Yesterday, I covered clutter in relationship to “tidy”. Clutter was a collection of things laying around. The assessment is subjective – what looks cluttered or messy to one person might look perfectly fine to another. There are two other dimensions that can add to...
Recently, I went to visit my college student at his apartment. We had fun catching up, running errands, and cleaning his apartment. Well, I had fun cleaning and organizing his apartment….I’m not so sure he enjoyed the process! That leads me to this post. How do...
A few weeks ago, I listened to episode 284 of The Best of Both Worlds where Laura Vanderkam interviewed Dana K. White. Dana is a professional organizer and during the interview she recalled a moment when she realized that the purpose of containers was to contain...
Last week, The Next Big Idea Daily podcast (S4; E1-5) focused on Greg McKeown and his book Effortless. Each day, there was a lesson from the book and then a conversation between Greg and host Michael Kovnat. The week was full of interesting ideas and...
Mise en place is a French phrase used by chefs in professional kitchens. This statement means “putting things in place” or “gathering”. The idea is that when you do a proper setup before cooking, the kitchen will run more smoothly, keep things in order,...
Yesterday, I wrote about the concepts of task batching (combining similar activities) and time blocking (putting time on your calendar for individual work). Both of these practices can be beneficial for anyone at work and at home. Thinking deeper about this, I...
Yesterday, we discussed the advantage of single tasking over multi-tasking enabling you to completely focus on the task at hand. Today, we’ll focus on two techniques – Task Batching and Time Blocking – that can make single tasking even more effective. Below is...
When life gets busy, we can suddenly find ourselves running our lives in defense mode. We are going to the meetings, completing deliverables, getting the kids to events, making meals, and all the other things. These are the times that we feel like we are on defense...
The concept of treating your storage areas like a “store” was first introduced to me years ago by Lisa Woodruff on her podcast Organize365. The idea is to go to your storage room to “shop” for things you don’t need in your everyday life. Things like...
We have all been there. Our email box is full of messages. Some have been read, but not responded to. Some are “looming” unread. Important ones are likely lost in the mix. Unnecessary ones are taking up space. For some, this mess of email causes mental clutter. This...
This past week, in a workshop I’m taking, I was prompted to write down my process of creating. While this seems obvious, I hadn’t done it before. Writing the process down was quick and the result was so valuable. This reminded me of Laura Woodruff...
Photo Credit - Lori Sullivan I've read and heard a lot about considering your "future self" in your focus "today". Advice tends to mention things like investing for the future, eating well, reading, traveling, getting out of your comfort zone, and much more. I agree...