I was flicking through the photographic proof that this week of madness actually existed and barely came up with anything worth posting.  Just out of interest I flicked back through the archives for photos from one year ago.  There were heaps of photos there that if I were taking part in Weekly Winners back then I would have posted them.   I figured that since I was looking at the photos I may as well post them to show that madness is pretty much normal for us this time of the year.

Firstly there was the culmination of  a major project I had been working on with student from three local schools.  Students from each school had produced an enormous mosaic (about 1200 x 2000mm) depicting their idea of what the community they belonged in looked like.

In Our Community - Near Citylink

In Our Community - Around Racecourse Road

In Our Community - Where I Live!

Then there was the end of the school year which meant kid made Christmas gifts and girl-child ‘graduating’ from Kinder!

Smile!

Painted Tea Light Candle Glass

The Kinder Graduate!

Then I went away for a work camp and stayed here.

A Working Holiday - the Camp Site

Climbing High - the Ropes We Climbed on Camp

And finally, just for something typical around here – photographic proof of yet another injury!

Lego Imprints from a Face-Firs Fall from Top Bunk!

So that was us one year ago, another crazy week but with more photographic evidence of the insanity!

All I really want right now is distractions, my head is all over the shop in a big jumbled mess.  I thought about using the idiot box as a distraction from thoughts that fill my head but there is nothing to watch.  The stereo is elsewhere and a mess is left in its place and there are too many songs on iTunes to decide what to listen.  I decided to opt for silence, not to think but to ignore but even silence is not cooperating.  I have the noise of a randomly dripping tap somewhere upstairs, snoring from an annoyingly intoxicated body on the other end of the couch and the dinging of aforementioned intoxicated person’s phone receiving messages.  Did I mention the sleep talking?  Well the sleep talking is so much more obnoxious when alcohol is involved.  Instead of just being random comments, it will be random questions that require an answer.  Of course the random questions are in relation to a subject matter that I am clearly not privy to so the answer is not apparent.  Not answering means the question will be repeated over and over, answering the question incorrectly, because apparently there is a correct answer, will infuriate and I will be chastised and scorned.   So not silent that it fills my head even more and makes me annoyed.

I don’t like being annoyed all of the time and at the moment that seems to be my overwhelming response to everything.  Micro managers questioning my every move annoy me, coming home and not having time to sit down and rest annoys me, making dinner for people who don’t even bother to take the time to eat it annoys me.  Being tired and grumpy all the damn time annoys me.  Actually almost everything is likely to annoy me, today in particular.

The list of what annoys me is long and includes (but is not limited to) being the parent all the time, being the responsible one, being the person who makes sure everything is done for everyone else, being house-proud and wanting a nice clean house.  In short, everywhere I look there is something to annoy me.  I don’t like this feeling, I don’t really like being me at the moment.  I spend my days running from one place to the next never having a chance to sit down and actually enjoy.  Occasionally I would like to be the spontaneous parent, the one who says ’screw going to bed early, lets all camp on the floor and tell stories’, the parent who laughs out loud and doesn’t get annoyed at the mess but that isn’t me.  I know that staying up late is only going to cause more pain that I will be left to fix.  More irrational tears for all involved, and probably for those not involved too.  Increased clumsiness will be next and it will also lead to tears and no doubt (minor) injuries.  Projects will be left incomplete and mess will be everywhere.  Of course I will be the lucky person who has to fix it, to console the crying child, to nurse the pain, clean up the mess, wipe up the blood and make the bad disappear for everyone else.  The problem is that I generally can make the bad disappear, I take it on board and call it my own.

Sometimes I just want to run and hide  but before I do I think of what I will be missing.  Chances are I won’t be missing anything, but I might and it might be important or significant of simply just fun, so I stay out of hiding.  I give myself to everyone and try to ask for little in return.  I find it difficult to ask for help and as a result I rarely do, I just get on with it and do everything myself.

I don’t even know why I am writing all of this down.  I will still want to do too much, to be involved in everything, to work far too much, to be the person who fixes everything and everyone, to sacrifice my own sanity to give to those around me.  I know that I need to let go, but knowing and doing are very different things.  I think I miss my sister already, she hasn’t even left the country (and when she does it will only be for 2 weeks) but finding any excuse to drop over, help out and have baby cuddles has been one of the few truly wonderful escapes I have had lately.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about using the word busy or the word full to describe all of the things we do in a day. Many of us are feeling like there is little time in a day to accomplish everything we would like to. I often hear people describing their day(s) as “busy, busy, busy” or “crazy busy.”

