I am taking a bit of a holiday break, so there won't be any new posts until very early in the New Year. Any returning visitors to this blog, please be patient until the first week of January, when there will be more organisational musings and unmissable ti ps and tricks from me.
Until then, have a wonderful Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!
Be clear before embarking on any project, however small or large, how long the project is going to take - realistically. A few minutes, half an hour, a few hours, a day, several days or even weeks or months.
If you are clear how long a project is going to take you can plan it, schedule it and make it happen, rather than procrastinate because you have no idea how long it is going to take and you dread even starting it, because "it'll take ages". Don't forget, larger projects that take longer can always be subdivided into smaller chunks and made less taunting. Simply schedule when you are going to do what and off you go. Another thing accomplished!
I can see 2 reactions to the title of this post, one being: "yeah right, my children want to get organised, ha ha" (in a sarcastic tone of thought), the other one being: "hmm, I wonder where this is going" (in a sort of interested tone of thought).
Well, I thought that we quite often underestimate our beloved little ones. You might have heard them make comments like the following before, just never thought they might actually lead to something productive.
I have borrowed the list from a book entitled "Organizing from the Inside Out" by Julie Morgenstern, a US organising guru. If you are truly serious about getting organised and want to try it yourself then I really recommend her book.
Here's the list (with its original US spellings):
"My favorite toys get broken"
"I can't play my favorite games because the pieces are lost"
"I get in trouble at school for always losing my homework"
"There's no room in here to play with my friends"
"Cleaning up is too hard. I don't know where to put anything"
If you have ever heard your little ones utter any of these or similar then they are ready to get organised and with your help they can achieve that. Sort with them, purge with and/or for them, organise things into suitable containers and teach them how to maintain and you will have equipped them with important skills for life.
So why do your little angels want to get organised, what are their incentives? (Another list from Julia.)
"Less fights with Mom"
"Easier to have friends over"
"No more broken or lost toys"
"Bigger allowance" (It's OK to offer your children rewards.)
"It'll be faster to clean up"
"Better grades in school"
Even if you suggest those reasons to your kids rather than the reasons coming from them, these are good reasons that are hard to argue with, whatever their age.
You're out shopping and you come across an ornament. You absolutely love it. You want it. You can't live without it. You need to buy it. STOP and think.
Now I'm not saying, don't buy it. I'm just saying think. And the question I want you to ponder is: Where is going to live? And not just the room, but the exact position. If something is in that place already, what are you going to do with that item. Bin it? Donate it? Give it to someone else? Sell it? Relocate it? To where?
Only once you know exactly where you are going to put your new treasure, whether it will fit, size-wise as well as colour/style or otherwise then treat yourself and buy it. If not, give your wallet/purse a break and don't add more homeless clutter to your home.
Now there's an interesting theory. Have you ever noticed that a job you're trying to do fits pretty neatly into whatever time you have available? If you have 2 hours available to do a job, I bet you that it will take you roughly 2 hours to finish it, maybe just a few minutes more or less. But you probably also remember that the same job only taking an hour the last time you did it (probably because that time you only had one hour spare).
We all know that there are only 60 minutes in every hour. But somehow time stretches and expands or shrinks depending on how we use it. And if we use it wisely we can fit a lot more in those 60 minutes per hour.
Plan ahead. You know from experience how long a job takes. That is how long you plan for it. If you have some spare time available plan another job into it or a bit of downtime as a reward. But don't use up time just because it's there. Use it wisely.
Also, now and again, challenge yourself. Try to finish a job that normally takes an hour in 55 or 50 minutes. Set a timer and see if you can create some time pockets for yourself that you can use otherwise, for another useful activity or just to relax.
You might have noticed a box on the right side of the blog entitled "Motivational Quote of the Day". Today's quote reads "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily. -Zig Ziglar". What a smart man Mr Ziglar was.
That is exactly the reason why I have included that motivational box on my blog. I also believe that a little bit of daily inspiration and motivation goes a long way. So today I would like to invite you to visit that little box once a day, and get your daily dose of motivation. You might just be surprised where it takes you.
Most people have at least one project they keep putting off. It might be a home improvement project, a book they've always wanted to write, a language they'd like to learn, anything that is perceived as something worth while, but is going to take a while to complete.
There are always tons of excuses why the project hasn't been started. Usually it's time. We've discussed that one in the procrastination segment in October. But there are many other reasons why people might put things off. The thing is, you will never get started if you wait for that time to magically appear or for some of the other obstacles to disappear.
