PROCRASTINATION

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"Procrastination is the thief of time. ~Edward Young"

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, so I took the week off.
...OK,OK that was really my rationalization for PROCRASTINATION.

Procrastination really gets me down on myself. Procrastination only make the task at hand harder and more stressful to complete.

I won't bore you with my stories. Suffice it to say, that I remember a lot of instances when my Procrastination created larger issues for myself. When I procrastinate, I feel disappointed in myself and that I have somehow failed myself and sometimes others.

I Google searched "procrastination" and found loads of sites with good information.
Check some of them out:

sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html

www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030823-000001.html

www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/procrastination.html

In a nutshell, we procrastinate because the job or task at hand is -

1. Difficult - the task seems hard to do; we naturally tend to avoid difficult things in favor of those which seem easy to us.

2. Time-consuming - the task will take large blocks of time, and large blocks of time are unavailable until the weekend.

3. Lack of knowledge or skills - no one wants to make mistakes, so wait until you learn how before you start.

4. Fears - everyone will know how you screwed up.

We can overcome procrastination by -

1. Realize you are delaying something unnecessarily.

2. Discover the real reasons for your delay. List them.

3. Dispute those real reasons and overcome them. Be vigorous.

4. Begin the task.

Sounds easy, but for those of us who are PROCRASTINATORS, it is NOT. Check out the links above for more detailed explanations and solutions. (The Causes and Solutions to Procrastination above are from the calpoly link above.)

Click this you tube link for a great visual interpretation of PROCRASTINATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXziurFkQxM

In college, one of my sorority sisters (Thanks Sheri Costa, wherever your are) gave each person attending one of our weekly meetings "A Round Tuit".

This is a Round Tuit. Guard it with your life.

Tuits are hard to come by, especially the round ones. It will help you become a much more efficient worker. For years you've heard people say "I'll do that when I get a round tuit." So now that you have one, you can accomplish all those things you put aside until you get
a Round Tuit.

source: www.quantumenterprises.co.uk/roundtuit/index.htm

Now you have NO EXCUSES!! Get to work....
See you next week.

Over Committment

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Getting back to my original outline from the March 22nd... The first cause for disorganization is OVER COMMITMENT. We all do it. If you have a job, a spouse, children, other family, and friends your already have a lot to balance. Add to that your kids school, their extra curricular activities, your extracurricular activities and you definitely have a lot of commitments. Nothing we do comes without what I call "ADD-ONS". Those are all the little extras that are attached to everything you're involved in like the phone chains, money collections, unnecessary meetings... BEWARE of ADD-ONS! They suck away your time and wreck your schedule!
When my kids were very young and I lived in another city, I attended a women's fellowship group. The women who opened each session was a gifted speaker and storyteller. One of the things I took away from one of her opening messages, was that we all have different obligations at different times in our lives. Our commitments need to match the stages in the different times in our lives. Otherwise, too much conflict and stress is created.
Easy to say, I know. Set rules for yourself and all those "attached" to you for the time commitments you and they make. For example limits need to be made on how many sports activities in which a child participates. It affects the whole family! Each family needs to decide what works for them. For me, it means picking volunteer commitments that work with the obligations to my family and work. There was a time when I chose to make large 2 year obligation for a volunteer commitment at my kid's school, but I chose to make that commitment when it would fit in with the particular stage in my (& my family's) lives. Simply put, I only take on one large volunteer task at a time and then will take on a few smaller ones during the year. The smaller ones will be "do it in a day" type things. Things that are a firm time obligation with not other strings attached like bringing food to someone or setting up an event on a particular day.
I have found it easier to say "No, I can't commit to that now, but (if it is something I feel compelled to do) I would like to next year when it will fit our family schedule better." or "No, this isn't something I can commit to now because I'm committed for XYZ." It is easy to feel justified saying "NO" if you have boundaries set up before you are asked to commit to something. ...and don't forget, you can always say, " Can you give me some time to think about it. I need to make sure I'm not over committing." Also, don't forget to get some definite answers on what does this commitment entail both time wise and otherwise.

Making Progress

Although I thought this week was going to be a "light" work week, it ended up being pretty busy because I decided to jump in and start some of those organization projects I've been thinking about...
Two weeks ago, I attended the Club Organize 2 seminar give by the local Nashville chapter of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers)(naponashville.com). I came away totally motivated and full of ideas. Also, I was happy to find out I have been heading in the right direction in terms of becoming ORGanized. I was just lacking some of the tools. Today I want to share some of the ideas Ihave learned and how I've used them to help me become more organized.
Most of my disorganization comes from the mountains of papers that are accumulated in my office. Admittedly, I am a pack rat. I hold on to papers, magazines, etc. afraid I might need them later. It has been a goal of mine to get over that fear and over the past couple of years I have had some success at conquering the Paper Chase. However, I have never quite seen the light. That is, until Cynthia Lindsey, CPO (Certified Professional Organizer) demonstrated the FreedomFiler filing system. She recommends the FreedomFiler system's easy filing and retrieval of papers. The key word here is RETRIEVAL! I was great at setting up files, but half the time, was not able to remain consistent in filing like items under the same heading or remembering under which heading I had filed an item. It was like a light bulb going on when I realized the object of the game was not just finding a place to put the paper, but being able to quickly find that paper again!!! Sounds silly, but, when I think about the number of hours I've spent looking for that certain paper, it was like a huge load was lifted off my back. I GOT IT- FINALLY!! Contact Cynthia at organizingease@bellsouth.net if you are interested in finding out more about the Freedom Filer system.

