Clear Spaces on 1380 The Woman - The Clutter Challenge

I'm excited to announce that I will be on the Let's Talk Shop show with Dawn Meadows Dixon and Teach Tigue at 9:45 AM every fourth Thursday of the month. Just turn your radio dial to 1380 AM.  Did you know that 1380 is the only woman-talk radio station in the area? Probably the country!

Five Steps To A More Organized Desk - Steps One And Two

Somewhere under the paper, the letters, and the electronic accessories there’s a desktop just earning to be productive.  In five steps you can be reunited with your desktop and be a whole lot more productive and focused. Although there aren’t many steps, this project will take time – the amount of time depends on the depth of your stacks. It’s time well invested because not only will you have a lovely vista for cranking out work, but also you’ll be developing habits that will have you increasingly more organized.

Organize Your Storm Safety Plan

This has been a rough week, starting with the F5 tornado in Oklahoma. Dangerous weather can affect anyone, anywhere. Please take a few minutes this weekend to invest in your safety. Organize a plan to stay safe in a storm.

Think about where you can go in dangerous weather. The safest place is underground but your home or office may not have a basement. In that case look for a windowless, interior room or closet on the lowest level of the structure. Regardless of where you shelter - basement or interior closet - make sure that there isn't something large and heavy on the floors above you. Only in cartoons do people survive having a piano land on top of them.

Put babies in their car seats. Put your pets in their carriers or on a leash when you take them into the shelter. A frightened pet can be unpredictable. 

Keep a battery operated weather band radio with spare batteries handy.  When the weather gets nasty make sure it is on. Do not rely on the storm sirens to alert you. I have been in more than one tornado when the storm sirens did not go on. Weather band radios are readily available in grocery and hardware stores. Silent Call has alert systems for the deaf.

Smart phone owners can download the free Red Cross app. I downloaded it when it first became available, and I have been very pleased with it. The app provides storm alerts and has an amazing amount of information about storm safety. You can find the app at the Red Cross' website page on tornado safety.

Keep at least one flashlight with spare batteries handy. Do not rely on candles for light because they can start a fire.

Create a communication plan. After the storm who will you contact to let them know if you are safe? Who will contact you? What will you do if there is no communication?

Organize a first aid kit. If you haven't done this, now is a good time to put one together. If you have a first aid kit, now is a good time to check its contents to ensure everything you need is fresh and packed. The Red Cross has helpful information about creating a kit.

Be safe. Organize your plan today. Just a few minutes spent in preparation might save your life. If you have some sage advice on storm safety - please share!

A Person I Care About Hoards

Over the last few weeks I have received many calls from people looking for help for a relative or friend who hoards. In addition to help cleaning out their loved one’s home, the callers are often looking for some way to process what is happening in their loved ones’ lives.  I thought it would useful to write a bit about these calls to help others who find themselves in this situation.

 From the perspective of the callers, the clutter is worthless and the piles are fire hazards. They wonder how their loved ones can live this way. They think that throwing out the clutter is the answer – but why don’t their loved ones see that?

The loved ones who are hoarding have a different perspective. Their collections are useful, interesting and valuable. The problem is not the stuff. The problem is other people feel they have the right to tell them what to do with their stuff.  

The situations are painful, frustrating, and scary – for both the callers and their loved ones. However, I can only address the needs of the person who calls me; it would be unethical and deleterious for me to work in a home without the homeowner’s prior knowledge and consent.  It is news that rarely surprises the caller, but typically is met with resignation.  There is hope if the caller is willing to do some work on his own.

1)   Acknowledge what you are feeling and get support for you.  Isolation often accompanies hoarding, not only for the person who is hoarding, but also for his relatives and friends. Hoarding is not a “water cooler” topic. But there are other people in similar situations who understand what you are going through, and that can be comforting.  The website Children of Hoarders is a very good resource. If you are in the St. Louis area, the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute provides support for family and friends.

2)   Maintain your cool and be respectful of the person who is hoarding. Each of you has different perspectives. Suspend the temptation to declare a “right” and a “wrong” in this situation because it will lead you to a dead end. The likelihood of progress is far greater if you can act with empathy.  Understandably, this may be hard to do.  What you feel is legitimate and that is why I start with getting support for what you are going through.

