Party anyone?

July is “National Family Reunion Month.” (Who knew there was such a thing?!)

Our family just held one of our largest family reunions ever! With over 60 people, ages 2 to 86, in attendance, pulling this event off took a ton of planning and patience.

Here are some practical tips to make your own family reunion the success you want it to be:

1. Select an event chair, or better yet, a couple of co-chairs to handle the planning and coordination. Depending on the size of the reunion, you may only need one, but for a group of 60, it was great to spread the event coordination around a bit.
2. Decide on a time of year and venue. Our reunion is always held around the 4th of July (easy travel for everyone, generally not a lot of competing events like there would be in the November/December time period) and it’s always held at the same place. Choose the venue carefully. If someone’s home can manage it, great. If you need to rent a space, be sure to get that done early. If you are coordinating people from across the country, be kind and settle on middle geographic ground.
3. Set up early and frequent communication. The more communication there is around your family reunion, the better opportunity to get people excited and eager to attend. If possible, include some fun stories from previous reunions to keep people’s attention. Be careful to include communication styles that everyone can participate in. For example, although e-mail is efficient, not everyone uses e-mail. If e-mail is your chosen mode of communication, make sure someone is assigned to pass on the pertinent information to those who don’t get e-mail.
4. Create a spreadsheet or mind map including everything that needs to be in place for a successful reunion. Be sure to include:
  1. Food: Solicit volunteers to bring specific dishes or categories (i.e. appetizers, main course, vegetables, dessert, bread, beverages, etc.).
  2. Games: Solicit volunteers to manage entertainment for all ages. For example, sidewalk chalk and bubbles for the younger ones, badminton for the older kids, and video games for all ages.
  3. Functional needs for the event: For example, determine who will be decorating, ensuring sufficient silverware/plates/glasses are available, making certain all the potluck food makes it to the serving table, manages the trash, and so on and so on and so on.
5. Solicit volunteers . . . and lots of them. When John Heywood quoted “many hands make light work” he probably wasn’t thinking about family reunions at the time, but the phrase holds true. Everyone (age appropriate) should be part of the planning and execution process. Too few people trying to handle too many things may result in a less than successful event.
6. Ask for feedback. When holding any kind of event, it’s great to solicit feedback from attendees. What did they like? What didn’t they like? What would the like to see more of? Less of? Was the timing right? Was the venue appropriate? Knowing what worked and didn’t work will make next year’s event that much more successful!

Hopefully a well-planned and executed family reunion will allow you to enjoy and rekindle connections to your extended family.

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

206-707-3458

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Area Chapter President

Institute for Challenging Disorganization, Six Certificates of Education

Are you prepared?

Nothing lets you know you aren’t prepared for life little disasters, or big ones for that matter, like preparing your will/trust or changing your homeowner’s insurance. We’ve done both within the last nine months. It was a great wake-up call that I needed to get some things in better order.

First off, when we processed our will/trust documents, the attorney needed tons and tons of information, including all our financial assets (bank accounts, retirement accounts, 401k accounts, investments, etc.), real estate holdings, life insurance policies, etc. Fortunately, I had most of that stored on a handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet so it was pretty easy to pull together.

Next we looked into our homeowners insurance and found that we were possibly woefully mis-insured. We had a lot of insurance, but was it allocated correctly (liability vs umbrella policy)? Would it cover individual items or just blanket coverage? Did we have everything appropriately insured (specific jewelry, etc.). Again, an eye-opening project. Several years ago I took pictures of all the rooms in our home, highlighting individual items that may be of significant value. I felt really good about getting that done . . . . . but I haven’t updated it since. My guess is that our TV has changed, for sure the computer, and who knows what else! If something were to happen and we were asked “what computer got stolen?” I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to give them the current make and model. Clearly I have some work to do.

To that end, I started poking around to see if there were appropriate, ready-made life and home inventory packages available. Sure enough I found a few.

Mind you, this is a new project for me too and I haven’t tried any of them, but I thought I’d share what I’ve found in case you are facing the same project I am.

