Review: Organizing from the Inside Out

At this year’s NAPO conference, Julie Morgenstern gave one of the keynote presentations and after that, she signed her books. I didn’t bring the one book I owned for her to sign – Organizing from the Inside Out. Although it’s been a number of years since I’ve read this book cover to cover, I do periodically reread sections. I also liked this enough to borrow Organizing from the Inside Out for Teenagers from the library and then to buy a couple of books at NAPO (which I then got signed!). I look forward to making time to read those down the road.

One of the things that I appreciate about both books I’ve read by Julie Morgenstern is that she insists you find your way to the organizing answers. If you’ve read her book, you’ll have seen many similar posts from me. I also use a quote from her in almost every presentation I give since it resonated deeply for me:

Being organized has less to do with the way an environment looks than how effectively it functions. If a person can find what he or she needs when she or she needs it, feels unencumbered in achieving his or her goals, and is happy in his or her space, then that person is well organized. ‘Organizing is the process by which we create environments that enable us to live, work, and relax exactly as we want to. When we are organized, our homes, offices, and schedules reflect and encourage who we are, what we want, and where we are going.’ — Organizing from the Inside Out, first chapter

This is a critical piece to me when I talk with people – that what is important is their definition of being organized.

In Organizing from the Inside Out, she spends the first 2 (out of 4) talking about general principles: “Laying the Foundation” and “Secrets of a Professional Organizer.” Part 3 is the main chunk of the book and spends time talking about specific rooms and items (i.e. purses, suitcases, filing cabinet, memorabilia). She wraps the book up with “Time and Technology” briefly, and has a whole book Time Management from the Inside Out (one I did buy and will read!). She also provides several appendices with further resources.

As an organizer, I appreciate that she spends some time addressing the possible things that are getting in the way for people struggling with organization. She also spends time talking about the steps that people often want to skip when embarking on getting organized. She breaks the process down so that it’s easy to understand and follow.

I’ve mentioned before I’m not a big fan of acronyms, I find them hard to remember and largely unhelpful, and she does use one as a basis for getting organized. It’s SPACE: sort, purge, assign a home, containerize, and equalize. Essentially I can appreciate this steps, especially the need to do them in order after you’ve completed analyzing the situation, strategized, and then moving into the attack mode (where SPACE comes in). She offers time estimates for the rooms and items, as many people struggle with figuring out how long things will likely take them.

If only organizing books could solve everyone’s clutter problems! We all know they don’t, sometimes it takes someone else coming in and helping. Fresh eyes, fresh perspective, someone to ask those questions and wait for an answer – these things we cannot always do for ourselves. I love how she encourages you to think outside the box and find the inner style that will make organizing work for you. I also know that for just me, that this is often extremely challenging to actually accomplish – and my organizing struggles are minor compared to some people. Some of her ideas seem great as ideas, but I sometimes question the practicality of them.

There is a plethora of organizing books available, and I would recommend this one. Some of my clients have more than a shelf full of books on how to get organized – and although I’ve not ready most of them (gasp!); this would be one to keep (and yes, I’d encourage you to recycle most of the others). It has the essentials on getting and staying organized, if you can follow her steps. This is probably why there are so many books out there, maybe another speaks to you and your style.

Guidelines for a Happy Home

Have you seen the “rules” of a happy household – where it starts with “If you take it out, put it away”? Many of them are useful rules for limiting the degree of chaos, while others are to make Mom happy! If we could all put things back where they belong when we’re done with them, we’d have greater organization. Sometimes this is easier said than done.

Mom’s 10 Commandments For A Happy Household

1. If you take it out, put it away.
2. If you eat on it, wash it.
3. If you turn it on, turn it off.
4. If you mess it up, clean it up.
5. If you drop it, pick it up.
6. If it rings, answer it.
7. If it barks, walk it.
8. If you open it, close it.
9. If I cook it, eat it.
10. If I say do it, don’t ask why.

I know from my own behavior that there are times when I’ve taken something out, and after I’ve finished using it, I think to myself – “I’m going to use this again tomorrow…” Then, there are times that I say to myself – “I’ll put it away later…” To some extent, I think this applies to all of us – even the most organized – we don’t always put things away right after we’re finished using it. Nor do I think we have to.

What we do need to work on is getting it put away regularly and before too much time has passed. If I toss my tissues toward the wastebasket, when I walk by it, I then bend down, quickly pick them up, and put them in the trash. If I make a pile for another room, when I next get up and move around, I grab the pile and move it into the right room.

