Monday, September 23, 2013

Organizing Life

by Julia Buckley
Sometimes I block my own progress by focusing on where I've
been instead of where I'm going. 
I just had another one of those weekends in which the time ran out before my necessary tasks did.  In fact, I almost forgot to write this blog post.  I made time to spend with family on Saturday--and family time is important--but it meant that the list I'd made for Saturday and Sunday all got smooshed into the Sunday time slot, and that ended up looking like this:

Breakfast with a friend (which had been planned weeks in advance).
Do dishes
Finish grading papers
Bag up and put out donations for Monday's pick-up
Make two power point presentations for work (these are big time-stealers)
Read and annotate tomorrow's chapters for work
Type son's homework while he dictates it to me
Make dinner (which includes forming and baking meatballs)
Make lunches for tomorrow
Write PDD blog post
Take a walk for health reasons (while walking, pass the Animal Care League so you can see the new kittens in the window)
Figure out tomorrow's outfit (which saves time in the morning)
Vacuum car upholstery (long story, but a necessary task)
Try to work on book for brand new publishing contract!
Watch Breaking Bad and part of the Emmys while doing other tasks
Feed the cats (they all have to be in separate rooms because two of them steal food)
Start planning some October family birthday celebrations
Pay bills
Go grocery shopping

These lists can feel overwhelming, so I went to the Internet to find some help.  Perhaps you might enjoy some of these "organize your life" sites:

27 Organizing tips from Zen Habits
My favorites from this list are "Simplify" and "Have less stuff."

How to Organize Your Life
My favorites are "Write things down" and "Declutter regularly."

Then there's this CNN article called Organize Your Mind to Organize Your Life.
An interesting contention within is that "Whether or not you have an organized mind depends upon your ability to 'drive' your attetion and keep it focused when you're under pressure or faced with challenging conditions."

Finally, there's The Ultimate Guide to Organizing Your Life, Amanda Abella's virtual links for every kind of organizational tool to be found online.  A very interesting assessment of organization from a twenty-something who has been immersed in the computerized world since birth.

Do you seek organizational strategies?  Did any of these seem helpful?  Or do you feel too unorganized to go through them?  :)

Have a great, ORGANIZED week.


2 comments:

Elizabeth Zelvin said...

Julia, one of mine is that it's okay to do everything on my to-do list for today EXCEPT ONE--even if the "one" is something big, like writing or taking my run. And I have a friend whose decluttering strategy is to throw out 10 things on a given day--even a piece of paper counts as one thing. The underlying principle is that feeling at peace with myself is at least as important as getting everything done. Oh, and go down your list for items that you don't need to do yourself, then ask for help. Your sons are old enough to make their own lunch, and how about a typing class if he isn't getting one in school? My granddaughters are old enough to make meatballs! I wish I could beam them up and lend them to you. They'd enjoy it!

Julia Buckley said...

Liz, these are great suggestions. And I DO need to ask for more help. I don't always get it, but I certainly won't if I don't ask. ;)