Life In A Case

“LifeinCase™ organizes documents into an intuitive five-part system: Personal, Medical, Property, Estate, and Financial each featuring a durable file folder and handy checklist of suggested documents to store.” (from lifeincase.com)

HomeZada Home Management Software

“HomeZada allows you to budget and manage projects, inventory your home, set and track maintenance reminders, and even offers tools for selling or buying a home. From the dashboard, you can track your home’s value, taxes, maintenance expenses, assets, and so on.” (from www.hammerandmoxie.com)

Life Documents Organizer by Smead

“The Life Documents Organizer Kit helps you organize and store key life documents such as wills & trusts, health care directives, investment and retirement plans, marital documents and contact information.” (from www.smead.com)

Life Organizer

“Produced as a three-ring-binder, Life Organizer includes 8 tabs with pockets, 15 plastic sleeves for storing copies of important documents, and 1 sleeve to hold 2 DVDs for photo and video inventory, plus dozens of worksheets, checklists, and pages for contact information of family members and professionals.

Whether you’re a baby boomer planning your estate, parent with a new family, or recent grad just beginning to earn an income, it’s a beautiful and helpful organizer for anyone at any age.” (from www.amazon.com)

In addition to accurate records of who we are and what we own, these organizing products may give us something even more valuable . . . . peace of mind.

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

206-707-3458

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Area Chapter President

Institute for Challenging Disorganization, Six Certificates of Education

Tired of being stuck at the office?

Have you been getting the most out of your summer so far? Some of my clients don’t take advantage of the extra time with their friends and family (no school, vacations, etc.) because they aren’t organized enough to feel comfortable leaving the office. Possibly adding some efficiency to your every day processes will help you get out of the office with a clear conscience.

Here are some quick tips to get you out the door faster:

Begin with a “to do” list. Whether you produce your list the afternoon before, or the morning of, each day should start with a clear picture of what needs to get done.
- Tackle the hardest things first while you are full of energy.
- Prioritize your list. Determine what is urgent, important and possibly just aspirational. Chances are everything on your list may not get done. (Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle)
- Work in short, concentrated spurts. Working a solid 45 minutes, then taking a 5 minute break is generally more productive than working three hours straight.
Delegate when possible. My guess is that everything on your list doesn’t have to be done by you. If you have the support structure available, use it. Caution: Make sure you can truly let the project go. Micromanaging something you’ve delegated may take more time than doing it yourself. When delegating, ensure the person assisting you has all the tools to do the job efficiently and correctly.
Determine what is “good enough.” Does the analysis need to come with a pie chart? If not, let the pie chart go. Does the budget need to be broken down into 100 categories or will 10 suffice? Ensure that the scope of the project is covered, but determine if the extra time to go into more detail, etc. is really necessary.
Be open and clear with others about your time commitments. If you generally don’t leave the office before 6:00, changing your pattern to leaving at 4:30 without clearly communicating the change to your associates may prove to be frustrating and unproductive for them. For example, I had a boss that was always in at 6:30 AM. If I wanted uninterrupted time with him, I came in early. I relied on his schedule to get my work done. In addition, be respectful of your co-worker’s schedules. Don’t schedule meetings that may extend outside of the reasonable working hours: let’s say no meetings before 8:30 or starting after 3:30.
If you want to leave the office at 4:30, start the exit process early, maybe at 4:00 – 4:15. Chances are it will take some time to shut down your computer, have those last few-minute conversations with your co-workers, clear off your desk, etc.
Resist the urge to do “just one more thing” as you see your exit time approaching. As long as the critical tasks have been completed, give yourself permission to leave the office knowing the world will continue to rotate and the tasks will happily await your attention the next day. 🙂

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

206-707-3458

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Area Chapter President

Institute for Challenging Disorganization, Six Certificates of Education

Have you lost your mojo?

About a month ago I lost my mojo. You know what mojo is, right? According to the Cambridge Dictionary it’s “a quality that attracts people to you and makes you successful and full of energy.”

Harley visited the Everett Library weekly for a Paws To Read program.

I can trace it back to the day we lost our 12-year old Boxer, Harley. He was one of the best dogs we’ve ever had and his passing left a huge hole in my heart. Nothing else seemed to matter, I just wallowed in sadness. For those of you that aren’t close to your pets, you won’t get it; for those of you that consider pets a part of the family, you will.

Anyway, I lost my mojo. I failed to see the importance in important things. I lost my drive. I started focusing on easy, non-critical tasks. Lots of things just didn’t seem to matter. Well, that can only go on so long before things start to fall apart and something has to change. That trigger for change was yesterday. I decided to acknowledge that I’d been coasting for a month and that I needed a swift kick in the rear to get back on track.

What can we do to get our mojo back when we’ve lost it?