3)   Educate yourself.  The International OCD Foundation’ s website contains a wealth of information and it has an excellent infographic that you can download. The Institute for Challenging Disorganization has a variety of informational downloads.  The books Digging Out by Michael A. Tompkins Ph.D and Tamara L. Hartl, Ph.D. and Buried in Treasures by David F. Tolin, Ph.D., Randy O. Frost, Ph.D. and Gail Steketee, Ph.D. are excellent resources.

4)   Prepare for the long-term. Hoarding behaviors do not go away in a week, a month or a year. This may be a life-long struggle.

5)   Turn the conversation from throwing things away to making the environment safer and more comfortable your loved one.  If you focus on throwing things away, then you are discounting your loved one’s perspective that his things are valuable. Can you agree not to block the door or to keep items off of the stove?  Agree upon a goal together. You might consider these small steps. But it can be a big step for your loved one to agree to partner with you to take action.

Your loved one may not be ready to work with you. You cannot rush the process.  There may be some emotional groundwork that needs to be worked on first, which is why it’s important to get support for what you are experiencing.

The temptation may be go into the loved one’s home and clean it out. Not only will your loved one continue to acquire items to fill his home, but in all likelihood you will seriously damage your relationship with him.  Please take a step back, take a deep breath and proceed with care and respect for both of you. You are not alone.

Get Organized St. Louis

The early-bird registration deadline is fast approaching  for St. Louis' inaugural organizing expo event: Get Organized St. Louis. I am excited to be part of the five-speaker lineup. The topics range from managing your home and financial papers, decluttering and organizing your basement and garage, productivity and time management, and productivity with ADD. After the presentations come to the question and answer session where you can ask a professional organizer your burning organizing questions. Additionally, we are very happy to have vendors' row featuring the companies that provide the goods and services that complement your organizing projects. Get Organized St. Louis is sponsored by the St. Louis chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers and will be at St. Charles Community College from 8 AM to 12:30 on March 23.  You can get more information at http://www.napostl.com/about/2013-napo-st-louis-expo. Aloha! Be there!

Shred Day

It's tax season.  A lot of people combine file cabinet clean-out with tax preparation. If you are one of those people, or if you need an excuse to clean out your files, I have good news: the days of free shred events are upon us.

Before we jump to where you can get your papers shredded for free, let's talk about what to shred. There are three guiding principles that I follow for shredding:

• If the information can be used to steal from me or it can be used to steal my identity, then shredding is a must.
• If the information is confidential, then shredding is a must.
• When in doubt, shred.

Examples of information that is covered by the first principle include: anything with your social security number, anything that contains investment, credit card, and bank account numbers, copies of your old passports or driver's license, old credit reports, credit card and loan offers, and anything with passwords.

Examples of information that is covered by the second principle are old medical records, old phone lists, old legal papers, transcripts, resumes, and anything that would embarrass me if someone else found it.

Typically, I don't feel the need to shred anything that can be easily obtained by the public. For instance, I don't shred the address labels on my magazines or non-financial junk mail (I do shred the credit card offers).

I collect items to shred in cardboard boxes. Printer paper and banker's boxes are the right size for easy handling and I can just leave them with the shredder.

Grab your calendar and record the upcoming free shred days. Usually shredding is limited to one box, but sometimes you can shred up to three boxes.

04/06/13  9 AM - noon  Scott Credit Union at 1100 Beltline Road in Collinsville, IL

04/06/13  8:30 AM - 1 PM  Eagle Bank at 1052 Kirkwood Road in Kirkwood, MO

04/13/13  9 AM - noon  First Community Credit Union at 4566 Lemay Ferry in St. Louis, MO

04/13/13  9 AM - noon  First Community Credit Union at 2651 Old Muegge Road in St. Charles, MO

04/13/13  9 AM - noon  First Community Credit Union at 801 Lincoln in Fairview Heights, IL

04/13/13  9 AM - noon  First Community Credit Union at 17151 Chesterfield Airport Road in Chesterfield, MO

04/20/13  9 AM - noon  Ameriprise Financial at 825 Maryville Center Dr in Creve Coeur, MO

04/20/13  9 AM - noon  Coldwell Banker Gundaker at 6235 Mid-Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters, MO

04/20/13  9 AM - noon  St. Vincent Community Center at 7335 St. Charles Rock Road in St. Louis, MO

04/20/13 8 AM - noon  Galleria parking lot (BBB event) in Richmond Heights, MO

04/27/13  9 AM - noon  Vantage Credit Union at 4020 Fee Fee Road in Bridgeton, MO

04/27/13  10 AM - 1 PM  Neighbors Credit Union at 6300 Lindbergh Blvd. in St. Louis, MO

