Your Organizing Coach

Goal Setting: Yea or Nay?

It's good to have goals. Why get out of bed otherwise? They give you a positive outlook on the future and make you feel that what you're doing today, right now, is meaningful. Lots of people avoid goal setting though. Too much pressure, fear of failure, etc.

I read this post about goal setting being a waste of time. The author prefers describing his definite major purpose, or DMP. I think his DMP is the same thing as goals, just stated differently. His version is more inspiring and more motivating. Nothing wrong with that.

So, if you avoid goal setting, see if you can think of a different way to describe what the goals mean. Focus on what you want in your life this year, how you want to feel and what will make you want to jump out of bed to accomplish. That's what goals are for.

What do you think? Yea or nay?

New Year's Resolution Ideas for Getting Organized

Getting organized, along with losing weight and quitting smoking, is on most people's list of new year's resolutions. Here are some ideas for resolutions, and three rules for increasing your success at keeping those resolutions.

First rule for any resolution: keep it small enough to be do-able. You want a goal that's reachable soon, even if it seems insignificant. You're setting the stage for the next, bigger goal. Success breeds success.

Second rule: It's all about you. Don't compare yourself to others, especially that more organized neighbor or relative. You have your own unique skills, talents, desires and motives. Work with them, not against them. Start where you are now.

Okay, here are some suggestions. Scale them up or down as needed.

• I will sort my mail every day
• I will spend 30 minutes a week decluttering (use a timer!)
• I will give away magazines before the next issue arrives even if I haven't gotten around to reading them
• I will keep a shopping bag in my closet to put clothes I'm donating in
• I will keep my to-do list small and manageable (put it on a Post-It)

The challenge:
How do you remember to do all these wonderful things? Despite your best intentions, you may find it hard to work these new behaviors into your life. Make it easier with reminders that work for you. Use Post-Its on the bathroom mirror; a classic. Programmed, regular email reminders are my favorite. Find a partner to trade reminders with on the phone every week.

Third rule: don't beat yourself up if you get behind. Just start again. Remember when you learned to ride a bike? How often did you fall off before you were able to fly down the street on that thing? Once you were flying, you probably didn't think about the falling part anymore. So, get on the bike.

Learning to See Clutter

Sometimes my clients have trouble identifying what their clutter is. Here's a case in point. The desk and counters of Dave's office are piled fairly densely, making it hard for him to work. I select a pile at random and here's what happened.

Me: Dave, what's this pile?

Dave: Those are binders from our spring conference.

Me: Is there a reason you're keeping them?

Dave: That's our biggest conference of the year.

Me: Right, but do you need 14 copies?

Dave: Well, sometimes people ask me for them.

Me: Do you have it available electronically?

Dave: Oh, yes. It's on the website as a PDF.

Me: Would it be okay to direct people who want a copy to download the PDF?

Dave: Sure, I guess so.

Me: So do you still need all these copies?

Dave: We always keep copies. Every year.

Me: Is there some other purpose you'll be using them for?

Dave: Um, no. We just, uh, keep them. The extras.

Me: So when you go to create this year's binder, you won't refer to these?

Dave: No, I have all the files on my computer, the templates and stuff.

Me: What if you just keep one copy in your archive files? How would that be?

Dave: Yeah, I suppose one is enough.

Me: Where would be a logical place to keep it?

Dave (looking sheepish): Can't leave it on the counter, I guess?

Me: Well, you probably won't need it anytime soon and you don't want it to get buried under a pile. How about filing it with other documents from the spring conference?

Dave (relieved): Oh, yeah. That makes sense.

_______________

This is the source of a lot of desk clutter; papers that were important last week or five months ago, but aren't now. They need to be tossed out or filed away. Paper like this very quickly becomes part of the backdrop in your office. Because it started out being important, you forget to question its presence.

Start questioning. Leave the room and come back in. Investigate the first pile you see. Does it have a compelling reason to be there; i.e. it's important to your current work? If not, is it worth keeping at all? Be ruthless, especially if you have electronic copies.

Can You Be Too Organized?

You're too organized if doing the work of organizing starts taking up half your day. The organizing you do should be at the service of the rest of your life and your work, not the other way around.

People shy away from organizing because they think it's a huge project or it will be enormously time consuming. Now, if they want to organize their entire homes top to bottom and they've been collecting stuff since the dawn of time, this is a realistic fear. For everyone else, it's not.

Organizing can be a few simple things you do to make your life run more smoothly. Things like putting your bag in a place where you can find it again or jotting an event onto your calendar so you don't rely on (cursed) memory.

To find your perfect organizing level, observe what's working and what's not. What bothers you and what's fine the way it is. If what's not working is being able to get out of the house on time in the mornings, figure out what the specific obstacles are. Can't find the keys? Forgot some important information? Trying to squish too many tasks into the morning?

Now you've got something to work with. If you're really bugged by running around the house searching for keys, you'll be motivated to find a special place to stash them when you come in the door. You might not do it every time. Even if you do it half the time, you're ahead of the game.