Acknowledge and respect the event that caused the change. Give yourself permission to have changed your behavior for a while. We can’t be at 110% all the time. There are times we are just tired, fed up, frustrated, sad, angry . . . whatever. Once the trigger is identified and acknowledged, it somehow loses some of it’s power.
Decide that “enough is enough.” Most of us can’t coast forever. Our families deserve more. Our business can’t support it. Take that first step toward change.
Make a list of things that need to be done. Fortunately, and most importantly, my personal life was in pretty good shape, but I was way behind with business responsibilities. I’d not been keeping up on my weekly blogging, my newsletter hadn’t gone out, I’d missed some teleclasses that needed to be made up. There were just some things that NEEDED to be done to get back on track.
Find an accountability partner to help keep motivated. I’m fortunate to have a fantastic coaching partner that let me talk through the process and helped me determine my next steps to get on track. For example, today I committed to sending some personal notes and writing a blog. When I get done with both of those things, I will be sending her an e-mail. It’s nice to have someone, besides myself, that’s interested in my success.

Yesterday I was pretty down on myself. Today, I feel like a new person.

Motivated. Encouraged. Successful. Empowered.

It was not an easy transition, but I made it. And if you find yourself in the very same place, you can get it back too!

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

206-707-3458

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Area Chapter President

Institute for Challenging Disorganization, Six Certificates of Education

How do you learn stuff? Process and Interaction

As I mentioned in my blog post last week, I recently completed a year-long Coaching curriculum intended to increase the effectiveness of the organizing and consulting client work I do. One of the things that resonated most with me was an in-depth study of how we each individually learn and interpret our environments (learning modalities).

Denslow Brown, Master Certified Coach, breaks down learning modalities as follows:

Sense-based modalities (last week’s blog post covers these):

Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Tactile
Taste/Smell

Other significant ways people process information and interact with their surroundings:

Verbal (language)
Emotional
Cognitive
Intuitive

Each of us probably use all of these modalities at different times. Each of these modalities can be strong or weak within each individual, and can present as hypo-sensitive or hyper-sensitive.

Verbal (language): Involves the language center of the brain and includes both the spoken and written word.

Weak to strong indicators: Someone may be weak in this modality if they have aphasia (loss of language) or if their brain struggles with language processing. Alternatively, someone very gifted in the verbal modality may be an excellent teacher, linguist, or motivational speaker.

Emotional: Impacts how we interpret our feelings and connections with people, places, and things.

Weak to strong indicators: A person weak in the emotional modality may have difficulty perceiving, expressing, understanding, or managing emotions. People who are strong in this modality could include therapists (tapping into and expressing client emotions) and actors who can feel and emulate emotional connections.

Cognitive: Incorporates the processes of understanding and mental knowing.

Weak to strong indicators: Someone weak in this modality may not have the ability to think through processes or apply logic to situations. This could be the result of a medical condition, lack of confidence or training. Someone strong in this modality has the ability to “think outside the box” developing new concepts (inventor) and solving complex problems (mathematician).

Intuitive: Knowing something without proof or rationale. “You know what you know but don’t know why.”

Weak to strong indicators: A person that is weak in this modality potentially is unaware or not tuned into things that are not based on fact or reliable knowledge. Alternatively, a person strong in this modality may present as the person that always knows the right way to go at the fork in the road. They don’t know why they know, they just know.

Once I learned about all the different modalities, I used that knowledge to change how I interacted with my family, friends, and clients. I learned that I’m very much a verbal processor. I like to talk. Knowing that, I remind myself constantly to not interrupt or monopolize conversations. Alternatively, if a client is highly cognitive, I know I need to give them some extra time to process what I’ve said before moving on to the next subject. All this modality learning has allowed me to be much more in tuned to myself and others.

If this small bit of information has you curious, you may be interested in getting a copy of Denslow Brown’s Modalities Guide

Note: If you, or someone you know, could benefit from Life/ADHD coaching, please contact me. My passion is working with people to help them become the vision of who they want to be!

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

206-707-3458

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Area Chapter President

Institute for Challenging Disorganization, Six Certificates of Education

How do you learn stuff? Sense-Based Modalities

I recently completed a year-long Coaching curriculum (I’m so excited!). One of the things that resonated most with me was an in-depth study of how we each individually learn things and interpret our environments (learning modalities).

Denslow Brown, Master Certified Coach, breaks down learning modalities as follows:

Sense-based modalities:

Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Tactile
Taste/Smell

Other significant ways people process information and interact with their surroundings:

Verbal (language)
Emotional
Cognitive
Intuitive

Each of us probably use all of these modalities at different times. Each of these modalities can be strong or weak within each individual, and can present as hypo-sensitive or hyper-sensitive.

