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So many projects, so little time...
Dec. 11th, 2005 02:17 pm*laughs*
Actually, I am finally getting a handle on why it is I feel so swamped with things I want to do.
It's because I am.
A couple of years ago, when I was recovering from nerve surgery, I found a reference to a book called "Organizing from the Inside Out" by Julie Morganstern. I had always thought of myself as a slob and hopelessly disorganized, but what was described in this reference really made sense to me, so I went and got the book.
For me, it was fantastic. My mom had made a mistake with my sister and I when we were growing up. She was incredibly busy, she worked full-time before "Working Mom" was the norm, and she found it easier to just do things herself.
What was sad was that she has incredible organizing skills, and I learned almost none of them. I had realized this lack and been lucky enough to be friends with someone who cleaned houses for a living, and she helped me with some of the basic skills, which had helped the slob part *a lot*. At one point, I had little post-its stuck all over my kitchen walls over or near messy "hot spots".
It looked silly, but it worked like a charm, and my habits got a lot better. But there was still a lot of clutter. And then I found the book.
It was really good for me because it gave me methods I could use, and encouraged me to work with my own patterns and adapt those methods so they worked for me, at a pace I was comfortable with. And I slowly began the process of getting organized.
As I've said before, the weeding out of stuff we didn't want or need has already paid dividends in less junk to sort/throw away, but it also let me keep the things I valued. It also let me know that it was okay if I didn't follow the timing in the book--that was intended as a rough estimate to help. She talked about one man who had some serious issues with his possessions and how they started with one single drawer and slowly went through everything he owned.
Given that my disability limits my physical activites, I realized right away that it would be a long, slow process, but I am now at the point that if I wanted the house company-perfect, it would take about a half day, even including giving the floor a quick mop. And that's with teenagers and one of them being a big offender as far as leaving stuff everywhere. That's a big improvement from needing three or four days and basically stuffing things anywhere I could find space.
So... I recently got the companion book called "Time Management from the Inside Out" . And, like the organizing book, it gave me a whole new way of thinking about time.
The main concept is to think of time like a container, with your activities the items that fit into that container. It can only hold so much before it's bursting at the seams.
The other big concept that's especially useful to me is the idea that I don't really know how long things take. It's true, and today was a case in point. I sat down to have my coffee when I got up, and I started this journal entry when I was a little bit more awake. So I was doing odds and ends, checking my boards and email and that kind of thing. I also started making some notes on what I want to accomplish. And the list is huge, with a lot of it falling through the cracks. Part of the reason I feel so overloaded is because I am!
One of the odds and ends I was taking care of was to go over to Cafe Press to just update my info, something I've been meaning to do. "It will just take a few minutes." Famous last words, that!
I got there, and saw that they had finally added black T-shirts again, and that was something the Save Big O site users wanted to have. So I decided I would add it, that will only take ten minutes.
So three hours later it was finally done and it was time to get supper...
Talk about the proverbial light dawning over Marblehead... *laughs*
Doing it was worthwhile, don't get me wrong. However, what I really needed to do was to plan for it, and if it was taking more time than I had at that moment, to schedule a time to finish it up. That would get it done promptly and yet not put off this crucial work of figuring out a schedule that I'm doing.
I think this is going to be well worth it and I'm looking forward to getting more of the things I want to do, done. I'll have to post progress updates. ;)
Actually, I am finally getting a handle on why it is I feel so swamped with things I want to do.
It's because I am.
A couple of years ago, when I was recovering from nerve surgery, I found a reference to a book called "Organizing from the Inside Out" by Julie Morganstern. I had always thought of myself as a slob and hopelessly disorganized, but what was described in this reference really made sense to me, so I went and got the book.
For me, it was fantastic. My mom had made a mistake with my sister and I when we were growing up. She was incredibly busy, she worked full-time before "Working Mom" was the norm, and she found it easier to just do things herself.
What was sad was that she has incredible organizing skills, and I learned almost none of them. I had realized this lack and been lucky enough to be friends with someone who cleaned houses for a living, and she helped me with some of the basic skills, which had helped the slob part *a lot*. At one point, I had little post-its stuck all over my kitchen walls over or near messy "hot spots".
It looked silly, but it worked like a charm, and my habits got a lot better. But there was still a lot of clutter. And then I found the book.
It was really good for me because it gave me methods I could use, and encouraged me to work with my own patterns and adapt those methods so they worked for me, at a pace I was comfortable with. And I slowly began the process of getting organized.
As I've said before, the weeding out of stuff we didn't want or need has already paid dividends in less junk to sort/throw away, but it also let me keep the things I valued. It also let me know that it was okay if I didn't follow the timing in the book--that was intended as a rough estimate to help. She talked about one man who had some serious issues with his possessions and how they started with one single drawer and slowly went through everything he owned.
Given that my disability limits my physical activites, I realized right away that it would be a long, slow process, but I am now at the point that if I wanted the house company-perfect, it would take about a half day, even including giving the floor a quick mop. And that's with teenagers and one of them being a big offender as far as leaving stuff everywhere. That's a big improvement from needing three or four days and basically stuffing things anywhere I could find space.
So... I recently got the companion book called "Time Management from the Inside Out" . And, like the organizing book, it gave me a whole new way of thinking about time.
The main concept is to think of time like a container, with your activities the items that fit into that container. It can only hold so much before it's bursting at the seams.
The other big concept that's especially useful to me is the idea that I don't really know how long things take. It's true, and today was a case in point. I sat down to have my coffee when I got up, and I started this journal entry when I was a little bit more awake. So I was doing odds and ends, checking my boards and email and that kind of thing. I also started making some notes on what I want to accomplish. And the list is huge, with a lot of it falling through the cracks. Part of the reason I feel so overloaded is because I am!
One of the odds and ends I was taking care of was to go over to Cafe Press to just update my info, something I've been meaning to do. "It will just take a few minutes." Famous last words, that!
I got there, and saw that they had finally added black T-shirts again, and that was something the Save Big O site users wanted to have. So I decided I would add it, that will only take ten minutes.
So three hours later it was finally done and it was time to get supper...
Talk about the proverbial light dawning over Marblehead... *laughs*
Doing it was worthwhile, don't get me wrong. However, what I really needed to do was to plan for it, and if it was taking more time than I had at that moment, to schedule a time to finish it up. That would get it done promptly and yet not put off this crucial work of figuring out a schedule that I'm doing.
I think this is going to be well worth it and I'm looking forward to getting more of the things I want to do, done. I'll have to post progress updates. ;)
