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Archive for the ‘Getting Organized/Chronic Disorganization’ Category
Organizing During A Recession
In simple terms, a ‘recession’ is a period of economic contraction. When the economy contracts, we all do a bit of receding. We tend to withdraw back to basics as we wait for more expansive times. A recession is a challenging time. Some of my clients have lost their jobs and health insurance. Those who own their own businesses may have fewer clients and less revenue. I understand. I own a business too. Let me share with you what my clients and I are doing organizationally to hunker down during this long-lasting and rather deep recession.
- Get lean. Now is truly the time to clear off your desk, toss out the clutter, find the prime ‘stuff” that needs doing, and make a plan for getting things done.
- Get focused. As a recent episode of ‘Raising Hope’ but it “Stop procrasterbating!” There’s too much at stake. Get rid of the distractions of projects you’ll never get to. Get real about your commitments and promises. Now is not the time to spin wheels. It’s the time to act.
- Get support. If you’re looking for work, hit the Internet for (free) job hunting exploration and consult with a career service. I recommend Jewish Family and Career Services. Anyone can participate but a donation would be nice. https://www.yourtoolsforliving.org
- Get thrifty. If you’re organized enough to cut coupons or download them from the Internet, keep them in your car where you’ll have at least a chance of using them. www.groupon.com is very cool. Check out coupon apps at http://www.cheapism.com. Resist buying techno toys and stock up on the stuff you use daily like office paper, toothpaste and wine (well, no need not to have some fun.) Consolidate your errands; the price of gas is going up again.
- Get closure. Got an error on your credit card bill? Call and get it resolved. Have a lingering decision to make? Do your research, make the decision and live with the consequences because the less ‘open loops’ you have hanging around in these trying times, the less stress you’ll be under.
I know, I know, easier said than done. Hiring a professional organizer is a smart low-cost investment you can make during a recession if the above advice is difficult for you to implement. Professional organizers are experts at ‘lean and mean’, can get you razor-focused, and you’ll find nobody stronger in the ‘closure’ departments. Go to www.napo.net to find an organizer near you.
Don’t Let Your Waste Go to Waste
As you know, electronics become obsolete very quickly. I tell my clients to be careful not to create a museum of their journey through modernity. Devices sitting in drawers and basements cause no harm, except taking up valuable real estate in your home you could use for other purposes. However, electronic devices tossed in the trash that are sent to the landfill and devices incinerated do cause harm. Electronics contain many toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, beryllium, cadmium, arsenic, and halogenated flame retardants in the plastics. These toxins can leach into groundwater especially in older landfills built before leaching safeguards. Incinerators can release toxins into the atmosphere.
As people migrate to smart phones the hope is that a lot of devices like PCs, cameras, cell phone, and GPS devices would be recycled. But that is not yet happening. The EPA recently released the report, 2009 Facts and Figures On Municipal Solid Waste, the latest statistics available. The vast majority (82.3%) of e-waste discarded in the U.S. ends up in our landfills and incinerators, with only 17.7 percent going to recyclers.
The best de-acquisition method is to bring your castoffs to a Responsible Recycler (RR) in the E-Steward Program. RR’s will repair electronics and donate them to charity for use or to sell to raise funds for their programs. These programs help place your electronics products into the recycling stream by refurbishing the device or giving it back to the community, either to schools, charities, economically disadvantaged or disabled citizens of your community. These efforts benefit both the environment and your community. You can even get tax deductions for donating your working electronics to schools or charities.
If the electronics are beyond repair, they can be re-manufactured, a process that extracts valuable metals such as gold, copper, silver, and platinum. In fact, a whole new industry is flourishing called ‘urban mining.’ A ton of circuit boards contains 40 times the concentration of gold typically found in ore mined in this country. The yield for copper is 30 times richer than copper mined in the U.S. So, recycling, in addition to keeping electronics out of the landfill, holds promise for metal extraction without the expense and dangers of mining. RR conducts metal extraction in the U.S. where safety and health regulations protect the workers. “The dirty little secret is that when you take your electronic waste to a recycler, instead of throwing it in a trashcan, about 80% of that material very quickly finds itself on a container ship going to China, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, or Pakistan”, says Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network which works to keep toxic waste out of the environment. In foreign countries, the “recycling” process is often nothing more than poor people with hammers smashing circuit boards and exposing themselves to toxins that cause brain damage, liver damage and other serious health problems.
