New year, new routines
On January 5, 2008 I resolved to clear my desk off every day at the end of the workday. I envisioned sitting down at my desk every morning with a clear desk and hoped that it would help me start the day on the right foot.
Exactly one year later, I am tickled pink to report that the resolution made a successful transition to a routine. I am now in the habit of clearing off my desk every night before I close up shop and go upstairs. I don’t think about it, I just do it. And it’s to the point that I don’t remember whether or not I’ve done it. Clearing off my desk has become like brushing my teeth or soaping up in the shower. It just happens.
As long-time readers of my blog know, I attribute my success to a website called Don’t Break the Chain. It displays a calendar and allows me to tick off every day that I cleared off my desk. A block of red covers that calendar date. Once I had a few blocks of red, I didn’t want to break the chain. I found it very motivating.
Here’s a screenshot of my clean-desk chain for the last four months. I’d wanted to show you the whole glorious year (a sea of red), but didn’t take into account that the year view is for the current calendar year only.
I missed two days in October, but had a perfect November & December
My hope that creating this new habit would help my productivity was right on. Not only is it easier to get started working in the morning, it’s also easier to continue working because I typically have the stuff for only a project or two at a time out on my desk. In the past, I was working around teetering piles.
This is a habit I’ve been wanting to instill my entire adult life. That’s 35 years. It took a little focus and a little effort to get the routine going. But now that it’s a habit, it takes no thought and very little effort.
Is there something you could add to your routine to make your life a little easier? Perhaps it’s a trait you admire in others. Or a small frustration you’d like to see go away. (I hated having to clear the decks before I could really get to work.) The new year is a great time to establish new routines. Perhaps Don’t Break the Chain can help.
As for me, I’m hoping to apply what I learned with my clean desk to creating the habit of keeping the top of my bureau clean. I have a bad habit of dumping clothes on it at night, rather than putting them away or throwing them down the laundry chute. Tonight will be day one. I’ll keep you posted!
Last chance to sign up to test Mark Forster's new system
As I blogged about two weeks ago, time management guru Mark Forster of whom I’m an unbashed fan, has developed a new system for time management (it may be limited to task management, I don’t know). On January 5, he’ll start beta testing it.
If you’d like to be one of the beta testers,go to Mark’s website and enter your email address in the newsletter sign-up box on the right. Then click the box next to “Beta Testing” and submit. As of early this morning, 950 people had signed up. I’m very excited to see what Mark has come up with!
In case you’re interested, here are all the blog posts I’ve written about Mark and his work.
The glass is half full
It’s the last day of the year and I’ve been taking the opportunity to reflect on 2008. On the surface, it wasn’t necessarily a great year for my business. As the economy tanked, so did my billable hours. After a terrific first two quarters, the last two quarters were…let’s just say less good.
But that’s just the surface. This morning I sat down with a blank pad to brainstorm about high points and low points of the year. I easily filled the highlights page. And I just had two items for the lowlights page.
Highlights included a trip to Hawaii to work with a really fun client, leading teams of great organizers on three different occasions (which was so much fun and so helpful to the clients), attending four conferences for organizers, giving a speech at a national conference for writers, and leading a really great NAPO chapter.
Top of the list of low points was a significant drop in my income in the second half of the year. This is where the glass-half-full part comes in. That economic downturn? It had a big up side for me. Here are eight ways the tanking economy was actually good for my business.
- It prompted me to think about alternative business models (more on that in the next few weeks).
- It gave me the breathing space to really explore this stuff and learn from some smart people online.
- It gave me time at my desk to get my act together and create some very helpful habits.
- It helped me understand that I need to develop sources of revenue that aren’t tied to my time.
- It allowed (and prompted) me to explore social networking, especially Twitter.
- It gave me some peace of mind, because I’m surviving this!
- It made me realize that I can get by with less.
- It demonstrated how incredibly supportive and understanding my husband is, in bad economic times as well as good.
That said, I am so ready for the economy to improve. I’m hoping that the new president will effect some change that will get our economy back in motion. And thanks to the downturn and all the planning it has allowed me, I’m ready for it.
Do you use your library?
Libraries are amazing things. I love the St. Louis Public Library and use it all the time. As an author myself, perhaps I shouldn’t admit this, but it’s very rare for me to be purchase a book (unless it’s one I’m using for my business or one written by a friend). My first stop is always the library.
When I was a kid, I loved the Walla Walla Public Library. I remember my dad would visit regularly. He’d walk and I’d ride my bike beside him. But I had a difficult time getting my books back on time. In fact, I have a recollection of getting a letter from a lawyer demanding my overdue books (or maybe it was just payment of a overdue fines). I was a little kid, so that was scary.
Anyway, I’ve had a lifetime habit of not returning books promptly. But the Internet has helped a lot. My library, like yours, probably, allows me to renew books online. It also allows me to request them and have them sent to my local branch, which is only a mile from my home.
