I’m passionate about asking people to be kind to themselves and not let guilt about clutter (or anything else) get in the way of living their lives. I wrote this post more than ten years ago and its message remains just as strong today. It’s one of my very favorite posts, so I thought I’d share it again today.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, decluttering, empowerment, self-care, shannon wilkinson, worth repeating
I wrote this post in 2014 and I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to make doing genealogy research part of my morning routine so I’ve succeeded in finding time to feed my soul. If there’s something beneficial you’d like to start doing regularly, this post might help you find a way to find time.
I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.
But I don’t actually research as often as I’d like. And that’s a shame, because researching my family history feeds my soul.
Tagged with: empowerment, genealogy, relaxation, self-care, self care, time management, worth repeating
Do you have little organizing projects around your house that are constantly taunting you? Do you walk through a room, see a pile and say to yourself, “I need to file.” Then just keep walking?
Tagged with: decisions, empowerment, obstacles, procrastination, productivity
I originally wrote and published this post in February 2011. I’m happy to say that my internal barriers to doing Quickbooks have pretty much vanished, though I still have some trouble making it a priority. (But at least I don’t dread it.) Perhaps you have some internal barriers that are getting in your way. If so, I hope you’ll find this helpful.
Tagged with: change agent, emotions, empowerment, habits, products, shannon wilkinson, worth repeating
As I mentioned here before, my amazing friend and life coach Shannon Wilkinson is coming to St. Louis in mid-March and we’re putting on a fun in-person workshop called Get Back on Track on Saturday, March 14.
Tagged with: empowerment, events, goals, products, shannon wilkinson, teleclasses
I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.
Tagged with: empowerment, genealogy, relaxation, self-care, self care, time management
I wrote the blog post below on May 9, 2012. That’s when we started making jerky treats for our dog, Kirby, after I learned that dogs were getting sick from eating jerky treats imported from China. Eighteen months later, the problem persists. According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times as of last month there have been 3,600 reports of illnesses related to the treats, and 580 deaths, almost all of them dogs.
Tagged with: diy, dogs, ease, empowerment, kirby, worth repeating
I’m passionate about asking people to be kind to themselves and not let guilt about clutter (or anything else) get in the way of living their lives. It’s been almost six years since I wrote this posted, called Self-Care, but it remains one of my very favorite posts. I thought I’d share it again today.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, decluttering, empowerment, self-care, shannon wilkinson, worth repeating
I did the first of what will be a number of team organizing jobs for a client recently. In that first session, my five-person team made some amazing progress. It seemed like life-changing progress. I was thrilled.
Tagged with: decluttering, emotions, empowerment, encouragement, photographs
We all know it’s smart to back up our computers. (We also know it’s smart to do lots of other stuff we might not be doing, like changing our oil religiously every 3,000 miles.) Sometimes actually backing up the computer feels like a big deal.
Tagged with: decisions, empowerment, obstacles, procrastination
My dog, Kirby, loves chicken jerky treats. I’d been feeding him Beefeaters Chicken Jerky Treats each day as an after-dinner treat. But then the reports came out about potentially tainted chicken jerky treats imported from China. While Beefeaters wasn’t one of the brands that, according to news reports, the FDA has issued warnings about, they are made in China, so we stopped feeding them.
Tagged with: diy, dogs, ease, empowerment, kirby
One of the biggest pieces of advice I give to my clients is to be kind to themselves. That self-care is so often lacking. For many of my clients (the majority of whom are busy women) the biggest gift they can give themselves is time alone. A bubble bath. A cup of tea and a novel. Stealing away to a matinee.
Tagged with: empowerment, rewards, self-care, shannon wilkinson
This the year that I’m all about creating new habits and routines. (At least so far.) In the past two months I’ve created strong habits surrounding cleaning up my yard and keeping the bedroom bureau top clear of clothing. I’ve also whittled my email inbox down to zero every day since January 2. (I’ll blog more about that another day.)
