8 Things to do on December 26 (or later, if you prefer)

kaboompics via Pixabay

Today, I'm taking a week off from the usual 3 Keys post for a different kind of list post. 3 Keys Thursday will resume next week. 

Meet a friend for coffee. I'm so grateful to my dear friend who texted me earlier this week to set up a time to meet for coffee today. Not only did I enjoy a relaxing opportunity to get caught up and spend time just chatting, but I also got up earlier than I would have otherwise, which saved me from myself -- the self that would have just rolled over and gone back to sleep, wasting a significant portion of the morning.

Sleep in. This is usually at the top of my vacation list which, unfortunately, starts the cycle of get up too late/go to bed too late that I have to break when the real world comes calling. My coffee date saved me this morning but for those of you who've been exhausted by holiday preparations (or jobs in retail), this might be an even better option than coffee.

Put away some decorations. We used to joke that my mom had the Christmas decorations taken down and put away by the time we got home from their house on the day after Christmas. While I'm not ready to undeck the halls yet, I did decide that we could dispense with the emptied out stockings. I might pull out a snowman or two to fill in the gaps, but I'm not in any hurry.

Score some bargains. I'm not a Black Friday shopper, but I used to love going shopping the day after Christmas. As I accumulated a collection of "just right" decorations (along with some surplus) and retailers started slashing prices before Christmas, I did less of this. But, each year, I take stock of staples like wrapping paper and greeting cards and use December 26 to fill in the gaps with all the stuff that's on sale. As an added bonus, I feel more prepared when it comes time to get ready for next year's holidays.

Grab a Starbucks. If you're like me, you forget what day it is when you're on vacation. Since today is Thursday (which I had wrong until my daughter corrected me), it's BOGO day at Starbucks (at least for my drink of choice) between 2pm and 7pm. You're welcome.

Make a list. This was one of the first things I did this morning. Now that all of the "getting ready for Christmas" things have been checked off the list, I can get to the other things that have been competing for my attention. I can't do them all in one day, though, so I'm choosing three(ish) items from my master list to add to each day so I can feel accomplished.

Organize something. Over Thanksgiving, my husband put together a new bookshelf for our living room, which will house a variety of things from books and magazines to piano music. I got the new system started, then had to abandon the project for other, more time sensitive things. Now, with more time at my disposal, I'm using the new bookshelf as the impetus to sort through piles of accumulated reading material with a serious read it or toss it mentality. Since paper clutter is the biggest problem in my house, accomplishing this project will make me feel lighter, both literally and figuratively.

pinwhalestock via Pixabay

Chill. This is vacation, after all. Yes, I want to do all of these things (along with tackling those writing projects that have been unceremoniously pushed aside by other, time sensitive stuff), but I also want to make time to read, do crossword puzzles, play with the Apple Pencil Santa left under the tree and spend time with my family. This time off goes way too fast, and striking that balance between enjoyable work (the stuff that makes my "want to do" list) and play (the other stuff that makes my "want to do" list) is the key to a vacation that leaves me feeling both relaxed and accomplished.

That, to me, is the best of both worlds.

BiljaST via Pixabay

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Key Things I'm Assessing Today

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

The semester has ended. Grades have been entered. Christmas is next week, an uncomfortable realization I made (and shared with my unsurprised husband) last night.

Fortunately, today is the day I've been waiting for. With the exception of this blog post and a phone call with my editor this morning, there are no obligations on my calendar, leaving me free to tackle, well, everything.

It's a putter day. My most favorite kind of day.

But it's also a day for taking stock -- assessing, if you will. Here are three things I'll be assessing today so I can catch up.

Assess the Christmas preparations. I've been stashing gifts away for several weeks now, hiding them from those who live here. This afternoon, my daughter has an appointment, so it's time to dig everything out and see what I've got. Lists would have been nice, but the reality of my schedule meant ordering this item here and that item there for both my husband and my daughter. Now it's time to put the puzzle together and see which pieces, if any, are missing, from holiday gifts, greetings and decor.

Assess a to-do pile. One of these was eliminated on Tuesday when I worked on my grades. The one I'll tackle next formed a short stack on a table in my office and holds the materials for a job I was looking forward to doing, a folder to remind me to check work email and create my out-of-office message and a clipboard with to-do files and lists. There is one more pile in the family room which can be dispensed with pretty quickly, and a partially completed project that may or may not get completed today but will get consolidated. On a putter day, I choose my battles.

Assess the state of my writing, blogging and writing social media. All of these were cast out of the grading tunnel that I entered last weekend, so it's time to assess the damage and do some planning. I'm really excited to get to this, actually, especially after my phone call with my editor.

Unlike the Grinch, I don't wish to stop Christmas from coming but, since it's going to be here rather quickly, today is the day to set the stage. There are so many loose ends to tie up and the reality is that some will remain untied by the end of the day. Progress, however, is my friend.

What key things will you assess today?

True Confessions Wednesday: Beat the Clock

True Confession #15: I'm a beat-the-clock kind of organizer. I don't mean that I quickly scramble to put things away when company's coming (although that does sometimes happen). Instead, what I mean is that I've learned to use small pockets of time to my advantage. While this doesn't work well for major projects, it's great for making progress in smaller ones. In fifteen minutes or less I can zap a pile, return homeless items to their homes, make the bed, put away a load of laundry....

You get the idea.

