How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud

Several years ago, I had a client who used her computer to schedule our appointments. Ok, that wasn’t too exciting – I’ve looked at the calendar apps on computers, but they weren’t really for me. Then she told me that she was using something different: Google calendar. What she loved about it was that her son also used Google calendar – it came with each of their gmail accounts – and they had linked their calendars together. He could see when she was on a business trip and needed his help taking care of her dog, and she could see when her grandson’s birthday party was and not forget the date. I wasn’t sure what I made of this at the time – I was still lugging around my large planner and using a pencil to mark appointments!

Then I got a smart phone where I had a calendar and could put my appointments in that. My shoulder certainly appreciated not lugging that planner around, yet accessing the calendar on the phone was not always convenient. If I was talking to someone and needed to consult my schedule, I either needed to put on the headset or use the speaker and hope that as I navigated this new device I would not inadvertently hang-up on the person.

This is when I started using Google calendar for myself. I could still use my phone to put appointments in, but I could also open up my computer, take the same information, and put in what I needed. Truthfully using the computer for Google calendar is easier – I have access to a full keyboard and scheduling repeating events is simpler. My husband started using Google calendar at the same time, and it provides an easy way for he and I to share our schedules with each other. If one of us wants to make plans for the night, we can check the other’s schedule to see if they’re available or not.

Google calendar was my first foray into cloud computing. The calendar is stored out on the Internet on a secure server, where it is backed up regularly. This is what is called the cloud. To access it, all I need is access to the Internet. All I need to do is log into Google with my e-mail user name and password, go to the calendar, and all my information is there. This is great because if I was visiting my mom and didn’t want to boot up my computer, I could just use hers. It is also wonderfully free and I’m actually saving money since I no longer need to buy a paper calendar for my purse.

It does not matter whether you use a PC or a Mac, Droid or iPhone, Google calendar will function with whatever you use it with. Some devices – like my phone – will even access it with their own calendar app. I helped a client learn about Google calendar recently – it will sync with her new smart phone and we set up her schedules, with a reminder beep to keep her on track. That ability to set an alarm, at the time you want, is another feature I really appreciate.

Too often, I’m a little paranoid about losing data. That is another reason I appreciate cloud computing, although there is always a risk of losing information – the information “living” out in the cloud means that it’s more likely to be accessible. In this case, if something were to happen to my phone, my appointments are available by using another device to access the Internet.

In my blog, I’ll be exploring a different cloud computing app each month. Here are a couple of the ones I’ll talk about fairly soon:

Delicious
Dropbox
Evernote

Soon, hopefully you, too, will learn to stop worrying (about your data) and love the cloud (computing). 🙂

One of My Favorite Things – Containers

My husband knows me well – he used to bring home containers of various types for me. You see, other than media, one of my favorite things is containers. I ooh and aah over them, drooling. They come in many different sizes and shapes, then there’s the material they’re made out of and if they’re drawers or boxes. How I long to take them home with me! There’s no denying how useful and helpful they can be.

My husband has also stopped bringing home those containers for me. We’ve run out of space and use for them – at least for the time being. This certainly doesn’t stop me from yearning to pick more up. Every so often I’ll still get more, like that time I went to the thrift store – I got a basket and a cute little elephant that just had to come home with me.

What we need to do is make sure that we know specifically what we need and only then purchase those things. I talk generally about when to buy things in a previous blog, True Purchasing Power. When it comes to containers and other organizing supplies though, we often buy first. It almost seems counter-intuitive to buy containers late in the process of getting organized. Yet this is exactly what you need to do.

An extreme example is getting a file cabinet. You see all these piles of papers around and just “know” that you’ll need a 4-drawer filing cabinet. You go out and get it and even have a place to put it. Then you start going through all those papers – and discover that most do not need to be filed. You actually only needed a 2-drawer filing cabinet. You could have saved yourself money by waiting.

