3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Temporarily Switching Things Up

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

When it comes to getting organized, consistency is key.

Except when it's not.

Yesterday, I wrote about ditching my tried-and-true system for a simpler plan -- temporarily. For the past couple of days, it's been exactly what I needed but, when I found myself longing for a daily plan, I knew it was time to switch back.

While we should always be open to new solutions when the strategies we're using aren't working, I think there are also times when we should abandon the thing that works for something else. Here are three that I can think of.

• When it's what we need in the moment. Coming back from nearly a week away, my brain was spinning with things I needed to do. My usual system involves a combination of lists and time slots, but my immediate need was to just dump everything onto a list where I could take stock. The time slots would come later -- but not until after I'd checked a few things off the master list which, for sanity's sake, had only two categories.

• When you're in transition. This definitely piggybacks on what I wrote above, but it can also happen on its own. There are times that require schedules and there are times that require a free flow, moving from one thing to another as time and mood permit. When we're making the transition from one into the other, we may need to adjust our systems as well.

• When the amount of stuff temporarily overwhelms the system. If I had attempted to take the rather substantial number of items on my two-column list and slide them into time slots, I'd have run out of space on the page I use for my day-by-day schedule. Then, instead of becoming a tool, this day-by-day list would have become a source of stress. Tools should always work in our service, not the other way around. When we discover that the tools are running the show, it's time to step back and ask ourselves if we need something different.

This morning, I sat down with one of my week-at-a-glance sheets and pulled everything together, assigning times to what I could and listing what I couldn't yet assign a time to. By Sunday evening, I'll be ready to return to my usual system but, for the past few days, my temporary system has been just what I needed to help me return slowly and (somewhat) smoothly to the real world. 

New List, New Look

Holgi via Pixabay

Last week, my husband and I went to visit my daughter, who is finishing up a semester in Ireland. I applied all of my organizational strategies to packing in a logical fashion, only to have to unload and reload as we went through security, who had no respect for my styles whatsoever. And, not knowing what to expect when it came to the weather, I seriously overpacked.

But none of that stood in the way of my fun.

Now I'm back, the fun is behind me and everything I left at home -- papers to grade, book tasks to manage, writing assignments to complete -- is tugging at me. Typically, I spend some time on Sunday night or Monday morning making lists and assigning tasks to times, using my "This Week" pad to create a lovely little I need to see it reference list. But this week, we were in Ireland on Sunday and spent most of Monday on a plane or en route to one. At one point during the journey home, my husband looked me at and asked me what I was thinking. I told him I was thinking I needed to make a list of everything I needed to do.

And I did. I could even see it in my head. Two neat columns, bearing no resemblance to the day-by-day format I cherished on a weekly basis.

When I got home, I grabbed a steno pad and set to work. Column 1: Work. Column 2: Not Work (a.k.a. everything else).

It's now Wednesday and I've supplemented that list with a Wednesday schedule. Have I dropped the ball? Abandoned my strategies? Gone over to the organizational dark side?

Pexels via Pixabay

Nope. I've merely responded to what I need at this moment. The end of the semester is less than a month away, the number of classes that remain to be planned and taught now in the single digits. As I try to shift gears out of vacation mode and into nose-to-the-grindstone mode, I need to see the big picture, which means I need to use a list strategy that gives me plenty of room to see all the stuff. Right now, that's my two-column format.

Next week, I'll return to my usual strategy. By then, I'll have crossed nuisance items off my list and the remaining items will earn their slots on the day-to-day schedule. But for now, as I transition back to the real world, I need something a little less structured.

How do you know when it's time to change up your strategy, whether temporarily or permanently? I'll take a look at some of those ways tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Containers to Get Rid of Today

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

I'm taking some time off to be with family this week, so I'm re-running a favorite post from May 2017.

We've all done it. We've succumbed. Maybe it was a planner that promised to do everything but organize our time for us. Maybe it was a purse that claimed you'd never again have to dump it just to find the one thing you were looking for. Maybe it was those bins that you just knew would remove clutter from your life.

Except that they didn't.

When is an organizing tool actually an obstacle?

When it doesn't match your styles. For me, one of the best things about identifying my styles was that it helped me to stop buying every miracle organizer that came down the pike. If it doesn't match my styles, it doesn't make it into my shopping cart.

When it's too small for the task at hand. The best containers are, like Baby Bear's bed and porridge, "just right." They fit the space we've allocated and they have a little bit of room left over so that other, similar items can be added as necessary. Too-big containers are unwieldy, but too-small containers are perhaps even more frustrating. By the time we get in the habit of using them, we've outgrown them. While it's reasonable to expect to sort and review the contents of our containers from time to time, too-small organizers require this process much too often.