The word I prefer to use is full. Words have sounds, emotions, memories and meaning attached to them. When I say to myself in the morning,”I have a full day today,” I feel confident that all of it is manageable. If I say to myself in the morning, “I have a crazy busy day today,” I am already in a state of panic.

Living a fast paced life is certainly challenging. Sometimes just becoming more aware of how we use words like busy and full can make a difference between an endless list of tasks and masterfully handling our day.

I wish you masterful days.

Love and harmony,

Sharon

Every day, I pledge to squeeze in at least one creative, soul-feeding activity. Even if it is something tiny, like drawing a small picture while I endure a long wait on the phone, I promise myself to find that oasis in my day where my hands shape something out of nothing. It’s a good pledge.

According to my thermometer, it got down to -17°F overnight. It was -13° when I got up, so I guess we had something of a heat wave sometime during the night.

After I dropped the kids off at school and headed to the office, I came across a disabled vehicle on the exit ramp from I-93. The left front tire was shredded. It looked like one of those retreads you see cast from semi-trucks on the side of the highway sometimes, but I don’t think this was a retread. The tread was completely separated from the side walls. I can’t help but think that maybe -17° mighta had something to do with that, but I don’t know for sure.

There was frost on the window sill in my office, but it was warm enough at my desk that that didn’t bother me. Also, I didn’t have time today to think about frost or cold. As soon as I sat down, things got real busy. I had to review all the information we had gathered for the 9:30 meeting, and I guess that went OK. I was only asked one question that I had no clue about, and that was a “when will feature X,” which I had never heard of, “be ready?” My answer was “I have no idea,” and that was good enough. It was a low priority item.

After the meeting I was working furiously right through the afternoon. I called Va to find out what time Sabbath began (4:37), because it looked like I was going to have to work right up until then (I would not have worked past then). I told her I would prolly work until 4:30 then. At 4:00 we thought we had all the problems licked, but another one surfaced at 4:05. I knew it would take more than 25 minutes to resolve, so I promised to come in after 5:00 tomorrow.

Which is a bummer. A bunch of my friends from church are getting together at the Raquet Club about then, and I’ll hafta miss it. I’ll probably drop the boys off though so they can get in some basketball. Then I’ll go right back to the office, and maybe finish off that last problem. We’re supposed to deliver a card to a customer on Monday, and it has to pass all the tests before then. There’s a bug in that last test, so I’ll go in to hunt it down.

I got home right about sunset. Beth ambushed me with her report card, which was pretty good. All I’s and P’s. Whatever that means. (I think P’s are good and I’s are all the way good.) She needs to work on her handwriting and is having a bit of trouble adding and subtracting when that involves carrying or borrowing.

I sat down with her last night with a stack of dimes and pennies, and we went over it. I think that “borrowing” is a really bad term for that particular subtraction operation, and suggested to her that “getting change from the bank” was better terminology. Basically, we were trading in a dime for ten pennies so we would have enough pennies to make change. I think she got that, but we’ll see how she does on her math work next week.

This quarter in Sabbath School, I have been talking about winter animals. I’ve already talked about the black bear and the red fox. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the gray squirrel. I thought it might be nice to bring in a cast of a squirrel track containing both the hind and forefeet, but I don’t have one. So I went out in the yard after supper to see if I could find one in good enough shape to cast. Except I didn’t. There were several tracks, but they were either eroded so badly, or misshapen, that I decided to skip the required effort. I’ll just show them some photos of tracks instead. I might also scout around the church tomorrow and see if there are any squirrel tracks in the vicinity. I’m sure that the kids would love to go outside and look at them if it’s still -17°.

I got word today that our January fruit delivery should happen on Sunday morning, Jan 25. That means I will be teaching Animal Tracking on the Saturday afternoon of the Pathfinder Leadership Training session next weekend.