04/27/13  9 AM - noon  West Community Credit Union at 2345 S. Brentwood Blvd. in Brentwood,  MO

05/04/13  9 AM - noon  American Eagle Credit Union at 1075 N. US Highway 67 in Florissant, MO

05/04/13  9 AM - noon  American Eagle Credit Union at 3805 Union in St. Louis, MO

05/04/13  9 AM - noon  American Eagle Credit Union at 2175 Barrett Station Road in Des Peres, MO

05/04/13  9 AM - noon  American Eagle Credit Union at 1334 Jeffco Blvd. in Arnold, MO

05/04/13  9 AM - noon  Eagle Credit Union at  3944 Vogel Rd in Arnold, MO

Getting Unstuck

There are points in our lives when we feel stuck - when the obstacle before us seemingly defies traversing. How to get unstuck? Linda Samuels, CPO-CD® posted this question on her blog "The Other Side Of Organized" and received answers from seven colleagues. Their answers are enlightening and inspiring. Although each person answered differently, it was the honesty in their answers that tugged at my heart - especially Linda's. Sometimes time is what is needed.

For myself, I rely on the patience and wisdom of my trusted advisers who provide me the space to talk about the issue. They support me by listening and asking questions but never telling me what to do, which would be disenfranchising. Getting things out of my head provides me with the opportunity to see things from a new perspective. In that new perspective is a new direction which provides a way of traversing the obstacle. Sometimes it takes a bit of  time to develop a new perspective. Occasionally it takes a long time - then my advisers assure that things will work out.

Please take a moment to read Linda's post Stuck? 7 "Now What" Tips. We all get stuck. Thankfully we have each other to help us get unstuck.

A Greener GO Month

January is GO Month! Getting organized does not have to cost a lot of money. It’s not only possible to get organized on a budget, but it can be environmentally sound as well. Use “reduce, reuse and recycle” as your guiding phrase.

Reduce what you own to items that really make a difference in your life.  Keep items that are actually being used and are things that you truly love. Everyone has at least a few things in his home that aren’t as useful as he had hoped they would be. You know - the things that were purchased with the idea that they might come in handy someday, the items that seemed like they were a good idea at the time, the disliked gifts, and the impulsive purchases.

Unfortunately, holding on to these things will not bring back your money.  Nor will holding on to a disliked gift help your relationship with the person who gave you the gift. These items are “squatters” – they sit in your home without being useful and they require your time and attention to store and maintain them. Even worse, they hit you with a wave of guilt every time you see them. You can do with a little less guilt and clutter in your life. Send those “squatters” to the thrift shop – it’s an easy way to recycle them. Send broken and outdated electronics to an electronic recycler (a quick internet or phone book search will locate them). Reducing your inventory to things that make your life productive and pleasurable will reduce the time and money you spend on keeping things organized.

Reuse items by giving them a new purpose.  A little out-of-the-box thinking and that old dresser becomes a gift-wrapping center or a place to store linens, a small cabinet becomes a nightstand, and checkbook and gift boxes become drawer organizers. I’ve seen old serving trays turned into mail in boxes, cereal boxes turned into magazine organizers, ice cube trays turned into jewelry organizers, and small jars used to organize the necessary small stuff of life – from paper clips to cotton swabs. A little paint, fabric remnants or decorative paper help repurposed items conform to a color scheme. By the way, a uniform color scheme reduces the amount of visual clutter. It’s an amazing trick – try it!

Recycle things. Look for sturdy shelves and file cabinets at thrift and second-hand stores. You want file cabinets with fully extending drawers – drawers that only open to the ¾ point are irritating every time you need to pull something from the rear of the drawer. Add a hanging file frame to each drawer if there isn’t already one. Hanging file frames are about $20 from any office supply store. Hanging files are so much easier to use than folders for keeping your paperwork organized and easily accessible. A little paint and these used finds look new.

Bookcases are useful for so much more than books. To maximize your space, think “vertical.” With labeled baskets in a bookcase you can to corral small stuff.  Put a tall bookcase in a kitchen to store small appliances, serving dishes and trays, pantry items, and even cookbooks! Use inexpensive pegboard to store pots, pans and cooking utensils on the wall. Julia Child did.

