Saturday Special: Parting Words and Good Stuff from HGTV

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I've been writing about time management a lot  lately over at Organizing By STYLE, and at CatholicMom.com. Last Thursday's post in particular, along with the planning that preceded it, nudged me to take a look at my blogging habits. I've done so before, but now, with proof that blogging sometimes overshadows the other writing I want to do, it was time to look at my schedule with an eye toward change.

When I first spun the organization posts off  this blog and onto Organizing By STYLE, these Saturday posts were a great way to continuing sharing my love of organization here, as well as featuring people, places and articles that inspired me. Julie Morgenstern. Marcia Ramsland. A Perfect Mess.

Sometimes, though, it's time to focus on that L in STYLE and let it go. I've featured all my inspirations, along with quite a few fun finds I made along the way, which brings the organization- themed Saturday Specials on this blog to a natural conclusion.

So, for the moment, at least, I'm stepping away from Saturday posts. You can still find me here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and at Organizing By STYLE on Wednesdays and (3 Keys) Thursdays. I've been posting a STYLE Savvy feature at CatholicMom.com, as well, also on Wednesdays.

Meanwhile, since HGTV got me inspired to walk down this road in the first place, it's only fitting that I conclude this feature with something from them. Over at CatholicMom.com, I've been writing about containers, and this HGTV feature on organizing mistakes to avoid fits perfectly into the Organizing by STYLE philosophy.

See you Monday.

Saturday Special: Holiday Hubbub

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Perhaps you're one of those folks who Christmas shops all year long. Or maybe you're a serious Black Friday shopper and you spent yesterday making lists and checking them twice.

Maybe you're spending today patronizing local businesses in honor of Small Business Saturday. Or perhaps you're creating lists for Cyber Monday when you can shop from home in your pajamas.

No matter your shopping style, it's the time of year when tracking down gifts becomes a necessity for most of us. And shopping is just the tip of the holiday to-do iceberg.

Fortunately, although the holidays are creeping ever closer (as several of my Facebook friends enjoy pointing out on a regular basis), there's plenty of time to tackle things in an organized fashion. If the mere thought of getting ready for the holidays leaves you in a panic, check out this article by organizing guru Julie Morgenstern, who always manages to make planning seem not just possible, but palatable as well.

Not ready to tackle holiday planning yet? Just below Julie's article on holiday planning is one on organizing your mail.

Whatever you organize today, do it with STYLE. :-)

Saturday Special on Monday: Professional Organizers

Yes, I know it's Monday....and I had this written and ready to go on FRIDAY....but I neglected to hit the magic button that would make it post while we were away on Saturday.

And so I bring you last week's Saturday Special...on Monday...with apologies.  Look for my regular Monday post tomorrow.

In the world of organizing, there are these wonderful creatures called professional organizers. They come to your house and consult with you about how to clear your clutter and live a more organized life. They offer classes and strategies and, I suspect, live in glass houses where there would only ever be a mess if someone threw a stone.

Needless to say (if you've been reading these posts), I'm not one of them. Throw a stone in my house and it's likely to end up on a pile of papers. But I'm working on it. And hey, my large rectangular spaces are looking good.

I took an online class on professional organizing once. It was interesting, but it made me squirm. Nowhere in it was there a word about following my style or my default habits. And as someone who's spent a great deal of her adult life trying to transform myself into a Type A organizer, I know the old tricks don't work for me.

But I know there are good eggs out there. Professional organizers like Julie Morgenstern and some of my HGTV favorites who don't have a leave-no-clutter standing rule at the expense of their clients' better judgment and favorite things. Organizers who send out newsletters and motivational emails and  sticky notepads with "Today I Will Do One Thing" imprinted on them. Organizers like my friend Cindy Bernstein at Aim 4 Order.

Okay, so Cindy and I have never met face-to-face, but we've chatted via email enough for me to know that if I were going to bite the bullet and hire a personal organizer, Cindy would be the first one I'd call. In the meantime, I subscribe to her e-newsletter and read all of her great ideas there and on Facebook. I especially like the fact that she suggests good homes for things I'm ready to say good-bye to...

...but more on the L of STYLE (Let it go!) next week.

Saturday Special: Organization Inspiration: Julie Morgenstern

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My ongoing quest for organization arose from a need for an attitude adjustment. I was changing offices at work, and I wasn't happy about it. After doing more than my fair share of complaining, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and to view the move as an opportunity to take control of my stuff and my space.

I started reading books, and the first one I read that resounded with me was Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out. I went on to read others that gave me ideas and support, but in the end, it was Julie Morgenstern's philosophy that informed everything I came up with:

"Our philosophy is that every system should be designed from the inside out, based on your unique goals, natural habits and style, so that your system lasts."

Once I began incorporating this philosophy into my professional workspace, it occurred to me that my students might benefit from learning this sooner rather than later, so I took my show into the classroom. Eventually, Mrs. Hess's crazy lessons on organization became a fifth grade staple, with kids identifying themselves as I love stuff and cram and jam and making adjustments in their organizational plans before they crossed the bridge from elementary school to middle school.

