Peace of Mind Organizing

The cobbler’s children…

25 January 2007

I’m having a very busy month, between client appointments and travel. I had two four-day weekends away in a row (one to Phoenix for the P.F. Chang’s Rock & Roll Half-Marathon, the next to New York City for Michael Neill ’s Coaching Mastery workshop) and the days before and after each trip were filled by client sessions.

I’ve been spending my days helping my clients create order, which I love doing. Meanwhile, my own house seems to be devolving into chaos. Between the rapidly piling up mail (I can’t seem to get caught up), and the laundry that’s not getting done, my home looks like it could use the help of a professional organizer.

I think one of the perils of this profession is the feeling that I need to have a perfect home—one that I’d welcome a client into at the drop of a hat—or else I’m some sort of fraud. I know that’s not true. I tell my clients that they shouldn’t set up overly high standards for themselves and their homes. I also know that one of the things I bring to my clients is a vast well of experience in dealing with organizational issues in my own life.

But that doesn’t necessarily keep me from feeling some despair when I look around here. Until I went to the coaching seminar last weekend, I was kicking myself for not being motivated to do something about it. I’d come home tired from helping people in their homes and not want to dig into my own stuff (big surprise). But now I recognize it’s a simple question of time management and self care. At the coaching seminar, I had the opportunity to be coached by a variety of people and work on some of these issues. In the two days since I’ve been home, I’ve tackled the dirty clothes and made a big dent in the accumulated paperwork (and worked two full days of client appointments). I still have a messy desk to deal with, but I hope and trust that will be taken care of today.

I know that I can’t work all my waking hours. I need relaxation time in the evenings (I like to knit and watch TV and all of a sudden there’s great TV on again!). So I’m going to allow myself to work in 15-minute blocks of time until things are under control. I have Sunday off, so I can finish what remains. Then I’ll remind myself that 15 minutes at a time is all I need to maintain that control.

In other words, instead of beating myself up, I’m going to take the advice I give to my clients: do a little at a time, be kind to myself, and don’t strive for perfection. As an organizer, I don’t need to set an example by having a home that’s company-ready at any given moment. Instead, I just need do the best I can and focus on achieving my organizing goals while taking care of myself. That’s an example I’m happy to set.

Tagged with: clutter, coaching, perfectionism, time management

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