Last night I started to put together a list of supplies I’ll want to bring with me (including the dog and all her accoutrements). It’s a lengthy list. I’ll spend some time during the week making a slide presentation too, but I think most of what we do will be activity-based, not lecture-based. Also, my intent is to share with the folks there how they can teach the honor to their kids (including tips on casting tracks in the snow). Beth and I will have to leave church as soon as it’s over next week, hop in the car, and hustle over to Portland, ME so I’ll be there on time.

Tomorrow at church I’m slated to tell the children’s story, and I still haven’t selected one. I guess I’d better get on that!

Where does all the time go?  I vaguely remember some time very recently sitting in a training course thinking TGIF already, then I blinked and it is almost a work day again.  How did it happen?  Is there some kind of time warp that makes the boring days drag and the good days disappear?

Is it like some kind of pethadine when you are in labour that allows you to sleep like a log between contractions and wake enough to register that you are having a contraction before dozing off into a drug induced bliss?  A heavenly bliss were the in-between bits feel long enough to really sleep and enjoy, and the formerly painful contractions are over in the blink of an eye.

If it is, it is all backwards, the drugs are supposed to block the bad bits and extend the good.  That should mean that the painful days at work should be over in the blink of an eye, or in my case five blinks, one for every work day last week.  The good bits, the weekend spending time with the kids, catching up with friends and going to festivals, well they should last heaps longer.  At least long enough to feel as if you have had a break from work before diving back in again.

So now that Monday is almost here, I have to decide if it is a work day or not.  As I worked too many hours last week, I only have to work 4 hours this week to fill my allocated hours for the fortnight.  Do I get them over and done with tomorrow and have the remainder of the week to chill out, or do I chill out tomorrow and worry about the hours later in the week?  Who knows, I guess I will see where tomorrow takes me!

Well after the crazy, hectic day that I anticipated I realised that I had underestimated the insanity of the day.  Despite the crazy, it has been a fun day, for the most part, if not totally exhausting to the point of running on overdrive as a result of too much fizzy drink consumed.

I was planning on a slow start to the day, as appropriate for staying in a house with no kids or pets to disturb me.  Do you think that I could sleep in?  I woke at around 6 and made myself go back to sleep.  I dozed off and on for a while, not actually gaining much in the way of restfulness so at 8 I started playing games on my phone.  I was hoping that the monotony would send me back to sleep.

Well no such luck.  My friend woke at around 9 and we sat around chatting until the noise of our stomachs rumbling became too much of an interruption.  We stopped off for a not-so-quick brunch before it was time to collect the kids.  

Pick-up number 1 was at home, pick-up number 2 was at a fete a few suburbs away.  After exploring there and the kids buying lovely ‘treasures’ for me to try and hide at a later date keep safe.  Then it wass of to fete number 2, at the other local school.  Again more ‘treasures’ were found and purchased, as well as face painting, fairy floss and sno cones!  

We barely arrived home from the fete and it was time for us to head of to the class picnic.  The picnic was great.  Most of the company was delightful, and the elements that were less than delightful to actually converse with were interesting to watch converse with other people.  The drinks were flowing and I could have easily settled in for a long and relaxing night but no – it was off to dance rehearsals.

Man-child is performing in the show and was due at rehearsals at 6.30pm.  He went early but I waited until 7.30pm to take the kids.  The insanely late start (after normal bed time) was because theyy were rehearsing the show in sequence.  Girl-child’s final dance wasn’t finished until 10.20pm.  I wasn’t fortunate enough to watch her last dance but the entire class were so exhausted and ratty that it would have been spectacularly bad ordinary amusing!

Finally it was time to pack the dance gear and snacks away and head home – hooray!  The kids were exhausted and were happy with only one bed time story before falling asleep quickly.  Now it is way past my bedtime but I am still buzzing with sugar and wishing I was asleep.  I do have to do some hours of preparation for a course I am attending on Monday, perhaps I should do it now, it is sure to send me to sleep in seconds…

This week I attended the BlogHerDC conference. It was awesome and some of the takeaways can be found in our insider’s blog. At the conference, I met Heather Chapman who writes the blog: “The Mother Tongue.”

Heather: Do you have kids?

Me: Yeah. Two. 5 and 2.

Heather: Mine are 4 and 1. Any antics there I should know about?

Me: We didn’t leave my son alone with my daughter for the first year of her life.

Heather: That’s probably wise.

Me: A common saying around our house is “No clothes-lining!”

Heather: [Laughing]

Me: Maxwell will run up with his arm out, careen into my daughter, and flip her right over backwards.

