Labeling

Has anyone commented that you are a hoarder? How did that feel to you? What about any other label someone used to describe you? The way we react can be due to any number of factors, yet like so many things – it’s not a simple black or white question. Were you even thinking about how we label people when you saw the title “Labeling” or were you thinking about labeling things?

Yet, have you found yourself struggling to find a concise description of a category or a file? I see this most often with people when it comes to their files- ‘what should I call it?’ There are so many words in the English language that we can choose from – the file we have on our car could be labeled – Car; Auto; VW; Bug/Beetle; Old Beater; His/Her Car; and on and on.

If labeling something that stays the same can present a challenge, it’s fascinating that trying to label people is so common. To state the obvious, people are more complex than a collection of papers! This is where it’s worth considering how labeling both helps and hinders you.

I continue to be dismayed overall by the overuse of labeling people as a “hoarder” – it’s so popular that it’s easy to use it to describe anyone that has “too much stuff.” And “too much stuff” is a subjective – depending on who uses the hoarder label for other people could be someone that has overfull bookshelves in every room. When it’s applied in the subjective way, someone with stuff that is viewed as too much by someone else – there’s no recognition of the objective criteria that defines hoarding.

Educating people can be part of what I do – and I will share the standards for what defines hoarding. When someone has been categorized as a “hoarder” by family, whether it’s done seriously or by repeatedly “joking” around, identifying with that can hinder the organizing efforts. It can be important to know that simply because someone else has defined them as a hoarder doesn’t make it accurate. The same thing applies when someone is applying that term to themselves – and this is also growing in frequency – it’s not limited to other people defining them. And it’s just as inaccurate – technically.

The way people react to the label being applied to them – whether it’s self-applied or comes from others – can vary too. As I’ve said, I find the term overall to carry negative connotations, and many people feel similarly. Yet, other people (not oblivious to some of the term’s negativity) appreciate that the term gives them a frame of reference – a place to begin understanding what they have been struggling with.

I’ve even been known to refer some of my own behaviors as “hoarding tendencies” and can relate to aspects of the hoarding criteria. So is there value to identifying parts of a label that resonates with you? I think so, as it can then offer you some perspective.

Whether you’ve been objectively labeled with some term or not, you can still use the education and knowledge to support you in creating the life you want. For example, in Buried in Treasuresby David Tolin et al, they talk about how creative people are and how the ideas of how they can use things can get in their way of getting rid of having so much. I resonated with that – I have all these creative ideas and now as I look at my own collection of hobbies and crafts, I ask myself to try to be realistic and what are the pieces that really matter.

A label may or may not apply to us objectively, yet there’s no stopping any of us from using the tools for our own benefit. So, if there is a label that has been applied to you – externally or internally – see if the tools and approaches for handling that label can support you and pay no more attention to the specific label than will help you.

Making the Most of a Storage Unit

Traditionally people going through relocation’s, marriage, divorce, inheritances, and other life transitions would use storage units for short periods of time. Now, storage units are also used long term – a way to keep things we don’t want in our homes or those things don’t fit in our homes. There’s no doubt these self-storage units provide a beneficial service – I used one for relocating challenges many years ago and expect I might again when its time for home staging. So whether you currently have a storage unit or will need one in the future, the way you use the space can make the difference between simplifying and complicating things for yourself.

The best approach you can take for your storage unit is to set it up in ways that will both maximize the space as well as providing you with easy access to all the contents. Essentially you want the ability to get to any content within 10 minutes whether you’re planning on ignoring it until you’re ready to empty it or if you’ll need to be in and out of it periodically. Of course, if you end up needing to get at something before you empty the storage unit and you’ve organized the contents, you can get what you need with little hassle. Also, when you set it up with this easy access to each thing, you’re simplifying the process for when you empty it – as the mover’s or yourself can make the most of loading the car or truck. Overall it means simplifying – a little planning and organizing can save you time as well as money.

Ok then, how do you set up a storage unit with this in mind?

First, to keep access for all the contents, you make aisles. You’re leaving space for you (or whoever) to move among the contents as well as allowing some space for shifting or rearranging if needed. There’s no right way to make the aisles – it doesn’t have to be from the door to the back wall – consider the dimensions of the unit and the things you’re storing.

Can you touch each box without having to move other things? It doesn’t have to be set up this way, though it will make things easiest if you end up needing access to some of the contents and will facilitate your handling the things in there. You can identify the box/bin/container you need to get access to – without digging and moving things only to discover it wasn’t behind that box after all.

