities. Someone else is cleaning my room - every day! my husband and daughter are fending for themselves at home; other than blogging, I haven’t been working (that’s the best part) and I haven’t cooked or washed a dish since Wednesday. And the hours I’ve had alone at the hotel - pure bliss!

I guess the lesson is that I need to find a way to create more space for solitude, creativity and renewal in my daily life. I’m alone a lot during the day, but I’m either housecleaning or working - or feeling guilty that I should be doing one or the other. And being alone is not the same as solitude.

I’m going to try two ways to find the time and the space I need. One is something I just read about the other day called time striping, which I think might suit me better than the other systems I’ve tried for managing my time and my work. The other is the unschedule from Neil Fiore’s The Now Habit, which encourages you to calendar the things you want to do before scheduling the things you “have” to do.

My organizing and decluttering project is still important to me, and essential for my serenity and peace of mind, but I really need to get this time management thing figured out and make more room for joy in my life.

Summer is coming and it feels like the perfect time for a fresh start. I hope One Bag Nation will help me stay on track with these resolutions; I’ll definitely be posting about my pursuit of joy - along with order, serenity and peace of mind.

The Basement Report: Day Five May 16, 2008

On Monday I posted about the worst organizing project I’m tackling: the disaster we call the basement.

I realized that committing to spending just 15 minutes a day down there was more than I could face, so I decided to aim for five minutes, every day.

How have I done? I’ve worked down there 3 out of the last 5 days, and I’m thrilled. It may be absurd, but the truth is that if I keep at it, even for just 5 minutes at a time, it will eventually get cleared out and cleaned up. And I’ve made more progress over the last five days than over the last five months.

Baby Steps, Baby Steps (as flylady would say) toward order, serenity and peace of mind.

My Internet Addiction May 13, 2008

My husband finally put it into words last night, and he’s right. I’m addicted to the internet.

Needless to say this is not doing much for my productivity. The one bright light is that I used to be addicted to internet window shopping; now I’m addicted to improving my blog. “Clicking around” is also very soothing somehow; I guess it requires so little real thought or effort, and if you’re at all a curious person the possibilities are endless . . .

So what to do? I can’t imagine giving it up entirely, though I know people who don’t have an internet connection at home. I suppose some kind of schedule or limits are in order - I feel like a wayward child!

If any of you, dear readers, have suggestions, please share!

Getting Motivated to Get Organized May 4, 2008

In the world of weight loss - where I’ve lived for a very long time - there’s a lot of talk about motivation through tangible rewards, and it seems to work for lots of people.

My experience is that the positive change itself is reward enough for me. If I stick to my food program and see a weight loss, I’m thrilled. If I stick to my Now Habit commitment and work diligently each day, I’m thrilled. If I stick to my routine of picking up the house before I go to bed, I’m thrilled. The reward for me is the weight loss, the work getting done, the tidy house in the morning.

It took me a while to recognize this about myself. I was always marking catalogs with clothing I’d like, or writing down books or CDs I wanted to buy, and then setting weight loss or other goals. But I wasn’t motivated by the clothes or the books.

Tackling clutter and disorganization can be overwhelming, and staying motivated to keep at it is half the battle. I guess we all need to discover what drives us to good - or not-so-good - behavior and act accordingly.

You Can Do (almost) Anything for 15 Minutes April 18, 2008

but if you can’t, try just five. Sometimes even 15 minutes seems overwhelming.

I routinely do “Five-Minute Room Rescues” (inspired by flylady, as was the title of this post); I set the kitchen timer and buzz through a room, picking up, wiping the surfaces, sweeping, even vacuuming sometimes. I can make a noticeable difference in a very short amount of time, and it feels really good to have the house tidy - in fact, I sometimes even feel serene . . .

Why I’m A One Bag Woman April 9, 2008

The Rise of One Bag Nation

Several weeks ago I made the decision to commit to using the same bag, every day. This one new habit has been so amazingly helpful in my quest for order and organization that I couldn’t keep it to myself - the world needed to know! And One Bag Nation - the blog, the movement - was born.

The Backstory

Throughout my lifelong struggle for order and organization, I have bought a LOT of bags, thinking the “perfect bag” would lead to the perfectly organized life. It didn’t work. When my daughter was born, I kind of went over the deep end, bag-wise. I had a pretty good system before I stopped working, but suddenly I needed a diaper bag and a purse; then a bag for sippy cups, toys, snacks, and a purse; then a backpack for swimsuits, sunscreen, lunches and a purse . . . . I don’t even want to think about how many bags I’ve tried in the last 6 years. Only some of them are in the pile in the photo; I’ve given away or consigned a lot. I eventually went back to the Fossil wallet-style purse I had used when I was working full-time.

But I still needed a larger bag for all the other stuff I wanted to carry. I continued my quest, buying more totes and backpacks in various sizes and shapes. One of my many impulse buys was the polka-dotted bag in my avatar (see my About page) - a really simple Dickies bag for $9.99 at Staples I just couldn’t pass up! I added it to my collection. In the meantime, I was still constantly changing bags, which of course led to never knowing where my keys, sunglasses, pens, checkbook, tissues, calendar or phone were - and I spent an awful lot of time transferring stuff from one bag to another.

I Stopped the Madness One day I decided this had to stop. I pulled out the Dickies bag and committed to using it ALL THE TIME. And it worked. I still carry my wallet purse (inside the tote), along with all the other things I need to carry on any given day. I can easily pull out my purse for quick errands, leaving the large bag in the car. I put my bag on the same chair every time I come in the door, drop my keys into the side pocket, my gloves and/or sunglasses into the main compartment and I’m ready to go the next time. This bag isn’t perfect: it only has one small outside pocket and the interior is black, which makes it hard to see inside. But what I love about it far outweighs the flaws: it’s attractive, it has shoulder-bag length handles, the fabric is sturdy and water-resistant - and it was so cheap! It’s large enough to carry a sweater or fleece for my daughter, or several reusable shopping bags, or my idea notebooks and my tickler file; even my large water bottle fits easily inside.

Someday I’ll design the Ultimate Tote Bag (the ideas are already percolating) but of course it’s keeping the commitment to using the same bag every day that has really made the difference; one small step that takes me closer to order, serenity and peace of mind.