If the project is really dear to your heart, stop putting it off and start on it today. Set just 10 minutes aside. I am convinced you can find 10 minutes in your schedule somewhere. You might simply stay up 10 minutes later, or use up 10 minutes from your lunchbreak. Make a start. Do something for 10 minutes towards your project (clear the first shelf, write the opening paragraph, learn 5 words in your chosen language, etc.). If you find you don't want to stop and go on a bit longer, fine. If not, stop and have another 10 minutes tomorrow and the next day and the next. Over the course of a week you will have worked on your project for a whole hour! And even if you keep going with the 10 minute installments, you will eventually finish. And boy, will you feel good about yourself!
This week I would like to share with you two solutions to stubborn stains.
Have you ever found yourself trawling through a supermarket, back and forth, front of the shop, back of the shop and back to the front again, to get every item on your shopping list? If this is the case, you probably wasted lots of time doing so. This week I've got a tip how you can avoid all that to-and-fro-ing in the future.
Arrange your shopping list according to the isles in your supermarket. I am certain you have been to your supermarket enough times to know roughly which items are displayed in what order. Write out your shopping list accordingly keeping like with like (so all the vegetables together, all the dairy products in one group, all the meat items, etc.).
If you're not too sure about the order in your supermarket, use your next shopping trip to make notes. Then from the shopping trip after that onwards you can get yourself organised and avoid unnecessary hikes through the isles.
Keep a plastic bag in your car so that rubbish doesn't have a chance to build up. Putting it in a handy place so that you can easily reach it will ensure that you'll actually use it. Make sure you take it with you when you get out of the car once in a while and dispose of it in your wheelie bin before you even enter your house.
This tip is especially useful for longer journeys when rubbish usually tends to pile up.
Do you often find yourself leaving the house with an important item missing? I'm talking about moments like arriving at your daughter's piano lesson without having the piano book on you, or the towel is not in the swimming bag, etc. As you can probably tell, there is some personal experience in those words.
But I've come up with a little system that makes all those items you need to take with you on a regular basis a whole lot easier to remember. Near the exit door put up a piece of paper (again, laminated if you like, or in a plastic sleeve) that clearly marks what is needed on what day and to what purpose. It could look something like this:
You can even colour code for each family member so that everyone knows what needs to be taken when by whom. Only mark on what needs to be taken regularly every week. You can leave some space at the bottom where you can handwrite with a dry erase marker anything that is applicable only for the current week if you need to.
I'm not saying you will never forget anything ever again, but you will be making your life a whole lot easier for yourself and everybody living with you.
(for technical reasons this week published on Wednesday)
The garage is a good temporary holding place for items you want to declutter and get rid of. The key word here is TEMPORARY!!!
Once you have boxed or bagged up the items you want to either take to the tip or to the charity shops "park" them in the garage. This way they are out of the house and one step closer to being out of your life. Once a week, maybe on a Saturday morning, put everything into your car and drive it to its final destination.
Meal planning can be a real chore, with the eternal question "What shall I cook today?". There are everybody's taste buds to consider and you don't want to make the same thing every day either. If you're very busy and basically haven't got the time to plan it all out you usually end up rehashing the same recipes over and over again. Here is an idea that involves the whole family in the process.
When you're all together one time, maybe after a meal have a piece of paper and a pencil ready and let everyone in the family name their favourite meals. Write them down. Everything is allowed including take aways, eating out, but also make sure to include family favourites that you like to cook and you know everybody likes to eat. Depending on the number of people in your family you might want to limit the list to 5 or 10 items per person. In my family there are 4 members, so everyone, including myself, chose 10 meals. Some of my choices were "something new from a cookbook" because I like to experiment and "cold" meaning bread with ham, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. to make life easy once in a while.
Once your list is complete make sure you scramble it all up so that they are in no particular order of person or preference and then write up the list properly, either on the computer or let the children have some fun with making a handwritten list look good with lots of colours. If you have the facility, laminate the list, if not simply slip it into a plastic pocket. Hang it up in the kitchen, maybe on the fridge. Now you will never run out of ideas again. If a meal has been chosen cross it off with a dry erase marker and it can't be chosen again until all the other meals have been crossed off. For our family this means that meals come around about once a month.
There is only one rule to this game. No complaints from anyone. Everybody's favourites are on there and they will get chosen, so no whining is allowed when someone else's favourite is picked and we're not so keen on that one.