In keeping with making the most of the space and making aisles, each container needs only one access point – so other than the items along the walls – you can make 2 rows of your stuff between each aisle. The only things you’d need to move if you need access to one container would be any boxes on top of the needed container. The aisles also provide an easy place to put those boxes you’re moving in order to get access to the container you need.

Second, as you’re looking at the space available – even if you already have a full unit – pay attention to the vertical space. Not unlike a small living space, one way to make the most of small spaces is to maximize the area between the floor and the ceiling. How you will use this space depends on different factors:

how much stuff you actually have or that needs to be stored in the space
whether the items for the storage unit will stack well (or can be stored to make most of vertical space like Persian rugs and grandfather clocks)
- half full boxes will end up leaning or even falling when stacked on top of each other
- furniture can help make the space more functional, especially shelving (though that doesn’t mean you should buy them!)
what are the things and the categories of things you’re storing (or planning on storing)?
safety and accessibility
- I don’t recommend (most of the time) stacking things higher than is comfortable for retrieving and replacing – as that can become a safety hazard and negatively impact our willingness to get at the things stored

Third, keeping categories of things together. If you’ve got books in storage, get them all together. Clothes, kitchen things, storage/organizing containers, holiday decor, whatever broad grouping of similar things being kept together will help you if you need to find something and when you’re moving the containers out of the storage unit – since you’d probably prefer the books don’t inadvertently crush the box of memorabilia while they’re in transit. Broad categories are often all you need, though there can be further detailed grouping when it’s appropriate.

If you’re storing things you want to go through over time, having the categories will also simplify that process – having like items together will make it easier for you to make decisions. You can focus on one type of thing (avoiding switching between types of things) and know what else you have – which will help preserve your energy and maximize making decisions about each item within the category.

It’s helpful to make sure you know where the various categories are located within the storage unit – for locating what you need, for when it’s time to empty the unit, for sorting, purging and further organizing, and for anything else. You can label the containers – with a magic marker, attaching labels to the containers, or even to make a diagram mapping the locations of your categories (so you know the front half of the row along the left wall are where your books are located).

When you have a storage unit – whatever the reason – making the most of the space is important. Even if you already have a filled storage unit, with some time and effort you can rearrange things, making things easier in moving forward. You’re paying money to save and protect your things. These are 3 important aspects for maximizing the space and more importantly, keeping things as easy as possible for you: 1) access with aisles, 2) maximize vertical space, and 3) categorize and group contents together. With these three pieces you can keep your things, your storage unit and using the space (for accessing or for filling and then emptying) as simple as possible.

Aside: If you’re renting a storage unit for an undefined amount of time – a life transition – without a real deadline, consider setting a deadline for yourself, choosing your own time frame (and it’s good to be generous). It can be an out-of-sight out-of mind cost, where it becomes easier to keep paying the fee for the storage unit than to face the plethora of decisions inside!

Organizing from Another Culture

As I read January’s Real Simple, it was interesting to see what different “journalists, pundits, and thought leaders” had to say regarding the idea and possibility of work-life balance. The part that caught my attention most was what Jennifer Senior said – which was essentially to consider the question from a bigger perspective, to consider that some people are struggling so much they can’t even think about work-life balance as well as some cultures, like ours, where we feel entitled to be happy. Most of us know that our values and goals are a reflection of our life experiences and personality, which means that someone living across the world likely has different values and goals. It also means they approach things differently – whether just slightly or more dramatically. And I’ve just returned from a month in Japan – partly drooling over organizing supplies (partly since I didn’t spend the month perusing supplies!) – and found the differences in the stores between the U.S. and Japan fascinating.

Walking through stores, in general, I was overwhelmed with the choices displayed for me to touch, to test out, to buy – and we think we have tons of choices available to us. Depending on the area I was walking through, I could quickly feel so overloaded with the selection that all I wanted to do was leave! I also noticed that I became more selective about which stores I would even enter – I shared one store that elicited a contradictory response from my last visit in Temptations of Purchasing.

It’s more challenging for me to resist stores offering office supplies. I desperately miss the days when we had independent stores around offering alternative colors in writing pens and pads of paper. And if we were lucky, the store had several pens for you to test out – experimenting with how this and that one wrote – before buying anything. In Japan, almost every individual pen being sold could be tested, in one store – all three rows of them – with paper stretched on each row from one end to the other on a ledge. Oh the colors, the selection of point sizes, the brands (some quite familiar), and even erasable pens – and each of these did not limit the others, so the colors were offered in each of the point sizes and the erasable pens had many colors to choose from.

