Clutter and Cholesterol

What do clutter and cholesterol have in common? Well, they both muck up the workings of our lives. But more importantly, they both induce a great deal of fear when we consider what needs to be done to reduce their impact. Having a hand to hold in making any change makes that change easier. The world is so connected now that finding a 'study buddy' for anything is as simple as sending out a request into the ether.

As for my cluttering friends, the phone lines of Clutterers Anonymous have provided a huge support in doing the daily tasks that keep chaos at bay. If you'd like to give it a try. I am providing the number here:

Clutterers Anonymous (CLA)

Friday 8:30 am

213-289-0555

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All the Best!

P.S. If the cholesterol issue interests you, check out the interview with Bill Clinton on my FaceBook page!

End of Summer

I've had a "list-less" summer, literally. I gave myself a break from list making and as a result the summer was enjoyable but not too productive. Perhaps exactly what a summer needs to be to recharge the batteries for the school year ahead. I took son number two to school last weekend and will take son number one this Friday. The house will be quieter then and I will take up list making once again. I am also taking a coaching class for organizers and hope to learn lots of good things to share with clients and friends about productivity. In general, I've been seeing time management as the seed that goes unplanted in many of our lives and imbalance, discontent, and chaos spring from there.

Conversation Starter

My how the conversation can flow when I am asked about my job! Sometimes the immediate reaction is one of alarm; as if I am able to peer into their home at the same time we are casually chatting at a party. Of course, those who are deeply affected by clutter are usually happy to have an willing ear about the subject. I love being available to those who I understand.

Resistance

It is hysterical today how resistant I am to doing my filing. Yesterday I RAFTed and it's all ready to go plunk into the files and still I am blogging rather than doing! My office is in the basement and I know that is a big part of it. I recently took a teleclass on the kaizen method of reducing resistance and I know intellectually that taking one tiny step with help with this. As they said, "The problem isn't that it is so hard, but that it is so easy." My brain wants it all done, my brain wants big accomplishments. Today I need a smaller brain!

Spring Cleaning Fever

Seems like business is doing that spring pick up thing. I'm working with my most organized client ever. I love the way my visits motivate her to work to maximum capacity on her own and during my time there.

At a youth art show this weekend I saw a poster that said "To master anything of value, you have to practice for 10,000 hours." I see my practice of daily organizing as a discipline that makes me better in every area of my life. Yes, this is how I began my spiritual journey...one paper clip at a time.

Life Organizing

Met with my Time Management group yesterday. A small showing but it can be much better that way. We logged a typical day to see how time is being spent. Next step is to create a list of our goals and supporting activities for those goals. Luckily Julie Morgenstern has a pretty great sample listing in her book "Time Management from the Inside Out", and we all started from there. Our goal is to live a life of purpose and not just do things because we have always done them!!!!!

In The Clutches

So I picked up the book the Shoptimism by Lee Eisenberg at the library yesterday. I'm always learning about the dis-ease of compulsive behavior even the seemingly harmless addiction to acquiring. Acquiring differs in my mind from 'hoarding' when the participant is easily able to release the excess. Still the obsession with acquiring items can take up so much 'head space' and time that the focus of one's life drops to the bottom of the list. Here again, a life run on reaction to feelings becomes the ball and chain which prevents us from achieving our dreams. I have learned that one thought must override another if brain change is to be achieved. My old thoughts were "I'll do it later", "I don't feel like it", "I'm so tired", "I'm so depressed." Some thoughts that I've adopted over the years include: "Less is more", "Do it anyway", "Do it now", "Later never comes" and "Picking up is a gift I give myself." As Byron Katie says, "I don't think, I am thought." Bringing my thoughts to consciousness and shifting them has made all the difference to me.

Clutter Crazy?

Heading out on a trip with the Girl Scouts yesterday, I was told one of the girls didn't have her permission slip. The mom who had brought her to the meeting place drove back to her house to get a parent and brought the mom to sign a new one. The frazzled mom filled out the new form (this was holding us all up after all) and then opened the girls bag and fished out the original form. The mom who was responsible for the girl said, "I figured it was easier to go back and get you than it would be to look for the form." Knowing something about this mom's history (disorganization) I know that her belief must have been supported by many years and many incidents where that thought would have been true. Where are we in life when we are unable or unwilling to look at what's going on in the moment and question it?

What Are You Willing To Do?

I've been thinking about willingness lately. I heard it said that "willingness is a one person job." That means I can serve as an example to others, but I am powerless to bring anyone to the willingness they need to succeed. Having the willingness to ask for help is how a client will eventually find me. What will take them the rest of the way is the willingness to do what they don't feel like doing. Overriding our feelings by first acknowledging them and then putting them in their proper place is what success is all about. The reason for this is that if our "feelings" are in the drivers seat then our "purpose" is forgotten. Keeping my purpose of being organized in the forefront of my mind meant trusting that a life of small moment by moment actions which supported my "purpose" was the answer to my biggest question ..."How can I...?" I believe faith is forward motion. If I have no faith then I'm stuck. If you are reading this, maybe you are stuck too. I recommend taking a step back and asking "What am I willing to do?"

Fear of the Middle

The quote "It gets worse before it gets better" comes to mind with these before and after shots. The first shot is actually the 'in process' shot. If you can't handle how your stuff already is, then making it any worse is terrifying. Thought I'd show how it's not so scary in the middle. Happy organizing!

