Simple Strategies that Make Things Better

geralt via Pixabay

A new semester has started and my drop and run organizational style is in full bloom. I'm trying to keep after it, but my I need to see it personal style insists that course materials stay visible, at least until I've gotten into a routine and am less likely to leave the house without the essentials.

Changing seasons and busy times have a way of bringing our default styles to the surface. To make things worse, these two things often collide, overwhelming both us and our organizational systems. Sometimes, this is a sign that we need to update our systems; other times, it just a short-term problem easily solved by the passage of time.

Meanwhile, short-term strategies can come to our rescue. I'm a big fan of Give it Five! -- which is just what it sounds like. To Give it Five! all I need to do is allocate five uninterrupted minutes to improving one space that looks as overwhelmed as I feel. Some days, when the to-do list is long, this five minutes actually serves as a nice break between tasks, and leaving an area better than I found it is always motivating.

Give it Five! is a reactive strategy, however -- one that fixes something that's already a problem. To be proactive, I need to avoid creating hot spots in the first place. One way of doing this is using Give it Five's companion strategy, Don't put it down, put it away! As a recovering drop and run organizer, I sometimes have difficulty with this, but when I remember to do it, I create a lot less clutter in the first place. Pairing this strategy with Give it Five! can be particularly useful for those of us whose default styles make spotless surfaces simultaneously desirable and difficult.

Still trying to decide which styles best describe you? Click here to take the styles quiz. Have a few great short-term strategies of your own? Share them in the comments below!

Have I Mentioned That it's a Process?

No, my house doesn't look like this, but I have learned that even
an I need to see it person can learn to adjust to labeled storage
provided it's set up properly. (Photo: Thirty-One Gifts)

The semester is drawing to a close and piles are appearing. Okay, in some places, they've been hanging around for a while. But, generally speaking, things aren't as bad as usual. While part of this is due to the fact that I taught only one class this semester (as opposed to the three I taught in the fall),  part of it is a testimony to the newest incarnation of my organizational system.

Last semester at this time, my house was a mess. Piles had migrated from my home office into the living spaces of the house. There was a chair in the living room and a section of the dining room table  that remained covered with papers and materials from Thanksgiving to mid-December.

So, when I cleaned up between semesters, I knew it was time to take stock and make changes. This semester's load would be light, but next fall, I'd be back to juggling materials for three classes again. If I stood any hope of using my furniture for the purposes for which it was intended, something had to change.

freepik.com

A new office with a big closet would've been a great solution, but that wasn't going to happen. A patented a step-by-step process to follow would've been great as well, but the truth is, given my styles and the size of the space I was working with, it was more of a simultaneous assess/purge/
re-purpose/put away process.

Before I could start, I needed to re-envision the existing room and consider how I was using the space I had. Were there things in the office that needed to go? (Yes). Containers that weren't right for the space and/or weren't earning their keep? (Yes). Did I need to reconsider how I was using all of the major storage areas of my little office? (Yes). Was I on budget? (Yes).

In our house, moving one thing quickly turns into a game of dominoes. I wasn't quite ready to get rid of a cart in the office that was sturdy and in good shape, but wasn't earning its keep, so I moved it to the living room. This led to my relocating a small piece of furniture, along with another container that held books and magazines. The cart ended up solving a storage problem in the living room, and it needed a little dressing up, but that was the fun part.

Meanwhile, back in the office, I needed something to replace the cart. I bought an inexpensive, not-quite-right three drawer unit to tuck under the counter. Style-wise, it wasn't perfect, but it functioned as I needed it to: it put all my papers out of sight. Dangerous for an I need to see it organizer, so I made sure to set up the drawers by broad category and label them. Nothing goes into any of the drawers that doesn't fit its category, so I can work with it (just three categories to remember), and it looks immeasurably better.

I snagged two small drawer units (with clear drawers) from our basement and set them up next to the larger, new three-drawer unit, completing my under-the-counter transformation in the office. No longer was I wrestling with awkward, difficult-to-access bins. Putting something away was as easy as putting it in its labeled drawer, making Don't put it down, put it away! easy to put into practice.