The pens that came home with me!

I wish I’d had more time to explore the supplies they offered for paper. The color choices, the sizes, and binding options were just the obvious variations. Not surprisingly there is a focus on functionality – so there were many options for small and portable staplers, hole punches, scissors, cases for writing utensils, and more and I picked up some of these to add to my workbag.

I didn’t see any Container Stores – either in brand or exclusively dedicated to – yet almost every store offered some containers. One store obviously carried many options that I explored – amazed at the both the options and the lack of options. Huh, you might thinking, isn’t that contradiction? At least in the store I spent the most time in, it’s focus on home overall, with furniture, kitchen and bath accessories, storage and container options – there was limited color or material options. The color choices were neutral – clear, black, white, and neutral (tan, wood, wicker) and the materials were natural (wood, wicker), plastic, or metal. Yet, within that “limited” selection the choices offered amazing personalization. Each section of containers revealed that the sizes – however variable – were designed to all work together, if you wanted (or needed) it to. The color selection also meant that it’s versatile – it will go with any décor, any colors – and choosing the container for your situation isn’t going to be limited by a clashing color.

The wood containers offered the option of purchasing a lid – where this lid was functional as a tray as well. You could stack these containers both with and without the lid – and the edges all nested just a bit so any stack of containers was stable as well as perfectly (unavoidably) aligned. I loved the thought that went into the design – as well as the options, however “limited,” that offered ways to save money i.e. avoid buying or even just having unnecessary lids, as well as maintaining the stacking option even if you wanted or needed lids.

In this same store I discovered this section filled with clear plastic containers – smaller, filled with various things. It took me a little while to realize that there were only a certain number of the larger sizes – which you purchased independently of “contents.” Yes, these containers had contents in the traditional sense where the store was illustrating some ideas for using these containers. The “contents” I’m referencing are the options for how to configure the space inside the larger sizes – as you could turn one into a jewelry box, or a box of sunglasses with sections if you wanted, a display case for a collection, or any number of options. These pieces mostly clear, with the exception of some jewelry holders covered in fabric, and offered complete visibility for your things – no way to forget what you put in that container – you can see it. Essentially you’re designing the storage – within limits – for your things simply.

I found myself admiring – deeply appreciating the thought-out details – and wishing I needed containers, so I could use these! I also ranted a bit – amazed we don’t have containers with the level of design that was offered – and thinking of various clients with their various storage needs, if only they could touch and test these out.

It turns out that I didn’t capture many of these – at least the ones that stand out most in my memory, though I have some other pictures to share illustrating the options and versatility offered, as well as how they display it within furniture.

The display shows some of the furniture and containers they sell

Finding a display of almost exclusively ShotNote paper options surprised me – I wrote a review not long ago and had looked into the paper options they offered. This is the rack displaying them:

The Ampad ShotNote display rack

This is part of the wall I glimpsed as we walked outside the store – tempting me to come in and investigate more – and where I found all the containers I talk about here:

Part of the wall tempting me in – with glimpses of more on both sides

Over-the- door display with various options – which reminded me of the organizing idea I’d read not long before of cutting part of a (closet rod) hanging shoe bag and using it for other items and in other locations around the house. They offered that as well, though I didn’t manage to get a picture. Yet the focus continues to be on how to maximize functionality for the person – ways to customize the tools for your situation and needs.

One set-up possibility for over-the-door hanging options

The sign illustrating some options for the over-the-door storage and similar wall storage offerings:

Options for the over-the-door and wall hanging system

Planning with Fractals in Mind – Review, Sort of

I always appreciate discovering lesser-known things – yes, always, at least when it comes to organizing, time management, productivity, and other things that fascinate me. I wish I could remember how I come across some of them, as is the case with the e-book “Clear Mind, Effective Action” by Jim Stone where he talks about his Fractal Planning system. Are you already rolling your eyes or afraid to read more? Talking about fractals and planning systems might sound intimidating or like a non sequitur, yet this is the type of thing I’ve encouraged all of you to do – at least to some degree – use what works from the systems around us and then find ways to adjust for the parts that don’t work as well.

Therefore, let’s talk about his approach, fractals and all. What do you think of when you hear the term fractals? The way he envisions fractals is as “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-sized copy of the whole” which he says is how Wikipedia (at the time of writing) defines it. What is critical about fractals in his view is that they surround us and “creative productivity (like most business projects) grew via fractal processes” so a successful planning tool would incorporate fractal awareness into it.