Personally, I found myself to be very strong in visual, kinesthetic, and verbal modalities. This partially explains why I’m pretty good with finding lost golf balls; why I have to be moving all the time; and the fact that I love to talk!

During this post, I’ll just give you a basic understanding of the sense-based modalities. The others will be covered next week.

Visual: How our eyes see things and our brain’s process the information.

Weak to strong indicators: If someone has a visual impairment or their brain doesn’t process visual cues (can’t “see” something that’s right in front of them), this modality may be weak for them. Alternatively, someone may present as strong in this modality if they can discern slight variations in visual cues (think artists, architects, etc.).

Auditory: How we hear and process through the brain’s auditory and language centers.

Weak to strong indicators: Like the visual modality, an auditory weakness can be based on a physical impairment or auditory processing problems. Conversely, someone who is strong in this modality will be able to excel in areas like music, interviewing, and psychotherapy where careful listening is required.

Kinesthetic (one of my favorites): Moving and engaging the body and how the body interacts with space.

Weak to strong indicators: Limited use of this modality may be caused by injury or age-related conditions causing diminished muscle control and lack of coordination. Strong kinesthetic modality will present in those that use their bodies with precision, like athletes, performance artists, etc.

Tactile: How things feel as experienced through the skin, hands, feet and tongue.

Weak to strong indicators: A person weak in this modality may have difficulty differentiating between textures, feeling hot vs cold, etc. Alternatively, those strong in this modality will tend to be those with very refined touch abilities like surgeons, massage therapists, etc.

Taste/Smell: Responding to odor or taste through the nose, mouth, and the olfactory center of the brain.

Weak to strong indicators: Aging and medical conditions may be the cause of missing or distorted abilities in this area. Those strong in this modality would present in occupations such as chef, sommelier, etc.

Taking a closer look at how my family, friends, and clients learned things and interpret the world around them changed how I communicate. For example because I’m very kinesthetic (as are some of my clients), if there is a crucial conversation that needs to take place, we will have the conversation while on a walk. Not only does it feel good, the information is processed more effectively!

If this small bit of information has you curious, you may be interested in getting a copy of Denslow Brown’s Modalities Guide

Note: If you, or someone you know, could benefit from Life/ADHD coaching, please contact me. My passion is working with people to help them become the vision of who they want to be!

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

206-707-3458

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Area Chapter President

Institute for Challenging Disorganization, Six Certificates of Education

Seasonal Closet Swap: A Closet Full Of Nothing To Wear?

Closets can be a huge headache or a great source of joy. Simplifying by downsizing and organizing can turn our closets from frustrating to functional.

How many times do we stand in front of our completely full closets and say “I can’t find a thing to wear!”?

The change of seasons gives us the perfect opportunity to take stock of our closets. When it’s time to move the winter things out (thankfully) and the summer things in (happily), take a few extra minutes to critically analyze each piece of clothing.

Ask yourself:

Do I love it and feel great when I wear it? Does it project the image I want people to have of me? (Love it?)
Did I use it this season or can I use it next season? (Use it?)
Am I keeping it because I feel guilty about spending money on something I really don’t use? Unfortunately, keeping a bad purchase doesn’t make it a better purchase. (Guilty purchase?)

If your answer is “yes” to #1 and #2, and “no” to #3 about everything in your closet, then you’re in good shape. If you can’t, then it’s time to take a serious look at reducing the items in your closet.

Because apparel items are so personal, sometimes it’s hard for us to be critical about what we should keep or get rid of. For this project, enlist the help of an honest and trusted friend to help you.

Use the following roadmap to help you de-clutter your closet, giving yourself a bit of breathing room.

