 Ever have days where you feel like a mouse on an exercise wheel? You work and work but get nothing done? The day comes to a close and you can't recount one thing you really wanted to accomplish?
Perhaps you are doing too much of what is not important. Maybe you lack focus or get pulled away by social media or emails. Of course there are interruptions in any job. Things just happen that are out of your control. Concentrating on what you can control will help you stay on task and help you achieve your daily goals. It's all about organizing and doing one thing at a time. Consider that you have control over the following: Phone calls Just because your phone rings doesn't mean you have to answer it. Really! Unless you are a front desk receptionist, physician or answer the phone for someone else, you can actually let it go to voice mail. Set a time when you can return calls. This allows you to concentrate on your daily tasks without being interrupted and allows you to give your full attention to the caller. Emails: Ditto! Do you really need to check your email as often as you do? Be honest. In the age of instant messaging, "urgent" emails and instant gratification, we get sucked into feeling that we need to respond to everything asap. This is simply not true for every email. Again, set aside time to check your (personal) emails throughout the day. People: If you work in an office there always seems to be a "chatty Cathy" who stops by. Of course you want to be polite, but you also have work to do. If this is a problem, the best way out is to just be honest. "Gee Cathy, I would love to chat, but I really have to get at this project. Lets set some time to have lunch." You face people walking by. Check if you can move your computer screen or have a shelving unit added to your workspace. Even simple distractions can cause you to loose concentration. It takes the average person 5 minutes to fully engage back into where they were before the distraction. Shopping: Don't be lured by sales. We talked about this yesterday, but it also fits here. Shopping can take valuable time away from you. Again ask yourself if you need it or want it. If you want it, ask yourself why. Maybe there is something that needs to be addressed such as the need to be distracted! Time: Schedule your time to get the most out of your day. This includes work time and home time. If you really do need to run errands or shop, how many places can you stop at during that time? This can be somewhat tricky because while you did great trip planning, your time planning gets off because of unforeseen interruptions. By ridding yourself of busy work, you may even find time for you. Remember, you can get more of just about everything, but you can't get more time. Use it wisely. Kimberly Dahline, Professional Organizer Finally Filed
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 So just how does yesterday's message relate to organizing? Lots of ways. Some are obvious, but others may not be so apparent.
Buying less helps keep you maintain organization in three ways - physical stuff, emotional freedom and spiritual well being. Let's take a look at these three areas Physical Stuff
Emotional Freedom
Spiritual well being
What other ways can buying less keep you organized? Love to hear from you on your suggestions and how buying less has helped you in your life. Buy less and get more! Kimberly Dahline, Professional Organizer Finally Filed Putting Papers in their Proper Place  Last week I posted an article about how doing less is not such a bad thing. I hope you had the chance to reflect on the article last week. It was a lot to take in and reflect upon. Doing less conflicts with what we have been taught since childhood. Do more. Get ahead. Make more money. More is more. But these “truths” were truths for the person giving the advice. But are they a fit for our lives and what we believe?
Let’s look at the first healthy habit that Ms. Wales discusses. Buying less: How many times have you gone to the store to pick up “just a few things” and left spending $100 more than you planned? Happens to us all the time. We get to the store and we are lured by the flashy ads and our senses are overloaded by the colors and textures of the products. We see an item and visualize it in our homes or mentally find the “need” for it. So in the cart it goes. When you get home, does it have the same flash as it did in the store? If so, great! But oftentimes it does not. And what is the emotional effect of that purchase? Guilt? Shame? Stress? Worry? You have certainly heard the money saving question “do you want it or need it?” If you find yourself going down the “need” it path when you know you really don’t need it, ask yourself this; “where will this fit in my home and what will go out to make space for it?” Make this a habit and you will save yourself money, space and free yourself from clutter one thing at a time!  About a month ago I received a beautiful post from another professional organizer that I thought was just beautiful. For so many of us, taking care of ourselves is so hard. We feel that we must constantly do and do and do! For me personally, it's the constant battle.