I’ve talked about this before in “Getting Things to Their Home,” and focused on finding ways to “Make It Fun.” There are other ways to work on these applicable rules for organization – use a timer. You might be rolling your eyes at me – here she goes again with that timer. Yet seriously, if you have a stack of CD’s that haven’t been put away, time yourself on putting them away – or time yourself with whatever it is that isn’t getting put away.

Another way to approach working on putting things back where they belong is to set the timer for a set amount of time and work on it until the timer buzzes. Use the timer to help you – whether to time yourself or you designate a specific amount of time with it.

It is easy to say to yourself, “I’ll just do it later” and that “later” doesn’t arrive (or it arrives in a week or a month). If you make it part of your routine, just those few seconds of picking up the trash that missed the trashcan or whatever it might be – your home can be that much more presentable and more importantly, pleasing to you. There’s not many of us who don’t automatically close the drawers and cabinets in our kitchens – and might even dismiss that as easy – yet it’s the same idea – “If you open it, close it.”

Putting something away after we’ve taken it out can be just as easy, we just need to work on making it as automatic as closing the drawers after we’ve gotten something out of it. The timer can help with the idea that it’s more time consuming than we realize. In working to keep things organized:

If you take it out, put it away.
If you eat on it, wash it. (I don’t do this each time, but I do it regularly!)
If you turn it on, turn it off.
If you mess it up, clean it up.
If you drop it, pick it up.
If you open it, close it.

None of these things would take us that much time – test it out and use your timer to find out for yourself.

Styles of Procrastination

Do you procrastinate? I think everyone does. Period – everyone, at least to some degree or another. The question really comes down to whether your procrastination is interfering with your life – and the degree will vary between people. Some people are guilt-ridden with “minor” procrastination and others can procrastinate with much more tolerance. Some of us want to minimize the procrastination behaviors while others are managing as it is.

My mom would tell you that I’m a chronic procrastinator. I’m notoriously bad about sending letters and packages in a timely way. I certainly see that there are areas where I do procrastinate and in general, I’m fascinated with procrastination. This is one of the reasons I picked up and read It’s About Time!: The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them Dr. Linda Sapadin with Jack Maguire.

As it says in the title, she breaks chronic, pervasive, and deeply-rooted procrastination into 6 styles: perfectionist, dreamer, worrier, defier, crisis-maker, and the overdoer. She provides a quiz so you can figure out which type or types are your personal style. The quiz focuses on the 6 types with 10 questions where you answer the questions with 1 of 3 possible choices: frequently, sometimes, and rarely or never. There’s an easy formula for calculating your scores and where you get a score of 10 or more, this makes that type of procrastination a major style for you. When your score in a type is 9 or less, this is a minor style for you.

Each type then gets a chapter with examples of people who’ve struggled with this type of procrastination and why. She spends most of the chapter addressing 3 areas that will make a difference in changing this type of procrastination: changing how you think, changing how you speak, and changing how you act. For the changing how you think, she has a visualization for each of the 6 types.

I took the quiz, twice, actually! I took it as I started the book, and scored 10 or above in 4 of the 6 procrastination styles. Later I was talking to various people about how I had read this book and how I scored high in several areas (a case when scoring high is not such a good thing!). I decided to retake the quiz, mostly just out of curiosity. That time my highest score was a 6 in one type. My conclusion is that the test is not statistically valid, since I could get wildly different scores and is a reflection of my own state of mind. (For those of you who don’t know me, you might not realize that I have a self-critical nature. ☺) It’s completely plausible to me that I would get different results, and the truth is that my procrastination probably also ties in with my state of mind in the moment.

I appreciate that she focuses on the idea of helping the reader to find ways that work for them – she’s not implying that there’s a “right” way to be, so she’s “inviting you to change from your personal path of avoidance – the BUT path—to your personal path of resolution—the AND path.” The number of case studies, examples of others who’ve struggled is varied and was easy for me to relate to the styles. People’s behaviors vary greatly within each of the types of procrastination.

The visualizations for each type of procrastination are interesting, and create some major repetition since the directions are included in each chapter. I’ve never been one for visualizations, so this did not speak to me much. I could see how the visualizations could be helpful for people though.