EcoSquid is like a Kayak for gadget recycling. Type in gadget type, quality, and equipment specs and EcoSquid finds the best service to buy, recycle, or repurpose your gadget. To sell your electronics, go to Gazelle.com or BuyMyTronics.com.
The Leisure Dividend
The point of productivity is to generate a ‘leisure dividend.’ When you are productive you do more in less time leaving you time left over for not working, for having fun or just relaxing. At least that’s the theory. Some people are naturally productive. They can prioritize instantly, integrate new tasks on the run, and finish what they start. Productivity tools such as mobile devices with multiple functions, apps, and cloud-based tools can increase productivity. The problem is people tend to reinvest their leisure dividend into more work instead of into leisure. Only 38% of Americans take all of their vacation days. 72% check into the office during their vacations. You recall Clement Clark Moore’s Twas the Night Before Christmas? Remember the line “. ..and mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap. Not, “…had just settled down for a long winters nap”, but instead “…had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.” We need to rest our brains. All that information we are getting? It needs to be digested, it needs to sink in, be reflected upon and that requires rest.
How do you measure personal productivity? Some people are taking a crack at tracking all their time using a variety of apps. I think tracking our time holds some value but the time is takes to do all that tracking might be using up any benefit of time gained being productive in the first place.
If you are someone who strives for productivity but has difficulty realizing your leisure dividend, try doing the following
- Take whatever vacation you have coming to you. Scientists have found that it takes at least 3 days to relax, and to feel you are on vacation, so take at least 4 days.
- Full engagement in reading is also a good investment of your leisure divident. In-depth, hard copy book reading is a multi-sensory experience involving motor, visual, materiality, and focus that helps us be engaged but relaxed.
- Exercise promotes weight control, lowers stress, controls cholesterol, and supports a good night’s sleep making it a top choice for investing your leisure dividend.
- Sleep a little more or learn to nap.
E-Hoarding
E- Hoarding is the practice of keeping digital information and documentation that is of little value or unknown value. The result of e-hoarding is extreme difficulty retrieving information, time wasted replacing information, frustrating disorganization, and anxiety or stress at the prospect of purging digital documentation. Why does e-hoarding occur? One contributing factor is inundation. In 2010, the typical corporate user sends and receives about 110 messages daily. Roughly 18% of emails received is spam, comprising both actual spam and “graymail” (i.e. unwanted newsletters, alerts, etc.) Inundation happens to all of us. The difference with e-hoarders is that they have weak or no criteria for selecting which information to save and which not to. In the absence of selection criteria, e-hoarders tend to save most of their digital stuff including emails, attachments, bookmarks, blogs, and RSS feeds. Also, when information is 24/7 it can all feel the same. It all seems important at once. Another contributing factor to e-hoarding is fear of being left behind or not keeping up.
A recent Harvard Education blog describes some websites as ‘information spigots ’that create not only a time-suck of information exploration, but also “…the sense of obligation that accompanies” that goes with it. “When given such reliable streams of information, it’s all too common to feel constantly behind; constantly in need of catching up. That sense of obligation, often, is misplaced.”
A final factor is time. Because e-hoarders are always in semi-overwhelm finding the time to actually read or review information as it arrives is difficult. In the absence of actively deciding whether to keep something or not, an e-hoarder will passively saves all the information.
If you have a tendency to e-hoard, here’s what to do:
* Schedule a purge hour into the mainstream of your schedule once per week
* Figure out your criteria for keeping stuff. ‘Concise’ and ‘unique’ are my favorites.