Sometimes, these pockets of time arise between activities. Other times, they're a way of making a dent in an otherwise daunting task like cleaning the basement or overhauling a closet. These short bursts can be an organizing session unto themselves, or they can be the start of something more, nudging me to complete a task I expected only to start. Either way, they often lead me to replace clutter with clear space which is the ultimate prize in the organizing game.

Admittedly, not everything in life can be accomplished in fifteen minutes or less; some tasks call for a longer commitment. But while I wait for that elusive block of time to arrive, it's nice to know I can chip away at tasks a little at a time.

And end up with clear space to boot.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Mixing Organizing with Decorating

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

I am, as usual, a little behind in my Christmas preparations. The situation is far from dire -- the house is decorated (for the most part) and, thanks to my husband, the tree is up and ready to be decorated when my daughter gets home this weekend.

But, thanks to my daughter, I'm a little ahead in the sorting and organizing department. When she was home for Thanksgiving, we raided the crawlspace and pulled out decorations she might want, along with the old standards we put out every year.

The holidays provide a built-in opportunity for taking stock, weeding out the things we no longer use and filling in the gaps with things that suit our current needs. Here are three keys to mixing a little organizing into your decorating.

As you take things out, take inventory of your containers. Can you lift them? Find what you need? Are like items stored together, or are the ornaments mixed in with the outside lights? As you take things out, think about how you'd prefer to take them out next year. Then, make a list of what you need to make it happen.

Plan by style. Using a system that sucks the joy out of decorating? Maybe it's backbreaking (like my crawlspace), unwieldy (those big bins that looked so roomy in the store are just plain heavy when they're full of decorations) or confusing (endless stacks of identical brown boxes). Re-evaluate your system now and upgrade it with containers that work for your styles. If you can hold off revamping your system until after the holidays, you might even get what you need on sale.

JillWellington via Pixabay

One in, one out. If you, like me, enjoy hitting the after Christmas sales, or if everything old is not new again, make room for additions to your collection by weeding out any decorations you haven't used in the past two years. Then, when you buy a new treasure, get rid of something old. Fortunately, even exchanges are pretty easy to pull off with things like decorations, and even easier when we're replacing something that's stopped working with something style-specific.

The goal here is to plan what comes next so that after the holidays, when the craziness subsides, you can put your plan into action. Then next year at this time, you can decorate with style.

True Confessions: Making a List and Checking it Twice

True Confession #14: I love stationery. This is something that's been true ever since I was a little girl. We'd go to a five and ten or a variety store (yes, I'm that old!) and I would spend as much time as I could wandering the aisles filled with notebooks and various kinds of paper. I still remember the pink notebook paper I got to fill my flowered binder in elementary school (fourth grade, if memory serves) and how I saved it for special assignments.

To this day, I have a collection of notebooks waiting to be pressed into service (because one needs a notebook that is just right for the task at hand), a collection of file folders in various colors, patterns, materials (traditional card stock vs. acetate/plastic) and sizes, and enough Post-it Notes to paper my office. Granted, it's a small office, but that's still a lot of sticky notes.

I also match my writing implements to the task for which I'm using them. But that's another post.

knockknockstuff.com

So, when KnockKnockStuff.com had its Black Friday (or was it Cyber Monday?) sale, of course I needed to add to my collection. I was running low on the pages I use to create the week-at-a-glance sheet that travels between work and home, linking my commitments in both places, so re-ordering those was a no-brainer. While I was there, I found a daily to-do page I liked and added that to my cart as well. Sure, I could use a blank sheet of paper, or the back of my week-at-a-glance page but, I need to see it person that I am, the combination of eye-catching and priority-based (breaking up the longer list into smaller lists based on urgency) was too good to pass up.

Oh, and did I mention that it sticks to stuff? Like, say, the back of my weekly list?

You don't have to be Santa for lists to be a big part of your life, especially at this time of year. And, while any piece of paper (or notebook) will do in a pinch, having a list that's very visible (and maybe even prioritized) can be just the ticket to bringing a little bit of organization to a busy, somewhat overwhelming time of year.

And, who knows? Maybe if you leave him some cookies, Santa will add that just-right notepad or notebook to your stocking -- the one that works for your style. And if the cookies are just right, maybe all the items will already be checked off.

Now that would be a gift indeed.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys for Keeping it Together When it's Falling Apart

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

I just sent an email to two colleagues in which I closed with the following sentence:

"I hope your semester is winding down nicely rather than having to be wrangled into submission. Can you tell which mine is?"

Yep. That about sums it up.

I'm happy to say that, from an I need to see it perspective, things are looking pretty good. The piles are minimal and the systems are (mostly) humming along, which is all that I can hope for at this time of year. Here are a few strategies I subscribe to at this busy time of the year -- and others like it.

Keep it simple. Now is not the time to try fancy new plans. If it's not broken, don't change it. If it can wait, let it. If it can't wait, use a tried and true strategy. Trying to do it all is overrated.

Keep it consistent. The same things go in the same places -- time wise and stuff wise. Predictability might be boring under some circumstances, but it can be a lifesaver when life is overwhelming. And for many of us, there's even something comforting about a routine.

Try to avoid making a contribution -- to the pile-up, that is. Strategies like Give it Five! and Don't put it down, put it Away! can keep things from getting worse. While it seems that putting one more thing on the pile won't make that much difference, that one more thing you set down now becomes one more thing you have to sort later. Put it where it belongs, or start a homeless bin for all the loose ends without a location to call their own. That way, you need to look in only one place to find that thing you put in a safe place and, when things slow down, you can pick up the bin and put things away.

Finally, above all, remember the one thing I probably say more than any other: it's a process.