Heather: People need to know this. You should write about it on your blog.

Me: But, aren’t there enough Moms writing about crazy kid stuff?

Heather: I think it makes moms feel good to know that other people have crazy lives.

Me: Really?

Heather: Yeah.

So – inspired by Heather: The totally NOT women’s leadership oriented blog post about a typical crazy day in my life. I am not really sure what people can learn from this, but, here goes:

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To follow along you will need:
1. A lofty goal
2. A box of Teddy Grahams
3. SPANX
4. A wrinkled piece of clothing
5. A plant (or other life form)
6. A good sense of humor

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1. A lofty goal. Here is how the day of October 13, 2008 started: I prepared to go to the BlogHerDC conference to promote the launch of the Hot Mommas Project case study competition. Here was my lofty goal on this particular day: Get out the door and go to this conference. In my robe, after being woken up by various little people, I make the error of just “real quick” logging in and seeing if the Hot Mommas Project sign-in process works.

Frequently asked question: Will I need an alarm clock for this step?
No. You will not, I repeat NOT, be needing an alarm clock. Little people will wake you up at something beginning with a “5″.

2. A box of Teddy Grahams. Checking the Hot Mommas Project site”real quick” turned into – hmmm – about 1.5 hours. I utilize a box of Teddy Grahams to subdue one of the two loud, feisty little people that live in my house during this time.

FAQs: Is there a certain preferred flavor of Teddy Graham? Is there a certain time of day the Teddy Grahams should be served?
Unquestionably, Chocolate Teddy Grahams are preferred. Bonus points are issued if the Teddy Grahams are served at a completely inappropriate time. Example: Here is Lilah eating Teddy Grahams…for breakfast…on the floor of my bedroom.

3. SPANX. Despite the extreme delays I face due to the “real quick” Hot Mommas Project login test, I spend a good 12 minutes searching for my SPANX upon which I have developed a clinically-diagnosable dependence.

Frequently Asked Question: Could I search aimlessly for a DIFFERENT item (other than SPANX?).
Certainly. Car keys, blackberry, or another item are acceptable replacements.

Pictured here is a 2 week-old pile of clean laundry in which the SPANX were ultimately uncovered.

4. A wrinkled piece of clothing. As I was on “Mission Critical” finding my SPANX, I made an unfortunate discovery balled up in the laundry bin: The shirt I intended to wear to the conference. It was embarrassingly wrinkled. Ironing was clearly out of the question, since I had taken a sacred vow of no-ironing.

Frequently asked question: It it possible to wear a different NON-WRINKLED piece of clothing thus adhering to the sacred vow of no-ironing?
I will not even dignify that question with a response. Clearly, you are at the wrong place my friend. For non-wrinkled clothes wearers and prepared, organized moms please click here or here. Students click here.

Pictured here is said wrinkled shirt which is under attack by my daughter Lilah “the picker” Frey.

5. A plant (or other life form). In preparing the Hot Mommas Project case competition launch I had been neglecting myself for sometime. For some, personal care is a regular, steady routine. For me, it was a distant dream. Today was no exception!

Here are the ferns that have died by my hand. Sometimes at night, when it’s very quiet, I think I can hear their little fern screams.

This is, I figure, the worst case scenario if my personal grooming continues in a downward descent.

6. A good sense of humor. As I mentioned in our insider’s blog this past week, saying things in a Napoleon Dynamite voice is a good and practical technique I’ve personally found incredibly helpful for getting through each and every day.

Pictured here is Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder). Credit IMDB Photo.

Click the little audio icon below for an example of said “Napoleon Dynamite” voice:

Frequently asked question: Could I imitate a DIFFERENT voice as a helpful technique for getting through my day? Acceptable replacements include:

The little kid from the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom

Rosanne Rosanna Danna

Saturday Night Live – Roseanne Rosannadanna on Smoking

This week we start of with simultanious events.  First we have Broome County Fair.  An all week event, with exhibit judgings occuring throughout.  First day meant having our two show chickens tested for Pullorrum and setting up their cages.  Second day consisted of bringing an enormous heavy display board and all the fixings to set up in the club display area, that will be judged this evening.  From now on, we must check on our birds daily and clean cages.  Not until Friday will the birds and children be judged for their handling and showmanship skills and bird conformation.  A bath will be in order for the birds again this week, somehow at the fair grounds.  Which means an hour of blow drying will be nescessary. Ugh!  I already did this once this week.  Lots of preperations had to be built and made and learned before getting this far, so I am glad we are getting to a point where I can clearly see the end point.  Fun, but exhausting.