He offers several different ways to envision fractals around us. One of those is a tree, where you take a main branch off a tree and it looks like a smaller tree. If we continue, taking a branch (he refers to this as a sub-branch) off this other (main) branch, this also looks like an even smaller tree. And so on. Sometimes there are some random variations at each step, as with this example of a tree, yet remains an example of a fractal.

$Tree as an example of a fractal we see and take for granted$

Tree as an example of a fractal we see and take for granted

Part of what that means is the versatility for breaking things down into ever and ever smaller parts – the splitting (or fracturing) mentioned above that is still a smaller representation of the bigger picture. Yet, fractal can also be seen as a way to build things up through the branching process. This can be seen with the Koch Snowflake (animated to see the process in one direction) – where you can see how both breaking down as well as building up applies.

Isn’t this what we need when we’re planning our tasks and priorities – the flexibility to approach things from any direction? Sometimes we’re stuck in the forest, unable to see the trees when we’re trying to plan. Other times all we can see are the trees – or to put it another way – we’re busy thinking in the big or small picture view and struggle with aspects that go beyond that view. Or maybe we’re just not clear – it’s somewhere between the two extremes – yet wherever we might be, it’s important to have a planning tool that will support us as we capture our thoughts. And then we can take that planning as far as we need to for maximizing our productivity and minimizing our stress – fractal like in either breaking the steps down or building our plans up.

$Von Koch Curve showing the fractal nature$

Von Koch Curve showing the fractal nature

Essentially the idea of fractal planning comes down to the idea that being aware of the fractal nature – of our plans, our goals, our entire lives – will help us as we’ll work better, becoming more efficient and effective while our stress will decrease. As Jim Stone says, “”If you set it up right, with a planning tool that allows you to break down projects to any level of detail, your plans will just grow naturally from your brain‘s innate desire to break tasks down as you go. That‘s what fractal awareness does for you. It helps you see that your whole life can be represented in the same plan, and you can trust it to grow organically, just like a tree grows (because that‘s how plans grow, too). And don‘t worry. There is no ―right way to break down your life plan or your projects and sub-projects.”

I love the optimism of this – while the skeptic in me wonders how realistic this is for everyone. Oops, even I can slip into the temptation of 1 solution for all of us. This is simply an example of one person’s solution to planning and productivity challenges that were not solved from another system out there (David Allen’s Getting Things Done are evident in places). His approach also assumes you are 1) comfortable with technology and 2) that you sit at a desk the majority of the time – where it’s easy and convenient to be interacting with your list. [Please note that I have no data on his paid online system – and am considering writing another piece that discusses some of the issues I see with this system; this post is about the ideas in his e-book.] Nevertheless, the idea of fractal awareness shifting how we view things intrigues me – without needing to adopt any other piece of his system. Are there any ideas that capture your interest?

Temptations of Purchasing

About a month ago I became aware of the large increase of catalogs arriving. “Aha, it’s that time of year again.” From this point, I can have any number of reactions – from apathy to curiosity, sometimes I even feel annoyed. Of course, their job is to convince you to spend your money with them – at this time of year, with their offers of saving money and finding the perfect gift. Yet it’s not just this holiday time that we’re surrounded with offers – their hope of being tempting.

How do you think about the approaches and offers all around you? Do you consider the strategies they’re using? Do you know what and when you are more prone to giving into the temptation?

If only it were simple to have set rules for making intentional purchases and avoid collecting clutter. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t some strategies for doing both of these things – yet, with all the variables, they’re not likely to be foolproof. The more we understand our own dynamic – the factors that impact our buying more things – the easier it will be to catch ourselves.

There are times that the idea of an item being scarce can be a challenge for me – “uh oh, I absolutely love that, it’s on sale which means it might be going out of stock (or is less expensive), so I should just get it.” Once I became aware of how this situation of an apparent scarcity (or “good” deal) can lead me to impulsive purchasing, I can now catch myself most of the time from buying into the perception of scarcity. I realized that it was more important to me to be able to take the time to process and evaluate buying items, then that if it was in fact not available (if I even went back to get it) it was “just not meant to be.” This is one of my strategies – in response to one of the marketing strategies that can entice me.

For me with the idea of scarcity, it only applies to some things. When it is in the clearance area of a store, I practice skepticism about why something has made it there. Yet I learned that the hard way – I picked up too many things over the years that were flimsy. Just because something is marked down doesn’t mean it’s really a savings to buy – if the item is poor quality, it won’t work or last long anyway – so it’s a waste of your time and money.