As long as I am giving "Shameless Plugs" - the term Lisa York (CPO) used frequently during the Club Organize 2 seminars when recommending a product or service that would be a valuable tool to the seminar attendees, I would like to suggest that you check out www.plannerpads.com . If your day planner, calendar, pda, outlook, hasn't been quite doing it for you, then this planner deserves a shot. I've used a planner since my first job over 30 years ago. Even during the years I was a stay-at-home mom, I still relied on my Day-Timer. Of course, I've tried lots of planners over the years. Outlook is good, but I'm not always in front of the computer. Using Outlook and a Day-Timer for appointments seemed like a duplication of effort for me. Appointments and schedules change too fast and I'm not always able to access a computer from everywhere. Using a PDA was not successful for me when it came to scheduling appoinments. I need to see the whole week in big letters that I can read. I put appointments on the wrong date or time more than once, when using a PDA as my appoinment book. The visual is too important for me! For the last couple of years, I have used a combination of a basic spiral bound appointment book (At A Glance), Outlook and Motorola Q for contact information, e-mails, communication, and reminders. (I do not use the internet function of my Motorala Q. I just don't want to access or be accessable to people or information 24/7.) I've personalized the appointment book by designing my own template with a TO DO list column and a PHONE CALLS column. I clip it to the front of my appointment book so I can add to the list whenever I thought of something I had to do or someone I needed to call. Even though the system seems to work pretty well, I still have several things to keep track of. It looks a little unprofessional and can be cumbersome from time to time. The Planner Pad does just what it says it will do - funnel your schedule from broad categories to tasks to actual scheduled time on your calendar. It does it on a double page spread for each week that is easy to visualize. How cool is that?!

The last tip of the day is something I thought of on my own. As an interior designer, I am a magazine and catalog junkie. Stacks of magazines and catalogs would accumulate in my office until I would have a cleaning frenzy and throw out all the magazines and catalogs I no longer needed. (Sometimes that would be an entire 40 gallon garbage can.) To keep the accumulation to a minimum, I set up a plastic file box with pend-a-flex dividers - one for magazines and one for catalogs. Each folder was labeled by magazine title or catalog name and sorted alphabetically. Now when I get a new magazine of catalog, I just file the new one in the file box and automatically throw out the old one. For magazines, I tear out any pages I need to save and put them in a box so I can sort the pages file them in my Design Ideas notebook. There are a couple of magazines that I just cannot throw out. For those, I have a time limit. For example, there are some magazines that just need to be saved for future reference. I only allow myself to keep a magazine for 1 year. After that, it is old news and I have to either tear out pertinent pages or throw it away!
Hope you get some inspiration from these ideas. I'd love to share your ideas too.

Causes of disORGanization

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In my opinion, there are four main causes for disorganization in our lives.

1. Over Commitment
   
2. Procrastination
3. Too much "stuff"
   
4. Failure to Plan
   

To some extent, all of the above are under our own control. Obviously, there are times when "things happen" and one just has to do the best he/she can under the circumstances.

There have been many times in my life when I felt there is just no time to plan or think. I had let my life get cluttered with commitments, with undone projects, and just too much "stuff". I was totally overwhelmed and felt like I was doing well just to get through the day. My life was just one giant TO DO list! It is those times when we are feeling most overwhelmed and anxious that we do need to STOP take a deep breath and re-group.

But even after re-grouping do you just repeat the pattern of cluttering up your life again. Are you doomed to keep repeating that pattern over and over again. Remind me again- The definition of insanity is....?

The hardest thing is recognizing when all the plates we have been balancing are about to crash to the ground. Or better yet, how can we avoid letting our lives spin out of control? Why do we continue to repeat patterns that lead up to a crash? Follow this blog and we'll continue to analyze the issue of how our lives become disorganized and what we can do to stop repeating the same patterns over and over again.

Your comments are welcome!!

Blogger Newbie

Hi- I'm a blogger newbie and am excited to be able to share and learn ideas about ORGanizing Solutions for Life. This is not just ideas for physically organizing ones life, but ideas about mentally organizing ones life. Wouldn't it be great to unload all that mental baggage we carry around about things that have been left undone, unresolved, unfinished...? I'll be sharing my ideas about my journey towards getting my own life ORG'd over the past 20 something years and how that has ultimately has become my work and company. For years, I thought it was all about getting the space I lived in organized, but I have finally come to the conclusion that mental and physical ORGanization are inextricably linked. Share your ideas with me as I will share mine with you.