Next we have Kopernik Science Center Summer Camp for B.  This place is almost an hour away from home.  Daily I must bring B. at 9am and pick him up at 3pm.  He does all sorts of neat stuff like builds volcanos, watches movies about Mars, goes fossil hunting and more.  He really enjoys this camp.  However for me, having this going on at the same time as the Fair, is not so fun.  I go through a half a tank of gas daily going back and forth to this and the Fair.  They are on Opposite ends of the county, diagonally!!  I don’t seem to have much time in between picking up and dropping off to live.  

To get through this time, S. has begun taking the bus into work every day, so that commute has lessened dramatically.  We are still working on how to handle the commute home though.  I am already near his work after picking up B. from camp, but what to do for an hour in between picking up Steve?  It just hasn’t worked, yet.  We are trying to see if  busing it home makes any negative effects.  So far, no ill has come of it.

Tomorrow, we will be picking up the grandparents and all attending the Fair as part of the crowd.  We will go on rides and eat junk and see all the exhibits.  It will kill our budget for the month, but I have no other plans anyway. LOL  I think rest will be in order!

Here are some pics of the teens setting up the display today and T. cleaning out his birds cage.  There will more posted after tomorrows events.  The reason T. isn’t in the display setting  up pictures is due to him running all over in total manic phase talking with the carnies.  B. is obviously at camp.  So no day pictures of him until the weekend.  Looking forward to a couple contest the boys are going to be involved in this weekend.

After giving my other blog-friends lots of lip for not blogging enough, I have been crazy-busy the past week and am just now checking into the blogosphere.  Here’s what’s happening.

My brother James, who has worked for me this past year, packed up and moved home to Oklahoma for a new job.  He worked hard and did a great job here, but home seemed to be calling a little too strong, he and his wife had the opportunity, and they took it.  God bless them.

We added a secretary/administrative person (Rhonda) to our staff to help manage and accomplish alot of the detail work around the office—the bigger we get the more there is to do, which is very exciting actually.  We also promoted a part-time person to full time (Christine) to work in our children’s ministry department, replacing brother James.  Today was the first day for both ladies in their respective roles.

Today we also received bad news that a fellow church planter (Steve) passed away.  He planted his church the same month we planted Crossroads.  He was 32 with a wife and small daughter.  He was diagnosed with an agressive form of cancer just weeks before his Church Launch.  He belonged to our church planting assocation.  Likewise, he was the mentor of our Student Minister (Mike), so his loss hits very close to home.

Today I feel a bit tired and weary.  It’s 6:30pm and I’m still at the office.  But I serve an awesome God, have my health, my family, and lead one of God’s churches.  I am blessed—so very blessed.

On a very cool note, Dr. Jack Cottrell, a leading Arminian Theologian in America visited my weblog and offered some comments on my post “The Existential Centrality of Grace.”  He agreed with most of what I wrote, appreciated and affirmed the main theme, but always the teacher he corrected some of my theological mistakes.  He visited the blog per my invitaiton.  As Wayne Campbell would say, “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy!”  Thank you Dr. Cottrell for your great legacy and influence.

Blessings to everybody in the blogosphere.

PS:  I will be making some corrections to the post in question when time permits.

I’ve been really stepping up the design stuff at work lately. I even took my break yesterday to walk a customer over to Michael’s next door to look at invitation ideas. I’m designing and printing the save the date cards and bridal shower invitations. I’m also designing three forms for a customer and doing a menu and business card design for another customer. Guess my decision to go back to school for design triggered something out there. I also bought three design related books. One is a book that I’ve had my eye on for YEARS. : ) I finally justified the cost since I plan on making a career out of it. : )

Last night I got domestic and baked chocolate/white cake cupcakes…each cupcake being half and half like black and white cookies. I frosted them with milk chocolate frosting and sprinkled dots on top. : )

I found out that carocaro is coming up for a visit in a couple of weeks (woo!) and even got sanny to hammer down some dates for her trip. Now we’re all just waiting on wildlifer…which reminds me. Sanny is leaving the 25? 26th or so of July…so if your visit is after that…you’ll miss her. : ( Just the info.

