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
forming a new habit
What did you learn today?
Learning something new every day keeps you engaged with life. It gives you interesting things to think about – and to talk about!
Here are 10 tips to elevate the curiosity-quotient in your life. Continue reading
Complaining is not a strategy
If you find yourself complaining a lot, it’s time to stop. Complaining is a waste of your time and other people’s time. If you don’t like something, try to fix it.
If you don’t know how to fix it, that’s awesome. That’s your challenge! Study the stuff that bugs you to see if you’re complaining about things that really matter to you. Or is complaining just a bad habit?
A few things of note: If you’re complaining about a person and you’re doing it behind their back you’re not going to change anything. Continue reading
Your time is valuable; set your intent!
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
12 steps when you’re facing a jumble of rocks
Last week, someone asked me why I started Organizational Habits. I was pondering this while out walking along the rocky Maine shore and thought the landscape perfectly illustrated my “why”.
Whether you are trying to get organized, are forming a new habit, or are seeking a new path, here are 12 steps you don’t want to miss. Continue reading
Decluttering your life
If you get your house in order, and use a planner, and write everything down, and you STILL feel scattered and drained, it may be time to declutter the bigger commitments in your life.
It’s one thing to declutter your house. I’m not saying it’s easy, but you can do it – it’s within your control. Throw stuff out, buy less, put the stuff you have away. You can do that.
It’s quite another thing to declutter your life – to stop doing things that drain your energy, to move to a place that feels right to you, to change jobs, to walk away from friends and relationships that no longer work. This is difficult work. And it all starts with having the courage to look at what you do with your time. Continue reading
What’s your personal brand?
Businesses build or chip away at their brand with every customer interaction. Brands like Nike, L.L.Bean, and Coca-Cola are known for specific and calculated brand elements – like style, functionality, innovation, customer service, reputation, price, or comfort.
Brands are designed to make customers feel good about them and companies spend millions making sure they do! The payback is that best customers stay with them – sometimes for a lifetime – because they feel they know and trust them.
You are also a brand that you build or chip away at every day. The goal of creating Organizational Zen in your life is to help you make time to do your best work – to help you focus on the big stuff by getting the small stuff taken care of. And that’s a huge part of what your personal brand is.
Think about your personal brand
If you asked three members of your family, three friends, and three co-workers to describe you, what would they say? Be honest. No one is reading this but you. And remember this isn’t what you’d like to be – it’s how people see you in your everyday interactions. Make three columns and write down as many adjectives as you can that describe your personal brand for each group. Continue reading
How heavy is this rock?
This rock fits in the palm of your hand. Could you stretch out your arm and hold it for five minutes? Sure, no problem. Could you hold it for an hour? Now how heavy is it? It’s heavy. How about if you had to hold it for a day? For a week? For a month?
Oh, and I should have mentioned – there isn’t just one rock I need you to hold. Here are the rest of them. Continue reading
How to change a habit
Want to change a habit?
A couple of months ago, FastCompany published a great article on ways to change the habit of exercise.
- A control group was asked to exercise once in the next week. 29% of them exercised.
- Experiment group 1 was given the same task along with detailed information about why exercise is important to your health (i.e., “You’ll die if you don’t”.) 39% of them exercised.
- Experiment group 2 was asked to commit to exercising at a specific place, on a specific day at a specific time of their choosing. 91% of them exercised.
Organizational Habits 