* Don’t keep stuff you already know. Go for new knowledge
* Hire a professional organizer to help you
Cultivate Your Inner Dictator
Okay, okay, “cultivating your inner dictator” might be a little harsh, but one of the best organizing tips I give my clients is to be more selective (other terms: picky, choosey, more discerning, downright discrimminating.) Selectivity is a new organizing skill. That’s because the Internet is a real game changer in the organization/disorganization realm. Information is now unlimited. Shopping has no bounds (except poverty) and sharing videos/photos/thoughts/ideas is easy and unrelenting. If you are overwhelmed you are likely under-selective. How do you cultivate your inner dictator? Let’s say you have 300 hard copy photos. You easily could receive, depending on the size of your family, another 100 or more a year, digitally. This discussion could easily devolve into a debate about the best features of the zillion digital photo programs/services available. And you should use as much technology as will make the job of dealing with photos easier. But I’m making the case that cultivating the skill of selectivity trumps technology. Here is how it is done:
CULTIVATE YOUR INNER DICTATOR
- Have a criteria(s). It can be “appealing”, “most recent”, “something I don’t have already”
- Schedule a sort time just before occasions (the week after a family reunion, a few days after Christmas, etc.)
- Sort with a closed-mind using your criteria to guide you
- Put an in/out ratio in place. For example, for every 100 photoes I receive I’ll get rid of 20
Being selective takes practice. Good items to practice on are your bookmarks/Favorites, e-books you’ve accumulated, and magazines. Bad items to practice on are tangible books, shoes, and office supplies. You simply cannot have too much of those!
Category-Bending
When it comes to organizing, categories are king. Categories are a fundamental organizing building block. They suggest what things go together. Categories make it possible to organize and store things for easy access and retrieval. An article about arthritis might go in a file called Health but a document about bird-feeders doesn’t. Most of us don’t store our belts with our cereal: unless you’re a category-bender. “Watching the birds at the bird feeder is relaxing. It makes my arthritis less painful”, says my client Roberta. So we file the article about bird-feeders under Health. Category-benders think about “big picture” and they see many connections between items that I would never think of. I tend to think of my stuff in a more micro way. It makes it easier for me to categorize it.
I was reminded of category-bending when my great niece (grand niece?) got a wrong answer on an elementary school quiz called “What Does Not Belong?” There was a picture of a shoe, a dog, a cat, and a bird. She circled the bird. When asked to explain, she said, “Well, my dog grabbed Mom’s shoe and ran around the house with it. Mom got mad and ran after the dog. She stepped on the cat’s tail. The cat ran under the couch. We don’t have a bird.” So there you go. Roberta belts are coiled in plastic bags next to the cereal in the pantry. “Weight loss”, she says. “I’m supposed to the eat fiber cereal everyday. The belt/cereal combination works for me.” So there you go.
One Person’s Clutter is Another Person’s POP
People who have a lot of stuff find it challenging to get rid of because they do not consider it clutter. They consider it ‘POP’. POP stands for Potential, Opportunity, and Potential. Think about it. What are people saying when they claim, “I can’t throw these empty plastic medicine bottles away. They may come in handy for storing something later.” The medicine bottles have ‘potential’. As plastic containers they have a latent quality that could be useful in the future. What are people saying when they state, “I’m going to hold onto the newsletters from my old job just in case I work there again.” Circumstances in the future might present an opportunity to return to an old job and the newsletters might become relevent. What are people saying when they explain, “Someone might be able to use the backs of those used index cards. I’d rather not toss them out.” The used index cards express a ‘possibility’, a thing that might happen. The thing about POP statements is that they are not untrue. It is true an item might be useful to someone or some event in the future. I never argue the truth of a POP statement (though, having a learned a thing or two about gambling from my parents, it is just as true the items will go unused.)
