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It’s always reassuring to know that my clients take my advice to heart. We joke that when I’m not around to help them get organized, they often ask themselves, “What would Anna say?”

What would I say? I ask a lot of questions that help me determine what’s going on beneath the surface. Then I can focus on the appropriate solution.

“What is good enough?” Perfectionism gets in the way of moving ahead. If you find a system that works for you even a little, go for it! You can always modify and improve as you go along. “Good enough” does not have to be 100%. One client has gained so much insight with this question that she has been able to accomplish more because she spends less time on the details that do not matter, more on what does matter.

“How does that define you?” If it doesn’t define you in a meaningful way, why do you keep it, take care of it, and devote valuable space to it? One client has been able to look at her life’s treasures and been able to really choose what defines her versus being defined by all of her belongings.

“How do you feel when… you are buying your 15th green long sleeve cotton tee shirt?” Increasing self-awareness is the first step in modifying or accepting behaviors. A client with eight of the same type of jacket was amazed when I asked this question — a huge Aha moment!

“Do you notice any patterns here?” What items do you end up donating? What’s hanging in your closet? Are there patterns of excess or waste? When reviewing the items that a client was donating, I asked her this question and the pattern was that most of the items came from a specific store, now she only goes to that store when she needs something basic at the last minute.

“Start anywhere.”  When a client doesn’t know where to start, I like to suggest that they just start somewhere, anywhere. You can start right to left, or left to right, sometimes starting with the floor might be the right solution.

“Start with the low hanging fruit.” Many times when looking at a room full of clutter, all you see is the clutter. A client used this approach when looking at her garage full of years of accumulates stuff. When she looked at the large items and the items on the surface, she was able to make immediate decisions. Once these items were removed the process became more manageable.

When we recognize habits that bog us down with extra “stuff” or cause chaos in our lives through disorganization, we are on our way to a more peaceful and productive life!

Kids May Have Curious George, But Adults Now Have Curious Accountability!

Like Curious George, who stimulates children’s natural curiosity about the world around them, Curious Accountability offers adults a new perspective for tasks associated with getting organized; one where they embark on an exciting journey of self discovery and realized goals. This methodology turns the act of getting organized into a skill building activity. Personal ‘aha’ moments promote longer lasting effects for those who want to get organized and remain organized over time.

At the National Association of Professional Organizers conference in New Orleans last month, Casey Moore and Cameron Gott introduced the concept of Curious Accountability. They defined this concept as “a positive evaluation process based on respect and trust that focuses solely on learning from actions (or inaction). The learning in turn, raises the awareness necessary for developing new skills and tools and achieving goals. Applied consistently over time, Curious Accountability increases self-knowledge and resilience and fosters effective behavior change”.

The word accountability, for many, has a negative connotation — answering to another or a feeling of being punished. In this Curious Accountability model, the focus is on learning and self discovery. Whether the task was accomplished or not, isn’t important. What is important is what the person learns from the process of doing or not doing the task.

Curious Accountability requires a contextual shift in one’s thinking to bring unwanted habits that promote disorganization into the lime light without the usual cloak of shame and blame. If we apply the same kind of curiosity, inquiry, and learning a scientist brings to their fieldwork — or Curious George brings to his daily adventures — we can free ourselves of the ever present good, bad, right or wrong rating systems we apply to our actions and efforts. We can, instead, view our actions, results, and even the “no results” through the filter of learning and exploration. Over time, we are left better problem solvers, in action, and moving towards our goals with more joy, confidence, and ease.

In this learning-focused approach, one might ask themselves at the end of a task or project (accomplished or not):

What did I learn?
What is the value of this learning to the task or overall goal?
What hurdles or “obstacles to overcome” did I discover?