When it comes to reusing items, be careful of “someday” thinking.  Acquiring or holding on to things for which you don’t have a designated purpose, adds to the clutter collection.  Also, if the new purpose will not be beneficial to your life, the transformation is not worth your time or resources. Have a plan for when and how things will be transformed into the useful times you envision. The last thing anyone needs is a collection of projects to do that is languishing in storage.

Focus on keeping things useful and relevant to your life. Then reduce, reuse and recycle. You’ll save some green by being green this GO month.

Prepare For The Scary Stuff

September is Disaster Preparation month and a month ago the buzz was on how to prepare for natural or man-made emergencies. It’s scary stuff, but preparation can your key to survival. Just as scary – if not scarier, because it’s more intimate – is the topic of attacks on one’s person.

There have been a number of attacks against women in the local St. Louis news lately. In September, our local National Association of Professional Organizers chapter was lucky to have Dan Asher present a program on personal safety. Needless to say, safety has been on my mind lately.

Dan provided our chapter with some excellent information about how to take proactive measurements in protecting ourselves.  Dan knows a lot about personal safety. He is a former police officer who is now an excellent real estate agent with Keller Williams Chesterfield (here is his website: http://dasher.yourkwagent.com/). There are two things I want to offer to you here: intuition and rehearsal.

Paying attention to one’s intuition is an extremely important safety measure. Those feelings that something just doesn’t seem right are red flags not to be dismissed by the logical brain. Don’t try to rationalize away your feelings. If something seems amiss leave the situation!

What if I think I can’t get away? Amazingly, the universe provided the answer in the guise of Patti Metcalf. Patti represents Damsel in Defense. She gives safety seminars and sells safety products. The products are cool: like a 120-decibel personal alarm/flashlight that attaches to your keychain or a pink stun gun. I stocked up for Christmas. Keeping my friends and family safe is important to me.

One thing Dan emphasized in his presentation is that each step that you take to protect yourself is a step in the right direction. I suppose safety is a little like organizing in that regard. Educate yourself. Have a plan and rehearse it. Dan said when you are in a threatening situation you will need to overcome the paralyzing effects of adrenaline and rehearsal is the key. Create a script for exiting a situation that your intuition says is not right. Practice that script. Practice using safety products so you won’t have to think about how to use them when you need them.

It is a scary world out there. But knowledge and preparation put you in a stronger position to protect yourself and the ones you love. Be strong, be prepared.           

Organize To Be Prepared

As a Scout Leader the whole idea of a National Preparedness Month resonates with me. Being prepared can mean the difference between life and death – which may seem so scary that it’s offsetting. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to worry about being perfectly prepared. You just need to start and use the momentum to carry you step-by-step forward.

There are a few easy steps that you can take that will get your preparations started.  Notice that I haven’t numbered these steps. Start with any of these steps and don’t worry about what to do first – just start.

•   Find a place to take shelter in your home that is away from windows and preferably in the basement. 
• Keep your shelter and the path to it clutter-free. When you’re rushing to safety you will not have time to clear or jump clutter-hurdles.
• Keep a flashlight in every room so you don’t have to go somewhere and look for one in the dark. Test the flashlights periodically to make sure they work. Look for a way to remember to test the flashlights such as setting up a reminder in your electronic calendar.
• Have a first aid kit with your prescription medicines handy. A lot of stores have pre-made kits on sale this month.  Keep the first aid kit in use and restock it as needed so its contents remain fresh.
• Build a binder with essential information page by page. Start with creating a plan for where to meet family in an emergency and who to contact out of town. Add information about each family member. Then add other important information like your insurance policies. Visit www.ready.gov/make-a-plan for a form you can download. Or consider getting the Securita PortaVault, which provides a system for indentifying, organizing and transporting the information you need during a disaster.
• Keep some bottled water and shelf-stable snacks in your shelter spot. FEMA and the Red Cross suggest setting up three days worth of supplies. But even if you start with one bottle of water, that’s one more than you had a day ago.
• Have a battery-operated weather band radio - preferably one that has an automatic dangerous weather alarm and an electric adapter so you don’t run your batteries down during good weather.  By the way, NOAA tests the signal every Wednesday about noon. During one such test, my neighbor heard my radio’s alarm but he didn’t know it was from the radio. Concerned that he was hearing the fire alarm he contacted my husband and then entered the house to investigate. The moral of this story is make friends with your neighbors.

Friendship is a lifeboat during a disaster. Friends help by pitching in what they have for the good of the group. You might have the bandage your neighbor needs and he might have the granola bar you need. Friends provide the camaraderie that is needed to get through a disaster emotionally. Because of friends, the burden of perfect preparation is lifted.