I was so excited about this drawer idea...but it seems to
be too much of a style stretch for my I need to see it style.

I could go on and on, but I won't. Suffice it to say that by the time I was finished, I'd put the space in my office to better use, cleaned up a corner in the playroom (and procured two fun fabric bins for myself in the process) and put a small shelf unit (from the playroom) to use in my kitchen. Most of my "new" stuff was re-purposed old stuff, so I purchased only one new item. I still have two empty spaces (one small drawer and one lidded fabric bin) in my office, so I have room to maneuver and grow. In addition, I have one larger drawer that's not earning its keep and will most likely be re-purposed between this semester and next. This summer, I'll do some tweaking and dispense with the remaining piles.

I still smile when I look under the counter in my office and see how much better that space -- along with the spaces under the counter in the kitchen and under the window in the living room the -- looks and functions.

pixabay.com

That's the best part. When it's easy to put stuff away, life is so much easier.

And the piles are smaller, too.

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Strategies for Keeping your Mental House in Order

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

This time last month, I wrote about three items that helped me keep my thoughts organized when my schedule threatens to overwhelm both me and my organizational systems. Yesterday, I shared my process for dealing with the inevitable feeling of overwhelmed when it does, indeed, arrive (uninvited, thank you very much).

Today, I'd like to go one step further and share three strategies that contribute to keeping my mental house in order....or at least as "in order" as it gets this time of year.

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. 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 things are crazy. 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.

I'm happy to report that yesterday's sorting into bins cleared not only space, but my mind as well. I like this bin sorting system, but am struggling to figure out how to make it work in my office, where there is currently no room for the bins to live.

That's not a struggle for this week, though, or even next. For now, what I need is easily accessible, and it allows me to stick to the three keys above. Once I clear the next few hurdles (deadlines), I'll try to look at my space with new eyes and determine the possibilities. Organizing is, after all, a dynamic thing, and while growing pains are hard, the results are worth it.

A Few Crazy Tips

http://department.monm.edu/classics

Sometimes, we're motivated to be efficient or get organized. We get in the zone and things get done. We dig into a pile and it gets sorted and the things in it get put where they belong...and maybe, just maybe, we even divest ourselves of a few things.

Other days, it's like Sisyphus and the rock. Any progress we make is immediately undone.

Those are the days when we need to make it interesting.

In the past, I've shared a few strategies that give me a nudge, get me over a hurdle or prevent bigger problems. Don't Put it Down, put it away helps me avoid creating piles in the first place. Pick up one thing helps make a dent in a pile that magically appeared. Give it Five helps me get started when excuses begin to outnumber piles. My backwards to-do list helps me to focus on things I have done instead of things I haven't.

And now, there's a new mind game in town. The "I'm too tired" list.

You know all those little tasks that eat up prime time? The mindless tasks we do instead of the things we're supposed to be doing? Often, many of them can be moved out of prime time and into down time. Instead of cleaning out my inbox when I'm supposed to be writing a blog, for example, I can do it while I'm watching TV. It's a mindless task -- one undeserving of prime time -- and simply moving it to downtime makes me more efficient.

Lots of tasks are like that. And when we opt into them, that's one thing. But when they get in the way of bigger projects, we get bogged down and the important stuff doesn't get done.

So I've decided to give those tasks their own list: The "I'm too tired" list. That way, when my brain is fried and I sit down to watch television, instead of berating myself, I can check my list and do one of the things on it. That way, I get something accomplished -- something relatively mindless that needs to be done -- in a time when energy and motivation aren't very high to begin with.

cliparthut.com

Last week's "I'm too tired" list included inbox purging, social media updates (personal and professional) and tabbing the pages in a textbook I'm using this semester. By matching the level of task to the level of energy, I'm making better use of my time, and I'm more likely to get more accomplished.

Seems only efficient to me.