Questions like these are good for illuminating what is important to us moving forward in our organizing endeavors. Should you “get stuck” in this new model, the role of the professional organizer, practiced in this technique, is to be an/a:

Active Listener – listening for the client’s goals and aspirations — long and short term
Cheerleader — keeping the person on track
Mirror – reflecting (not judging) how effective their actions are
Reminder for Self Awareness – let client’s experience inform their next actions
Involved Learner – redefine success

A professional organizer can summarize the learning as it relates to your over all goal or project leaving you ready, prepared, and empowered for your next week of Curious Accountability.

Kids may have Curious George to reveal the magic of curiosity, but adults now have Curious Accountability to propel them forward toward their goals with greater ease.

A neuroscientist, a professional organizer, and a mom walk into a bar… Sounds like the start of a joke, but it describes a bit of the National Association of Professional Organizers conference in New Orleans this year. You didn’t get to attend? That’s ok, because you can easily find a recap or two of the conference.

Probably the most important thing, though, is one simple idea. It’s the reason you landed on this page and are reading this article. Dr. Ari Tuckman talked about it. Dr. David Tolin talked about it. Dr. Kelly McGonigal talked about it. All of these folks, by the way, are great practitioners to follow in the world of organizing and productivity.

We don’t organize because we want to organize, but to live a more full life and do stuff we enjoy. It’s way more than labeling.

What every single professional organizer and productivity consultant in NAPO will agree on is that we want our clients and potential clients (that may be you) to want something more than pretty boxes and bins. Whatever your goal is, we want to help you get it.

• We want you to be out in your garden — not doing boring filing tasks.
• We want you doing more community building—not working on a boring operations manual at work.
• We want you spending more time with your family—not worried about email piling up.

Kevin Garton, from the NEAT Company, made a point as he talked about scanning technologies. His most prized accomplishment wasn’t reducing piles of paper to bits and bytes. His most valued scan was a handwritten note from his young daughter, that he had scanned to his cloud and could re-read it anytime, anywhere he wanted.

What do you want more than your clutter, piles, and paper messes? What part of your life do you want to be spending more time on, enjoying more, and sharing more with loved ones? Are you ready to let a professional organizer show you some supportive strategies to enjoy those things more? Because the most important things in life end up not being things, but if you’re a mom (or a dad), the neuroscientist and the professional organizer didn’t have to tell you that.

For most of us, tax season is over, and we can now breathe a sigh of relief for another year. If you plan to shred or recycle large quantities of paper, now is the perfect time to do so.

With a little bit of planning, you can get your paperwork in order without too much angst.

Here are 4 tips to help you:

1.  Make room for new materials by going through your filing cabinets (or wherever you keep your files).  Shred taxes and the back-up documentation older than 7 years, old bills, old insurance policies, old bank statements, or anything old that has personal identifiable information on it.  Recycle old newspaper and magazine articles, defunct travel brochures, etc.

2.  Review your filing system to determine if the way you have your files set up works well for you.  If not, for example, change the names of the files, or change the placement of the files.

3.  Set up new files for the New Year if you have not done so yet, labeling them with meaningful names, so they are easily retrievable.

4.  Check to see if your township is holding a free shred event.  Many towns do so right after tax season to help their residents dispose of their paperwork that has personal identifiable information on it.

Since organizing is an ongoing process, files will have to be tweaked and paperwork will have to be shredded or recycled periodically.  Remember, you can also get a lot of information on-line.  However, if you follow these few steps, your system will be in order for the rest of 2013, and paperwork that has to be filed will have a home.

 Now is the time to Go from Bedlam to Brilliance!

As a lighthearted reminder that done is better than perfect, I sometimes intentionally reverse this adage with clients as we hang a shelf or assemble a bookcase.  Unless you’re performing brain surgery or submitting a résumé, perfect isn’t always necessary.

An ounce of perfectionism as we strive for advancement in life can serve us well.  It works in a corporate setting.  You work hard; you get ahead.  It’s the way the world works.  However, we can cross a line, and real perfectionism can actually get in our way, exhaust us, and reduce our productivity.