The marketing aspects that can tempt me are not necessarily the same ones that lure you – just like the approach we take to handle it will be different. If we don’t pay attention – learn from our experiences – we will spend money we don’t need to and have that much more excess stuff around making more work for us.

It’s not just as simple as the marketing – the things retailers are advertising and trying to tempt us with. We also have an internal sense of when something is too much – whether it would match anyone else’s view or not. So, consider if you later regret how much you spent on x, y, z, etc. Do you need to adjust your internal sense or apply it only within certain limits?

Then there’s also how our personality, mood, and feelings influence how we buy or not buy as well. For me, it also affects my tolerance for shopping at all – sometimes the last thing I have any desire to do is walk into a store unless I have an immediate need. Then there are other times that I want to look around and explore. Once I even said, “I want to go into the “clutter” store.” Then I chuckled – both at the desire to go into the store that seemed cluttered and how I labeled it – automatically. Here’s the window that somehow drew me in – and after going in, I admired a few things, considered if anything wanted to come home with me, and left happy – exploring and not purchasing.

The “clutter” store I wanted to go into.

We all have opportunities to buy things we don’t need and end up not using or appreciating those things. And more than the opportunities, we all spend on our money on these things – at least sometimes. This isn’t about how much money you do or don’t have – since you can collect clutter at dollar stores just as easily as higher end boutiques and the excess stuff still requires your attention, at some point. We can choose to consider the things influencing our purchasing and explore how we can do that in ways that are truly supportive of our life.

Giving Thanks

This is the time of year when we tend to think about being grateful – at least if you’re not already practicing gratitude regularly. After all tomorrow is Thanksgiving – a day we often associate with sharing the things we’re grateful for – before digging into the feast. Yet, it seems as a society we’re thinking more and more about gratitude – and the value gratitude has on our own lives. How often do you take time to consider what you are grateful for?

It can be all too easy to downplay and dismiss the value of expressing your gratitude – after all you’re busy and the things going right don’t require your attention, either in remembering or for problem solving. One day is enough, isn’t it, for sharing the things you’re grateful for?

Although we certainly don’t want to forget those things in life that need further attention from us, there is value in remembering all the things that went right, that there were things that we can be grateful for. Human nature is to focus on the negative, yet this just reinforces the ruts in our brain that can limit our thinking and perspective.

Earlier this year at the ICD (Institute for Challenging Disorganization) conference, one of the speakers talked to all of us about “Living Stress Free.” Lots of things can contribute to our stress level and the way they interact then has a further impact. Therefore, we can reverse the path to stress with some practice and tools. And you probably guessed it – one of those tools is expressing gratitude.

His recommendation was at the end of every week to count your blessing with these 2 steps: 1) recall 3 things from the prior week for which you are grateful and 2) acknowledge 3 things in your life (not time constrained, but overall) for which you feel blessed. He went on to share that research suggests that this practice translates into people with less depression and stress and that they are more likely to make progress on important personal goals.

New to me was that there is some evidence that counting your blessings once a week is more beneficial than doing it every day. I found contradictory information on this in my research – and overall that there is no consensus yet about the frequency. There seems to be no debate about the value of being grateful – of making a practice of it – as long as you don’t get so habituated to it. Consider the feelings that accompany being grateful – those are part of what benefits the brain.

Sometimes it can be challenging to find things that you are grateful for – whether you’re experiencing depression, a series of tough life events, or whatever else it might be that interferes with identifying the blessings in your life. Every organizing client that I’ve had has had areas where they are successful – though they don’t always recognize it. Search out the parts you are succeeding with – I insist there are some! 😉

Due to my worldview, the obstacles and struggles I’ve faced in my life are blessings – they helped me learn and grow. So even in the midst of a struggle, I can be grateful. That doesn’t mean I’m not frustrated or challenged, simply that I have confidence that it will in the long run be a blessing for my life.

Similarly, you can feel gratitude for the goals and desires you have. Where would you be without those? If you’re dealing with a cluttered living space and desire more order – can you acknowledge the strength and blessing of wanting it to change? This focuses on the positive – which will support us in moving forward.

We’ve probably all heard that “Thanksgiving was never meant to be limited to one day.” When we make a habit of gratitude we shift things for ourselves – we’re more resilient, more realistic about our self-worth (rather than pessimistic), and it helps us live mindfully in the present moment. With my approach of experimenting – if you find yourself resistant to the idea of making a practice of gratitude in your life, test it out. Commit to 2 weeks and just do it – and then observe – how do you feel? Has anything changed? In what ways?

