Are Your “Incompletes” Draining Your Energy?
I think the activity of evaluating the “incompletes” in your life and dealing with them is so important that I will share one other perspective with you today.
In assessing your list of “incompletes” did you identify anything that required support from another person or group? Did you determine if you had their support or not? Remember you can only change yourself. And anytime you put energy into a person or activity without the other person being committed to the process, you are wasting your energy and, therefore, your time. It is better to eliminate that energy drain from your list and move forward with items you can impact.
Here’s a link to a post from Coach John Agno that discusses this further. I found it intriguing.
http://coachingtip.blogs.com/coaching_tip/2008/06/stuck-on-human.html
Can Moving Your Stuff Change Your Life?
In a previous post I told a story about a friend who cleared out some clutter and things started happening with her business (http://clutterbustingcoach.com/?s=clearing+clutter&x=33&y=10). Some of you may have thought it possible while others may have thought it a coincidence.
In the book Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life: How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness (Fireside 2000) Karen Rauch Carter writes “If you want to create a life worth living, you also need some tools: a living environment, an idea of what you want out of life, good intentions, and an understanding of the ancient Chinese secrets of feng shui (better say it right: fung shway).”
She continues “Proper feng shui is purposefully arranging the stuff around you to gain positive results.” Maybe the stuff in your life has something to do with you being out of balance.
Life coaching can also help you find the balance you crave. For a free 30-minute sample session to personally experience life coaching and experience its benefits contact me.
Conquering Chaos: The Home Office
Here are a few tips to create a calm and welcoming home office:
- Clear your desk of personal mementos. Hang them on the wall or place them on a shelf so that you are left with room to work.
- Keep a few extra office supplies (paper clips, staples, etc.) in your top drawer - no more than a month’s supply.
- Only keep those items that you use daily on top of your desk (stapler, small pencil cup, tape dispenser).
- Store larger amounts of office supplies in one area so you will be able to do a quick visual inventory of what you have on hand.
- Collect all sticky notes and scraps of paper. Add them to your master list and/or calendar.
- When you complete a phone call make a note of the next action required and immediately schedule it in your calendar or place it on your master list.
- Take 10 minutes at the end of the workday to straighten up your desk and make tomorrow’s to-do list.
I have found a great resource on how to organize your desk, workday, briefcase, home office or just about anything. Peter Walsh’s book How to Organize (just about) Everything: more than 500 step-by-step instructions for everything from organizing your closets to planning a wedding to creating a flawless filing system (Free Press 2004) has tons of great ideas.
So take a small step and see where and when you can create a calm home office.
Conquering Chaos: Your To-Do List
Here are some tips to conquer those everyday tasks:
- Prioritize the tasks on your to-do list. Use “A” for items that have to be done today, “B” for items that should be done today, and “C” for items that could be done today. Work on getting the “A” and “B” items done first.
- Make a list of errands and group them together so that you leave your house only once and then return home once. Also, consider the location of your stops for easy organizing.
- Make doctor’s, dentist’s, or hair stylist’s appointments for first thing in the morning. Then schedule errands that are in close proximity to their location.
- Take all sticky notes, bits of paper or anything that has a note on it that is lying on your desk, is in your purse or wallet or on the counter top and using a spiral notebook, a binder with paper or a planner, either tape them down on the pages or re-write them. Now you have a master list of things to do. Keep your master list with you so you can update it regularly.
- Transfer one or two items each week from your master list to your calendar.
- Take 10 minutes at the end of your workday to plan and make tomorrow’s to-do list.
With small steps you can organize and accomplish your to-do list. What a great feeling!
Conquering Chaos: Reading Materials
Do you have piles of unread magazines or newspapers? Are they adding to your clutter?
Instead of saving magazines or newspapers to read someday here are tips you can use to tame your reading materials:
- Skim your magazines and newspapers for articles of interest when you first get them.
- Clip the articles and place them into a binder or folder.
- Take the binder or folder with you wherever you go so when you have a few minutes you can read something.