Oh, and: this, too, shall pass.

True Confessions Wednesday: Browser Tabs

True confession #13: I leave my browser tabs open. Lots of them. All the time. On multiple devices.

Can you say “I need to see it?“

Since I use my laptop in class, this has shocked more than one of my students. A few have even offered to “clean up" my desktop for me. Clearly they don’t understand that their idea of cleaning up my laptop would not be helpful. Hide my tabs??

Still, I am embarrassed. I can’t help feeling as though it somehow makes me look less professional.

So, when I took my MacBook into the Apple store because it was having power issues, I asked one of the technicians about this habit, and whether or not it was the cause of the battery issues. He shook his head (in a good way) and assured me it wasn’t a problem. “That’s what this machine was designed for,” he said.

That was all I needed to hear. I mean, I already loved my MacBook and now someone who knew what he was talking about was telling me it was designed for my I need to see it style?

Music to my ears!

And so now, when one of my students is horrified by all of my open browser tabs and/or the collection of colored folders on my MacBook desktop, I remember that technician at the Apple store. I know my plan doesn’t work for everyone, but it doesn’t have to. From time to time, if it’s not working for me, I need to go in and see which tabs need to be closed but, otherwise, it’s my style and I’m sticking to it.

And someday I will read all those tabbed pages.

True Confessions Wednesday: Organizing is Fun

True Confession #12: Organizing makes my short list of fun things to do when I have a day off.

No, that's not sarcasm, which is probably why I spend so much time writing about this stuff. And, as I've said before, the organizing and the writing feed each other. When I write about my problem areas in a blog post here, I get motivated to wave my magic organizing wand and make them disappear.

Unfortunately, there is no magic organizing wand. It's all good ideas (and some bad ones) and elbow grease. And time -- the most elusive ingredient of all.

After last week's blog post, I made it a point to take the time to properly organize the student papers that were littering my dining room table. I had them stacked by class but, because of the way I'd collected the assignments, some of the piles had multiple assignments in them. Writing last week's post nudged me to grab three cardstock filing bins (green, blue and yellow, for those of you color-coding at home), separate the papers by assignment and turn the stacks and piles into neatly (color-coded) paper-clipped stacks all contained within one file per class. I'd been putting off doing this because I'd had my blinders on, careening forward and "accomplishing things" instead of stopping and taking the time to put things in an order that would reduce my stress.

Just me?

The thing is, I really enjoy organizing. I'm not wild about cleaning (unless it's cleaning a newly cleared space) or cooking, but organizing? Lemme at it!

Last Sunday, I had papers to grade so, of course, I cleared off the counter in my office. (Did I mention that organizing is also a procrastination technique of mine?) Since then, every time I walk into the office, my eyes light on that newly cleared space and I smile. There is still work to be done as well as projects I'm eyeing up in other parts of the house, but that space makes me happy and more likely to spend time in my office.

When we get busy, it's easy to put off organizing. We run from one thing on our to-do lists to the next, claiming we don't have time to stop and sort. But, if you're like me, when you finally make the time to do just that, the act of taking stock and putting things into order can be just the stress relief we need. Sorting all those papers on my dining room didn't reduce the number of papers I had to grade, but it allowed me to get a better idea of what was actually there and corral what looked like haphazard piles. Suddenly, I was in charge, running the task instead of the task running me.

hudsoncrafted via Pixabay

Over this Thanksgiving break, I hope to express my gratitude in multiple ways. One of them will be getting rid of outdated and excess things so I can truly enjoy what I have. I won't get rid of all of them, but I have a few spots I want to dig into. I gave my students the assignment of savoring something over their break and I can't think of a better way to savor what matters than to remove all the stuff that gets in the way of my enjoying it in the first place.

Happy Thanksgiving. I will be taking tomorrow off to savor time with my family. See you next week.

STYLE-ing My Way to the End of the Semester

The semester is drawing to a close and the semi-annual paper blizzard has begun. Fortunately, many of these papers will be returned to my students but, in the meantime, keeping things in order is a bit of a challenge. When it feels like the stuff is overwhelming the systems, it's time to go back to STYLE.

• Start with successes. I have folders for all of my classes, so that's my starting point. When the papers begin to overrun the folders (like when 25 students turn in five page papers), I start stacking and I keep my piles together with paper clips or binder clips that match the color I've assigned to each class. That way, I can see at a glance which papers belong to which classes, even if I move my piles into open-top files.
• Take small steps. When the papers start to pile up, they end up on my dining room table, which is not where they belong. Taking even five minutes at a time to sort, clear and move the piles to a more appropriate location makes a difference not just in terms of clear space, but also in terms of peace of mind. I know. I've tried it.
• Yes, it has a home! Except when that home is too small. Time to pull out an extra file bin and press it into service.
• Let it go! This one will be easy. The majority of the papers will be returned to their rightful owners. What remains can be sorted into file bins that house materials for each of my classes.
• Easy upkeep. Luckily, I've been teaching the same classes long enough that I've developed working systems and, once the paper piles shrink to a manageable size, the upkeep is easy.

Chipping away at my piles gradually, reminding myself that this is a temporary state of affairs, and keeping what comes next in mind helps me make progress and keep my wits about me. As the piles grow smaller (and leave my house), I feel a sense of accomplishment that almost makes this temporary state of affairs less annoying.

Almost.

True Confessions Wednesday: I Need Saturdays

True Confession #11: No matter how much I try to keep up with it, all the house stuff drops to the bottom of the list during the week.