Tagged with: change agent, emotions, empowerment, habits, products, shannon wilkinson
Where are you on the New Year’s Resolution Continuum?
Tagged with: declutter happy hour, empowerment, goals, products, shannon wilkinson, teleclasses
I’m leaving this morning for Columbus, Ohio, to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers. This will be my fifth NAPO conference in a row and I’m as excited as ever. There will be hundreds of smart, friendly, interesting organizers there to talk with. There’s an expo of organizing products (be still my heart), there are amazing educational sessions. The chance to see old friends and make new ones.
Tagged with: education, empowerment, friendship, napo
I’m been fortunate to have a good deal of success in my life. Here’s one reason: I have a secret weapon, is my friend and life coach (and Declutter Happy Hour partner), Shannon Wilkinson.
Tagged with: change agent, empowerment, products, shannon wilkinson
Mark Forster is my time management guru. As I’ve blogged about before, I loved his book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
Tagged with: autofocus, balance, control, desk, empowerment, focus, goals, mark forster, priorities, productivity, task management, time management, to-do list
January is almost over (already). As I’ve blogged about before, for the last couple of years I’ve been trying to add one big habit per year that will help me be happier and more productive. In 2008, it was clearing my desk at the end of the workday. In 2009 it was whittling my email inbox down to 15 or fewer messages every day. I’m going gangbusters on both of those.
Tagged with: declutter happy hour, empowerment, goals, habits, routines, shannon wilkinson, teleclasses, telephone coaching
Last year around this time, I blogged about Jen Louden’s Virtual Retreat. It was a weekend event where participants got to hear interviews with a variety of self-help folks to help them nurture themselves.
Tagged with: empowerment, encouragement, jen louden, relaxation, self-care
Where are you on the New Year’s Resolution Continuum?
Tagged with: declutter happy hour, empowerment, goals, shannon wilkinson, teleclasses, telephone coaching
As Shannon and I discuss in Declutter Happy Hour, sometimes people don’t want to work on clutter because it’s just plain scary.
Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, fear, procrastination, shannon wilkinson
At the end of March, life coach Shannon Wilkinson and I started offering a four-week telecourse called Declutter Happy Hour.
Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, encouragement, shannon wilkinson, telephone coaching
n January, I took Jen Louden’s wonderful Virtual Retreat. Jen, known as “The Comfort Queen,” offered up a four-day weekend full of talks (over the phone) from inspiring self-help folks. It was terrific.
Tagged with: empowerment, encouragement, fear, gratitude, jen louden, optimism, self-care, workshops
Our first “Declutter Happy Hour” session begins tomorrow, March 31, at 2 p.m. central. If you haven’t signed up yet but are intrigued, head on over to the Declutter Happy Hour website and check it out.
Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, encouragement, shannon wilkinson
Recently, I’ve been blogging quite a bit about how hard it can be to get rid of clutter, not just because it’s hard work that’s difficult to find the time to do, but because of emotional barriers to the work, or unhelpful beliefs that get in the way.
Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, shannon wilkinson, telephone coaching
Every now and then I read a message on a forum or somewhere from someone who’s lost all their data in a computer crash. That person is kindly reminding people to back up their computers, to avoid the heartbreak of everything vanishing into thin air.
I’m happy to say this isn’t one of those messages. I haven’t suffered a computer crash. In fact, I’ve had no computer problems to speak of since I bought my MacBook in July of 2007.
Tagged with: decisions, empowerment, obstacles, procrastination, productivity
On Friday I wrote that I was overwhelmed with tasks and clutter and that I really wanted to put my feet up this weekend, but had so much to do that I feared that wouldn’t be prudent. So I decided to create short task lists for each weekend day and relax only after I’d completed all the tasks on them.
Tagged with: clutter, empowerment, priorities, productivity, relaxation, self-care, time management
So far this year, things have been running really smoothly. I’ve been gliding through the days, getting lots done, meeting some terrific people, making some money. Kind of idyllic, in fact.