Garages clutter up so fast it's almost unbelievable. But you can do a few simple things to tame that clutter monster in your garage. Here are two useful tips.
This week I would like to introduce you to the email service from the US American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. Her website is filled with thousands of tips and tricks for making your household run smoother and more effective and for adding those extra little touches that make a home extra special. You can find recipes, craft ideas, organisational wisdom and much more.
There are several email services you can sign up for, such as weekly newsletters or workshops, my favourite one is the "Organizing Tip of the Day". Every day you get an email with a good idea or technique to make being organised a bit easier or just more fun. If you think the tip is for you, you can actually bookmark it with personalised labels right there on a free account on Martha's website.
Simply set up a free account and start receiving lots of good information.
PS: I don't get any income from promoting Martha's website, I just think it's a really good service.
Now and again we find ourselves waiting. Waiting for the kettle to boil, being on hold on the phone, standing in a queue or waiting for the computer to boot up. You can use those time pockets to get small jobs done. There are dozens of little mini jobs that always need doing, such as wiping up a spill, emptying/filling the dishwasher, putting a few items away, filing a couple of papers, deleting some emails that clutter up your inbox, etc., etc. Keeping on top of those little jobs using your time pockets will save you a lot of time in the long run.
In this final instalment on procrastination I want to go through some more reasons why someone might be prone to putting things off. We have already discussed the "no time" factor and reasons that might be to do with the project itself. Today I will highlight the reasons to do with someone's personality. These could be
Let's look at these hurdles for getting things done in detail, see what they are about and how they manifest and what you can do about them.
1. A lot of people have a perfectionist trait. Some more, some less. "I can't start this project until I have got everything I need and until the conditions are absolutely perfect." This kind of mindset is fine if that perfect condition is feasible and you have a good track record of starting and finishing your projects. If you don't, then your perfectionism is probably an excuse for not starting the project at all. Turn it around and ask yourself, what is the minimum I need for this project? Once you've got that sorted, put a start date in your diary and get that project on the road.
2. "I work better under pressure." We all know people like that and we might have used that phrase ourselves. Again, there are two ways of dealing with this. Number one, it's a good excuse not to start until the last possible moment, and it's simply a way to put things off. Make life easier for yourself; and divide your project into segments and do one each day until it's done. Number two, if you literally work better under pressure, and some of us do, then make the project more challenging. Set minigoals with a shorter deadline. This way you keep yourself on your toes but are still making timely progress towards your end goal.
3. If you suffer from a lack of self confidence and feel that you simply can't tackle the project try one of these options. Find out what the first thing is you need to do to start the project and divide the project into smaller chunks. Smaller bites are easier to digest, the same goes for project size. If you are unsure of how to do this, find someone who has done a similar project before and ask for advice. That way you get some expert help and you will soon be on the way to completing the once daunting task.
4. What I mean by internalised negatives are that you look for faults within yourself. If you do this, you will quite easily come up with negative emotions, such as "I'm lazy that's why I don't get things done" or "I'm stupid that's why I don't know where to start". First of all, I can assure you that none of this is true. You are neither lazy nor stupid or anything else of that kind. You might lack motivation or not be an expert on a particular subject but you can easily do something about that. Why don't you think of a treat that you reward yourself with, once you have completed the first part of the task and then keep rewarding yourself for every bit that you achieve until the project is completed. And just as with number 3 (lack of self confidence) there is no shame in asking people for help and advice on how to tackle a particular project. We don't all have to reinvent the wheel and most people are very happy to share their skills and knowledge.
5. Externalised positives are usually the reverse side of the same coin as internalised negatives. It means that you attribute anything positive that you do to outside influences and not to your skills and abilities, such as "I was lucky last time and it was easy. I could never do that again." It is usually a sign of lack of self confidence. Achieving something has most often nothing to do with luck. It is more likely to be the result of hard work and skill. Luck is good for gambling and that's about it. And when you found something easy then you had the skills and talent to do it and nothing less. Don't hide your light under a bush - as the saying goes and be proud of your achievements. Especially when it comes to what you tell yourself. We are usually our own worst critics and forget to be our own strongest supporters.
We all lead very busy lives and sometimes it seems impossible to get anything else done. We do, however, tend to stick to appointments we have put in our calendars. So why not make an appointment with yourself, and pencil in an hour (or even just half an hour) per week for decluttering. You won't have an excuse that you have too many other things to do and you are less likely to procrastinate once it has become an appointment, rather than an item on your To-Do-List. It will become a routinely task that you simply do because it's one of the things that need to be done that day.