Lately, my weekends have been busy. Mostly, they've been busy with good things, but they've been busy nevertheless. Blocking out a Saturday here, a Sunday afternoon there and occasionally, traveling one or more days during the week has begun to take its toll and has brought me to a clear realization.

I need Saturdays.

On Saturdays, my priorities shift. Rather than being crammed into the nooks and crannies of the day as they are during the week, house stuff and writing stuff top the list on Saturdays. My students, with few exceptions, stop sending emails sometime Friday afternoon and resume sometime Sunday, making it easy to step away from work emails and grading. My family is home and the house isn't always quiet, making it the right time to do tasks like clutter-busting and re-organizing.

Without my Saturdays, things fall apart rather quickly. While I can pick up as I go or toss a load of laundry in on a weekday, really digging in to the things I want to do around the house just doesn't happen.

This Saturday, for the first time in nearly a month, I will have time at home. While there will be some grading to do, I'm ready to dig into the piles that have popped up around my house during the weeks when my Saturdays were spoken for.

I can't wait to dig in.

Friday Feature: Routines

Funny story: This post doesn't belong here. It belongs on my other blog, The Porch Swing Chronicles. But, since routines go with Organizing by STYLE and because the irony of it all does not escape me, I'm leaving it here and posting it there as well.

One caveat, though. I'm not "here" (on this blog) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I post here on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The past few weeks have been peppered with a variety of things that have wrecked my routine. Some were mundane, others more serious and needing immediate attention, but the end result, once everything had been taken care of, was me feeling overwhelmed and off-kilter.

This week, I've been trying to fall back into my routine, but everything from sloth to interruptions to an unanticipated need to recover from all of this routine-busting has created a pile-up of obstacles. Yesterday, my husband came home sick and spent the day resting in order to recuperate. I had a list of things I'd intended to do to get me back on track but, once I'd finished the ones outside the house, I quickly fell into a rest-to-recuperate cycle of my own, accomplishing only a fraction of what I'd set out to do. Even this blog, a regular part of my week every week for over a decade, was one of the casualties.

Once upon a time, I equated routine with boring, something that becomes increasingly less true as I get older and crave the sense of calm (and accomplishment) that routine can bring with it. Routines, as it turns out, are good for us not only in terms of productivity, but also in terms of creativity. Putting some things on autopilot, or on o a perpetual to-do list keeps us from having to worry about when -- or whether -- they'll get done. They can actually be an important part of our mental health as well, easing anxiety and keeping us focused when simply staying focused requires more energy than we have available.

If you're a regular reader, I apologize for disrupting your routine by making this post unavailable on its usual day. If you're finding me for the first time, I hope you'll drop by again. I'm here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

It's part of my routine.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Organizing When You Don't Have Time to Organize

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

We all have them. Those weeks (or months...or longer) when it seems as though everything is piling up and nothing is getting done. I need to see it folks leave reminders everywhere, I love to be busy people have more list items than hours in a day and I love stuff people feel inundated by their treasures. Cram and jammers are overstuffing their spaces, drop and runners are leaving visual trails and I know I put it somewhere folks are "restoring order" in ways they'll regret when they go in search of the things they just couldn't stand to look at any longer.

Now what??

This is the time for taking small steps, mostly because we probably don't have the time to dig in and tackle everything at once.  Here are three ways that work for me.

• Pick up as you go. Every time I pass a pile, an item or a collection, I pick up one thing and put it where it belongs. I don't make as much headway as I'd like (or clear things as quickly), but I can still restore some clear space.
• Be strategic. If time is at a premium, I can't do everything, so I aim first for the places that matter most to me. Sometimes I start with the most visible spot -- the one people see first. Or, maybe I'll start with the one that's the least cluttered for the fastest payoff or the one that bugs me the most for the most rewarding payoff. Every improvement reminds me I can do this and nudges me to keep doing it.
• Finish what I start. This one is the hardest for me and it's a habit I am working to develop. As someone with a drop and run organizational style, I have a tendency to start a lot of things and then leave them out so I don' forget to finish them. Or, sometimes, I just run out of time, leaving the thing I started unfinished and visible. Forcing myself to finish one thing before I move on to the next doesn't reduce my clutter, but it keeps me from adding to it.

Busy times are frustrating -- sometimes even for those with an I love to be busy organizational style -- and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and disgusted with ourselves. But busyness is a part of life and if we have systems that work, they don't just disappear because we've been too busy or preoccupied to use them. Busy times lead us to appreciate our systems or, if they've become as overwhelmed as we feel, revamp them. Either way, we end up organized.

Eventually.

True Confessions Wednesday: Work-in-Progress

True Confession #10: I am an organizational work-in-progress. 

If you are a regular reader, you know this is something I blithely admit on a regular basis. Last weekend, however, someone else pointed it out to me and hearing it felt like a sucker punch.

The person who pointed it out to me was my daughter and the way she put it was, well, blunt. "Your stuff is everywhere, Mom."

My first instinct was to deny, but a quick look around the room where we sat made that impossible. Shame quickly followed, along with embarrassment and the sense that I'm a fraud. I mean, I write about this stuff. How could I have let this happen??

Life, that's how.

The past few weeks have been a succession of interruptions, quasi-emergencies and routine-busting crises. I've fallen behind in pretty much every conceivable area of life.

Now, approaching the other side of the tunnel I've been in, I can see the light, but it's shining on piles that reveal just how quickly even someone who knows her styles and knows how to use them can fall back into bad habits.

