4. Finding Time and Staying Motivated

SOME PEOPLE HAVE TROUBLE GETTING STARTED. Others have trouble sticking with a goal. And still others have difficulty finishing up. This chapter will show you how to make time to organize, motivate you to start organizing, and help you finish strong. We’ll cover the I (involve others), more of the M (make small steps), P (plan to continue), and dip into L (let go without regrets) from the SIMPLIFY acronym in chapter two.

CREATING TIME FOR REORGANIZING

You may have great intentions to reorganize, but if you don’t make time to do the work, your intentions will never translate into actions. Here are a few different approaches to making time to organize. You can get started using one approach and switch to a different approach as needed if your life situation changes. When you break down your organizing plans into specific measurements of time, whether it is a number of minutes per day, a number of days per week, or simply one marathon afternoon per month, you are making small steps toward your organizing goal. That’s the M in SIMPLIFY. When you make a regular commitment to these steps on your calendar, you are planning how you will continue to organize until you reach your goals. This is the P in SIMPLIFY.

Choose the Same Time Daily

This approach makes reorganizing a habit, like drinking your tea or coffee, going to the gym, or meditating. This approach takes away the decision; you just do it automatically after a while. And when I say “daily,” I mean on a regular schedule. Your goal might be reorganizing just three times a week, a schedule you know you can easily maintain.

If you choose this schedule, you may want to use the “thirty-minute” approach so you can still carry on with your other obligations and don’t get bogged down in the organizing. Whenever you start organizing, set a timer for thirty minutes, or whatever short time period is comfortable to you, and work until the timer goes off. The idea here is simply to get yourself started so you can feel and see the difference in just a short period of time. Some people use a certain number of songs as their “timer.” They turn on the radio or recorded music and work through their preset number of songs. You could do the same with a book recording, working through a chapter on the recording. The extra benefit here is that you might just reorganize a little longer because you love the book or the music so much that you don’t want to stop!

Customize Each Week on Your Calendar

Sit down each Sunday and decide when you can work on reorganizing this week. The nice part about this approach is that it makes reorganizing easier when your schedule is inconsistent, busy, or involves a fair amount of travel or if you have a varied work schedule. The key here is to write it down on your calendar so you make the commitment on paper, not just in your head. The next page has two examples of how you might identify and designate time to organize if you have a varied schedule. Adding structure to your week can help you pin down which day could be downsizing day or which part of the day would work best for you.

Examples of Customized Weeks

Use the Blitz Approach

This is when you devote a large block of time to reorganizing. It could be one day each month, such as a Saturday, for example. You’ll make a commitment and keep it. And then you only have to worry about reorganizing this one time monthly, not every day or every week. The downside is that projects can take longer, but if you have no particular time frame in mind to be finished, this is a fine option. The upside is that you focus for a dedicated period of time and get a lot accomplished at once. One woman and her husband decided to work on their downsizing projects on various Saturdays after they came back from breakfast with friends. This became a habit, something they barely thought about, so the downsizing didn’t take over their lives.

Decide on a Monthly Theme

To keep yourself going, make up a calendar chart so you work on just one room or space each month. You have the entire month to make that space your own, reorganized, and potentially with a new purpose. The monthly theme is a way to break down the entire house into manageable projects and keep you focused on completing one space at a time.

Many people tell me that when they start reorganizing, they move all around the house, attacking this room and then moving on to the next before they fully finish the first. They keep going from room to room without fully finishing. Eventually they get frustrated and give up. A theme can help you stay focused and help you finish strong. If you don’t finish a room in a month, carry that room over to the next month. Don’t start a new project until you finish your current project.

OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION

Often, scheduling time to organize on your calendar is all you need to do to prompt yourself to start. But there are times when you might be tempted to procrastinate on your organizing project. As I go through this list of reasons why we procrastinate, think about a time recently when you knew you’d procrastinated on a project. Why did you? And most important, how did you get yourself started? Try that approach again. Once something works for you, it’s worth repeating. We often try to find a new way when we really don’t need to; go with what has worked in the past. If that doesn’t work, seek out new ways by talking with friends, coaches, colleagues, and family.

Here are some ideas for overcoming the common excuses if you’re stuck and can’t get started again.

It’s boring: Make it more interesting by inviting a friend, working in short spurts, or alternating a fun organizing activity (going through memories) with the boring one (going through papers).

Financial worries: Work first on getting key items appraised, or look them up online to get a sense of what you could gain financially if you sold some items. Also understand that you don’t need to buy new shelving units, fancy containers, or new décor to organize a room. Work with what you have and remember your goal is to get rid of stuff, not acquire new things.