In part 1 I talked about the number 1 reason for putting things off - no time. And you saw how easy it is to put that reason aside. If you find yourself still procrastinating, then there must be another reason behind that.
These possible other reasons fall into 2 categories, one concerning the project itself, the other your personality style.
Today, let's look at the project itself. The project might be perceived as
1. If a project or the outcome of the project is perceived as threatening, thoughts like "I'm in trouble if I get this wrong" might be going through your head. In this case a natural reaction is not to start the project at all or not to progress beyond a certain point so as to avoid failure. In cases like this make sure you have all the facts right. Ask questions:
"What is the worst thing that could happen - realistically?" And how likely is this to happen? - You will probably realise that things are never as bad as they seem.
What exactly do I need to do to get it right? - Once you know exactly what to do and how to do it, you have already won.
Have I got all the skills and abilities to do this project? - If the question is yes, great! If it is no, then you should probably consider to get someone to help or delegate the task itself.
2. If you think a project is too difficult, you might never start it. Sit down and thing about what is difficult. Are you just unsure of how to start and how to break the project into smaller manageable chunks? Find an expert on the subject, someone who has done a similar project before and ask for help.
3. If you think a project is boring, try and make it more interesting, Set yourself a challenge. See how much you can achieve in a certain amount of time. And then for the next chunk, see if you can beat your previous record. Or put some of your favourite music on while you work. If the project allows (like a mountain of ironing, or shredding) watch TV while you work.
4. If you think a project is impossible to finish, there might be two reasons. Either it's the type of project that literally never ends (like housework) or it is a very large project. Again, breaking it up into smaller portions will help. Even Mount Everest can be climbed by doing one step at a time! Set yourself a daily target and you will be up and running in no time.
5. Finally, if you consider the project a waste of time, re-evaluate it. Does it really need to be done? If you are doing it to please someone else, and you see absolutely no sense in it, try to find out why it is so important for the other person. Or is it simply one of those jobs that need to be redone on a regular basis like tidying up or ironing. Use one of the solutions from number 4 to get the job done. Some jobs do seem to be a waste of time but we would sink into crud and chaos if we didn't do them at all.
It might contradict your perfectionist tendencies but never turn down offers from friends or family to help. You do not have to do everything yourself. Learn to delegate and if you are lucky enough to get voluntary offers without asking for help, the better. If the job is not done perfectly, so what, it is done and you did not have to do it. Rejoice!
Procrastination, now there's a topic for organisers. And how long did it take me to write this blog entry, not sure, kept putting it off - hmm, yes I know, very funny.
But to be serious and professional again, procrastination is one of the main hurdles that keeps us from getting organised. I know this very well, because in my case it's - been there, done that, got the T-shirt. And I am still battling it. Procrastination is a little bit like an addiction, once you suffer from it you have got to battle it and keep on top of it for the rest of your life. It is so easy to slip back. But also, like any other addiction, it can be overcome.
Now lets tackle the reasons why you procrastinate.
Reason Number 1:
"I haven't got the time right now."
This is the most popular excuse for procrastinators. I know, I've used it often enough myself. The thing is you are probably right. You have not got the whole block of time it takes to tackle the spare room, or the whole of the ironing pile, or the complete reorganisation of the kitchen. BUT, and there's a good reason for the capital letters, you have got 10 minutes, or maybe even 20 or 30. And that is all it takes to make a start. Start by sorting through one box, iron 10 or 20 items, tackle one single drawer. And if you do that every day, or maybe even twice a day if motivation strikes then you will realise that you are making slow but steady progress.
A chinese proverb states: Even the longest journey starts with one single step. And this is exactly how you will be able to overcome the lurking monster that is procrastination.
In the coming weeks I will help you brush away other reasons why you might be procrastinating and will basically leave you with no excuse to simply get on with it.
If you have any comments, please feel free, I would love hear people's opinions on the subject.
You can accomplish quite big things with 10 minute bursts. I once managed to clear my daughters bedroom, which had been in quite a state, with this technique. We both worked for 10 minutes together, in effect making it 20 minutes (10 each). It took us about a week or so and the room was in great shape. Now I send her up every few days to "do 10 minutes" and this way she keeps on top of things and she's been able to maintain a decent state of her bedroom for several months.
If you check out the link in the title of this post, you will see that Flylady actually recommends 15 minute sprints and that works just as well. I personally prefer the 10 minute sprint, since I then have even less excuse to procrastinate for such a short assignment.