From what I can tell, from looking within myself, to working with various people, to friends and family – procrastination is a highly complex behavior. As a whole, breaking procrastination into 6 styles seems too limiting. There are too many other possible issues involved with why we procrastinate. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting look at procrastination as it relates to our personality.

Find Your Motivation

We all have different reasons for why we want to get organized or even to stay organized. There is no one right answer – what matters is why you want it. Do you know what your reasons are? It’s worth it to give it some thought and find as many reasons as you can. These personal reasons are what can help get you going if (or when) you falter.

Some of what I hear a lot is how overwhelmed people feel with what they’re dealing with – from piles of boxes on an unused room to the mass of papers they have to a house that has simply collected lots of things. It doesn’t matter what the size or scope is, what matters is how it feels to you. A few people are concerned about how their loved ones are feeling and reacting to the state of their home. Others are adjusting to difficult transitions in life – from the death of a spouse to downsizing (voluntarily or not) to new health issues.

Although the above are fine reasons for wanting to get and stay organized, some of them are phrased on negative terms. If we went to a list of our reasons for getting organized and saw as a reason “because I’m overwhelmed” or “because my spouse is always yelling at me” or even “because I cannot concentrate the way I used to” it’s unlikely to inspire us.

Find a way to make the reasons positive. If you’re overwhelmed, you are looking for an easier way to doing things, a way to simplify things for yourself. If a loved one is badgering you, you might be looking for a way to improve your relationship and become closer with them again. Sometimes those life transitions are challenging, yet I believe there are positive ways to view your situation. For me, it was a chance to learn new ways of doing things and I love learning.

The point is that you want to figure out the reasons that matter to you for getting organized – maybe you want more time to enjoy life. I’d suggest that you actually write them down somewhere. I don’t think you need to look at them every day, although you certainly can. The idea is that you have them to pull out when you get discouraged or falter in your efforts. It could also help if you find yourself procrastinating working on things.

When you’re feeling discouraged, you not likely to remember the real reasons why you’re trying to change things. You’re also more likely going to remember the negative reasons, which are not usually motivating! By having a list of positive and personal reasons to change, you can refer to it when you need to. You can even add to it as things occur to you – since life is a process like organizing, your motivation can shift and change too.

Knowing what your motivations are for getting organized is probably the very first step you need to take toward getting and staying organized. Just as it’s hard to remember what inspires you when you’re feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, our reasons for being more organized can get lost when we’re struggling. Those underlying reasons can re-inspire us to keep working (or start trying again). When we have a list to refer to, it’s easier to re-energize ourselves.

Preventing Slips, Trips, and Falls

June is National Safety Month, where each week has a different theme – this week’s theme is preventing slips, trips, and falls. This ties in well with organizing – as no one wants to be injured unnecessarily. When we have excess stuff around, on the floor especially, we’re putting ourselves at risk. I say this from experience since I’ve bashed my toes more than once – and not usually from clutter.

You might remember that I have issues with the term “hoarding” and certainly, the concerns of the families is not limited to the “hoarders.” We can surmise from the National Safety Council’s focus for a week on preventing slips, trips, and falls that this is something that applies to all of us – clutter or not. Heck, I’ve broken toes from a certain degree of clumsiness. And that was from major pieces of furniture being where they’d always been! (I’ll take a brief moment to promote the idea of wearing shoes where your toes are covered – and this despite being someone who loves being barefoot. ☺) If we can prevent ourselves from slipping, tripping, or falling, this is what we all want.

Whether you have lots of stuff around or not, it’s important to look around – try to notice those things that we become blind to because we’ve gotten used to them. I’ve tripped over cat accessories, even with them in plain sight. The cat toys now live in a tin, without a lid, over in a corner in our living room. It’s even cute to see the ones that get pulled out and we’re limiting the risk of tripping or twisting an ankle from stepping on them. They also get put back periodically, since if they didn’t they’d be a hazard again.

Stairs are a popular place to put things down on as they wait for their turn to be carried to the top. I do this frequently since I procrastinate making a trip upstairs until I need to. Are you aware when there are things sitting on the steps? It’s remarkably easy to become a bit blind to a constant pile. I rarely put more on the steps than can go up in one trip, and rarely ignore or procrastinate carrying them up. Items along the stairway are a dangerous hazard – it’s bad enough to trip on a flat surface, and exponentially worse on stairs.