Carve out enough time to go through the entire process.
If possible, purchase enough of the same style of hangers (plastic, wood, flocked, etc.) as you possibly can. Having all your apparel hanging at the same level will make it easier for your eye to focus on the item, not the disarray. You may want to also invest in multi-tiered hangers if you have multiple pairs of pants that you know you will be keeping. Pants on multi-tiered hangers take up much less space than if they are hung individually. If you are also hanging skirts, each style of hanger also comes in a clip version for this purpose.
Set up six boxes, bags, or staging areas:
1. KEEP: For items you are planning on keeping in your closet.
2. THROW: For items that are worn out, stained, etc.
3. GIVE: For items to give to people you personally know.
4. DONATE: For items in good repair that can be donated to a local charity.
5. ALTERNATE SIZE: For items that you love and will fit into within the next 6 months. Date the box/bag with a review date.
6. SEASONAL: For items you love, but won’t wear for several months.
Take everything out of the closet. Yes, everything. Even if you know you are keeping it you will (hopefully) be moving it to the new, uniform hanger style.
Sort your apparel by type: Work vs. Casual. Then fine-tune the sort by style or color: short sleeve vs. long sleeve, etc.; black, white, color, etc.
Touch every piece of clothing and ask yourself the three questions mentioned earlier: Love it? Use it? Guilty purchase?
Put the items you want to keep away on the new hangers and place them back in the closet in groupings that make sense to you: work; casual; sleeve length; color; etc.
Process the THROW/GIVE/DONATE/ALTERNATE SIZE/SEASONAL boxes, moving them to their appropriate new home.

Being organized reduces stress and saves time and money. This is never more true than in our closets where we need to create space for all the aspects of our lives from work to recreation. Plus, our closet is one of the first areas we see in the morning. Getting the organization right here will set you off on the right foot for the rest of the day!

Simple Garden Tool Organization

Well, Spring has certainly sprung around the great Pacific Northwest! The four consecutive days over 80 degrees recently got me thinking less and less about organizing inside the house and more and more about organizing outside the house. Specifically, organizing all the assorted lawn and garden tools and equipment tucked in various places: garage, shed, assorted outside storage nooks and crannies.

As with any organizing project, before we can get down to actual organizing, we need to know exactly what it is that we need to organize.

So, the first thing that needs to be done is to gather all your tools and equipment in the same place, putting “like-with-like.” For example, all the hand trowels need to go together, all the gloves need to be in one area, all the rakes need to be placed together. You get the idea.

Once you’ve placed like-with-like, decide if everything needs to be kept and, therefore, organized. Do you have far more rakes that you could possibly use? Can you donate a few? Are some of the hand trowels bent and rusted and need to be thrown away? Are there mismatched gloves that need to be thrown away? There is no need to plan on organizing things that really don’t need to be kept.

Once all the items are together, think about the space where you plan to keep your tools and accessories.

Is there an option for hanging a tool rack?
Do you need a free-standing option?
Would it help if the storage were mobile?

Once you’ve determined what will be organized and where the organization will take place, the fun part begins! How to corral everything. There are literally hundreds of storage options ranging from a simple nail in the wall to hang a trowel or a bag of gloves, all the way up to systems that cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Here are some options that fall in between:

For hand tools:

Free-standing option:

Wall organizer for large and small tools:

Moveable storage:

Wearable organizers:

5-gallon bucket organizer:

Combination large/small wall organizer:Everything is easier to do if we can find the tools we need for the job. There are many, many options for whatever you need to organize and wherever you need to organize it. Whatever your choice, the best advice I can give is to just get outside and enjoy this amazing place in which we live!

Note: All organizing tool images: Amazon.com.

Honoring Earth Day: How to Keep Mother Earth Happy and Healthy

“The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. For more information, visit www.earthday.org “

The three pillars of environmental responsibility: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Reducing the amount of waste we create and energy we consume is the most effective, and possibly simplest, way to help Mother Earth.

A few easy suggestions:

Reduce the amount of mail that comes in your home by unsubscribing from mail you don’t want or need. These websites can help you with that:
Reduce energy consumption (a big drain on the environment) by turning down the heat, shutting lights off, carpooling when possible, lowering the temperature on the water heater, washing your clothes on the “cold” setting, etc. Every little bit helps!
Create a network of friends and neighbors to borrow or lend items you don’t use frequently. For example, I have a table saw. Once I completed the project I purchased it for, I only use it a few times a year. I’d be happy to loan it to a friend or neighbor. What do you have in your house you could do the same with? (Facebook is a great way to get the word out.)

Finding a way to reuse what no longer serves in its original purpose is another great way to help the environment. (If you watch Flea Market Flip or any of those types of shows, you will also hear the term “upcycle”.)

How to do that?