Every style has attributes and downfalls. While I was putting out proverbial fires, my downfalls were having a party and they didn't even have the decency to contain it to one room of the house.

When I set out to teach these styles to my students and, later, write Know Thyself, I had two goals. One of them was to help people who struggle with organization to find systems that work for them for more than two days. The other was to disabuse them of the notion that there was something wrong with them because they weren't flawlessly organized on a regular basis.

My daughter was right. At the time of her statement, I absolutely did not look like someone who writes about organization (that's not what she said, but it's so what I heard!) But, after my initial response, I needed to remind myself of a couple of things I already knew.

First, a temporary overabundance of piles does not mean I've fallen into utter, hopeless disorganization. And, second, the fact that this happens at my house from time to time is precisely why I write about this.

I'm not flawlessly organized. My house is not perfect 24-7 (far from it). My systems, which keep me organized most of the time, get overwhelmed sometimes.

And there's a good reason for that. I get overwhelmed sometimes and, since my systems are an extension of my styles (which are an extension of me), when I get overwhelmed, they do, too. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of resasserting control over my belongings. Sometimes, it's a matter of rethinking the systems. Either way, I need more than a pinch of a magic ingredient that has little to do with me, my styles or my systems.

Time.

I write about this because I get it. I know how hard it is to keep things together all the time. I'm not writing to lecture from on high but, rather, to share what I've learned in the hopes it will help you, your kids, your spouse or your seemingly hopelessly disorganized best friend. Together, we'll figure this out, stumble, acquire, declutter, figure it out again and make progress.

It's a process and, for some of us, it involves piles.

3 Keys Thursday: Wardrobe Staples

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

One night last fall, as I was hanging up the $17 Target cardigan I wear at least once a week between April and October, I got to thinking about wardrobe staples. I used to love shopping for clothes but somewhere between my 20-somethings and my 50-somethings I lost interest. Maybe it was the changes in my body. Maybe it was the fact that shopping for my daughter took priority.  Maybe it was because it's become so much easier to order things online and try them on in the privacy of my own home, where I can mix and match instead of wondering whether or not the new item will fit into the existing wardrobe.

Or maybe it was a little bit of each of these.

In retrospect, I think a switch flipped the year I retired. For more than a year, I had no need to shop for work clothes; my existing wardrobe was more than sufficient for my new stay-at-home mom status. In addition, as I transitioned from a well-paying career to a smaller income, and I couldn't justify buying new clothes.

Though I've since transitioned into a new career, I've kept the ease of building on simple pieces. Here are my three key tops and bottoms:

Tops:

• Solid color tops in varying sleeve lengths (although the older I get, the fewer long sleeves I prefer since I use these primarily for layering)
• Cardigans. While my $17 Target cardigans (one in navy, two in black and one in white) are traditional button-downs, my favorites are a flowy, unstructured rayon blend that resist fading and wrinkling and can be dressed up or down.
• Solid sweaters, tunic length

Runner up: Print tops to dress up jeans or black pants

Bottoms:

• Jeans (of course) -- some of my dark wash jeans even work for work.
• Black pants -- nearly everything goes with jeans and nearly everything goes with black.
• Print slacks -- Five years ago, I had none of these in my closet. Now they're edging out some of the solid color khaki-cut slacks I swore by. Less boxy and made of softer fabrics, they are comfortable and easy to pair with a solid sweater. Most of mine are in prints that pair with a black top.

Runner up: It's a tie between leggings and khakis. Khakis would have made the cut (top 3) a few years back, but I'm finding it harder to find khakis that are comfortable and flattering.

nietjuh via Pixabay

If I had to, I could get dressed for months using only these items and a few pieces of jewelry. These
days, when I shop, I look for replacements or for pieces that will complement these basics, many of which I routinely have in duplicates or multiple colors.

Sometimes, I worry that I look the same every day but, when this starts to happen, I know it's time for a new accent piece or accessory. In addition, this concern is assuaged by the ease that these foundation pieces provide. If something in my wardrobe doesn't perform well with these basics, it's easy to let it go to a new home where someone will love it as much as I love my staples.

How about you? What are your wardrobe basics? Are they more basic than mine?

True Confessions Wednesday: Loving My Styles?

True confession #9: I don’t always love my styles. No, I am not renouncing everything I’ve been saying all along. I’ve learned to embrace my styles, to utilize them, and to create strategies that work with them. All of these things have contributed to me being much more organized with much less effort.

But, when I am overwhelmed and time is short, I revert to their less useful side. I start to drop and run. Instead of trusting my well-crafted lists, I allow reminders to collect in piles because there is a certain solace in seeing what needs to be done and an even greater satisfaction in putting it all away just so when the tasks are complete.

Still, it frustrates me that things aren’t perfect, leading me to overlook a not-so-obvious fact.

Every style has both flaws and attributes.

On the plus side, my I need to see it personal style has led me to take color coding to a whole new level while recognizing my drop and run organizational style has removed my guilt over not using tools like binders and file cabinets well. More important, understanding my styles has brought me to a larger conclusion: that things like binders and file cabinets are simply tools. I they don't work for me, I’m not broken. I just need a different tool.

This is true for the other styles as well. Those with a cram and jam organizational style are great at utilizing space – especially small spaces — and consistently putting things in the same place.  Learning to transfer those concepts to organizational systems that don’t leave things squished and smashed and torn allows cram and jammers to put what comes naturally to work.