Follow-up on the Arc Notebook

It’s hard to believe it was only January that I reviewed the Arc Notebook from Staples initially and two things have happened that inspired me to follow-up on this – to share more about how it’s holding up with even more time and usage.

I continue to greatly appreciate this notebook – it really is my go-to place when I need to write things down. This includes my to-do list for the week (or occasionally, day), notes about any blog ideas, things that inspire me, and other things that it’s easier to hand-write (rather than using the iPad).

First, I need to share that there is something I forgot to talk about in my review – another positive aspect of this style notebook (both sizes) is that the rings allows for the notebook to be flipped over like a standard notebook. This means that if you have limited space for the notebook to be sitting out, you aren’t limited to it lying there closed until you need to use it. The poly style will lie flatter since the leather has some bulk and causes it to lie at a slight angle.

It’s been interesting though, the amount of paper that comfortable fit in the notebook seems so little. My perception (and some of the people I work with also) is first that it’s easy to put too much paper in – I think the rings are deceptive in that it seems like more paper would fit easily.

I’ve also become curious about if we’re simply more comfortable with having lots of pages available to us – so when we see how much we need to cut back on the pages, we feel ill at ease. I know I do – “uh-oh I only have 8 blank pages” – yet I have yet to use all those pages in a sitting. And there is still a bit of discomfort about how few blank pages there are – hence my curiosity about how we view the access to blank pages in our notebooks.

And it finally happened – there is a page that is coming loose and does not want to sit back around the rings. I shared in my initial post how it seems like the pages would not be easily moved around time after time – that there should be a limit before the punched paper will just stop working. Although I initially had some pages where the punched paper was certainly flexible from moving it around, it still connected solidly with the rings.

The only page that has caught my attention with this issue is the first page I left in the notebook – I left in the cover page – and the bottom punch doesn’t want to stay. Even though the cover page is beginning to not connect with the rings – it’s still only 1 of the punches. The page has 7 other punches helping to keep it attached – so even when the paper is getting tired, it happens slowly and there is support so that the page is still part of the notebook.

I’ve been appreciating the Arc Notebook so much that it took me a while to start using the similar notebook from Ampad (blog about that coming fairly soon!) and my intuition tells me that I will still prefer the Arc Notebook. As I see people making notes for themselves – either on random pieces of paper or just filling a spiral notebook with notes – I think about the Arc Notebook and how easy it is to keep like notes together – at least as long as you don’t fill a single page with notes that relate to different aspects of your life. It’s probably obvious that I consider this product a great option for a variety of needs that require our writing it down.

Time Map

Wouldn’t you like more time? I’m not sure there are many people who would turn down the offer of more time. Do you have a list of things – even if it’s just in your head – for the things you want to do in your spare time? “Spare” time usually only appears when some other obligation falls through unless we designate the time and priority for it. Are your bigger life goals floundering where you can’t seem to move them forward?

This is where a time map comes in – it is a visual depiction of how and where you want to spend your time, and hence your energy. We all have various roles we fill in our life – work, relationship, self, family, and so on. Hopefully these reflect our priorities and goals – although maybe not in the time they each get.

In my post More Scheduling Options, I shared:

This is what Julie Morgenstern’s refers to as a “budget of your day, week or month that balances your time between the various departments of your life.” I think about it as a chunking of what we need to do and how it relates to our schedule – a combination of the roles we fill and the ways we can shape our schedules to fit our life and style. It’s a visual guideline for how we want to use our time; usually done in broad strokes (though you design it as you want or need) and from here you can see where to add any additional appointments or tasks. Here are some sample time maps to see various ways you can design your own: Time Map Sample Booklet.

A time map is a tool that some people recommend to bring order to your days – where it relates to your calendar yet isn’t really about those specific appointments. It is all about you – this isn’t a cookie-cutter solution or tool – you consider and then design it according to your life and needs.

It’s often designed as a week view where the columns are the days of the week and rows are time slots. Considering your priorities and goals, you put those into blocks of time in your time map. This isn’t about scheduling every minute or every hour; it is about grouping things together in way that helps simplify and streamline things in order for you to focus on all those things that matter to you. Here’s part of a blank time map template I made:

Time Map template

You begin with all the concrete pieces – those various things you do consistently from day to day or week to week, i.e. your work schedule, bedtime and wake-up time, meals if they’re regularly at x time, date night, and so on. What are the things you need as well as want to spend your time on? Pick a day, a time slot, and put it in.