Even though it’s more than six months away, I’m getting very excited about going back to school!  Woo!

It’s been forever since I last posted, and I blame it on being crazy busy!  Feeling a tad overwhelmed I started looking for ways to reduce what I felt to be frantic stress, and decided to head to my local library where I usually find a calm oasis (as long as it isn’t during the after-school traffic).  I discovered an amazing book aptly named “CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD” by Edward Hallowell. Of course I didn’t have time to sit in the library and read it (what with me being Crazy Busy and all!) but I did put it in my car’s CD player and have made my driving time a whole lot more pleasant and effective.

Hallowell suggests how in today’s fast-paced, take it all on and make it happen now world, many of us are developing ADD-like symptoms such as not being able to follow a thought through, having many thoughts quickly, interrupting, wanting to get right to the point – now!  His opening example is of being on vacation in a cabin with a rotary phone and how exasperated he felt while waiting what seemed like forever for the phone to dial.  Forever was 15 seconds.  So true, though.  I can’t imagine using a rotary phone – how prehistoric!  How did anyone survive using one of those!  He goes on to write about modern day examples with urgent new client work, urgent demands, urgent social situations and how to confront/deal with these kinds of urgent situations effectively.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to bring calm back into their life and have more organized thought patterns that aren’t so easily disturbed by our modern, gotta have it now world.

Enjoy!

So, because I just don’t have enough to do with only one and a half jobs, I’m going to start volunteering for a local animal rescue. You know the cats you see at Petsmart? Well one or two days a week I’ll be the one feeding, watering and cleaning litter boxes!! I’m really jazzed about it! It’s like my own kitty kingdom, without the expense or stress, but tons of added cuteness. : ) Woo! I see many random kitty photos in the future.

Another big change, is that I’m moving towards starting  college again in the fall. That’s right, one sister getting out, and another going back in. I’m hopefully going to be able to enroll in San Jose State and I’ll be pursuing a degree in Graphic Design. If all my credits transfer I should be out in about two years…if not, well then it’ll be a little longer. Either way, I’m pretty excited about finally having a direction. Woo!

In this week’s ZoomLetter, I shared 4 of my favorite ORGANIZING TRICKS.
What follows is an addendum to each of the first three of them. (To check out all 4 original tricks, scroll to the bottom of this post).

1) Additional e-mail trick: If you have the willpower, make it a point to check e-mail just twice a day. To take this one step further, consider adding an auto-responder message along the following lines: “Thank you for your email. Please note that I regularly check email at 11am and 4pm. If your matter requires immediate attention, please call me at the following number. Thank you and have a great day.”

2) Two more TO-DO list tricks: a) Consider dividing your daily TO-DO list into two or more parts based on content, location, or time of day. For instance, I divide mine into “day and evening” sections, placing daytime items towards the top of the list. Alternately, you can experiment with dividing your TO-DO list into “work and personal” sections or into “in the office and on-the-road” sections. b) When it comes to longer-term wish list items (i.e. planting that garden, taking that dream vacation, cleaning that closet, or taking that painting class), try keeping them all on one “intention” list (perhaps as a document saved to your computer). Then, each week during your 15-minute personal planning session, scan the “intention” list and see how you might add a small piece of one intention to your daily TO-DO lists for the coming week. For instance, “call travel agent” jotted on Wednesday’s TO-DO list or “research classes at The New School” jotted on Thursday’s TO-DO list starts to make taking that dream vacation or that painting class MORE REAL in bite-size chunks.

3) A twist on eliminating piles: If folders aren’t your thing, consider using open bins. Any type of boxes or bins will do (i.e. plastic, cardboard, wicker). The trick is to make sure not to use lids, so it’s easy to throw things into the bins. This will eliminate the tendency to leave papers accumulating out in the open on desktops or counter tops. You can assign names to the bins just as you might do to folders: “the action bin” and “the catch-all bin”, and you can put off sorting the bins until they start to fill. If you’re looking for something important, the worst that can happen is that you’ll have to sort through one or two bins (rather than looking all over the house). For young kids, try making tossing items in bins into a fun game.