All you have to do is start your preparations, then do one small thing on a regular basis to bring you step-by step in the direction of safety and survival. For more information I encourage you to take a look at the www.ready.gov website.  And be safe out there!

ADHD Sleep Problems: Causes and Tips to Rest Better Tonight!

ADHD Sleep Problems: Causes and Tips to Rest Better Tonight!
Sleep can be elusive when  ADD is part of your life.  Many doctors and ADDers assume sleep difficulties are the result solely of a disorganized life.  But there is research that indicates that sleep disturbances may result from the underlying neurobiology of ADD.  Good  sleep is essential to good health  when ADD is part of the picture. Developing good sleep routine is critical to working with ADD.

What Does It Take To Make New Year’s Resolutions Successful?

It’s the salutation of the season: “Happy New Year! Do you have any New Year Resolutions?”

New Year Resolutions are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, creating positive change in one’s life is good; on the other hand, our intentions often crash and burn into a sea of self-doubt – not so good.

Why is it so hard to change?

Behavior change is important in my work with clients because organization is more about behavior than organizing tools (see Getting Organized).  Our behavior is a complex subject so I study many disciplines in my journey to help the people I work with: psychology, neurology, philosophy, and spirituality are among those disciplines.

My recent article for Java Journal (my favorite newspaper), The Spark of Change: Getting Organized, blended information from several disciplines. My article mainly focused on the internal work – the head and heart stuff – that happens with change. Interestingly, NPR aired a story yesterday (January 2, “What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits” by Alix Spiegel ) on the role of environment in addressing addiction. According to Duke University psychologist, David T. Neal, "People, when they perform a behavior a lot — especially in the same environment, same sort of physical setting — outsource the control of the behavior to the environment." When we practice a behavior frequently we develop environmental cues to trigger that behavior. The result is we don’t have to expend a lot of mental energy to sustain that behavior. But if we are trying to change that behavior, the environmental cues can make change difficult because of their link to the old behavior. What to do about those New Year’s Resolutions?

Wendy Wood, University of Southern California psychologist, explains that disrupting a pattern of behavior in a small way can be helpful - "It's a brief sort of window of opportunity to think, 'Is this really what I want to do?' "

Although there is still a lot we do not know about making behavior changes, the value of small changes as a path to larger change, seems to be validated.  Perhaps after we have created our list of resolutions, then our next step should be to ask what small thing can we do to get ourselves just a little closer to the goal of the resolution.  Often we approach resolutions with a “quantum leap” of behavior change – we try to change a lot very quickly. It takes a lot of effort to sustain “quantum leaps.” But it takes comparatively little energy to make a small change.  The assumption is changes that take less energy are easier to adopt than changes that take more energy. 

I think the assumption is a reasonable one. My theory is that gradual change is easier because it provides time for us to integrate changes with our environment. The process brings to mind the act of whittling. When whittling, a figurine is shaped by gradually shaving off small pieces of wood. It takes little energy to make one stroke of the knife across the wood. Additionally, with each small stroke you are evaluating and deciding where the next small stroke should be made. That is, the results of each stroke affect how the next stroke is made. But it is really hard to cut a chunk of wood with a knife. Several attempts of cutting off chunks of wood will not get you the desired figure (and you might end up getting cut in the process!). The analogy is not perfect but I think it illustrates how small changes can create a significant lasting change.

What small change can you make in becoming more organized? Perhaps just sorting the mail each day is a good start. Or putting your keys in a specific pocket of your purse is enough of a start. Many of my clients start by clearing one small area, like a tabletop, and vow to keep that small area clear. Over time the area becomes bigger.  Gradually all of the tiny successes add up and the goal is achieved.

This is not to say that the only way to permanent change is through a process of making small changes. As we know, and as I stated in the beginning, human behavior is very complex, and we do not understand all of its intricacies. However, my experience is that making small changes is one way to successful a life change.

Procrastinating? The Time To Act Is Now!

The deadline for "Time Management Strategies That Will Make Your Life Easier" is Wednesday, September 1.  This workshop is a must-attend event. You can register by visiting the sidebar.

After you finish registering, let's take a minute and talk about procrastination.

Registered? OK, let's talk.