By creating your own time map, you are providing a structure to your time and schedule. This structure is to support you – not constrict or hamper – where you set aside time for all those things that take time and energy, and making sure that your priorities have time allocated for them as well. It can offer you clear boundaries – “nope, I can’t meet with you that day, but I do have time here and here” – so you protect your valuable time. It is there to remind you of the priorities and values you identified and the time you blocked out to focus on those.

If something comes up unexpectedly, you can see what you might be sacrificing and then, if you want to switch things rather than give up your time on something you value. Some people say that having their personal time map makes shifting things much easier; it requires less processing since it’s all laid out in broad strokes.

Since your time map is unique to you, it will likely take time figure out all the details. Do you already know clearly how you’re using your time? Or how you want to be using your time? Are you maximizing your priorities with your energy level? Did you leave in enough time for transitions, bathroom breaks, and other parts of life we don’t always think about? Do you want to run errands all together (theoretically most efficient) or after certain appointments? How are your time estimates for accuracy – do you tend to under- or over- estimate how long things take you?

We all have the same amount of time – 168 hours a week before factoring in sleep. And Julie Morgenstern says that on average the time map should work about 80% of the time (and 100% is unrealistic). The point of a time map is that it can put you in control of your own schedule – you still have all those things you need to get done for work, home, and family – and you decide how and where to fit those pieces into your schedule. And you can adjust it as needed – this is about providing you with the outline of how you want to spend your time and in a way that makes sense for you – whether that’s more or less detailed. It boils down to setting aside your time for the things that you’ve identified as important – and hence feeling successful and in control of your time.

Variations in Traditional Products

With so many products available – sometimes only online – it’s challenging to know what the possibilities are for your needs. And I cannot claim to be an expert. Yet, I do love discovering the variations and considering how and where they might be helpful. Therefore, with that in mind, here are some variations on a couple of traditional products.

3-Ring Binder Pocket

I first discovered this at Walgreen’s for $0.99 and was impressed by its quality, though I haven’t been able to find this specific one in recent years. There are now other brands available with various differences. It can be helpful to have a closeable pocket or folder that then lives within a larger container – in this case a 3-ring binder. I prefer the side opening; it makes the contents easier to access. If you are a fan of using binders, there are limitations when you have smaller items that need to be included and this is when having the pocket helps. (You might remember this is one of the benefits I’d talked about with the Unikeep binders.) Typical binder pockets and page protectors can be a way to include smaller items, though things can fall out of these since they don’t close. In searching for the specific style I’d found, I realized there are some variations available – from the top or side opening and the type of closure: string, Velcro, and plastic snap (though this plastic snap is harder to find). Most are designed to expand as the contents need – which is another reason they can be helpful – as the typical binder pockets and page protectors are intended for a limited number of pages.

My last unused 3 Ring Binder Pocket (from Walgreens) holding the rest of what I talk about here.

Bookmark Index Cards

Index cards have many variations – they have colors, lined and unlined, 2 size choices, and binders and spiral bound to contain for your index cards. Then there’s the bookmark style from Mead – where it looks like a ruled index card only there is an area that is cut so you can attach it to a page. Now you can make more extensive notes and easily keep it where it relates in the book. These can be found locally, Office Depot lists it as being sold in stores, so you might have seen these already. A friend shared a handful with me and I’ve been using them some – they can fall off the page, though I’ve been using them on the side rather than the top so that might be part of the problem! I like how they have color on the top and back so they stand out and that due to their size I can write more details. Then if I want to remove them from the book and save them, it’s easy to do.

Colorful bookmark index cards – the backs are colored completely in the color of the front edge

Tree Free File Folders (in SuperTab style)

Most of us use file folders at least some – even if you avoid a typical filing cabinet – and we’ve probably all seen all the colors and patterns available. Did you know that you could buy file folders that are made differently? These are made from sugar cane waste fiber that they say is sustainable, bio-based, and is a renewable resource. The file folders are biodegradable, recyclable, and made through a sustainable, eco-friendly manufacturing process. These have the 1/3 cut tab and are the SuperTab style – which means the space for your label is larger. I can say that they feel sturdy – maybe even more than the typical file folders we’re all familiar with.

Highly eco-friendly file folders

Project Planner Notebook

I’ve mostly seen project planner pages sold in packets that you then add to your day planner or other customizable notebook, like the Arc Notebook. Granted I don’t personally have a great need for a whole notebook dedicated to project planning. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting option – and now that I have a one from the NAPO Conference Expo – it’s been handy. The distinct spaces for making notes is conducive for planning and keeping track of your progress – and different project planners have different allotments of space. Although it comes spiral bound, sometimes the pages are perforated so removing them and putting them somewhere else is clean and simple.