Yesterday I went to the library and picked up three novels to read over the next few weeks. (First on the list will be Florence of Arabia: A Novel
If you like to read and aren’t using your library, I encourage you to explore what the library has to offer. In addition to books, you can probably borrow movies and CDs. Many libraries offer online databases for library card holders to use, even from their homes.
If you tend to buy books that you read only once, using the library could help reduce clutter in your home. If you’re trying to develop the habit of reading for pleasure, take a trip to your local branch and browse. It’s as much fun as a bookstore (the variety of books is much better!) and a heck of a lot less expensive.
If you’re not sure where your nearest branch is, you can go to the Department of Education’s Library Finder. Once you’ve found your library system, be sure and check out their website to see what they have to offer. If it’s been awhile since you’ve used a public library, you might be surprised!
Closing out 2008
As I posted a week ago, I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Traditionally, it’s the week that I get my ducks in a row, plan for the coming year and basically get my act together.
This year, I took December 26 off for a glorious four-day weekend. I relaxed, watched a lot of movies, and did a whole lot of knitting. We had some friends over for dinner on the 27th, so I even cleaned house.
So here it is December 29 and I haven’t started enjoying getting my act together. When I sat down at my desk this morning, eager to get to work after all those days off, I thought about the value of closure (something I explored at Jen Hofmann’s Holiday Spa Day) and how this was the week to close out 2008, so I can start 2009 fresh and without baggage.
I made a list of things to do this week (really this half-week) to gain closure on the year. They include:
- Finish entering my business financial data into Quickbooks (and a couple other financial tasks);
- Reorganize my bookmarks in Safari;
- Finish sending out New Year’s cards;
- Go through some three-ring binders that have been hanging out on my shelf untouched for over three years; and
- Relist some books on Craigslist that haven’t sold.
That’s it. That blows me away.
Usually during this special week, I’m digging out. I’m clearing my desk, filing piles of paper, cleaning out files, emptying my in basket. I’m not doing any of that this year. Why? Because I don’t need to!
This has been my year of having a clear desktop daily, and I’m reaping the benefits. It’s also been a year of focus and actually doing things on my to-do list. As a result, I’ve actually kept on top of things. I’m caught up with filing. My in basket is empty.
At last, the organizer is acting like an organizer!
There’s plenty for me to do to prepare for next year, so I’m not taking the week off. But I think after today I’ll have closed out the old year and the rest of the week, I’ll be ringing in the new. My reward to myself is to take January 2 off.
How about you? Are there any tasks you can do this week to give you closure on 2008?
A full day's work in half a day
Even though I’m not going anywhere or doing much for Christmas (besides being a dinner guest), I woke up this morning thinking, “Hey it’s Christmas Eve Day. I don’t want to work.” So I decided to take a half day off.
But I still have these things I want to finish before Christmas—I want to check off some tasks on my to-do list so I don’t have to bother next week, which is my big Closure and Planning Week.
So I created a list of things I need to do before I can call it a day today. My goal is to finish them by noon or perhaps 1:00. (Noon! No mamby pamby goals.) The funny thing is that it’s really the same list I’d have made if I were planning to work the full day. But I’ve injected a little competition into the scenario, in a way. I’ve pitted work against play (for me, play will be knitting, watching movies, and working on New Year’s cards on this rainy day). The longer I’ll work, the less I’ll play. So I’d better get busy.
I feel myself kind of excited to plow through my list. And I know I’m going to have laser focus, because I want to achieve this goal. (I’m getting a good start by spending only ten minutes writing a blog post today.)
Gosh, if this works, I’m going to have to try it more often!
I think I’m truly going to take the day off tomorrow, so no blog post. If you celebrate Christmas, please allow me to wish you a Merry Christmas. If you don’t, enjoy a stress-free day off (assuming you get a day off). I’ll reconnect here on Friday.
ETA: It’s 10:52 and I’ve just crossed the last thing off my list. Time to close up shop until the 26th!
Wanna test a brand new time-management system?
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a big fan of Mark Forster. The principles in his book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
Recently, Mark offered up a variation on the “will do list” recommended in Do It Tomorrow. I gave it a whirl and have found it to be even better. I’m delighted with this innovation.
But my level of excitement rose a big notch when Mark announced cryptically that he was working on a new system. He’s been blogging about it a bit and this reserved English gentleman seems quite excited. So of course I am. He put out a call for beta testers. My fingers flew as I rushed to his site to sign up. Testing begins on or around January 5. Can’t wait!
This morning, he emailed the beta testers asking us to spread the word. He’s looking for all sorts of people (not just Mark Forster fans) to try out the new system. He wrote, “I need a wide variety of people. It doesn’t matter whether they think they are good at time management or hopeless at it. Nor does it matter if they think they won’t have time to do it! I am just as interested in why some people don’t succeed with it as I am in why others do succeed.”
To learn a little more about the new system, go to the blog archive section of Mark’s website and click on new system to see the eight entries he’s made so far about it.
If you’re interested in getting in on this experiment, go to Mark’s website and enter your email address in the newsletter sign-up box on the right. Then click the box next to “Beta Testing” and submit.