They didn't all need this, mind you. Many of them were well-organized, and while they enjoyed entering monthly drawings to win stuff (tools they could try), the lessons didn't impact their systems

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much. But those whose self-confidence had taken a hit from years struggling to do what seemed so easy for everyone else? They shared stories, poked fun at themselves and relaxed. Best of all, they smiled. I watched faces change from pinched and dubious to hopeful and optimistic over the course of a class period. Suddenly, these kids realized there wasn't anything wrong with them. The systems had failed them, not vice versa.

When I moved on to sharing these ideas with adults, the same thing happened. Suddenly, people couldn't wait to tackle cluttered spaces, papers crammed in folders, drawers full of who knew what? They experienced renewed faith in themselves and their ability to create order in a way that made sense to them.

When I write and teach about organization, my goal isn't to un-clutter the world. Sure, I hope that people will be able to apply these strategies and make it easier to create spaces that work for them. But what I really love is that moment when they re-discover faith in themselves -- when they realize that failing to organize the way "everyone else does" is not a failing or even a personal flaw. It's a part  of who they are, and given time and the right tools, they can create the level of order they crave in a way that makes sense to them and is manageable.

Apparently you can take the counselor out of the school, but you can't take away her desire to change the world, one person at a time.

Deadlines and Runaway Tasks

Last Friday, my copy of the signed contract for my book arrived in the mail. What was surreal is quickly becoming real, and although the editor, an author himself, has kindly told me not to stress over getting the revisions back to him, my self-imposed deadline clock is ticking. Quite loudly. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since I've found one reason/excuse after another to delay the revisions to this point. You see, I'd much rather create than revise. But now, knowing there is someone waiting for these pages, I need to kick things into high gear.

I've never thought of myself as someone who needed a deadline to get something accomplished, but I'm guessing those around me might disagree. And, as I look around my house at projects I've nearly completed (and there are more than I care to enumerate), perhaps I need to reconsider my assessment. 

Still, I assert that it isn't that I need a deadline; it's that the presence of one hastens my completion of a task. A deadline moves the project in question to a higher position on my to-do list. It automatically leaps over anything that doesn't have a due date.

If it sounds as though I'm splitting hairs, let me offer some evidence in my favor. In the past twenty years, I've completed two non-fiction books, three novels (two for adults, one for kids) and a wide variety of articles on spec. I had no deadlines for these projects - in fact, when I wrote them, I wasn't even sure if anyone else would read them. Still, they got written and most got revised and submitted. A few even got accepted, and one or two are waiting their turn to be revised and submitted. None of these projects had deadlines, and yet I completed them anyway.

Deadline-addicted or not, I recognize the value of assigning tasks a home, a concept clarified for me by author and organization guru Julie Morgenstern. Morgenstern says that if tasks have no home (you haven't set a specific time to do them), they won't get done. Making appointments for your tasks, as it were, isn't exactly the same as setting deadlines, but it can have the same effect. Deciding when you're going to do a specific task and writing it on the calendar for that time elevates its priority - much as a deadline does - and increases the odds that you'll do the thing you said you would. In addition, it gives you permission to tackle only part of your to-do list in any given day. And since most of us have enough items on our to-do lists to fill all 24 hours in the day for a week or more, assigning tasks a home is a more focused and  realistic approach to to checking things off our lists.

So, now that I have that contract in hand, revisions are on my calendar - every weekday - until they're done. Since I have other things on my calendar as well, my challenge will be finding a balance, and one idea that I'm trying is blocking out an hour a day for revisions. If things are going well, and time permits, I can overrun the hours. If it's a particularly frustrating day, I'm "allowed" to stop after an hour and pursue other tasks. 

So, if you will excuse me, I have some revisions to tackle.

A morning without interruptions is a wonderful thing indeed. My brain spins - it is always full - yet that doesn't keep new thoughts from arriving like so many jumbo jets, one after the other, waiting to land and disembark, each disbursing new responsibilities like so many expectant passengers. That wonderful, uninterrupted block of time enables me to keep up with the neverending flow, diverting each new addition to its designated spot on my to-do list. For me, this means freeing up brain space to actually think and create rather than store and obsess.

I'm actually trying to develop a new to-do list habit. Over Christmas break, I pulled out my copy of Julie Morgenstern's Making Work Work, which I had previously begun reading, but never completed...which led me to one of my new year's resolutions: whenever possible, finish one thing before starting another. Getting back to the advice in Making Work Work also inspired another resolution: keep ONE to-do list, all in one place.

So, by the end of the wonderful, blessed, uninterrupted morning I had earlier this week, I had corralled my random thoughts onto ONE to-do list, which was housed in my planner, bound in (at least temporarily) by loose-leaf rings. And, I actually managed to cross off a few items, moving toward my goal for the day, which was simply to get caught up a little and create a plan for the rest of the week. I went to lunch, wheels still turning, planes still landing, list...

...on my desk. Oh well. Maybe two lists are better than one?