Look at any sturdy packaging you may be about to throw away. Can it serve another purpose? Shoe boxes become drawer organizers. Empty cottage cheese containers become food storage. Tin cans become pencil cups (you may want to decorate them up a bit.) You get the idea.
Invest in reusable shopping bags. In addition to the kind the retainers sell, there are some really fun and practical choices on Amazon.
Use cloth vs paper napkins. The energy it takes to create a paper napkin is unbelievable! If you want the stats, click here. I would imagine the energy consumption to produce paper plates and plastic forks would be the same. Use “real” silverware and dishes whenever possible.
There are many, many great charities that support individuals that could really use what you don’t need. Do some research on what’s available in your area. Give where it feels good.

And then there’s recycling. Recycling has been around for long enough that most of us are in the groove. As a matter of fact, some cities are actually fining folks that don’t recycle and compost efficiently. Mother Earth thanks those cities from the bottom of her beautiful heart.

Some thoughts on this:

Check your local municipality for recycling guidelines . . . I’m amazed at how much they differ!
Go that extra step when looking to make a purchase and look for items made out of recycled products.

At Organize To Simplify, we are dedicated to giving back to others and the environment by celebrating Earth Day every day!

“Together we can help others and the environment by reducing, re-purposing, and recycling items you no longer need to lessen the long-term impact on our environment.”

How do you celebrate Earth Day?

Cindy Jobs

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

www.organizetosimplify.com

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Chapter President

Certified Premium Subscriber, Institute for Challenging Disorganization

Taxes are Taxing: Take Care Of Yourself!

It’s hard for me to believe, but the the first quarter of the year is already in the books and taxes are due next week. Hopefully you are one of the lucky, non-procrastinators that filed their taxes long ago and have done something fun with the huge refund the I.R.S. sent you.

Then there’s the rest of us for whom I offer the following.

You are not alone.

According to TheConversation.com approximately 30% of the 2014 taxes were anticipated to be filed in the final two weeks before the deadline. Why do we procrastinate?

Laziness: We just don’t want to do it. Who can’t see themselves in this one?
Thrill-Seeking: We think we work better under pressure. Generally we don’t.
Lack of Urgency: There’s no penalty for dropping them off at the post office at 11:59 PM on April 18th. Why hurry?
Availability of Extensions: Extensions don’t mean you have more time to PAY, just more time to file. If you are expecting money back, why extend?
We Don’t Expect a Refund: If you aren’t getting money back, why give Uncle Sam our money a minute earlier than we have to?

Well, whether we expect a refund or not, there is still stress and anxiety involved in filing our taxes at the last minute. Knowing that, some additional self-care may be in order.

What the heck am I talking about? Well, when I work with clients and they’ve completed a task that is hard, stressful, anxiety-ridden, emotionally taxing, or one they’ve procrastinated on, I suggest they spend some additional time focusing on their personal self care.

Self-care takes many forms and what works for one doesn’t always work for another, but here are some of my favorites:

Sleep: Treat yourself to an extra few minutes of sleep, or even better, indulge in a nap. According to the Mayo Clinic napping reduces fatigue, increases alertness, and improves our mood.
Exercise: Take a nice, long walk with a friend, join in on a fun exercise class at the gym, or even just dance around the house to your favorite song. According to the CDC (cdc.gov) “People who are physically active for about 7 hours a week have a 40 percent lower risk of dying early than those who are active for less than 30 minutes a week.”
Eat something that makes you feel good: There are physical and mental benefits of sitting down to a healthy fruit and cheese plate, a nutritional smoothie, or a nice bar of dark chocolate (it’s good for us, right?). Indulge!
Meditate: Sometimes we just need to block out our crazy world! According to Charles L. Raison, MD, clinical director of the Mind-Body Program at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, meditation improves both physical and emotional responses to stress.

So, whatever your tax filing situation is, know that once it’s behind you, the stress may not be. Relax, rejuvinate, have some fun . . . you deserve it!

Cindy Jobs

cindy@organizetosimplify.com

www.organizetosimplify.com

Organize to Simplify

Providing organizing tips to help you get more out of life.

Party anyone?

Are you prepared?

Tired of being stuck at the office?

Have you lost your mojo?

How do you learn stuff? Process and Interaction

How do you learn stuff? Sense-Based Modalities

Seasonal Closet Swap: A Closet Full Of Nothing To Wear?

Simple Garden Tool Organization

Honoring Earth Day: How to Keep Mother Earth Happy and Healthy

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Chapter President

Certified Premium Subscriber, Institute for Challenging Disorganization

Taxes are Taxing: Take Care Of Yourself!

National Association of Professional Organizers, Seattle Chapter President

Certified Premium Subscriber, Institute for Challenging Disorganization