Peace of Mind Organizing

Expectations are everything

3 June 2021

It’s amazing what a huge role expectations can play in our perceptions of success. In the organizing industry, managing the expectations the clients have for what we can accomplish prevents them from being disappointed. It can be hard to say things you don’t think the other person wants to hear, but adding a dose of reality to the client’s expectations can save a lot of hassle later.

If you’re a professional organizer, you may be familiar with Standolyn Robertson’s excellent talk that she’s given at the National NAPO conference twice, as well as to various chapters in the past year. It’s called Managing Client Expectations and I think it’s a must-listen for all professional organizers. Standolyn has written a book, also called Managing Client Expectations, a Guide for Professional Organizers, that’s available on Kindle and in paperback. It’s an excellent read.

I’ve been thinking about expectations recently not with regard to my clients (by now I’m pretty good at managing their expectations) but with myself. I realize that if I don’t create a daily task list that’s achievable, I feel bad about my productivity. I can get 15 things done but if I have five unaccomplished tasks on the list I’m disappointed. Instead of feeling great about the 15 things I did, I feel lousy the five undone things. That’s not good.

So I’m trying hard to create a short daily task list (with tasks selected from a longer master list) that feels achievable. It includes the things I do almost every day (blog, yoga, YNAB, family history research) as well as the important and urgent tasks that I would like to do that day. I’m still loving my Trello daily task management board ) but I’ve taken to creating a handwritten (actually hand-lettered) daily task list for the next day at the end of the day. I enjoy doing the lettering and I enjoy working from a pretty list.

When I don’t cross everything off my list, I try to pause and ask myself whether my expectations for the day were realistic. That kind of mindful task management feels like good self care. The good news is I get the same amount done, I just feel better about it!

Tagged with: standolyn robertson, task list, task management, time management

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