Lack of goal or deadline: Create a deadline. See page 67 for specific ways to effectively manufacture a deadline.

Past failure experience: Perhaps you tried to get organized in the past and didn’t have much success. A lot has changed since your last experience simply because you decided to seek out expertise and bought this book. Keep it by your side. You can do this; you have an expert right here in your hands. Just because you tried something before and it wasn’t as successful as you wanted doesn’t mean you can’t try it again. And, this time, you are probably more ready than you were before to make changes.

Not knowing where to start: Remember the M in SIMPLIFY—make small steps. Keep breaking down that big project into smaller and smaller steps until you find a step that makes you say, “I can do that.” Then take things one step at a time and acknowledge that you are making real progress every time you complete a step, even if it’s small.

Fear of making the wrong decision: Sometimes we feel overwhelmed because we put pressure on ourselves to make the first attempt be the only attempt. We want the first attempt to be our best, perfect solution. And we sometimes think that if we can’t do our best, why bother to start? So we don’t and things stay the same.

To get past this fear, change your language. Give yourself permission to say, “This is a rough, rough draft,” or it is the “first attempt of many,” or “I’m just going to take a crack at it.” And then believe it. Gradual results over time are just as valid, and often easier to maintain, than a sweeping change. So if your ultimate goal is to give your daughter a redecorated room, but you haven’t found the right furniture yet, think temporary. What can you do for her now so she can enjoy her uncluttered room? Do that thing, and think of this as temporary, a rough draft, a first attempt—with much more to come later. Keep track of your ideas for the future in a notebook so you don’t lose all that creative thinking.

Consult chapter six for a list of questions that will help you make no-regrets decisions. Ask yourself these questions as you are deciding whether to keep an item. They will help you make a decision that you can feel good about. You can also give yourself permission to delay a decision, which will take some of the pressure off. Put the item in question in a probation box and come back to it later.

Too much/too little time: When I work with people who are working or volunteering part time, with mothers working at raising children, and with home-based office workers, I sometimes find we have to put a little more structure in their days. They enjoyed the freedom and flexibility at first, but too much flexibility can be difficult to manage. I went through this when I started my own business. So we add some structure (and time) for home or office organization into the days. They are happier. They get more done. And the tasks that are part of everyday living are less of a big deal to get done; more time is spent on family time, fun, the passion of the work, etc. So consider how much structure you have to your days. Maybe you need a little more. Go back to page 59 for ideas on how to work organizing into a varied schedule.

FINDING MOTIVATION

You’ve decided where to start and when you will organize. Now how do you follow through and finish the journey? Here are some ideas to help you stay motivated and accomplish your goals.

Organizing requires a lot of mental and physical energy. These ideas will help to keep you motivated during those times when you feel too tired, too overwhelmed, or too frustrated to continue.

Find a Great Place for Your Donations

It’s far easier to let go of your belongings and items you once cherished when you know the item will be going to a worthy new home. You can take comfort knowing that the object will enrich someone else’s life as much as it did yours. See chapter six for specific ideas on how to find places to donate.

When you donate, you are involving others in your organizing process—the first I in SIMPLIFY. Donating to a group close to your heart will also help you let go without regrets—the L in SIMPLIFY. You will have no regrets about giving something away when you know it is furthering a cause you believe in.

Find Your Inspiration

You no doubt have a goal for reorganizing. Use this goal as your motivation. Make your goal tangible in the form of a picture, an inspirational quote, a before picture, or a vision board. One man I worked with was chief babysitter for his grandson. He wanted to reorganize his home office/radio hobby space into a space for his grandson to learn about the radio hobby, so on his desk he kept a photo of himself with his grandson to remind himself of why he was working on the room.

Other ways to stay inspired:

• Tell your friends.

• Spend time volunteering wherever you are donating items.

• Journal. Use this statement as a writing prompt: When my room is more organized and simplified, I will be able to …

• Tell your support groups or community of colleagues.

• Reread a chapter of this book

• Take an organizing or downsizing class while you’re working on your space.

• Hire a Certified Organizer Coach® or Certified Professional Organizer® to work with you once a month. They will inspire you to keep working and praise you for all you’ve done.

Work With Someone

Unless you are a very private person, you may find it helpful to occasionally invite someone to work with you in certain rooms or when sorting particular belongings. This is the first I in SIMPLIFY—involve others.

For example, when dealing with sentimental belongings, it might be easier for you to make decisions if you have someone to tell the stories to. Telling stories revives the memories and allows you to let go of the object.