Tagged with: clutter, empowerment, priorities, relaxation, self-care, time management
While the new year also feels ripe with possibilities for me, I have to admit that the advent of 2009 is a little scarier than usual. I have great hopes for a turnaround in our economy, but I know that for many people (including me, sometimes) the economic situation makes taking action—or even feeling good—a little difficult and scary.
Tagged with: empowerment, encouragement, fear, gratitude, havi brooks, jen louden, michael neill, optimism, relaxation, self-care, workshops
I’m still playing catch up and haven’t been coming up with inspiring ideas for blog posts. So instead of coming up with my own thoughts on the role of organizing in these worrisome times (though I did write a little about that in the latest issue of my newsletter, which went out yesterday), I want to share with you a fabulous blog post from my friend and fellow organizer, Aby Garvey, of simplify 101 and the Creative Organizing blog. Here’s the post, entitled, Empowered by Organizing.
Tagged with: aby garvey, control, economy, empowerment
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!”
Tagged with: clutter, disorder, empowerment, gwa, mark forster, productivity
Last night, as I worked on the Estonian Garden Wrap, a seemingly complicated and sort of overwhelming (for this novice lace knitter) knitting pattern, I realized that broken down to its simplest elements, it’s really pretty easy. And that’s not unlike any overwhelming project, like getting organized. Let me explain.
Tagged with: decluttering, empowerment, knitting, lace, motivation, perfectionism, productivity
I’m always struck how clutter gets in the way of life. I have many clients who constantly feel an obligation to deal with their clutter. They plan to devote a weekend to decluttering, then they start to feel overwhelmed, so they don’t actually deal with it. (Until they call me.)
Tagged with: 15 minutes, decluttering, empowerment, self-care, shannon wilkinson
On my way to a client’s house this morning, listening to NPR, I heard a story that made the hairs stand up on my neck. It was a story on Morning Edition about Larry Woodard, a Dallas, Texas, man who was falsely convicted of raping and murdering his girlfriend. He languished in prison for 27 years, all the while writing letters asserting his innocence and requesting re-investigation of the case.
Tagged with: attitude, balance, empowerment, motivation
I mentioned last week that I was leaving for Hawaii to help a client get settled in there. We’re working hard, having some fun, and accomplishing a lot.
I’ve been working with this client since September 2006 and she serves as a fabulous example of the benefits of getting organized.
Tagged with: balance, decluttering, empowerment, order, organized, priorities
Checking in for a quick moment to say how wonderfully fortunate I feel to be at the national NAPO conference here in Reno. I just heard the most wonderful keynote address from Peter Walsh, who totally rocks.
Tagged with: education, empowerment, friendship, geralin thomas, napo, peter walsh
As I’ve written here before, I decided on January 1 that 2008 would be the year that I take control of my time-management issues. That day, I selected probably a half dozen time management books from my shelf, each one espousing a different philosophy. I thought I’d make a commitment to a single system and really try to adhere to it for a month or so.
Tagged with: balance, control, desk, empowerment, focus, goals, mark forster, priorities, productivity, time management
It’s amazing to me what a barrier to productivity, to progress, to peace of mind clutter can be. I see it in my clients all the time. And I know from personal experience.
Tagged with: clutter, decluttering, empowerment, feng shui, focus, priorities, procrastination, productivity
I just returned from six fabulous days of training, education and networking with my colleagues in the organizing profession. I attended the annual conferences of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization and the National Association of Professional Organizers. I also attended a one-day training workshop for a great filing system called Freedom Filer.
Tagged with: big picture, empowerment, freedom filer, napo, nsgcd
In the organizing field, particularly for organizers who work with chronically disorganized people, backsliding is all too common. You leave a client with systems in place, skills transferred, attitudes and motivation high, and then you stop hearing from her.
Tagged with: backsliding, empowerment, stacks