We tend to fill the available space – so if you have a 4-drawer cabinet but don’t really require it, you’ll probably end up putting stuff in there – whether you keep unnecessary papers or you drop random things in there later. This applies to any of our spaces, therefore buying what you need becomes even more important and will help avoid things getting inadvertently cluttered. As an aside, many organizers claim that we ahould not have more than one 2-drawer file cabinet for papers.

As you begin to get organized, you’ll see that it changes many things. It’s great to start with some ideas of how you want things to be and look after you’ve finished. Yet, as you work through various things, your ideas begin to change. You have the freedom to decide that you want to move something to another room – not just furniture but also what activities you’ll focus on. Then those containers might not work as well.

If you avoid getting containers before you get organized, you are free to figure out how and where you’ll keep things without being limited by the container you’ve already purchased and without any guilt! In this day and age, you have such a plethora of choices of not only container, but also how to store things – like the ottoman that doubles as file storage (as long as you don’t mind the price!) – so waiting until you know precisely what you need to handle and where you want it to go is critical.

Feel free to drool over all the nifty stuff out there for organizing, yet resist the temptation to buy any of it until you know how you will use it and that it will actually work for your needs. I certainly continue to salivate and contemplate whether I could use those organizing supplies.

Making Time Means Setting Priorities

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who thought they had enough time – at least at sometimes. It often feels like it just disappears. You’re working on something and think it will only take 20 minutes and before you know it, an hour has gone by. Often it’s just that there are many demands on your time – you have a family, a job, a home, and any number of other responsibilities. There just does not seem to be enough time in a day to do everything you want to do. We all have the same amount of time to manage and the bottom line is making priorities that fit your values.

First, a story about time that I really like and which has circulated the Internet.

The Bank Account of Time: Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!!!! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. (I took the wording from here.)

In the previous blog, Take Time to Plan, I talked some about the importance of making time to plan and schedule things. This is an important part of the process of setting priorities since we all have limited time – and we need to try to be realistic about what we can accomplish.

The other part of this process is actually figuring out what your priorities are – and this means being aware of what your deep down values are. We need to align our priorities around the values we hold. Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says, “Organize and execute around priorities.”

We all have many priorities – you cannot just focus on one thing and ignore everything else. All the time you spend with family at the expense of your job is not realistic or even desirable! When you make time to consider your schedule and set some realistic plans, you’re aiming to make the most of the time you have. You’ll know that where you spend your time is where it’s best spent.

Often this requires that you alter some of your choices and often avoid immediate gratification. It also means thinking about the long-term and figuring out how to focus on the important things amidst all the demands that seem critical along the way. There are things that you will need to set aside, as you – or anyone – can do it all!

You’ll need to consider a chunk of time – this very day is too limited and this month is too large – so examine this week. Don’t over-schedule, this is not about filling every moment with an activity – but about setting aside to work on things that matter to you, to help you reach goals. You also want to make sure you include yourself in the plans – time for rejuvenation and growth. Most importantly, you need to make time to do this each week.

As such a complex topic, this is only the tip of the iceberg, yet starting even with this, you can take control of your time and spend it in meaningful ways. Each week offers you another opportunity to improve and learn more what you need and want from your life.

Stop Inadvertent Multitasking

We’ve all done it. We may not even really been aware that we’re doing it. Or we might be aware, yet keep doing it, unsure of how to stop.

Are you wondering what I’m referring to?

We have a box, drawer, or some container filled with random stuff and we decide it’s time to deal with it. We reach in and pull something out – sometimes we even shuffle the stuff around first, reaching for something “easy.” We look at it.

At this point, one of two things often happen after we look at that chosen item –
1. We put that very thing we pulled out – back into the container or next to us with no clear intention for it or
2. We hold that item in one hand while we use the other hand to shuffle items in that container, looking for something else to deal with

This can lead to putting the item down just to get it out of our hands, yet not where it needs to go and easy to forget where it ended up.