Here’s one example of what the pages in a project planner notebook look like

All these products relate in some way to common organizational tools we’re all familiar with, yet these are variations that you might not have known existed. There’s part of me that thinks we already have too many choices – too many options – yet there’s also a need for alternatives to the traditional tools. Since we’re all different, having a variety of needs, and handling things uniquely our own way – this means we can likely find the tools that can assist us along the way. Are any of these items likely to benefit your organizational life?

Organizing Digital Photos – Simply

We all know that there are tons of options – i.e. software – for organizing digital information, including our photographs. This is not this blog. A blog about photo software might never happen – although I have used several of them, none of them meet my needs enough that I use any of them exclusively (only when they serve a need I have). Truth be told, I don’t want to give up control to a program – not completely, not ever. What this means for you is that I am talking about organizing your photos on your hard drive – and then you can use any software you choose.

First, you need to get all your photos into 1 folder – which you might already be doing since computers these days often have a folder so labeled. If your pictures are all over the place – even digitally – then you’re making more work for yourself in finding them when you want them. If you’ve never had a system for organizing your digital photos, don’t worry about further organizing of these – you can do that over time. Create the system going forward – and if you do nothing else, get all your precious photographs into one location on your computer – off your camera, phone, etc. – and take the time to do this regularly.

Second, you need to decide how you’d like to have your pictures grouped together (i.e. a digital folder) – it can be easy to set things up for chronological organization with digital photos. At least it can be easy as long as your camera and phone have been set with the correct day and time – that data is included within the image. Just because it’s easier to do chronological organizing doesn’t mean this is right for you – or that you can’t incorporate it into the system somewhat. If your son’s birthday is in early October, you probably want to divide the pictures of him from the party and his costume for Halloween – though maybe you do want an “October 2012” folder. I discuss this in Organizing Photos.

As with all organizing endeavors, one of the things that either makes things work or makes them break down is the quantity you are grouping together. Therefore, consider the number of pictures that will make it worthwhile to create a folder to keep them together. The challenge can be that we all have some random pictures that don’t quite fit into a larger category – so we need to decide how we’re going to handle this.

Let’s talk about specifics – if you want to go chronological it could look like this:

Here’s 1 way to set up a chronological folder system for your photos

You can see that the months are in alphabetical order rather than chronological, although your photos are still organized chronologically – at least all of one year is together within that folder. This is one reason some people will use numbers – and put them in the format of “year–two-digit month–two-digit day (when applicable) [space] and other data (if desired)” so that the view then matches our expectations. Then you have different options – though here you can see the way the computer organizes the folders based on name.

chronological showing different format options

Here are the two format options for month and year

You could make the year folder or if you’re using the date formatting, you don’t absolutely need it. Although here is an example still inside the year folder – if you kept with the date naming, the pictures would all be chronological. If you look at this example, there are two folders that do not include the day – and those get placed before any folders with days listed, so keep this in mind as you decide about the folders you make and the format of how you label.

labeling folders with year, month, date and info

Using “xxxx-xx-xx info” is another way to order photos chronologically

This is the easiest way to organize photos. You don’t need to worry about labeling each image – as the images are collected and organized within their labeled folder and tend to be chronological due to the metadata in the image.

Some people choose to label the picture itself. The biggest challenge with this approach can be the time and energy to do this for each and every image – and deciding what information to include in the name. The longer the name, the more of the text might be hidden, and could make the process of finding specific pictures more cumbersome. Of course, you could also do a combination – where you label the folder with the broad information and then the photos have more of the details of the image. Here are two examples of how long names can impact what is visible: on the left is the list and on the right are the mini-icons and both have pictures with a “…” which indicates that the full name is longer than the available space.

The “…” on both left and right sides show long names being shortened

How ever you choose to organize your digital photos – make it work for you. I use a combination – where our trips get a folder for each year. Then there are other folders that are simply more general – some of which include dates. Here’s a view of some of how I’ve organized my digital photos – though I’ve discovered it needs a tune-up!

Here’s a view of how I’ve organized my digital photos

Remember, organizing your things – whatever they are – is setting things up so they work for you. How do you look for things? Would it make more sense to have a folder for your children – and then subdivide from there? It doesn’t make a difference how you do it, it matters that it makes sense for you. It’s all about being able to find and appreciate your photos when you want.