If you know someone who could possibly use the items you are purging, consider inviting them over to select things they would like before you donate the items. One couple I worked with was downsizing for a move. Their son was about to get married, so they asked their future daughter-in-law to work with them in the kitchen with the idea that she could select items for her new kitchen from the items they were parting with. Imagine how good the couple felt knowing that the things they were getting rid of would go to such a welcoming new home (not to mention how much they enjoyed the bonding time with a new family member).

Women will often invite over another woman friend or friends when it’s time to go through clothing. Choose someone who will be honest about what really does or doesn’t look good on you. If you want to pass your clothes on to your friend, choose someone who is your same size and has admired your taste in clothes.

Choose an organizing buddy who will not judge but will gently assist you in making your decisions. You’re reorganizing for you, not for someone else. And working with someone who is even slightly judgmental will cause decisions you’ll regret later. You need to take your time.

Organizing is like finances with couples. One of you may be a saver, and one spends more freely. One of you finds it easy to get rid of things; the other holds on to things for sentimental or practical reasons. If your partner has the opposite disposition when it comes to organizing, it can be hard for you to understand his or her point of view. Both skills are needed during your process if you are downsizing, for example. Be aware of your differences if you choose to reorganize with your partner.

Manufacture Deadlines

To get yourself started and to keep yourself going on this reorganizing journey, it’s helpful to build in some deadlines. If you set deadlines around important dates, it is a bit harder to break those deadlines than it is to break the ones you arbitrarily set on the calendar.

Examples of manufactured deadlines include:

Holidays: You could decide to go through all your jewelry before a certain holiday because you want to pass along your old favorite pieces of jewelry to the women in your family.

Family reunions: You can make it your goal to go through all your photos before a family reunion. Then you’ll either have a box of photos to give to each relative, or you’ll have made an album or scrapbook that you can show to family members.

Visitors: Welcoming guests into your home is a great motivation for organizing. It’s part of the I in SIMPLY—involving others. One woman reorganized her guest room in time for visitors who were coming at Thanksgiving. The room had been where she put everything she didn’t have a permanent home for.

Another woman decided to invite her friends over to celebrate her birthday. She called them ahead of time so it was a firm commitment and she would be accountable for completing the job before her birthday.

Another woman reorganized her kitchen as well as her household central (papers/bills system) in time for her quarterly lunch with her female friends.

Appointments: One woman made a weekly appointment at her consignment shop until she finished weeding out all the clothes. Being accountable to others can be a very strong source of motivation.

Take a look at your calendar for the next few months. What manufactured deadlines can you come up with?

Rewards, Big and Small

It’s tempting to dream of a big reward or gift you’ll give yourself after you’ve finished reorganizing your entire home. I suggest you think small this time. Your first reward can be an emotional one and one you give yourself: the gift of time—time to focus on yourself and your move into your next life chapter. People often find, too, that the reward of a clear space is reward enough and keeps them motivated to move on to the next step. It’s important to break down an overwhelmingly large project into small steps. Reward yourself for completing each step. You know yourself best, and so you’ll know just how many rewards you’ll need along the way to spur you on. Reorganizing is a lot more enjoyable if you have glimmers of fun and hope along the way to enjoy the journey!

Think about a new reward as you complete each project. Research shows humans are far more motivated by smaller, more frequent rewards rather than waiting for one bigger reward at the end of the major project. So if the major project is reorganizing your home and your life, reward yourself each time you complete a smaller related project.

Ideas for rewards. Here are some rewards my clients have given themselves:

• Time to work on their organizing projects—which results in the most wonderful feelings, once a cleared space is done. The payoff is the freeing feeling you have when you see the completed space and get to enjoy your vision for the room.

• Dinner out at a nicer-than-usual restaurant

• Wine with friends

• A new book

• Inviting friends over to enjoy the new space created by
reorganizing

• New speakers for music

• A print to hang on the wall of the new studio or craft space

• A museum trip

• A concert

• A walk outside

Certainly, you will feel rewarded as you donate your previously favorite belongings to give them new homes. What can you do for yourself, though, to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment before you move on to your next reorganizing project?

Hire a Certified Professional Organizer® or a Certified Organizer Coach®

Professional organizers are accountability partners who can keep you going when reorganizing gets difficult or when life seems to get in the way. We know how to get you started, keep you motivated, and assist you to the finish line when you are not sure you can make it. We work on the systems to prevent the clutter from returning. We work on moving obstacles out of your path. We work on motivation. See the Resources page at the back of the book for more information on working with a Certified Professional Organizer®.

Now that you have your motivation and a structured plan for when you will organize, you can begin the actual work of reorganizing. The first step is to take a tour of your home to evaluate it and set objectives (the first E and O of REORGANIZE). I’ll walk you through this process in the next chapter.