Baby steps to start getting organized

What’s a single moment when you were living “the good life”?

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Organizational Zen is about the peace you find prioritizing your time by working on the big stuff in your life. Not sure what your “big stuff” is?

I recently attended a class taught by the very wise, Dr. Alice Bandy. Alice helps people figure out their “Why”. Why?

  • Because you were born with unique gifts to share with the world and it’s hard to share something that you don’t know you have.
  • Most of us underestimate what we can bring to the universe.
  • If you don’t do the work that’s in your heart, it’s a big loss for all of us, and you won’t have as much fun while you’re here on earth.
  • Your work isn’t what you do – it’s who you are.
  • Your gift to the world is to take action.

To get a glimpse of your “why”, take a deep breath and ponder this question. Continue reading →

Finding your balance

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Organizational Zen is about being organized in a way that brings you peace. It’s not about trying to nail down every aspect of your life, to be neat as a pin, or to always be perfect and in control. And it’s not about trying to organize others – you’re concentrating on your own good work.

Organizational Zen is about deciding how you want to spend your time, then prioritizing and focusing on what you’re doing.

Here’s an exercise I learned in Lissa Rankin’s book Mind Over Medicine that gives you a visual of the essential things you need in your life to feel balanced.

  • Picture your life as a cairn of rocks where each stone supports the one above it.
  • What are the essential rocks that give you a feeling of peace and balance – bottom to top?
  • What’s missing from your stack?

I did some thinking about what the rocks are in my cairn and came up with a long list. Continue reading →

Getting started with meditation

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If you aren’t healthy, it’s pretty hard to stay organized. Eating good food, getting outside, going for walks, and getting enough sleep help you focus on the tasks of the day.

And a big part for me of being grounded in a healthy lifestyle is meditation. I started meditating a couple of years ago after resisting for the longest time because I thought mediation was something you had to “do right”.

What finally got me meditating was a book by Lissa Rankin called Mind Over Medicine. The book isn’t about meditation – it’s about how powerful your mind is in helping you heal.

Here’s Lissa talking about this in a TED talk. Continue reading →

What if your life were theater?

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If your life was a play, is it something you’d go see?

  • What’s your story?
  • Is the plot line interesting with a number of surprise twists?
  • Is your life a drama? A comedy? Is it musical theater?
  • Are there interesting characters in your life story?
  • How’s the pace – are things moving right along?
  • Is there a beginning, a middle, and an anticipated end?
  • What will the audience walk away with at the end of your show?

If your life were a play, would you live it differently than you are now? Continue reading →

Embrace the facts – and move on

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Do you ever have these types of thoughts run through your head?

  • What if there’s traffic and I’m late?
  • Will my flight be on time and will I make my connection?
  • I want to talk to the new person at work, but what if they don’t want to talk to me?
  • What if my kid picks a career path I don’t like?
  • What if it rains tomorrow?

Continue reading →

How to be more productive

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If you find yourself saying, “I wish I could get more done,” stop for a minute and think about exactly what it is you want to get done.

  • Do you want to finish projects you’ve already started?
  • Do you wish you were doing more interesting stuff?
  • Do you have big ideas and aren’t sure how to take the first step?
  • Or are you just feeling like you’re wasting time?

Continue reading →

Declutter Quickies

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If you’re feeling overwhelmed by stuff at home or at work, it’s time to declutter. Decluttering is not neatening up, sorting, or organizing, it’s actually getting rid of stuff and that’s tough for many. The cool thing about decluttering is that if you do it right, you have a very clear idea of what you own. And when you put things again in their own place, you also know where to find them.

And remember: The goal is Organizational Zen which is the peace of knowing you’ve got a handle on your life. You don’t have to organize the entire world – just your world 🙂 Continue reading →

3 tips to help you make a decision

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If feels like we make dozens of decisions every day, but much of what we do is based more on habit than choice. What time we get up. What we have for breakfast. Where we go for a run. What work we do. What we do for fun. Even what we say and how we react to what life offers us is more habit than decision. Continue reading →

Your time is valuable; set your intent!

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When I am giving a talk, or I’m working with a group on organizational skills, the first question I ask is about intent. The question of the moment is:

“What do you want to get out of this class?”

Thinking about why you are doing something helps you focus on the task at hand. And when I’m giving a talk, I want people to focus, to listen with an end-goal in mind. It’s not that I think the content is so important; it’s that I think each person’s time is so important.

Which gets to the bigger question, and the one I hope you ask yourself before committing your time to any work, project, or person:

“Is spending time on this something that’s important to me?” Continue reading →