Such a good reminder for all of us. Ms. Wales was also gracious enough to share her ebook "Procrastination Begone" which is on her website. Live Fearlessly, Jacqueline Wales Chief Fearless Officer The Fearless Factor (212) 740 7085 http://www.thefearlessfactor.com "Since returning from Bali things have been different, my focus has been different, I have been productive but I am no pushing. I am allowing the world to fall into place, doing my work and letting it ripple out into the world. Are you being lazy? I don't think so, and and when I pondered this lazy question, I went to visit my favorite lazy person Leo Babauta, the author of The Power of Less. He states that being lazy is an amazing thing. Here's why:
Doing less means being smart about what you're doing. It will make you more productive. Send fewer emails, and the ones you send make them important. Write fewer words (I still haven't mastered that one yet) Consider the actions you are about to take and if you can, eliminate the ones that are not productive. Think of something else that works for you. The 7 Healthy Habits of Lazy People (with a nod to Zen Habits) include:
Babauta's Rules:
Lao Tzu said "Doing nothing to disturb the spontaneous flow of things" and that is how I am trying to live my life right now as I enjoy the spontaneous flow of things. It's a little scary, but I think that just means that it's the right choice. Are you ready to do the same?" Recently I posted about the emotional aspect of editing papers and stuff. It's hard to start out and even harder to actually toss. But I wanted to share a success story with you today to show you that even small organization projects can make you feel completely successful.
"I actually tackled one of the piles on the counter yesterday. This weekend I will hammer out a closet. There are so many papers in there the garbage is going to be full. I think the emotional piece of this is soooo true. Then I think about all the bins of stuff my husband and I have with ‘memories’ from high school etc. Seriously if I die no one is going to look at that and be interested. And I don’t look at it and ‘remember’ back when. I’m almost ready to tackle that too. You will fix me one step at a time." - Nichole S Pick a small project and see how successful you can be too! Kimberly Dahline, Professional Organizer FinallyFiled I will be at the Christ Lutheran Church Craft Fair on Saturday, November 3rd from 9-4. It's a great opportunity to talk to me in person about your organizing needs. I will be having a drawing for free organizing sessions and organizing gifts.
I will also have exciting information about my upcoming services which will be offered beginning in January - organizational success clubs, open house forums and roundtable discussions. Would love to see you there! It's going to be a great event  It's not very often that I will tell you to save something. But today it's important that you do so.
My backup hard drive has been sitting on my table for three weeks now. It keeps staring me in the face. I know it is "asking" me to do a computer back up, but I keep resisting. I should know better than to risk it too having lost everything once before. Yet still I resist. I don't want to do it. I fear that I am going to mess it up somehow. Computer anything is intimidating to me. So I put it off and take the risk of loosing all my data. In my last post I talked about doing things one step at a time and taking time to schedule in those horrible tasks. It's been said that the best way to accomplish those tasks is to put your hardest task at the top of your list. That way if you get nothing else done you can at least feel accompished in that one thing. What one task that you dislike will you accomplish this week? Post your success here! Kimberly Dahline, Professional Organizer FinallyFiled Not too long ago I was digging through some boxes in the garage. As I was going through, I came across some old German literature books and class material in written in German. It was so fun to look at and I immediately wanted to pull it out and bring it in the house. I was so excited.
But I stopped and thought about it. First of all, this was not what I was out in the garage for. I was looking for something specific items and not for old German manuscripts. I had to stay on task even through I really, really wanted to look at them. Later in the day I was thinking about those German papers. Having had a little time to think about them, I realized four things. 1. Tose papers had been in storage for about 10 years. 2. I didn’t even know they were even there. 3. I was, in all reality, never, ever going to be able to read through them the way that I used to 4. That was then. German language, while still an interest of mine, does not currently define who I am now and where I am headed. Still, I was extremely emotional about just recycling them and having them be gone forever. Then I remembered a time when I was at my friend’s house and she had given an item to a little girl who was visiting. I commented on how nice that was that she gave the girl that gift. Her response was brilliant. “She will get much more enjoyment out of it then I ever will”. Perfect. I will give those German papers to my dad and when he is finished with them he can toss them. That gets me off the hook of having to physically put them in the recycle bin. When letting go of something is emotionally difficult, can you gift it to someone who will get more enjoyment from it that you will? Perhaps the way to gently let the item go is to find it a new home and tell the recipient that when they are done or tire of it, it’s ok to let it go. You don’t want it back. It’s ok to let things move on to a new place. Its part of your journey from then to now and forward.  Raise your hand if you like being told what to do.