There are many reasons why people put things off. According to Dr. Linda Sapadin, author of It's About Time, there are six styles of procrastination. These styles are: "The Perfectionist," "The Crisis-Maker," "The Dreamer," "The Defier," "The Worrier," and "The Overdoer." Typically people have two styles of procrastination - a major and a minor style. Dr. Sapadin's book includes self-assessment questionnaires that will help the reader ascertain her major and minor styles. To overcome procrastination use specific strategies that address specific styles.

I won't cover all of the styles now. Instead I will focus on "The Perfectionist Procrastinator" because it is the most frequent style of procrastination that I encounter. Some of the Perfectionist Procrastinator's traits are: gets caught up in the details that no one else cares about, has difficulty initiating or completing projects because they just don't live up to her standards, is critical of her accomplishments, has a hard time delegating because the tasks have to be "done a certain way," and is upset if she doesn't do something as well as her peers.

One of my client's came up with a brilliant analogy on how the Perfectionist Procrastinator's style wastes time:  time is spent putting one's ducks in a row at the expense of getting the ducks to march! Moving the ducks is the goal, but the goal was lost by hyper-focusing on the formation of the ducks.

Some of the ways I see the Perfectionist Procrastinator style at work are:

• Not filing papers because the client might want to change the structure of the filing system later (meanwhile the papers stack up),
• Not using help on projects because "it's faster if I do it myself" or the help just doesn't understand how important it is to do things a certain way (meanwhile the project is stalled),
• Spends hours setting up a project notebook which is intended to help manage tasks and projects and as a result has little time to work on the project,
• Does not start a term paper until every little fact on the subject is known (meanwhile the due date quickly approaches and pasts).

Overcoming procrastination, regardless of the style, requires changing the way one thinks, speaks and acts. Expect to spend a minimum of six weeks of consistent effort in order to see meaningful changes. Expect a rocky road to change. Why? Mistakes will be made. Strategies will be temporarily forgotten. Giving up might seem more appealing than persevering.  But what is gained through perseverance is immense - being more accepting of one's self, being more responsive, being more flexible, being more relaxed, and being more effective.

Dr. Sapadin offers several ways to change the way one thinks, speaks and acts. Some of her suggestions are
1) Acknowledge that perfectionism is the problem and take ownership of it.
2) Focus on what's realistic rather than what's ideal and be mindful of the resources - and the amount of time is a resource - that are available.
3) Let go of the "all or nothing" thinking and explore flexibility.
4) Change your language: replace "should" with "could," "have to" with "want to," and "must" with "choose to."
5) Set up time limits for your tasks and use a timer or a buddy to help you respect the limits.
6) Focus on doing just a few important things each day rather than an endless list of things.
7) Make one deliberate mistake each day.
8) Focus on "being" instead of "doing." Live life.

Point eight is my my favorite because living life to its fullest really is the goal.

I recommend reading Dr. Sapadin's insightful book.  It is available on Amazon. 

Back To School Tips And Strategies So You Can Relax A Little

The school bell has rung, the temperatures are starting to cool (knock on wood), and there's a certain calm in the neighborhood during the day - school is in session. In your home the evening may be everything but calm as you juggle homework, last minute supply needs, meal preparations, chores and .... a little break to relax as a family. Here are some ideas to help you actually get to relax.

Simplify mealtime with ultra fast meals. Scrambled eggs embellished with cheese, onions, and mushrooms served with fruit. Grilled cheese and tomato soup (my favorite!). Hummus and pita with a cucumber and onion salad dressed with plain yogurt. Hot dogs with carrot and celery sticks.  These are our favorite meals that can be fixed in 15 minutes or less and with a minimum amount of heat in the kitchen (because it's still a little warm outside).

Use the secret weapon for helping kids focus on homework: music. Ask older children to create their own music playlist on their mp3 players. The rules for the music choices are: the music must be liked but not so much that the student starts singing along and it's not so engaging that the student is focused on the music rather than homework. Mozart and Bach are splendid backgrounds to homework. And yes, these composers often are the choice of my student organizing clients. It's easy to put these composers on your stereo for younger children to enjoy.

Have a set chore time for everyone. It will be much easier for the entire family to get chores done if everyone is working together.

Have a set bedtime for both you and your children. Thirty minutes before bedtime start slowing things down: turn off the TV and dim the lights.

Speaking  of TV: TV and social media (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, etc) are distractions. They absolutely must be off while focusing on homework. Texting is also a distraction - put the cell phone in a different room.  Rather than a complete prohibition of these electronic distractions consider using them only during 10 minute breaks between assignments. BUT, still no TV.  Plots on TV last longer than 10 minutes, and TV is infamous for holding people's attention so firmly that it's difficult to disengage.