This week’s topic for the National Safety Month interestingly coincided with my finishing a book, Digging Out: Helping your loved one manage clutter, hoarding, & compulsive acquiring by Michael A. Tompkins, Ph.D. & Tamara L. Hartl, Ph.D. As a “hoarding” book, it takes a different approach – it focuses on helping your loved one make the home as safe (and comfortable) as possible. It examines what I’ve already talked about – stairs and floors being clear of loose items. They also address other serious hazards – such as papers on or near the stove.

Keep in mind any areas that seem to cause problems – I moved a chest from the foot of the bed since I banged my toes more than once in the middle of the night, to another room. In the spirit of this week’s safety theme, look around your home and office with fresh eyes and see if there are ways to improve safety.

Getting Things to Their Home

I was working with a client, and I told her to toss her clothes toward the laundry basket. “Um, huh?” you might be thinking to yourself. The point I was making was that we don’t need to be stodgy and particular about how we do something. We can try to have fun with what we need to do – not unlike my entire blog post about “Make It Fun.”

When we’re looking at people not getting things to where they belong – there’s two situations we might be in:

we’re leaving things wherever we’re at when we’re finished with them or
we’re getting them close by, or near their “home.”

Therefore, in dealing with things that don’t move from where they were last used – we can toss things towards where they belong. Of course, you’re not going to throw your CDs at the shelf! The other way is to start baskets/bins of things that belong in other rooms. I’ll admit that I will often drop that bin off in the other room where it will sit ignored for a few days sometimes. At least it’s in the right room, if not it’s “home.”

The situation I described was with a pre-teen girl and I talked about acting like it was basketball. The truth is I’m not into sports and neither was she, but it’s intended as a way to get the items closer to where they belong – making it easier. She had been dropping her clothes on the floor and leaving them there, which isn’t unusual. Yet trying to make a game of getting the clothes closer to the laundry basket makes it interesting. To some extent, it’s also about retraining ourselves to new habits.

Often, I’ll do similar things with paper trash – throwing them towards the basket. I find myself curious about how close, or not, I’ll be. Or whether if I bounce it off the wall just so, will it make it in.

Sometimes we know what we need to do – that item needs to go there, but we still don’t quite get to happen. Right now, I’m not talking about the things we’re undecided on or are still active. You’ve made a home of various things, yet there are still piles. Is there a way to make it more fun – like tossing them?

Unfortunately, we still need some discipline. If you toss things towards a basket – you’ll still need to take some time to put the things where they into the basket. If you move things into the room where they belong, you still need to take some time to put them away within the room.

This is the time when your perceptions of time are likely to be exaggerated – it will take much less time than you anticipate to put them away. Could you time yourself to see how fast you can put all the desk supplies away (once you’ve got them all piled on the desk)? Or set your timer for 10 minutes and put everything away that you can before it goes off?

It takes time and practice to make sure things make it back into their “homes” after you’ve used them. I know my suitcases are notorious for sitting out after a trip – yet we can find ways to improve our behavior in returning things to where they belong. After you’ve identified where you falter – are things left where they “fall” or do they make it partway? From here, you can begin to find ways to get them the rest of the way home.

Use Your Time Intentionally

With that title, do you think I’m going to talk about being more productive? I’m certainly a fan of being as productive as possible and always striving to find ways to improve productivity.

But, that is not my point with this title.

It’s about being aware of how you’re using your time; of asking yourself periodically if you’re currently using your time in a way that you want to be.

Maybe the best example is a couple of weekends ago, my husband saw me sitting on the couch playing a game and he asked me “is this how you want to be spending your time?” My answer was “yup.” What he hadn’t been aware of was that I’d just stopped being productive and was taking a few minutes to relax before jumping into the next task. I was using my time intentionally – since I had decided to take a break and play a couple of games.

In what felt like an occurrence of synchronicity, one of the sessions I attended at the NAPO conference this year, talked about having an “intention awareness.” A couple of month’s prior, I’d started asking whether my husband and I were using our time “intentionally.” It was a way to simply pay attention to how we were spending our time, and whether there were other things we needed or wanted to be doing.

You probably know, as I do, how easy it is to lose track of time. I love Sudoku, and there are times when I sit down to play and the next thing I know, several hours have passed! Eeekk! That wasn’t what I wanted to be doing – at least not for that long. I’ve had that happen on the other end of things, where I’m working on something around the house (or even with a client) and before I know it hours have passed. It was “productive” time, but at least with the housework, was it what I needed or wanted to be spending all that time on?