I don’t see very many hands! We like to think that we are capable enough to take care of ourselves and make our own decisions. So when someone tells us to do something, we often find ourselves resisting. Why do we resist? Often it is due to our emotional response of where we are in the chain of command. Take this example. Your boss has made a decision that a task needs to be done and asks you to do it. You don’t want to do it, but because she/he is in a higher position of power, you complete the task as requested. Even though you could dispute it, you don’t because there would be consequences. (fear of creating making your boss angry, internal anger, anxiety) Now let’s take that same train of thought and apply it towards the pile of papers on your kitchen table. Because there are papers on the table, you are being “asked” to do a task. Again, you don’t want to do it (anger, fear, stubbornness, anxiety, time commitment), so you leave it for another day. In this situation you are in a higher position of power because there can be no resistance or consequences from the inanimate object. Or is there? According to Barbara Hempill, professional organizer “clutter is postponed decisions”. I would add that not only is clutter (papers) a postponed decision, but also a postponement to the emotion that is attached to the task at hand. When you postponed a decision to act, you postponed the emotional response in dealing with the task. Perhaps you felt powerless, anxiety, overwhelmed, frustrated or angry. Perhaps you feel afraid that you might throw something important away or that if you file it, you won’t be able to find it again. Or perhaps you just don’t want to see that credit card, insurance or car repair bill. So why do we postpone these seemingly simple tasks? Can it really be that our emotional response is so great that we feel powerless over the inanimate object? In his book “Why we make mistakes”, Joseph Hallinan presents the idea of the “role of regret”. That is to say that people feel more regret for actions than inactions. If we don’t do anything, we have less responsibility. Unfortunately not taking responsibility and action often creates more responsibility and emotional distress that if we had just empowered ourselves to schedule time to complete the task. Consider our pile of papers. Does that pile contain your monthly bills? What if you didn’t open them and you were late for a payment? What if you had a dentist appointment and had made arrangements to take the day off, but missed the reminder notice? Do you now have to make alternate arrangements? What emotional triggers does that bring forth? Taking control and action takes both emotional and physical energy. But be brave. Don’t resist. and you will empower yourself to take control. It’s all about doing it one thing at a time. Now take a big breath and do it! Kimberly Dahline, Professional Organizer FinallyFiled  How many times have you cleaned out your wallet or purse because you were wondering what the heck is in there? It just seems to be getting heavier and heavier and still you can't find anything. And finding a receipt for a return or that ATM for your checkbook? Forget about it.
What you lack is a habit and a system. We habitually put all sorts of things in our purse or wallet. Receipts seem to be the biggest challenge. The one I dislike the most is when you get two receipts at a restaurant. We get receipts for everything. And where do they all go? Depends on if you have your wallet open, how fast you are being checked through the line and if you have a system or not. The solution is to make a new system and a new habit. The next time you clean out that purse or wallet, separate the receipts you have in there. How do they break down? Do you have mostly grocery or gas receipts? Do you track any of these or use them to balance your checkbook? Think about the receipts you actually use and keep for future use. Now make a system to contain them until you need them. It might be as simple as a large paperclip or envelope. Or maybe you scan them using your phone. Whatever system you use, be consistent. Then at the end of the month or whenever you need them, you will have everything you need right on hand. Finally ask yourself this. Do you really want or need all of those receipts? If you don't track your gas milage, do you need a receipt when you pay at the pump? What receipts can you eliminate completely. Kimberly Dahline, Professional Organizer FinallyFiled Putting Papers in their Proper Place |
Kimberly DahlineWelcome to my blog. I am glad you are here to read the musings on organizing and finding balance in your life. I hope you find them inspiring and motivating. Archives
April 2017
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