Those who put things in safe places (those with an I know I put it somewhere organizational style) have the basic concept of putting things away and need only to become more methodical in that practice. People who embody the I love to be busy personal style often manage time very well; working toward managing their space with the same efficiency and utilizing small pockets of time to do so polishes that strength. Finally, those with an I love stuff personal style have the gift of seeing treasure in mundane things.

When piles abound or we can't remember what safe place we put something in or our things are wrinkled and torn from being stuffed into a too-small space, it's hard to embrace our styles with acceptance and gratitude. But, the more we work with our two-sided styles instead of trying to fight against them, the easier it becomes to be thankful for them, warts and all.

And the better organized we become.

3 Keys to Managing a Six-Day Week

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

For a variety of reasons (mostly good), I've been out of my routine for several weeks now. Weekend trips, usually a rare occurrence, have been the norm. Even when they're great trips (going to the beach, visiting my daughter), they still take a bite out of weeks that are usually pretty tightly scheduled to begin with.

Some weeks are like that. No matter how valuable or enjoyable the activity, "losing" one day out of the week can put us behind schedule, leaving us feeling stressed out in the week that follows as we try to "catch up."

When this happens, it's helpful to remember to do a few things as we tackle a "six-day week":

Breathe. Tension and stress do absolutely nothing to help us accomplish our tasks or reach our goals. In fact, they often do just the opposite. Breathe, try to relax, and tackle one thing at a time.

Triage. I'm not a medical professional, so my understanding of this term is limited to my extensive experience watching television medical dramas. Fortunately task triage is much less intense than triage in the emergency room, and boils down to three questions: Who matters most? What matters most? and What has a deadline?

I know, I know -- they all matter. It all matters. But you know what? It doesn't. Some tasks and some people take precedence. To quote Stephen Covey, "Put first things first."

Take small steps. Though the list seems endless and the piles seem to be taking over, every little bit helps. Keep writing things down so they don't fall through the cracks and tackle each item as you can. Then, cross it off the list.

Pixabay

This past week, I added one more, stolen from the safety procedures on airplanes: put your own oxygen mask on first. At my house, it often turns out that these six-day weeks are the ones where everyone else suddenly needs me. Racing to meet other people's needs without taking care of my own leaves me ill-equipped to be helpful and patient.

So, yesterday, I asked myself what constituted putting on my own oxygen mask. Was it a nap? Forgiving myself for not getting through the list? Ordering takeout?

It was writing. If I'm not on a deadline, I find that six-day weeks are the ones where writing time falls to the bottom of the list while I catch up on everything else. So, I designated a chunk of the afternoon as writing time, and put everything else on hold for those few hours.

It was definitely the right decision. Spending that time doing something I loved was a major attitude adjuster. My evening was more productive and I was in a better mood today.

Sometimes, the thing we don't feel like we have time to do is the thing we need the most.

True Confessions Wednesday: An I-Need-to-See-it Environment

True Confession #8: My I need to see it personal style is abundantly in evidence in my home -- especially when no one else is home.

In the decade in which I've been perfecting the art of matching my styles to matching my organizational systems, I've come up with a lot of tools that work for me. While these tools keep my piling somewhat under control, my default piles still pop up and serve a purpose -- one that's useful to me, if not to the other people who live with me.

Three days a week, I finish teaching at noon, which (theoretically) means I have the afternoon at home to work on...whatever. On Monday, when I left for work, I left a bottle of nasal spray on the bathroom counter (to remind myself to call the pharmacy for a refill), a small pile of dirty clothes by the door to the basement (to remind myself to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer) and a variety of items on my dining room table that I half hoped would jump out at me to make sure I didn't ignore them.

It wasn't pretty.

As an empty nester in a two-income household, most days I'm the last to leave the house in the morning and the first to arrive home. This means I can pick up all my "reminders" before anyone else sees them, making it a workable (if less than visually appealing) system -- for me at least.

Occasionally, my husband arrives home before I do and discovers my "system." I'm sure that to him these appear to be miscellaneous items left carelessly lying about. To his credit, he never says as much, but I still feel like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar on a very cluttered counter.

When I have to (other people are home, company is coming), I use lists instead, but this shorthanded here-a-reminder, there-a-reminder approach nudges me more than any list does. And most of the time, I accomplish these tasks because doing the task the thing I left out reminds me to do always ends the same way: I put away the reminder item, leaving only clear space in its wake.

If our schedules ever change, I might reconsider this approach but, as long as I'm the last one out and the first one back, I don't see any harm in a few visual reminders, especially if they help me get the job done.

What less-than-ideal systems are you reluctant to let go of?

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Digging into that Overwhelming Task

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

Writing about what needs to be done sometimes gives me a nudge to get it done. As is often the case, yesterday’s blog post spurred me into action. Consequently, my table now has more clear space than it did yesterday. It’s not fully clear yet, but it’s definitely improved. Papers are even filed where they belong instead of being dropped into a pile that I run from, planning to file them later.

Ready to dig into your own version of my pile-heavy dining room table? Here are three keys to tackling that looming task.

Start somewhere. Sometimes the task looms because it’s overwhelming. Just pick a spot and dig in! If it still feels overwhelming, turn the pile over and start from the bottom. Still too much? Pick another pile. Any progress is progress.

Do what you can. Often, a task gets left undone because we don’t feel as though we have time to tackle it. Picking up one thing or one pile, spending one minute or five (or 30) – all of these make a dent and every dent yields at least a little bit of that coveted organizational prize: clear space.