Analog timers are among my favorite organizing tools. Use it to time breaks. Having a hard time getting motivated? Make a deal with yourself to work just 15 to 20 minutes on that task you dread.  Focus on the time period rather than the task.  You will be a little further along when the timer dings. By the way, an analog timer is one where you watch the time sweep. It is not a digital timer. The old KitchenAid timer is a great example of an analog timer. My favorite timer is the Time Timer.

Boost your technical skills so you can act more effectively. There are two upcoming events in St. Louis to help sharpen the saw. Acumen Consulting in Brentwood is offering Word and Excel training on August 29 and 30. Please see the flyer for more information. The second event is the time management workshop, "Time Management Strategies That Will Make Your Life Easier," presented by internationally renowned time management expert and author Harold Taylor.

I learned something in a recent training class that really drove home the need for this upcoming class: most people learn their time management strategies in high school. When we were in high school the world was a very different place. Personal computers and cell phones did not exist. The pressure to do more with less time did not exist to the extent it does today. Until September 1 you can register for this time management workshop for half price! It's easy to register - just see the side bar.

It's a little hectic now, but life will feel calmer as your family falls into its back to school routines.

Two Events That Will Help You Get Organized

If  you're a typical person you have an electronic item or two (or three or four...) sitting around gathering dust. Consider these statistics provided by the EPA for the year 2009:  

• 438 million new consumer electronics were sold;
• 5 million tons of electronics were in storage;
• 2.37 million tons of electronics were ready for end-of-life management; and
• 25% of these tons were collected for recycling

My thoughts are 5 million TONS of electronics are sitting around gathering dust and only 25% of the disposed of electronics are recycled! We can do better than that! Luckily, there is an upcoming electronic recycling event being held in Webster Groves on Saturday, August 6 from 8 a.m. until noon at the Moss Field parking lot of Hixson School (off of S. Elm).  Please see www.webstergroves.org for more information.

Certainly recycling your broken and obsolete electronic equipment will give you more space, but have you ever wished for more time? I can't wave a magic wand to provide you with an extra hour in your day, but learning how to manage your time well might have the same effect. The fact is we all get 24 hours in a day. The president of the country, the president of Google, the Supreme Court justices, J.K. Rowling and you get 24 hours. Are you accomplishing what you want to accomplish? If not then consider attending the workshop "Time Management Strategies That Will Make Your Life Easier" which is presented by renowned expert Harold Taylor on September 23 from 9 a.m. until noon at the Brentwood Community Center. You can get more information and register at www.haroldtaylor.eventbrite.com.

When Summer Hands You Tomatoes, Make BLTs

Sure I advocate menu planning, but there are times when the menu has to be tossed out the window. Today was one of those days. The mercury cozied up to the 100 degree mark and the humidity was way up there. With meteorological oppression like this, the oven had NO business being on. Any cooking that needed to be done had to be fast and on the stove top. Luckily, a bowl of tomatoes and a pound of bacon grabbed my attention -and taste buds - so we were able to enjoy a light, summery meal without too much cooking.

It's always nice to have a Plan B (bacon?) when things go awry. Things do go awry - sometimes at an alarming pace. Plan B won't prevent the unexpected, however it does hasten recovery. Knowing that one won't be completely undone by the unexpected allows one to keep her wits about her - and her sense of humor.  Contingency plans are another way of being proactive, which is a quality of organization.

Growing up in St. Louis - without air conditioning, I might add - I learned a few tricks about making a meal when it's too hot to cook. One of the tricks is to have simple ingredients on hand. One of my favorite hot weather meals is gazpacho soup. Here's how I make it:

Two 12-ounce cans of chopped tomatoes
One cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
One green pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
One small Vidalia onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic smashed
Salt and pepper to taste
Croutons for garnish

Save a bit of  the chopped vegetables for garnish. Throw everything but the reserved garnish into a blender and puree. Chill a couple of hours. Garnish and inhale.

Healthy and easy. If you have a favorite hot weather recipe please share. We all can use a Plan B.

Seeking Life Balance - Can An Entrepreneur Take Time Off?

I just read this interesting article about the difficulty entrepreneurs have in taking time off http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/start/business-planning/summer-vacation-eludes-many-entrepreneurs/article2052152/. Coincidentally, I just returned from a week of Boy Scout camp with my son's troop.