It can be challenging to even remember to ask yourself the question about whether you’re spending time the way you want to – if it weren’t, you probably wouldn’t lose track of time at all. It can be helpful to have someone else around to gently ask the question, as my husband did to me. Yet, he’s gone all day and I’ve gotten in the habit of first – randomly asking myself, whenever it occurs to me. Second, I use cues around the house, like when a plane goes overhead (which happens a lot) to stop and consider if I’m using my time in the way I want to be.

This second approach is actually what the session talked about – finding some ways to cue yourself to stop and think. Ideally, it will be somewhat randomly and periodically throughout the day, since it’s something you want to think about more than once a day. Even a timer that you continue to reset can help here.

I’m fascinated with time. It never changes, yet it certainly feels like it does – our perceptions of time are erratic and inconsistent. I’m amazed how easy it is to lose track of time – whether we’re being productive or goofing off. Everyone I know, professionally or personally, seems at least a little discontented about the way they use their time.

Here’s a question for you – are you aware (and happy) with how you’re using your time? I don’t believe we can ever be perfect, yet I do believe that there’s always room for improvement – are you ready to start asking yourself “is this an intentional use of my time?”

PlanetSafe Planners

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Undated 30 day calendar planner

Pros:

customizable
adjustable; easy to rearrange (with post-it notes)
environmentally friendly
reusable (depending on style used)
great for visual people
thin and sturdy

Cons:

restricted to home- not possible to carry around
limited space on some calendar squares
not reusable, with some styles

Review:

This is another product that I discovered through the NAPO expo, at last year’s conference (and this year’s too) – PlanetSafe Planners. I love the idea that you use a dry erase marker on the calendar, how easy and clean to change things. As well, they enable using post-it notes for other areas, again so easy to rearrange and move things. The flexibility and ease of using their planners is exceptional.

My husband and I might be unique; we have no calendar in the house to record events. We have our Google calendars synced, and these are always with us. Without kids or any other reasons, we’ve found no reason for a wall calendar to tell us about our appointments. Nevertheless, I think this can be a superb calendar for some people – as long as you need that household calendar. The only condition is that you use it and don’t rely exclusively on what (if anything) you carry with you.

Considering what my schedule often looks like, the squares look too small for extensive schedules, and then trying to add in other people’s schedules too seems unrealistic. Thus would depend heavily on how much you need to keep track of. If I only put in rough hours of when I’d be otherwise occupied, there’s potentially enough room for several people’s obligations.

I think I might be a little odd – for I found myself resisting the idea of this environmental calendar that I’d need to replace every year – and how “environmental” that it is. Then again, it’s not paper. Although reading about their development, these calendars are a 100% green product after struggling to find a natural adhesive. They also offer options for undated calendar options.

Although for myself I’m not interested in their calendars, I am tempted by some of the goal planners- the idea that my husband and I could have a very visible post-it note planner for our joint goals, for the house and other plans. This is one the strengths of PlanetSafe Planners – they are a great visual – with the different color post-it’s, you’re unlikely to miss it!

Yearly goals with post-it notes

In some ways, the intriguing part of their planners is how a number of them also focus on goals and tasks – having a space included separate from the calendar for these items. It would be very rewarding to take down the post-it notes after completing tasks. The limited, yet not small area would encourage people to NOT over schedule.

PlanetSafe Planner 30 day calendar and tasks

30 day calendar with task or customizable section

From my limited perspective here in the Midwest, it’s sad that this company is not better known. Although there are some limitations to some of their products, they are worth keeping in mind to help you plan – depending on the contexts relevant to your life.

Note: All my reviews are done without consideration for the company (sorry!) – as unbiased as possible! I don’t receive anything from any of them and most don’t know I’m even reviewing their products.

Look Out – Papers Incoming

I’ve got the NAPO conference on my brain – from the three and a half days education in San Diego – to the state chapter meeting just four days after the end of the national conference. I have absorbed some of the mass of information available and gathered even more, for when I can handle more! This may not be a situation that happens regularly, yet it’s important to have ways to deal with it.

For last year’s national conference I printed out all these sheets – the map of the hotel and expo, the slides for the presentations I wanted to attend as well as some back up slide presentations in case I changed my mind. I took lots of notes in the workshops and gathered flyers from most, if not all, the companies exhibiting their products. Lots of paper. Within a month I had the business cards and flyers organized. Those notes though, those are still sitting in the binder I took, waiting for my good intentions for organizing them.