If you have more organizing tricks that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment to this blog below…

To learn more about personal coaching, visit www.JZBcoaching.com.

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THIS WEEK’S ZOOMLETTER: 4 OF MY FAVORITE ORGANIZING TRICKS

2) TOUCH E-MAIL ONCE: The old rule about touching papers once applies to e-mail, too. If your e-mail inbox feels like an overwhelming TO-DO list, it’s time to stop using e-mails as visual reminders that lie around like piles of paper. When opening an e-mail, commit to do 1 of 3 things: a) delete it, b) reply to it (if doing so will take less than 1 minute), or c) make a note on a separate daily TO-DO list to respond later. This eliminates the need to continually scan through e-mails or re-read them (both big time-wasters), because you rest assured that if an e-mail has been opened, either it has been acted upon or has been “captured” as an action item on your TO-DO list. Keep in mind, too, that in many cases, time spent deliberating over how to craft an e-mail “to strike just the right tone” can be cut in half by picking up the phone.

2) SCRAP THE LONG TO-DO LIST: A lengthy TO-DO list that includes everything from work meetings to salon appointments to grocery items to longer-term wish items (like finally planning that dream vacation) can overwhelm the sanest of us. Instead of keeping one long-running TO-DO list, commit to putting aside 15 minutes once a week for a “personal planning session”. I like to hold mine on Fridays. Every Friday, I transfer my work appointments and personal appointments for the upcoming week onto individual, daily TO-DO lists (this is a snap if you use an electronic PDA, but if you’re like me and do it longhand, a ringed steno notebook or weekly planner comes in handy). After the appointments are in, I add other action items to each day, according to what errands I want to run and where I’ll be that week. For instance, I generally add an item like “work out at the gym” most weekday mornings, while I might add “do laundry” to Thursday’s list and “buy groceries” to Tuesday’s list. This way, items aren’t left floating on a long list, but rather, have a day of the week assigned to each of them. Another nice thing about taking the 15 minutes for a planning session once a week is getting to scan the upcoming week from a 30,000-foot view, allowing a vantage point to plan ahead. For instance, if I see “corporate presentation” on Wednesday afternoon, I can make sure to add “prepare handouts” to Tuesday’s TO-DO list.

3) ELIMINATE PILES: When opening mail or sorting papers, keep 4 items close by as a short-term “filing system”: a) a garbage can, b) a folder labeled “catch-all”, c) a folder labeled “action”, and d) your daily TO-DO lists (or PDA). The most obvious is the garbage can – for items that can be tossed.  (As a wise reader points out, ALL clean office paper, receipts, cardboard, inserts etc. should be recycled, and not tossed into the garbage can). The “catch-all” folder comes in handy for items that don’t require action but may be good to hold onto for future reference (i.e. coupons, notices, receipts, etc). Alternately, for items that require action (i.e. bills, invitations, etc.), file them in the “action” folder and make a note – right then and there – on your TO-DO list of the action you want to take (i.e. pay insurance bill or RSVP to Jane’s birthday party). When it comes time to take the action, you’ll know just where to find the bill or the invitation — tucked away safely in the “action” folder. After the action has been taken, you can transfer the bill or the invitation to the “catch-all” folder (for safe-keeping, if you want to hold onto them). This filing method eliminates clutter on counter tops, takes the pressure off needing to sort or file upfront (since you only have two folders to contend with), and means you always know where important papers are (either in the “action” folder or in the “catch-all” folder). Once a month or so, carve out some time to go through the catch-all folder, discarding some items and transferring others to longer-term filing systems as needed (for example, if you save statements or bills for tax purposes).

4) ADD A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR: As helpful as a TO-DO list and a fab organizing system can be, nothing beats a sense of humor when it comes to feeling good in the midst of the crazy-busy lives most of us lead. Cut yourself some slack, be kind to yourself and to others, and remember to laugh when the best laid plans go awry or something falls through the cracks. Others will appreciate you for it, and you’ll add years to your life and quality to those years.

As a personal coach, I help busy individuals self-style approaches to taming “overwhelm”, finding time, and keeping organized. If you have a valuable tip for doing any of the above, I would love to learn about it and share it with our readers. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Here’s to being human and having fun,

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if i make it through this week, successfully…i am a fucking rock star.  period.  i will elaborate later.  think positive and good thoughts my direction!