Don’t add to it. Like a dieter who feels that the day is lost after she succumbs to a brownie, we might feel as though the situation is so far gone that adding one more thing to the pile won’t make a difference. But it will. And the more we add, the more time it takes to actually get the job done.

For me, knowing where to start was easy -- it was time that was the obstacle -- but I was frustrated enough by the clutter to make time. Figuring out how much time we have, using it, and then walking away can be both frustrating and liberating.

Sometimes, though, life intervenes and finding that elusive time is just more than we can manage. If that's where you find yourself, I can tell you with confidence that there's one more thing that might give you a nudge.

Write it down.

True Confessions Wednesday: Deadlines and Piles

True Confession #7: When I get busy, I get stuck in a push-pull between things that are deadline-driven and things that aren't.

My dining room table is currently in serious need of intervention. We went away the weekend before last and have another trip coming up in the near future. My dining room, which sits in the center of our house, has a lovely table that is supposed to be used for eating but is currently too full of my various piles of things to perform that function.

It started small, as I began preparing for our trip to the beach, which collided with midsemester assignments and warning grades. Papers to grade, grading sheets and class prep information took up residence, then disappeared gradually as I finished grading and returned the papers to their rightful owners. I dropped a few odds and ends -- extra grading sheets, blank copies of exams -- and ran, assuming I'd return all of those items to their various homes shortly.

Then, we got home from the beach, picked up the mail and started unpacking (not necessarily in that order). Nonessential mail (magazines, catalogs) landed "temporarily" on the table, keeping the school odds and ends company. Late last week, I went shopping for prizes for my Facebook party last weekend, and laid all of those things out on the table because I need to see things. After the party, I packed them up and took them to the post office but, again, a few stray items remained.

Now, we're planning a trip to go see our daughter at college. As I come across things I want to take along, I put them in a pile -- you guessed it -- on the dining room table.

Every time I walk by that table, I cringe. I also aim to pick up something and put it away every time I pass but, no sooner do I clear off a space than a new I need to see it task arises and something else gets dropped into that freshly decluttered location.

Meanwhile, life moves forward. New tasks with deadlines arise and the old task of clearing off my table (which has no external deadline) gets pushed aside as the clutter expands.

And therein lies the problem.

I rarely miss a deadline of someone else's making. While this may be admirable, professional or whatever else you may call it, it often happens at the expense of deadlines I've set for myself. And, when things get too busy, I stop setting personal deadlines altogether. Stuck in survival mode, I keep moving forward only to drag hot spots like my dining room table along behind me like so much baggage. Sprinkle in a few surprises like an unexpected crisis, illness, or phone call and that baggage just gets heavier. Or, worse yet, it gets abandoned in favor of mindless television or something equally non-demanding.

Just me?

I wish I could say I had an easy answer to this, but there is no easy fix. I can try not to let things pile up in the first place and, to an extent, I do. I can make sure I finish one task before starting another, which is something that's a major challenge for those of us with a drop and run organizational style. I can try not to overbook myself, bringing myself one step closer to finishing what I start,  but I can't control the unexpected interruptions. All I can do is decide whether or not to engage in them.

Once the clutter gets dropped onto the surface, there is nothing to do but chip away at it and do my best not to add to it. These are the times I employ Give it Five!, or pick up one thing every time I walk past, or tackle the table one pile at a time.

Life happens. And for me, the more that's going on, the more likely I am to end up with piles. As there is nothing in my life I want to get rid of (cooking dinner notwithstanding), all I can do is try to keep on top of the habits that create the clutter and, once it appears, tackle it one stack at at time.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys for Returning to the Real World

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

We had a lovely long weekend at the beach and now I'm back and completing Day 2 of Return to the Real World.

It's overrated.

While vacations, long weekends, and school breaks are a wonderful break from routine, they can often make it difficult to get back into a routine. Since my Return to the Real World adventure kicked off on a Wednesday, I've had my share of hopelessly confused, primarily of the "what day is this?" variety.

Here are three key things I'm doing to find my way back and to (I hope) make Return to the Real World be more of an adventure than a nightmare.

Start with my week-at-a-glance. It's tempting to think that since this is a short week I can forgo my usual week-at-a-glance cheat sheet, but that would be a mistake. Stationery hound that I am, I chose a different week-at-a-glance sheet for this week since I was starting my week in the middle. I opted for one that has more room for lists, and I appropriated the Monday and Tuesday spaces for my to-do list as well, which is good because it leads me to the next step....

Consolidate my reminder notes and to-do lists. Leading into the vacation, I made lists. During the vacation, I made more lists. When I got home...you guessed it. All of these random pieces of paper with reminders on them spell disaster unless I put them all together on one list. And, as an added bonus, I get to cross off the stuff I already did which means that the whole list will be smaller than the sum of its parts.

Use my styles strategically. As someone with an I need to see it personal style, it's tempting to just unload the reading material and things to do that came back from vacation onto the nearest flat surfaces, but too much unloading leads to visual overload. Yes, the mail I need to sort is on the dining room table, along with some of the reading material that didn't get read. Everything else needs to go away, and, if piles are inevitable, they need to be all in one place. My poor dining room table is my go-to at this point, so that means the kitchen counters and the mudroom surfaces need to remain clear.  Scattered piles on multiple surfaces leave me feeling frantic and edgy. If it's all in one place, I know where to look and I'm motivated to create more clear space, even if I can't do it all at once.

Our vacation was lovely. Now I'm working to make Return to Reality pleasant, too.

Vacation Spaces

 True Confession #6: I love hotel rooms and vacation spaces. 