Analyze what is working for you. Maybe you've got a "don't forget" list on the wall right next to the front door that you see when you leave the house. You always look at it and it helps. How can you use that technique in other ways? You might make a list of morning routine tasks and attach it to the fridge or the bathroom mirror.

It's the little things, people. Small things that help your life work better.

Found keys from Otacon_85's photostream

Get Organized in the New Year

You may already know that "getting organized" is consistently one of the top five new year's resolutions. Maybe it's been on yours. It ranks up there with losing weight, quitting smoking and spending more time with family.

Most people end up not following through with their resolutions. The ones who do have this in common: they got support. They joined Weight Watchers, for example.

Support is necessary because we're creatures of habit. Making positive changes in your life is much easier when you don't try to do it all by yourself. Having help can be the difference between achieving a goal that's dear to you and resigning yourself to failure next year, again.

If getting organized is on your list of resolutions, I'm here to help you. You can have more ease, more space and more time in your life.

Call me at 510-768-7913 or email me at claire AT cluttercoach.net (substitute an ampersand for "AT").

 

Haiku about Clutter

I wrote a whole little book full of these. Here's one:

It's so frustrating
The intractability
Of solid objects

 

 

Block photo by me

Declutter Your Reading List

It's book chapter Wednesday. Here you go! Like it? You can buy the ebook here.

Simple Way #9

Reading List

Reading material constitutes a lot of the paper that people struggle with. If you get two daily newspapers, a few weekly magazines and 5-6 monthly publications, your reading pile gets high very quickly. Clipping articles for later is a good strategy, but it’s also time consuming and recommended only for important information you can’t get elsewhere or will use immediately.

Keep your paper stacks under control by making sure you allow time to read all that you subscribe to and when you can’t, that you get rid of back issues to make room for the new ones. This requires being honest about how much time you can and will devote to reading. Newspapers and news magazines should be the first to go because they become obsolete so quickly.

Right now:
If you still have yesterday’s newspaper or last week’s magazines, put them in the recycling now.

 

Decisions Move the World

I write a lot about decision making. So much of clutter and other stuff that's in your way is the result of not making decisions about it. The pile of needed decisions keeps growing till you just get overwhelmed by it and then the simplest decision seems strenuous. That naturally induces procrastination.

Why decide? Here's why:

• When you don't decide, others do it for you. Are they going to pick the choice you want? Uh-uh.
• The longer you wait to decide, the more likely your desired option(s) will expire or otherwise go away
• When you avoid deciding to keep your options open, you still don't have that thing you want. You just have the option to have it. Would you rather have the daydream or the real thing?
• When you boldly make decisions, you stir up positive energy. You take action. You move. You pull it off.

Decision making is a skill you can learn. I'm almost ready to publish my new info program about decision making and habit building, where I teach you both those vital skills. So, stay tuned, or drop me a line in the comments. What can I help you with today?

Diving board from vauvau's photostream.

It's book chapter Wednesday (um, Thursday). Here you go! Like it? You can buy the ebook here.

Simple Way #8

Reduce Gift Clutter

Request non-cluttering gifts such gourmet food, show tickets, donations in your name, wine, flowers, etc. It may seem awkward at first to tell friends and family about your new policy; after all, they’re giving you a gift! But it can also help them to know that you’re going to like what they give you and they don’t have to try to read your mind. There may always be an Aunt Martha who insists on giving you an unwanted fruitcake. Refer back to Simple Way #7 for advice.

Make it your policy to give clutter-free gifts yourself. Ask what they want. Develop your own selection of gifts such as memberships, special excursions or a personal service that you provide.

Right now:
Make a list of gifts you’d like to get so when people ask you, or when holidays are coming up, you can suggest them.

 

How Planning Ahead Can Make You Happier

I talked with someone recently about planning and why he avoided it. He thought it was rigid and unimaginative. On the contrary, I replied, taking up the challenge. I’ll show you how it's flexible and creative. 

Here’s the situation: it’s a warm fall afternoon. Me: Let’s go to the beach! Him: Great, I’m ready. Me: Wait, there’s some stuff I want to take. Him: Let’s just go! 

Planning in advance does all these wonderful things: 

• It creates focus, which then inspires action. Once the beach idea came up, there were a lot of things I knew to do because I could visualize the possibilities
  
  
• Visualizing foresees problems. (It could be cold)
  
  
• Planning crystallizes desire. (I had the desire not to be cold, so I brought a jacket)
  
  
• Keeping track of time makes positive outcomes more likely (we'll get to the place before it closes)
  
  
• Planning closes the gap between wanting something and getting it (the clearer you are about what you want, the faster you can get it)
  
  
• It honors my preferences. They are important to me because I know from experience that they directly affect the pleasure I get from an activity. I can’t control everything (it could rain) but I can control many things, and quite easily (I want a knife for the mayonnaise, not a twig we found on the ground). 

Planning likes this requires imagination because you visualize what could happen. Not just that it might get cold, but that it might be fun to bring a book to read together. Planning is flexible because you can bring a change of clothes in case you decide to go out for dinner on the way home, for example.

You’re not planning a strict schedule that must be adhered to; you're accounting for some other wonderful possibilities you haven’t even thought of. 

Picnic shelters from Ed Siasoco's photostream.