This is a hard habit to break; it’s frequently unconscious so we’re not even aware when we’re doing it. Which just takes me back to the idea of trying to “be in the moment” while you’re working. We can all work to catch ourselves when we’re doing it and stop. Then we make efforts to avoid continuing those behaviors.

Shuffling items just makes more work for you. You will have to try to deal with the items over and over again. It will make it feel that much more tedious, and it is already probably a tedious task! Then the idea of multi-tasking – it takes time for our brain to switch from processing one thing to another and one study says we lose 20-40% of our productivity when we do.

Ideally you want to just grab the first item, regardless of what it is. If you grab something that is supposed to be easy, make sure you then follow the steps too. Look at it and decide what you want to do with it. Unfortunately some things are challenging and you might be unsure what you want to do with it. Putting it back in the container does not actually solve the dilemma; it just reminds you that you feel stuck about what to do with that item.

This is a great place to use the O.H.I.O. principle I’ve talked about before. Handle the item only once – by making a decision about the item: loose category or place it belongs. Therefore you aim to make a decision about each item you handle and deal with it, even if it means putting it into another pile!

One way to handle these “loose” items is to have multiple containers to sort into, and then when you are finished with that area you can see what needs a specific home. Yet, it requires making decisions – both in the moment of picking it up and categorizing it and then later figuring out where it needs to live.

As usual, I think there are times for “pending” items. For instance with papers, many people believe that there needs to be a minimum of 3-5 papers before it’s worth making a designated file for an item. You cannot always know whether you have enough of a thing to make a special place for them until you can see everything you are dealing with.

It’s not easy to stop these unconscious habits, yet it serves us well if we can – whether we stop it entirely or just improve how frequently we slip into it. It’d make your life so much simpler and the more you can practice this, the easier it becomes each time you need to handle a similar task.

Make It Fun

Is fun missing from your life? I know I feel sometimes that life has become more drudgery than anything else. And the truth is that you need to find ways to bring real fun back into your life. Although I might be able to help inspire you to find some fun in general, right now, I want to talk about bringing a little fun to the various things that we need to do in our homes. If we can make our chores less tedious, we’ll be more likely to get them done.

I encourage you to brainstorm your own ideas for making things more fun. Therefore, to help get those creative juices flowing, I’ll share some of the ideas I’ve used and ones that have worked for others. Use them for yourself if they interest you.

I’ve mentioned before that I am not an avid cleaner. I also record TV shows to watch at a later point, often enjoying the ability to fast-forward through commercials. I now use those commercials as a perfect time to get some vacuuming done. I look up periodically to see when the show starts again. That is my cue to stop for the moment. I then use that time to move things either out of the way, or back into place. Our rooms are small, so the whole room is easily vacuumed within two commercial breaks. It doesn’t necessarily make it fun, but it does help it feel less tedious. It also stops the task from feeling overwhelming; I work at it for a limited amount of time and then stop for while.

Teamwork is a great way to make tasks more fun – even having company can help tasks feel more fun. This can work in several different ways – from the actually doing the work with someone else to simply working in the same area on different tasks. Another way to apply this idea is to have a phone buddy. Before starting anything, you talk on the phone, sharing what you’re each going to tackle and agree on a time to call back. You then hang up and begin your tasks. You can imagine what they are doing and can look forward to talking later. The key here is that if one of you doesn’t actually work on those tasks, you wait to talk.

I often play music while working on the various things around the house. I’ve heard back from clients that this has helped them as well. (It of course varies depending on the person.) Going through papers are one of the most tedious tasks, and surprisingly draining. One woman found that if she had music playing, she could sort papers for longer periods of time as it made it more enjoyable. As my music tastes are quite eclectic, I vary the type of music – considering my mood as well as my task.

Be sure to have different tools for bringing fun to your tasks, so that our fun things don’t become routine! Then it’s not fun anymore. Mix it up, have alternatives, and explore what works for you.