I see perfectionism often in my work, and clients are relieved that someone recognizes their efforts and attention to detail.  You may wonder why a perfectionist needs a Professional Organizer.  The answer is simple.  Perfectionism bogs you down in detail, and can make a task more laborious than it needs to be.  It can also lead to procrastination.

See if you relate to any of the following statements:

– If I don’t have time to organize the whole closet today, I’ll wait until I do.  There’s no sense doing a little at a time.

– I get anxious about starting a project because I don’t know how to do it the right way? Therefore, I’ll devote an inordinate amount of time to planning.

– Once started, my projects take longer than needed because I re-think them or re-work them constantly.

– I often miss deadlines because I am unable to submit a project and be satisfied with the end result.

– I don’t like asking for help and/or showing weakness.

To get moving, ask yourself these questions:

• Does your effort match the importance of the task?  If not, try dialing it back a notch.
• Can I break this project down into smaller tasks?  If so, can I be satisfied doing those small tasks well (not perfect)?
• Is  one of the reasons I haven’t started indecisiveness?  What do I need to know in order to get started?
• This project or task will take as long as I allow it.  How much time does it deserve?

In closing, I offer you the following new mantras:

– Done is better than perfect.

– I did my best.

– My friends are coming to visit me, not my house.

– My boss is more likely to notice adherence to deadlines than be impressed by how much time I put into a project.

I won’t lie to you.  Change involves stretching your comfort zone, but it comes with rich rewards.

If perfectionism still stands between you and organization, consider hiring a Professional Organizer.  We’re trained to help you clear clutter and teach you systems to help maintain order.

P.S. I always measure twice, but that’s our secret.

Endless Tasks….Overwhelming Pressure….Desire for Results….Knowing there has to be a better way…

Escaping to Waldon Pond or traveling the country via RV are definitely options – but for most of us not viable ones.  Minor adjustments that cumulate for noticeable change are much more desirable.  A few time control techniques I’ve come to count on include:

Minimize Thrashing – Thrashing is the computer science term for when a system spends more time switching from task to task then actually working on the task.  When we spend our time thinking about what we have to do, remembering where we were in the project, and then building up momentum to get results we are thrashing. Nothing is more frustrating than getting to the meat of a project and then having to stop.  I have found the best way to minimize thrashing is to plan substantial chunks of time for a project.  I’ll arrange my schedule to be able to commit 2 or 3 CONTINUOUS hours to the task. While it may be hard to find those uninterruptable hours it sure is worth it when the projects done!

Batching – Grouping small relatable tasks together to create an economy of scale yields tangible results as well.  Large operations do it all the time – think of production lines, or accounts payable departments.  I liken this to stopping for gas when the tank is 3/4 full.  It’s just unnecessary.  Waiting until you have an 1/8 of a tank or even when the empty light comes on (gasp) is more efficient.  Batching work related tasks is more efficient too.  Here are tasks I like to batch:

• Paying Bills – I pay them on the 1^st and 15^th of the month.  I don’t think about it at any other time.  I started by putting reminders on my calendar, but now it’s automatic and I just do it.
• Laundry – 2 big loads twice a week and it’s done.  We have enough cloths that we don’t run out.  I love not thinking about laundry the other days of the week.
• Phone Calls – not time essential ones, but the annoying ones when you know you’ll have to wait on hold.  Mine get done once a week, and I plan other simple tasks I can do while holding.

Be Ruthless – Saying NO to things that aren’t critical opens up space for the most important things.  Sometimes getting frustrated is the best thing I can do for myself. I look at the mail and just throw all the stuff I didn’t ask for right into the big recycling can.  I look at my email and delete things that just don’t matter. I go through my inbox and pull out the work that has to be done and ditch the rest.  I find people are truly most effective when they remove what isn’t so important – and sometimes the only way to make a big enough impact is to be ruthless. Where can you be ruthless this week?

Try these techniques and see if things are just a bit easier.  I bet you’ll say YES!