When it's too complicated. Let's face it. Most of us want to make it as easy to put things away as it is to drop them on the nearest counter. The more complicated the container is, the less likely it is that we'll use it on a regular basis.

Take inventory at your house. Do you have any of these containers in your possession? If so, it's time to consider a container upgrade. Ditch the miracle organizers and their empty promises for storage that actually makes your life easier.

Just One

TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay

Last week, I was feeling overwhelmed. My dining room table was covered with papers to grade and things to attend to once the papers were graded. Everywhere I looked there was something to do and every time I walked through the dining room, I wanted to just close my eyes and wish everything on the table away.

When life gets busy, it's often hard to stay on top of things. Luckily, sometimes the answer to making progress is "just one."

Just one minute. While a minute won't be enough time to clean out the garage (or get through all those piles on my table), it's long enough to put away a pile of clothes, sort mail or make a list of steps to take to complete the project when you can give it more time.

Just one pile. A pile of clean laundry is usually pretty easy to manage in just a minute (or so) because everything in the pile (most likely) has a home. Accumulated piles of papers and homeless items can be a bit challenging. If you don't have time to take care of the whole pile, set a timer, flip the pile over to start sorting from the bottom and get as far as you can in the time you have.

Just one drawer or shelf. Sure, it'd be great to clean out the whole dresser, closet or pantry, but often, that's just not possible. Tackling one finite section of the space in question can give you a feeling of satisfaction, which can motivate you to tackle the next drawer or shelf when you have time.

Just one hot spot. Every home has them -- the spots that seem to invite people to drop things and run. Creating clear space -- even if only in one small area -- provides both satisfaction and visual evidence of organizational progress. And if you can delegate the putting away of the items to the owners, that's even better.

Next time you're feeling overwhelmed, consider the concept of "just one." It may not get things completely organized, but it's a start and, sometimes, getting started is half the battle.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Ditching Those Questionable Clothes

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

Yesterday, I was forced to face my closet. Warm spring temperatures had me digging for clothing I hadn't worn in a while, not just because of the season, but because of the outfit I chose to kick off the season in.

Today, I went to work in a shirt I promised myself I was wearing for the last time. It was...okay, but I have better options and, as long as this one is in there, I'm going to end up wearing it again and feeling just as dissatisfied. 

Do you have difficulty weeding out your closet? Not sure if a questionable item should go or stay? Here are three key items to say goodbye to.

• Clothes that are falling apart. No matter how much you love it, if it’s frayed, torn or beyond repair, it’s time to say goodbye. 
• Clothes that no longer flatter. My shirt today was a notable example. It was...okay and since it was under a jacket, I could get away with it. But when we wear clothes that are less than flattering we don't feel as good as we do when we wear things we love. Tonight, the shirt is in the hamper. After it's laundered, it's going into the donation box. 
• Clothes that have seen better days. Black tank tops turned navy/gray. White tee shirts turned gray/yellow. Wardrobe basics -- the things we reach for on a regular basis -- are often the things we hang on to the longest -- even when they're past their prime. When the wardrobe staples start showing their age, it's time to add them to the shopping list. And, when we get home with the new stuff, the old stuff needs to go.

Sounds simple, right? It is. But that doesn't mean there aren't obstacles.

Steve A. Johnson via Pixabay

As for me, I don’t like a feeling of scarcity. I like to feel like I have options. These choices may sound obvious, but if we have an emotional attachment to an article of clothing or to that sense of having a wide variety of choices (some of us just don’t like wearing the same thing over and over again) it can be hard to do even with seems obvious.

So, start where you can, and practice one in/one out (getting rid of something old when you buy something new) as often as possible. Then, even the change of seasons can't throw you for a loop.

Clothing Conundrum

sardenacarlo via Pixabay

Yesterday, the temperature leapt into the upper 70s. It was a lovely, sunshiney spring day.

And I had nothing to wear.

Okay, that's not exactly true. I had a new skirt all picked out. This was a big deal, as I rarely wear dresses and skirts in any time but the summer. Consequently, I had mentally prepared most of my outfit.

Most apparently being the operative word.

By the time I finished putting together an outfit I was happy with, I had to race to class, leaving my bed strewn with belts and other discarded items of clothing.

But mostly belts.

I wear a belt even more rarely than I wear a skirt and there were plenty of belts on that overloaded hanger that were past their prime -- a state of affairs I probably should have anticipated before I got dressed.

Okay. Well, I kind of did. I'd mentally picked out a belt the night before, except that when I went to put it on yesterday it was...you guessed it.

Past its prime.