Of course, anytime we can make our tasks enjoyable, the more likely we are to get them done and feel good about it. I hope you will find ways to make your tasks fun – let your creative juices flow in finding ways that work for you. The holidays are here, and if we can employ ways to make the things we do more fun, it can only help us enjoy the holidays even more.

Only Handle It Once

I’ve spent time cringing at promoting this to most people! If we take the idea literally – when you grab the mail, you will spend time attending to each bill and making separate trips to the filing cabinet or shredder each day as you deal with each piece of mail. Doing a web search on those terms several hits talk about the myth of Only Handle It Once (O.H.I.O) while others talk about how helpful and important it is. Yet all of these articles, whether “debunking a myth” or using the system, really boil down to the same thing – it’s really about your level of efficiency.

It requires that you don’t try to apply this literally to every situation. There are times to handle something only one – junk mail and spam e-mails are good examples. Is there really any reason to have this cluttering up your space and not getting it into the trash (physical or electronic) quickly? It does also rely on your definition of junk and spam – for example, if you are in the market for a new credit card, those offers might be worth examining.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of things you aren’t going to handle only once, at least in the literal sense. If we think about “handle” more loosely, as in moving the item to a temporary “home” until it is time to attend to it, you can eliminate any worries it could cause by knowing you will complete later. You are handling it once – in that you are moving it along in your system.

Therefore the key piece here is to have some systems that work for you, where you’ll put the things in the meantime. It needs to be the same place each time and not cluttered with unrelated items. This means that you can create different areas for phone calls, bills, scheduling (parties, social events, etc.) and focus on each one independently of the others, or if it works for you, keeping this all together. Regardless of how you choose to set it up, you need to use it and make time to deal with those items.

If you are able to make a specific home for things and when the time is right, focus on them, you are still handling it only once since your brain is not continuing to “handle” it between when you got it and the time when you need to deal with it. Sometimes this is where things break down for people; they don’t have working systems. This is a different issue, as it isn’t handled only once.

This applies to e-mails as well, if you deal with it promptly, you will not keep re-reading them over and save yourself time. In truth, it applies to many things. If your dishwasher is not actually getting your dishes clean the first time through, you have to handle them repeatedly – hence why some people will almost wash the dishes before putting them in. If we can streamline the laundry and get it put away, we’re not handling our clothes over and over again.

The truth is that even I still struggle some with thinking about this phrase as not literal – when I hear it, when I talk about it – I still cringe inside. I’m afraid people cannot take it more figuratively – and from much of what I’ve seen and heard, when people talk about it, they use it literally. Yet, if we can shift our thinking about the term handling to being about moving things along in the process, we’ll become more efficient. As well as we’re simplifying things in our lives.

Find Your Curiosity

I’ve talked before about dealing with that other person or persons in the home that just can’t seem to be organized. It is naturally a complex issue and I’ve written some on this already in “Help, My Partner is a Slob.” Since this isn’t simple enough to be covered in one sitting, here is another piece of the puzzle. Can you get to a place of curiosity? Really curious, not pretending so you can complain and dictate how things need to be?

If you’ve recently been frustrated with how “they” don’t actually put things away, this is not the time to do anything other than process the feelings. After some time has passed though, you might think about asking some questions as long as you are approaching it from sincere curiosity. Do they know why they don’t put those things away? Can you brainstorm together to see if there is a solution that would work for both of you?

I worked with a woman who was annoyed about how things did not get dealt with by others in the home. As we worked on an area, there was a place I mentioned we could leave empty, with the idea that she could observe what ended up there. Knowing what items were problematic would help start a talk about what the struggles were. Was it that the item had a “bad” home for that person? Was it just sloppiness, it was easy to drop it there, so it was thoughtless? Was it a reminder for them that they wanted to act soon? Her response was “nope,” and she piled some items up there so nothing could be put there at all.