This year I had my nifty iPad, so I decided to take a risk and load all the slide presentations and maps on that. I took a small spiral notebook just on case I couldn’t make do with typing on the iPad. I’m thrilled to say that using the iPad was a complete success. I’m even more excited that I won’t need to worry about transcribing the notes – as they’re all electronically searchable and ready for me to use the information when I’m ready.

I took with me 2 empty document envelopes, like Peter Walsh’s,

Peter Walsh's Document Envelope

and at the end of each day separated the flyers and various papers I’d accumulated into 2 piles. One pile was for things that I want to follow up on in one way or another – companies I want to look at their websites, articles to read, or people to e-mail after conference. The other pile was for things to save, but more for archiving – things I might want to refer to later but needed no action or attention in the short term. Each pile went into one of the document wallets. I’ve begun the process of dealing with the small collection of papers that need action, and it’s easy since they’re all together.

With the small context of our local meeting, I simply made a list of the things I want to act on, separate from the notes gathered during the presentation. I’ve figured out that taking notes electronically is ideal for me – no need to make time to transcribe notes, and I’ll keep them organized in my Evernote account where I can search and access them anytime.

Although this can be an ideal way of handling any information you get – making a separate list of action items – for me, the amount of information from the national conference was overwhelming and I wanted it to be simpler. I’ve already started acting on the items, though I’ve certainly got more to do. Yet now I’m ready to add them a to-do list, therefore simplifying things even more.

Papers are often the biggest struggle – despite the aim toward a paperless society, we continue to have a plethora a paper bombarding us. I was excited to limit that some by not printing the handouts, yet I certainly brought a good amount of additional paper home.

Having a plan for what you want to do with those papers is important – figure out whether you want/need to take action and you need the physical papers to remind you or if you simply want to archive them for reference at a later point. Or do you want to pass them along to someone else? What is the next thing you want to do with them? This will help you deal with any papers coming into your life.

Evaluating System Breakdowns

Life is always changing – it’s not a static environment. I addressed this not long ago in the We Must Always Change. This is one of the reasons that our organizing is never actually finished. You can create good systems and maintain the organization for any number of years, yet it’s likely that there will be pieces that can be improved after some time. Our situations and approach change as we move through life. This can be daunting to many people – “you mean I’m never really done?” Truthfully, no.

This can actually be an uplifting thing. Really and truly. It opens up possibilities and can create space before your eyes. Unfortunately we often need to look at things with “new” eyes, ready to see opportunities we’ve previously missed. We also need to make sure if doesn’t mutate into a reason for self-flagellation.

I’m the first to admit that I’ve created systems for myself that end up falling flat on their faces. It’s usually not obvious right away. Only after a number of weeks or months does it hit me that that new way of doing something is just not working. Sometimes it’s about how my husband uses the items. Other times, I’m dealing with something new to me – like when I started scrapbooking, I had all these various things, and there are just so many ways of organizing them. I struggled to find a complete system that worked – and had to fight chastising myself for the lack of total success.

It’s too easy – and I see this too frequently – for us to recognize only the negative. We are glaringly aware of our failures and gloss over the pieces that do work. When you’re looking at systems that have broken down, you need to search out the ways it does work for you. Those scrapbooking supplies may not have completely worked, but there were always ways that it did work. There are ways your systems are working – you need to figure those out.

However small those pieces might be, the successes are clues for you about what does work for you. You can examine those and see if any of those principles can apply to the rest of the system. Do the successful pieces work because they’re easy to access – like putting away new scrapbooking things? Do they work because they’re close at hand when you’re doing it – like sorting mail by the trash? Leaving behind the idea of “good” and “bad” – we’re more likely to succeed at things when it’s relatively easy. Are there ways to make pieces easier for you?

This is when you need to not rush blindly ahead, you need to take time to think about and evaluate what you need. Take time to plan, figure out what goals you need to meet. It can feel like planning is a waste of time, yet according to Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, “1 hour planning will save 10 hours doing.” Each time I re-did the craft supplies, I waited to give myself time to think about what wasn’t working and come up with what I needed to modify. Only after I figured that out did I dig and starry changing things.

It can be daunting that our best intentions didn’t end up working out the way we thought they would, yet it can be an opportunity to make things exponentially better. It also reinforces how change is not only just a part of life, but also part of the journey and growth integral to living. When we apply that to our organizational systems, it means that we can improve our efficiency and productivity too.