As someone with an I need to see it personal style, leaving the belts strewn on the bed was probably the best, if not the most organized, way for me to leave the room. It guaranteed that, when I got changed, I'd sort through those belts -- or at least some of them -- thinning the herd and increasing the likelihood that the ones that remained were at least serviceable.

Although I was a little frustrated by this whole process, it benefited me as well. Trying to objectively sort through possessions, deciding which to keep and which to abandon can be a challenging task. For me, with clothing in particular, it's easiest to get rid of something when I've tried it on and discarded it, leaving it abandoned on the bed.

I'm still hanging on to way too many belts "just in case," partly because I'm mourning the loss of the one I had to discard, as it was the most interesting one of the bunch. But, I now know that this is something I need to upgrade in my wardrobe, along with the tops that didn't make the cut for yesterday's outfit. I've learned that having something that's a better fit all around (fit-wise and style-wise) makes it much easier to toss the things that no longer work, include the "almost right" staples that I allow to take up space for far longer than they should. Informed by what didn't work, it's now easier to make a shopping list made up of what I know will work and to eliminate many unsuitable choices at a glance.

How's your spring wardrobe shaping up? Is it time for an intervention?

3 Keys to Setting REAL Goals

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

As it turns out, teaching three classes and getting a book ready for publication is enough to fill -- and, some days, overload -- a schedule. This embarrassment of riches has led me to go in search of blogs worth re-posting on days like today when fresh content is simply too elusive.

So, if spring has motivated you to set some goals, but big, fat, hairy goals seem too overwhelming for a season where the days are longer and things feel lighter, I invite you to consider the possibility of REAL goals.

There's more than one way to set a goal. While I teach my students to set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) and I try to do the same, I've discovered that sometimes a less structured goal can work just as well.

Is this just an excuse for laziness? It could be. But I think that, in specific circumstances, a "mushy" goal can work just as well. When the thing we're aiming to do is meaningful (especially if just doing it is rewarding) and we're striving to fit it into our lives in an unstructured kind of way (e.g. to merely do more of something), a REAL goal (yes, I just made that up)* is less likely to backfire.

What's a REAL goal?

Reasonable (we can imagine incorporating this into our lives)
Enticing      (we are motivated to incorporate this into our lives)
Attainable   (we can reasonably carve out a small space of time to make this happen)
Limited       (we can enrich our lives even by doing this only a little at a time)

Here are 3 keys to setting and achieving a REAL goal:

• Make it meaningful. A REAL goal should be something you want to do because it matters to you. It should not be something someone else wants you to do or something you think you should do. REAL goals are just for you.

• Make it accessible. When I made a Lenten resolution to read more, I put my Kindle in my purse so that wherever my purse went, books did, too. At home, I made sure to leave my print books and magazines where I could see them (not all of them at once, of course). In addition to making it easy to grab reading material, even when I had only a few minutes, visibility served as a reminder to make time for my REAL goal.

• Accept the ebb and flow. If you want a structured goal that makes you accountable on a regular basis, set a SMART goal. If you want to gradually integrate something of importance into your life, set a REAL goal. Because REAL goals are not time-bound, it's fine if we spend five minutes on them one day, fifteen minutes the next and, some days, we neglect them entirely. The fact that REAL goals are motivating in and of themselves works in their favor, nudging us to go back to them if we spend too much time away.

REAL goals weave richness into our lives by giving us the opportunity to step back and think about the things that matter to us. When our days seem like endless to-do lists, it's hard to imagine that will ever change, and it can be a daily challenge to find time to do the things that make us uniquely who we are. REAL goals encourage us to do just that.

*I did a quick search to see if REAL goals were already a thing, just not a thing I'd heard of. A couple of people have written about the concept of real goals, but I found nothing that matches my description.


Click here to request a free PDF on THREE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL GOAL SETTING.

Book Swag and Free PDFs

Last week at this time, as I was trying to motivate myself to dig into exams that needed grading, I got a wonderful distraction that did nothing to increase my motivation for grading.

My book swag arrived.

I now have post cards, book marks, stickers and a lovely poster for book signings. And I'm happy to share almost all of them. (Everything except the poster).

If you'd like a post card, a book mark or a sticker, use the contact form at right to send me your mailing address and I'll drop them in the mail.

Working hard to keep get piles in control at your house? Not really in need of any swag? I might still have something for you. Use the contact form at right to request FREE PDFs on organizational myths, goal-setting, and using your personal and organizational styles. For those, all I need is an email address.

And if you want to preorder the book, just click on any of the links below.

Preorder from Barnes & Noble

Preorder from Amazon

Preorder from OSV