If you can actually find a way to be curious about what is going on for that other person, you might discover that there is a simple solution that works for both of you. Or you might find some additional compassion for that person and be willing to step up and do certain things. It can be amazing what a difference understanding what happens for the other person can make in how you feel and react.

I’ve applauded the book, Crucial Conversations before, and they spend some talking about curiosity also. There are challenges and when we can be and stay curious, we might find out what is at the bottom of things. The key is that we need to be genuinely curious. Approaching things with that sincere curiosity, it lessens the possibility the other person will respond defensively, and therefore that understanding can be achieved!

This can apply for us as well. Do you ever stop to wonder why you do something in that particular way? If you avoid the place of blaming yourself, and approach even yourself with curiosity, you might find answers. Just like with dealing with others, if you are berating yourself, you’ll likely struggle to find why those challenges exist.

As I stated above, dealing with others, whether they are our spouses or our children (or even our parents!), is a complex issue. I’ll probably be writing more about this again! In the meantime, if you can find genuine curiosity for why the other person is that way, you might be able to start a dialogue and make some discoveries that can lead to less frustration. It can be extremely challenging to find that curiosity – especially if it’s been building for years – yet if you can, you’ll be open to hearing about them, and that can lead to solutions and that is always a good thing!

Evaluate While In the Moment

I recently visited Concord, Massachusetts where the Transcendentalist movement took off. Many places had merchandise with the words “simplify” and other variations. I could not help but smile. Yes, simplify! One of the things that I find myself looking at is how efficient things work – is there a way to make it easier? And who doesn’t want things to be easier? As technology tempts us more and our time feels so fleeting, there are steps we can take to be more effective in how we use our time and energy – to simplify.

In a previous post I talked about being “in the moment” as we do things. As we do our dishes, we can focus our mind on what we are doing. It forces us to do a good job and save us time by not needing to do it again. Yet there can be more to this process, as we focus on the task we’re doing, we can think about whether there is another approach that might move it along more smoothly.

We’ve probably all seen the commercials that talk about washing the pots and pans last. This makes sense from more than one perspective, not just from dirty water. Those pots and pans are larger and often can rest easily on top of other dishes as the last things to get washed. In loading the dish rack, making it easy just helps the whole process along. There is no need to take time to rearrange things or throw things in haphazardly.

Each dish rack is different, as are your needs and situation. Making an evaluation of how smoothly things work as you are working in it can be a sort of meditation on the very task. In many ways it becomes systematized, you get into a “flow” and it all happens easily and with little thought, yet it’s done well.

I’ve applied this to mowing the lawn as well. I focus on what I am doing – mowing the lawn, in this case, and find the rhythm of it. As I follow that rhythm, I consider if there would be a more efficient approach. When we first moved into the house and I started mowing for the first time in my life, my energy was a big factor. I noticed that my energy changed depending on whether I started with the front or back yard, so I made sure to start with the back yard since I had more energy when I was done. These days energy is less of an issue, yet I’m still evaluating if there are ways to be more efficient. Am I backtracking to get at that weird area off to the side? Or when I mow in that direction, cut grass does not cover the sidewalk, so it looks nice and doesn’t take more time.

This can be applied to any activity you do – from the routine tasks to those you do infrequently – and it will help you be in the moment while you’re doing them. You can save yourself time, energy, and increase your productivity! All these tasks, which we all have, can become easier – and we can all appreciate that. 🙂 It might sound too simplistic, yet each small step we take can help us.

What can you do with your tasks to simplify them?

Be a Human Being Not a Human Doing

There are so many of us striving to do more and more and more. We are driven to be as productive as possible, and when we fail to live up to our standards (or the standards we imagine others have of us) we have this sense of disappointment – or worse. I wonder if we’ve lost our perspective along the way somehow. We need to learn – or relearn – how to make the most of our productivity without losing the critical skill of taking time to relax. This becomes even more essential if you are dealing with health issues. This is important for each day.