When my clients make a POP statement, I engage them, not on the logic of their decision, but on the impact of it. If you keep something, it takes up space. It may need to be dusted, stored, protected from heat or dampness or other maintenance. Here’s another problem with POP. The item that is being kept will need to be remembered in order to be utilized when the potential, opportunity, or possibility presents itself. It is a kind of memory called ‘prospective memory’. Prospective memory is a form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or intention at the time it happens. People who are challenged by disorganization are notoriously weak on prospective memory. What are the chances that while your grandson is visiting you with his guinea pig, the food pellet bag will break, and you’ll be game for sweeping them all up, and remember exactly where an empty medicine bottle would be to contain them. Better to grab a baggy. Will you be able to remember where those index cards are when you’re taking a message at the phone and need to write it down? Better to use the pad. Will you remember what’s in the newsletters when you get a call to come back to work? Better to read the latest ones online to get up to date.
One person’s clutter is another person’s POP. People don’t love clutter. But they do love potential, opportunity and possibility. It reflects a joy for the future. If you’re a POP kind of person, weigh your POP decisions against the burden of the past and the practicality of the present.
The New Done
My client Ann needs a new car. Armed with a rough budget and some preferences, Ann went online. She visited the best car buying websites, jumped into chat rooms, and used social media to find out what people thought of various vehicles. She checked CraigsList, and downloaded CarPerks to her iPhone (her 100th app!). Once on this research-train, it was hard for Ann to stop. According to the Information Overload Research Group (who knew?!) 53% of people surveyed believe that less than half the information they receive is valuable/useful. Still we find it hard to resist loading ourselves up on information. Not a great screen-reader, or adept at cut and paste pieces of webpages into files, Ann printed out reams of information. “I can’t be sure the information is in there,” Ann said pointing to her head. What began as a virtual search quickly turned into a seemingly unending tangible research project. When I visited Ann for our time management session she’d been at the car buying project for 3 months. Dan, her husband is supportive, but frustrated. “I know buying a new car is a big decision. But I’d gladly trade-in her thoroughness for getting the job over with.”
In an era of unlimited information, the pursuit of thoroughness is more than time-consuming – it’s impossible. There is always another opinion to listen to or another piece of information to obtain. I believe “done” needs a make-over. Here’s what I think The New Done needs to be:
- It’s not about you. Finishing a task is not about your standard of completeness, but rather about meeting other people’s expectations or needs. Pleasing a spouse with making a final decision goes a longer way than making the perfect decision which doesn’t exist anyway.
- Learn to live with your decision. Let’s say Ann narrowed her search to 2 cars and chose one over the other. Chances are great that there is so little difference between them that either choice would be one she could live with.
- Coming through on your obligations and commitments enhances your relationships. Perfectionism and being overly scrupulous might give you a good reputation for being thorough but you’ll risk injuring your relationships.
- If you think the stimulation of the hunt for perfect answers feels good, wait till you experience closure!
Organizationally-speaking, The New Done requires a few good practices (I’m not much of a fan of “best practices”. The question, ‘best for whom?’ always stops me cold in my mental tracks.)
- Corralling information is key. Putting it in a form for easy use, retrieval and re-use such as a spreadsheet or a dedicated file is important.
- Impose a time limit especially if the task had no deadline or due date. Go for perfect timing rather than perfect information/solutions/ answers.
- Ask someone else to judge if you are done or not.
- Know exactly what it is people want from you, otherwise you won’t know if you’ve satisfied them.
“He who knows that enough is enough always has enough” – Lao-Tzu
How We Get Things Done Around Here – Organizing Digital Natives
I was organizing a family of digital natives (DN) the other day. DN’s are a growing tribe in the US, families who grew up on the computer. Technology is so generation-compressing that the youngest daughter uses gadgets and apps her college-bound sister is unfamiliar with. The parents, technically not digital natives, but darn close, cannot recall a time when computers were not a part of their lives. “I never typed a term paper or balanced a check book manually. My chores have always been aided by computers. I’ve had the internet in my pocket since the kids were born”, notes Mom. Generations no longer span 20 years. Nor are they simply parent/child-oriented. In fact, generations are no longer even defined as shared experiences of a cohort group. The impact of technology is so strong it compresses generations. For instance, in late 2009 teens sent and received about 10 text messages for every waking non-school hour. Their older siblings, not their parents mind you, but their older brothers and sisters sent half as many. Child-based social networks are increasing giving rise to a mini-generation sure to differ from preteen siblings.
