Peace of Mind Organizing

Regaining control

15 September 2008

I wrote on Friday about how my house had become cluttered and messy over the past couple of weeks of whirlwind activity and how I had feet of lead when I thought about doing anything about it. I ended that post with “I hope to report on Monday that my life and business are back in order and that I’m feeling clutter-free and empowered!”

I’m here to report that indeed the mess has been taken care and, better still, it was way less work than I expected. I’d built it up into this Big Project, which is what frequently happens when I’m feeling overwhelmed. (I see this in my clients too.)

On Saturday morning, I used “timed bursts,” a concept from my favorite time-management book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, by Mark Forster (link at right). I set my timer for 10 minutes, stopped what I was doing when the timer went off and took a five- minute break, then set it for 15 minutes, followed by a five-minute break, then 20 minutes. By then I was finished with the picking up and putting away. I had hoped to work on my presentation to the Garden Writers Association (which I’m giving on the 20th), on Saturday but chose to knit instead. And that was okay.

On Sunday, I used timed bursts of 15 minutes to work on my presentation, alternating writing with doing laundry, and that worked very well. It’s not quite finished, but it will be today.

I still have quite a few things to accomplish before I leave town early Thursday morning, but they’re scheduled and, while I’ll be busy, I’m not feeling overwhelmed. I’m just going to have to be super efficient over the course of the next few days and I’m up to the task! That’s so much better than feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed like I was on Friday.

Tagged with: clutter, disorder, empowerment, gwa, mark forster, productivity

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