That need for a feeling of accomplishment is more prevalent for people who don’t work in the traditional sense – whether they work from home, are stay-at-home parents, or do not work. The days can fly by and looking back appears like “nothing” got done. Often this is a matter of perspective, as when they sit down and actually start listing what they did, there are many things, small things that do add up over a day.

Therefore we need to pace ourselves. In looking at your schedule, there are certain things that are non-negotiable. Your work schedule and appointments can be the structure. The times around these can be more flexible. When you consider your “free” time, you likely have tons of things you could put into those open spots.

Since we all have the exact same amount of time to spend in a day, decide what is important to work on. Set a time limit, even setting the timer, so that you don’t get lost in your task. You do not need to finish each project you start, you can dedicate a set amount of time to it every x number of days. You will make consistent progress, without overwhelming yourself, and eventually complete it.

Just as important as making time for those tasks, is making time for you. Value your energy and sanity enough to leave time for down time. Time to relax and time for your mind to stop running. You can set a timer for this as well.

Pay attention when your body or mind gets overwhelmed – then do less the next time. Do you find yourself utterly exhausted at the end of the day (or before then)? Do you need to take a day (or more) to recover from a prior day’s activities? Do you find yourself doing mindless activities when you know you have important things to do? These are signs that you are pushing yourself too hard. You are attempting to do more than you can truly handle.

Remember, “We are human beings, not human doings.” Our value does not come from our level of productivity – or lack thereof. Nevertheless, we do want to use our time to its fullest potential. What that fullest potential is will vary from person to person. We all have limitations, in one way or another. We can make the most of our time and energy, and it requires that we nurture ourselves in the process. Interestingly, this often boosts our productiveness too!

Take Time to Plan

I don’t know about you, but I always hear how important it is to take time to plan and schedule. I even believe it – how could I not, being a professional organizer? I recognize how important it is to take your time and figure things out before jumping in. Taking the time to plan means that you are more effective and productive. Most of us have probably heard the saying, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”

When we re-did the room in our home, we waited until we had certain things figured out. We did not empty the room, let alone paint it, until we knew what we wanted to do with the room. This is an interesting example since I am not sure how many of us would do it any other way.

Why then do we not take the time and consideration for the smaller things in our lives? We all have busy lives, yet too often we neglect planning. This is one of the most critical times to plan. If we want to live fully today and every day – to suck the marrow out of life – we need to take the time to figure out what we want and need to do. And we need to make a routine out of it – set aside time regularly to do plan, and this also means having discipline to keep up with it.

Recently I have been struggling with what to use for planning. I have been considering lots of different options and considering what I need and want. I was using some lined paper and creating a schedule with to-do lists based on another design. I was getting fed up with re-doing my outline for it each week and sat one day and created the design on the computer. It took me less than an hour.

You know what though? I felt guilty! I was consumed with feeling like I had wasted my time. “I had better things to be doing.” “I was neglecting all those other things that need my attention.” As I was talking to my husband about it, I was struck by the illogic of it. I was creating an easier way for me to schedule and plan. I was saving myself time each week in creating the outline, by spending this one hour; I could save myself 20 minutes every week. In less than a month I will have saved myself time. Still it did not FEEL that way.

This is the problem many people face trying to set aside time for planning and scheduling. On some level it feels counterproductive. We also often manage without taking the time to plan; yet the key word is – manage. We manage to get by and get the things done we need to. This is not thriving.

There is no one easy answer to solve this struggle. We need to find ways to show ourselves that it actually helps us. If we make the time regularly to plan, it can become obvious that it is worthwhile. The way life starts to suddenly feel easier somehow. Our stress levels decrease while we are actually more productive. Our happiness increases. We feel in control, or at least more so! The goals we want to achieve are within reach.

In closing, a lovely quote from Annie Dillard,

“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.”