Even with all the technology, the family still suffers from what I call “time displacement”. Time spent on video games, texting, and surfing the web displaces family time. “We rarely eat together and when we do, everyone has their iPhone out.” Meanwhile, non-virtual chores are not getting done such as the kid’s cleaning their rooms, or the parent’s changing the oil in the car. Taking a page (or actually several pages!) from my new book co-authored with Allison Carter, Sync or Swim: 201 Organizing Tips You Need to Survive the Currents of Change, we created a “How We Get Things Done Around Here” manual. It’s a web-based calendar built on Google that details who has to do what and when it needs to be done. It is searchable by keyword with links to a description of each chore with more detail how to get it done, and it has built-in reminders synced to everyone iPhone. Not so long ago, a big family calendar on the fridge did the trick, and that still works for families with really young children, people who need visual rather than instruction-based information, or families that are not very mobile.
The second step for this time-displaced family was setting up device-free face time. “We have dinner together just once a week, but it’s the real deal. Everyone helps shop, cook, and choose the menu. We sit down together and talk undistracted, about school and the news. Then we all clean up. Magic!” notes Mom.
Don’t hesitate to contact a professional organizer (especially a digital native professional organizer) if your family needs help getting organized and supporting family life.
Living With “Pack Rats”
You know what love is: that deep feeling of not being able to be without someone. A well-rounded life is filled with all kinds of love including life partners, family, friends, as well as work and avocations. Loving objects is also part of our love landscape. Cherished “stuff” makes us feel good. They can provide a feeling of abundance, security, companionship and many objects provoke loving memories and sentiments. That’s why when people call my clients ‘packrats’ I think they fall far short of the complexity of emotion people feel for their things. Audrey is a self-proclaimed packrat with a cluttered home and a self-storage unit for the overflow. “I kind of like the chaos of the clutter”, she confesses. It’s a little unsettled, a little apt to change. That appeals to me more than boring, staid organization. I enjoy acquiring stuff, moving things around, and trying to accommodate everything. It almost feels creative to me. Even the search for what I want is a bit of an adventure.” I prefer to get my kicks other ways, but people who have excess stuff are usually adults fully in charge of their environment.* When I would with “mixed marriage” where one spouse has a need for a lot of stuff and the other doesn’t, at some point in the organizing process, all three of us sit down. I may be organizing Audrey but disorganization is a family issue. “Audrey is pretty comfortable surrounded by excess stuff. How about you?” I ask Bart, Audrey’s husband. “Not so much. I don’t have same needs as Audrey does for so much stuff”, Bart contends. Like all marital issues, “stuff” is about understanding and respecting each other’s needs.
IN/OUT RATIO – Audrey agreed to donate 10 art and craft supplies for every new 10 she brings into the house. At that rate, as least things won’t expand. Establish and In/Out ration for other items that tend to expand in the house. A 1:1 ratio keeps things at bay. A 1:2 ration (a new item in = 2 old items out) will reduce clutter.
COMPROMISE – Audrey agreed to go to flea markets only once per month instead of twice (or more!) if Bart would go with her once per month. Bart agreed. He agreed not to pout. She agreed to keep her hands in her pockets.
A great book on this topic is When You Live With a Messie by Sandra Felton.
*How can you tell if the adult in your life is not “fully in charge of their environment?” Here are the signs:
- Easy access to the tools for daily living are problematic. The most basic of these tools include clean cooking and serving items in the kitchen, clean towels and washclothes in the bathroom, chairs to sit on in the living room, a place to sit and eat in the kitchen, an uncluttered space for homework for the kids, and beds clear enough to sleep and have sex in.
- If something is broken, mildew, moldy or otherwise unusable and it is easy to replace yet your “pack rat” can’t do it, that might be a moment to pause and figure out what is going on.
- Debt or a whacked household budget caused by excessive buying is a signal that things might be out of control.
Digging Out is a great book for families contending with excessive savers who are rapidly crossing the line to hoarding. I consult with couples via Skype and phone so there’s that resource too.
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