- Make it a habit to remove one article when you add a new one whether you have read it or not.
- Donate your periodicals to a nursing home, senior center, library, school or hospital.
- Set aside a regular time to read and/or to sort through your reading materials.
But what if you already have piles that are overwhelming you?
Conquering Chaos: Lost-and-Found
How do you prevent things from getting lost at home?
You create a lost and found container. It can be a bin, drawer, shelf or pretty basket. Anytime you or someone in your home finds something left out, simply place it in the lost-and-found.
To make this successful make sure everyone knows where to look when they are missing something. Also, when the lost-and-found container becomes full, call a family meeting to clean it up. What ever is not claimed gets tossed or donated.
You can easily manage those things left lying around and clear visible clutter by implementing this system.
Conquering Chaos: Clutter Magnets
Do you have a spot (or two) in your home where clutter appears to collect and multiply? That is your clutter magnet.
This spot could be your entry way, a counter top, your table top or your dresser. You can eliminate your clutter magnet by following these steps:
- Identify your “hot spot”.
- Identify what types of clutter accumulate in the spot.
- Create storage near the spot.
- Put things away immediately in the storage spot you created.
- Complete regular maintenance of the area by filing, moving to permanent storage or disposing of items.
For me this area was my kitchen counter by the phone. Most of the mail, receipts, miscellaneous papers or items that came into the house ended up there. By adding a counter top file box with three drawers for current bills/action items, filing and receipts my counter is a lot clearer than it used to be. I am still working on keeping it clear 100% of the time, but now it only piles up slightly since my storage is so accessible.
What hot spot are you going to tackle?
Conquering Chaos: Five Organizing Tips
Just the thought of getting organized can create a feeling of anxiety and stress especially if you have several areas in your home where you feel out of control. Being overwhelmed by the thought of getting organized can lead you to feeling stuck or paralyzed.
Here are five tips to help you get unstuck and create order in your home:
- Perform one household chore each week night before or after work.
- Create storage areas in your attic or basement. Arrange and label boxes by owner versus by item or category.
- Schedule a ten-minute pick up time each night. During this time all family members are responsible for putting away their belongings in the designated storage places.
- Keep a donation box handy. Every time you come across an item you no longer need or want add it to the collection. When the box is full immediately pack it up and take it to your favorite local charity.
- Specify one area in your home as your storage area for household staples and/or supplies. It will be easier to identify what needs to be added to your shopping list that way.
Doing just one of these tips can get you started on your goal of being more organized.
Which tip will you focus on this week? Remember all it takes is one step forward to begin the journey. It is progress not perfection.
Have Your Books Become Clutter?
I am an avid reader (if you couldn’t tell from my previous entries). I have always read for pleasure and for self-improvement. But books can become clutter.
How do you know when your books have become clutter? You know when you are buying more storage units to store your books, when they are all over your home or when they start to weigh you down.
Here are some steps to thin out your book collection:
Progress Not Perfection
Are you overwhelmed with the thought of getting organized?
Here’s a challenge - set a timer for 20 minutes and pick one area. Sort things by “keep here”, “trash”, “store elsewhere” or “donate”. Sort first and then toss, then replace or relocate the items.
Or try the “Famous 27 Fling Boogie” suggested by Marla Cilley (The FlyLady) in the book Sink Reflections: FlyLady’s BabyStep Guide to Overcoming CHAOS (FlyLady Press Inc 2002). This is actually a fun and fast exercise she adapted from one of Suze Orman’s books The Courage to Be Rich. The suggestion is to take a garbage bag and run through the house to collect all the things you don’t love or use in 15 minute increments. Suze recommended 25 things at a time while the FlyLady recommends 27 things. Stop when the timer goes off. Afterwards get the items immediately out of your home.
Try this. You will be surprised at what you can accomplish in a short amount of time…it’s all small steps. It’s progress not perfection.
In fact you could use this technique to put your whole house in order. You can do anything for 15 or 20 minutes. Right?