Taking a week off means my business is closed for a week. As an entrepreneur I don't get paid vacation time. But since I am in the business of encouraging people to have balance in their lives - and time off is part of that balance - it's important to me to "walk the talk." There are several reasons why I feel little or no hesitation in taking time off.

My time off was in agreement with my priorities. I spent time with my son and his fellow scout buddies. Hopefully I was able to help them learn some scouting and leadership skills in the process of having fun.

I was able to spend some time with adults I respect and admire. The leaders in my son's troop are successful, intelligent and creative people. I learned a lot about leadership, perseverance and life from them. We laughed so hard our sides hurt - humor is a necessary ingredient when working with teens.

Doing something out of my usual routine afforded me a new perspective. New perspectives are fuel for creativity and change. Keeping things fresh helps keep things fun.

I made peace with missed opportunities. It's a bit of a faith walk but I believe that if I missed an opportunity it wasn't meant for me. My outgoing out of the office message actually referred people to my local NAPO chapter if they were in immediate need of an organizer.

I  recharged my "batteries." Truth be told, I enjoy camping. I love being outside, seeing the stars at night and hearing the whippoorwills. The simplicity is energizing. 

A week away was an investment in myself, my family and my community. When I weigh any loss that may have resulted from a week off against what I gained, I find it was totally worth it.

Time Management Is Like Filling A Bucket

One of my favorite time management gurus is Harold Taylor. I read his book Making Time Work For You sometime in the eighties. Until I read Taylor's book, most of the time management material I read focused on getting more stuff done in less time. But Taylor's book was different because he focused on effectiveness. Effectiveness entails being selective about what you do. Effectiveness implies a purpose. Instead of focusing on saving minutes attention should first be directed toward our goals.

Truth be told, it was a line in the introduction of the book that provided me with such a huge revelation that I still refer back to its imagery today. "To be effective we must displace less important tasks with more important ones."

In my mind I saw a 24-hour day as a bucket. Buckets are not very flexible. Trying to add more to the bucket when it's already full is futile. The bucket will not grow just because we want it to hold more.  If what is to be added to the bucket is important, something less important must first be removed. In order to determine what belongs in the bucket - our 24 hour day - we must ask it these are things that are contributing to our goals and satisfaction of life.

Since Making Time Work For You Taylor has written sixteen more books. He frequently speaks at the National Association of Professional Organizer conferences and I have found his sessions informative and fun - he is an accomplished speaker. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that Harold Taylor will be in St. Louis on September 23. He will be present a three-hour seminar to the public on "Time Management Strategies That Will Make Your Life Easier." You will find more information in the side margin of this blog. This is a rare opportunity to learn from the best.

Released on Good Behavior

Jail Bird Denise Lee

I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who posted my "bail" for the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Lock Up. Clear Spaces raised almost $600!

While I was "in jail" I met some of the people who have received help from the MDA and saw pictures of of some of the children who are currently being helped. I also found out that the MDA was voted as the most lean health-based charities in the United States. By lean I mean very little overhead - your donations are working the way you intend them to work.

This is from the MDA Lock Up site:

"Donations to MDA provide help and hope in many ways:

• Clinics - expert specialized medical care
• Research - cutting-edge investigation into treatments and cures
• Support - help obtaining equipment and coping with challenges
• Camp - a barrier-free week of fun, friendship and laughter for kids

And so much more - visit mda.org for information on how MDA makes a difference to people around the country and in your community."

I thank you and the kids thank you too.

 

Shocking News About Professional Organizer Denise Lee

In one week I am going to jail. I realize this is shocking news but rest assured that the occasion warrants the lock-up. No, I haven't done anything wrong. I'm going to jail for a good cause.

Every year the Muscular Dystrophy Association asks business owners to help raise money for kids and their families affected by Muscular Dystrophy. This year the MDA asked if I could help out.

One of the many ways the MDA helps is through their summer camp program. For any child summer camp is one of the highlights of summer. Swimming, sports, campfires, crafts, star-gazing..... the list of diversions is endless. For kids battling  a chronic illness the diversion of summer camp is not just fun - it's good therapy. To learn more, take a look at the summer camp page from the national MDA site: http://www.mdausa.org/clinics/camp/. 

I hope that you can find it in your heart to help the MDA by bailing me out of jail with your donation - which is tax-deductible of course.  Please visit my page at https://www.joinmda.org/MyLockup/MyHomepage/tabid/198077/Participant/denise/Default.aspx.

And please: no taunting of the prisoner.