getting things done

How to change a habit

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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.

Continue reading →

Declutter before you organize

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You’re tired of searching for a pen every time you make a grocery list and decide to organize “that” kitchen drawer. You go out and buy nifty dividers. But when you refill the drawer, you still can’t find a pen!

What might have gone wrong?

  • You have too much stuff in the drawer.
  • It isn’t grouped into “like” categories.
  • No one stuck to the organized drawer plan.

The toughest part about organizing a loaded drawer, stuffed closet, or overflowing garage shelves is that before you organize you have to declutter. And decluttering takes time, focus, and a willingness to get messy before you see results which is why decluttering often gets skipped. Continue reading →

The gatekeepers are off duty

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As a business professional, I am known for organizational efficiency. But as a kid, my parents used to refer to me as “the messy one”. Why couldn’t I keep my room clean? Why did I never pick up?

Because:

1) It was my room.
2) I liked seeing my stuff. Continue reading →

Energy Audit

organizationalhabits Baby steps to start getting organized, Changing habits, Getting started, Organizational Exercises, Planning impacts on your health , , , , , , , ,

If you’re trying to get organized, it can feel overwhelming and it’s hard to know where to start. My recommendation is before you jump in, do an energy audit. If your energy is low your focus will be weak, and taking on organization may be too much to ask of yourself! So what’s draining your energy?

Energy Audit Exercise
1. Sit somewhere you are comfortable and have room to write. If you are at your desk and it’s messy, move everything except paper and pen to the floor. You don’t have to clean the desk, and please don’t clean the room! Just move your stuff off the desk for now so you aren’t distracted.

2. Take a deep breath and sent an intent: “I need to know what’s draining my energy”

3. Spend time visualizing each item on this list and decide: Does this part of my life raise my energy? Feel neutral? Or lower my energy? Next to each point, put a +, 0, or – sign. Continue reading →

Thoughts and tips on using a paper planner

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I’m a big proponent of using a paper planner over a digital planner. Here’s why.

The Internet
When you log into an e-planner, you face all the time sucking temptations of the web: checking email, surfing YouTube, reading Facebook or Instagram posts, and, and, and… If you are trying to get organized for the day – or keep organized during the day, the last thing you need is a temptation to lose focus.

Working in a quiet place of your choice
You may keep a paper planner at your desk – or you may work in a quiet place away from your desk. Wherever it works best for you to plan and focus, a paper planner goes with you. No electricity or log-in required! Continue reading →

Running errands efficiently

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Tightening up on small tasks during the day saves time and helps keep your head clear when you’re super busy.

For example, if you have errands to run that don’t have specific deadlines, pairing them up to run them as a group saves time and energy – both yours and gas in the car.

Here’s a quick organizational exercise to help you run errands more efficiently.  Continue reading →

How to form a new habit

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The cool part about habits is that they’re your brain’s way of saving on thinking. When you try something new, your brain records what you’re doing and after you do the same thing multiple times, your brain says, “I’ve got it! You can run on auto-pilot now.”

That’s why you don’t have to think about how to drive every time you get behind the wheel of a car. And how when you take a shower or brush your teeth your mind can wander. How many of us come up with brilliant ideas in the shower? You can thank your shower habit for taking over giving you time to think.

A great way to form a new habit is to tie it into an existing habit. Then your brain can use some of the same cues you had for an old habit and re-purpose them into a launch pad for a new habit.

Let’s say you want to start exercising. What habit can you tie into to make this a successful launch? You have thousands of habits strung together that make up each day. What are you going to bump out or add to? Continue reading →

It’s never wrong to be kind

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“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave, and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.” – Alice Childress, playwright

How does this apply to organizational habits? It’s big.

If you are organized and efficient and are loving it, please know that most people are not organized and efficient – and accept that. Organizational Zen is about getting organized so you waste less time. Then it’s about using that saved time to think clearer and to work on big, meaningful projects in your life.

Continue reading →

Taking care of TMIs – The Most Important Stuff

organizationalhabits Baby steps to start getting organized, Business tips, Organizational Exercises, Setting organizational priorities, Tips on using a planner , , , , , , , ,

One of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta at ZenHabits, often writes about TMIs: The Most Important Stuff. This is the stuff that you know you need to do and whether you write it down or not, you are probably going to get it done.

So why write TMIs in your planner?

Because you want to stop thinking about them. Once you are organized, you learn to trust that if you write something in your planner, it will either get done today or you’ll move it to another day. But it will get done. Trust that. Because you are organized 🙂

Continue reading →