Facebook and Time Management

As I journey into the world of Facebook I truly wonder how much time I want to give to this endeavor. It's been fun to touch base with the old gang but I am reminded how the computer is a time sucker for so many. If the past few days are going to be the normal then checking in on my "Wall" will be one of those things I always have time for. It must me filling a need for me. My job is to figure out what that need is ('connection with community' or 'escape into the past') and make time for satisfying that need in life enhancing ways. Last night it happened with a phone call with an old friend so at this point the score is FB ten, head in the technology sand, zero. At the first Time Management group we barely had time to go around and share our answers to Julie Morgenstern's probing questions (from the book Time Management From the Inside Out). I need to schedule another class to go into the analysis of the answers. First, I will send it as homework because one member of the group responds best when tasks are assigned and graded. It is wonderful to help adults realize and work with their innate natures!!!!!!!!!

Facebook

Just got on FB this weekend. Was this the best thing to have done on the second week of my Time Management group? I was reading the information from a class on Organizing with Depression and thought I throw out this idea. "You don't have to feel like doing X, you just have to do X". Pulling ourselves into action is the best cure for being stuck. Here's to doing what I don't feel like doing today!

Time Management Group

After a slow start to the year and a lot of snow for Maryland, I started a Time Management group. This is a learning process for me as well and the lightbulb has gone off that this could have been the first item to tackle! The first questions were about what we always have time for and why.

Stopping to Blog

Last week at Ikea was pretty cool. Got a chance to promote organizing service as the missing link between the reality at home and the fantasy displayed in their store. Wouldn't it be lovely to have organizing services included in the price of a large storage item? My fantasies continue...

Check This Out!

Today I made a Clutterers Anonymous call and was delighted in two ways. One was to find a community of people around the country committing to each other what area they would declutter in the next hour, half hour, or sometimes 15 minutes. It was an Action Line that I was on so that was the focus. There was a short reading out of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous and someone shared an experience about the reading topic. I did what I said I would do (load the dishwasher) and I did it quickly to get back on the call at the bottom of the hour. I was honest with them and said I no longer have a problem with clutter but that I use picking up as a way to procrastinate and that I really need 'procrastinators anonymous'. I thought I was being funny but lo and behold there is a Procrastinator's Anonymous and I am going to call in on their line tomorrow afternoon when I have a chunk of time that I'd like to devote to writing! The number for the CLA Action Line that I called is (218)339-2500, code 185487#. I believe it is a 24hr line and the idea is to check in at the top of the hour to commit and then check back in when you are done. Check out the CLA website for more information. http://sites.google.com/site/clutterersanonymous/Home

Organizing Tips at IKEA

Come one come all! On February 20th at the White Marsh IKEA there will be organizers from NAPO-Baltimore giving talks and answering questions. NAPO stands for the Naional Association of Professional Organizers.

HAITI

Donations can be made to support Red Cross relief efforts by texting "HAITI" to 90999. This is off the Dept. of Health and Human Services website www.hhs.gov.
A donation of $10 will automatically be charged to your cell phone bill.

Body Double

It is still winter break for my college aged son. He is home and doesn't yet realize that I am trying to have him serve in the 'body double' role for me today. A 'body double' in the organizing world is someone who is with you to help you focus on getting your work done. What they are doing during this time doesn't matter. For people who don't work at home or for people who don't have ADD this may sound foolish. However, for those of us who work at home and have ADD the body double can be a critical factor is getting work accomplished. Were it not so cold out I might pad off to the cafe down the street that boasts free wi-fi. Being in a place where others are banding together for the same purpose usually works but it is best if the body double knows the role they are playing for me. I have worked with partners in libraries, coffee shops and the houses of friends when something really needs to happen. At this moment my son isn't hitting the mark because I am too ashamed to tell him about his role. I'm blasting the 'should's' in life (see previous post) but the shame is not so easily escaped. I know what to do about the shame luckily but I don't feel like doing it just now because the thought of entering my data into Quicken is just as appealing! Another successful day with body doubling!

Clutterers Anonymous

A friend recently mentioned that she has a sponsor in CA, is attending phone meetings and using members as accountability partners! Yeah, for the 12 Steps and yeah for technology reaching out and grabbing those of us who would rather not ask for help and stay in our own self-induced misery longer than we need to. I will listen in on a CA phone meeting and report back here!

Maybe You Could Write a List

In my eternal quest to eliminate the word "should" from my vocabulary I call out to my son "Maybe you could write a list" when he tells me of all the things he needs. It's a brilliant idea, list making and I want to increase the likelihood that it will happen.

The reason I so despise the word "should" is that it is full of shame. Really, it's a shortened version of "I could... but if I don't, shame on me." As I recently read, a little shame is good, it keeps us in line, but too much is ruinous, really ruinous. Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Stop 'shoulding' yourself." Well "Stop 'shoulding'" is going to be my tag line for 2010 because whether it's backwards or forwards, for me or for you, the 'shoulds' just don't amount to anything useful. I'd like a kinder, gentler word for the things I'd like to accomplish this year, this day. I'm thinking 'mayhaps' might be it. A shortened version of "maybe I will do.... but if I don't, there's always tomorrow."