Aside from the fact that being in one of these places usually means I'm taking a break for fun and/or learning, I love how easy it is to be organized in these spaces.

First of all, the sheer amount of stuff I have with me is minimized, limited to only what I could fit in the suitcase and various tote bags I packed specifically for the occasion. Hanging my clothes up is something I want to do because the alternative is to leave them crumpled up in my suitcase.

Not cool.

Second, these spaces are compartmentalized. There's the closet (for clothes), the desk (for my laptop and other work materials), the bed (for sleeping), the bathroom (for toiletries and makeup), and, if I'm lucky, some sort of reading chair/sofa/side table combination (for leisure). Figuring out where everything goes is easy which means that most of the time, everything is either where I packed it (where I left it last) or where it belongs. Everything. Nothing is homeless and, as long as I packed it, it has to be in the room somewhere.

I also designate spots for things like chargers (the one for my laptop is with my laptop and the one for my phone is usually on the desk as well) and my room key. Putting things in the same spot each time saves search time and, in addition, helps to create the habit of taking what I need with me when I go.

Last weekend, we were at the beach. We stay at the same condo complex each time and the number of rooms and their composition/layout are pretty similar from one unit to the next. This allows me to do the same type of organizing in this much larger space as I do in a hotel room.

While it might seem silly to focus on organization while I'm on vacation, for me, this predictability and consistency (not to mention knowing where to find my things) contributes to a sense of relaxation. It's not really surprising that that is the case since the same thing is true at home. The better organized I am and the less stuff I have laying around, the less stressed I feel.

How about you? When you take a vacation, do you take a vacation from organization as well?

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Key Tools that Aren't Style-Specific

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

If you've been reading this blog for more than five minutes, you know that organizing by STYLE is about choosing the strategies that work with our personal and organizational styles. But, sometimes, there are super strategies -- ways of doing things that work across all (or at least most) personal and organizational styles. 

Here are three of my favorites. 

Consistent locations. One aspect of my mom's favorite organizational maxim ("a place for everything and everything in its place"), logical, consistent homes are time savers. If we know where it goes and we get in the habit of putting it there (no matter what "it" is), we don't waste time and energy searching every nook and cranny for the thing we need.

Give it 5. Have an overwhelming task? Set a timer for five minutes and tackle it. You won't finish, but you'll make a dent, and, once you get started, you just might keep going and get more done than you expected. Getting started is often the hardest part, and promising ourselves to work for just five minutes can help us clear that hurdle, 

Backwards to-do list. Some days, we have to make a special effort to focus on our accomplishments. Those are backwards to-do list days -- days when, instead of writing down what we need to do, we write down what we've accomplished as we accomplish it. A load of laundry in the washer? Jot it down. Dinner in the slow cooker? Add it to the list. One shelf in the closet reorganized? Write it down. At the end of the day, instead of having a partially checked-off list, we have a list of everything we've done. It's a small difference in list-making that can make a big difference in motivation and that can help us to focus on what we've accomplished instead of what we've left undone.

How about you? What's your go-to organizational strategy?

True Confessions Wednesday: Packing it In

True Confession #5: I'm a pack-as-you-go kinda girl. 

In the first year seminar I teach, we watch Adam Grant's TED Talk about "originals" which includes the concept of precrastination -- that laudable habit of starting in on something right away, as soon as possible. 

Yeah. I don't have that. At least not most of the time. 

But, when it comes to packing for a trip, my husband comes pretty close. Sure, he doesn't start packing the minute after the reservation is confirmed, but he usually begins his preparations at least a week in advance.

I do not do this. I'm a procrastinator under many circumstances, but packing probably tops the list. As someone with an I need to see it personal style, my packing plan can be loosely described as, "it gets worse before it gets better."

I suspect that my approach makes him uncomfortable, and I know his approach pricks at my conscience. If I'm not careful, it can also get the shoulds rolling.

But I've learned over time that my method works -- or at qualifies as workable, at least -- for me.

The first step in my packing process is the mental list -- thinking through what I want to bring along. Sometimes I do this at night before I fall asleep, which kinda rules out making actual lists. Other times, I do it during normal waking hours and actually write things down.

Right now, we're preparing for a trip. Earlier today, I seriously considered packing only clean underwear and toiletries in my suitcase and bringing my dirty clothes in a laundry bag. Then, I can  wash them when we arrive and, voilà! Outfits.

In some ways, this plan seems so much easier -- I mean, my clothes in the laundry bag aren't mud-encrusted or gross or anything -- and I'd avoid generating new laundry. Though I'm leaning toward something more traditional, I'd be lying if I said I'd ruled out the laundry bag plan entirely. The second step in my somewhat organized personal packing plan (the one that involves only clean clothes) is, after all, making sure everything I want to pack/wear while I'm away is clean. That's part of the purpose of planning what to pack.

Conger Design via Pixabay

Sometime over the next few days, I will get serious. Clean, seasonally appropriate clothing that can be mixed and matched will make it into a bag. I will wait, though, because the longer it's in the suitcase, the more wrinkled it becomes, and my make-up and some of my toiletries (the ones I haven't pre-packed) will be the last things to go in the bag.

Do I forget things? If I'm honest, the answer is yes, I sometimes do, but I usually don't forget the
really important stuff. That's the stuff that makes it onto a list or gets packed first.

There are lots of reasons for my approach to packing, but that's another post. As for this trip and this approach, I'm currently at the plan-and-pile stage.

Seems only appropriate for an I need to see it girl.