Organize to Simplify

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and AD

What’s your ONE THING?

“The truth about success is that our ability to achieve extraordinary results in the future lies in stringing together powerful moments, one after the other. What you do in any given moment determined what you experience in the next. Your “present now” and all “future nows” are undeniably determined by the priority you live in the moment. The deciding factor in determining how you set that priority is who wins the battle between your present and future selves.” (Page 148) (Present Bias)

I just finished reading Gary Keller and Jay Papasan’s book “The One Thing” and it changed how I view my to-do list.

At any given point in time, I probably have 15 things on my list. Most will get done, some will be pushed to the following day, week, month, year. Some turn out to be unimportant and are eliminated. More often than not, however, I check off those items that are easy and procrastinate those that are hard. Although I may be getting a lot of items checked off my list, am I doing the “one thing” that would make a significant difference?

When you look at your to-do list, ask yourself:

What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? – Gary Keller

Here are some items off my to-do list for this week:

Write blog post
Update coach log
Pay bills
Update calendar
Reorder prescriptions
Follow-up on September/October event speakers
Review new website progress; find images; update copy points
Write appreciation note to the electrician
Follow up with a former client
Create ADHD support group documents

Although all of the above are important to me, they are not created equal. Which are those “that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” Although it’s not just one, paying bills, re-ordering prescriptions, following up on the September event speaker and reviewing website progress are all items that are critical to my personal and business well being. All other items can be pushed off to a later date and the world will continue to spin without consequence.

When you look at your current to-do list, what is your one thing?

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

Routines

Routine: “Habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure.”

Routines can support us when indecision steps in.

Daily routines can help manage our schedules.

Positive self-care routines can assist in supporting mental health.

Sometimes we use routines without even thinking about it.

I know my day goes better if I work out in the morning. I also know that I won’t exercise in the morning if my workout clothes aren’t the first thing I see in the morning. When I don’t see my workout gear first thing, I decide to have coffee and watch TV instead. So, every night I set my gear out so I don’t have any excuse not to exercise. Day supported by morning, morning supported by night. Routine.

On more than one occasion people have made mention of my strange golf pre-shot routine. I didn’t think much about it until I played with someone I’d never played with before and she mentioned how interesting it was that I “kinda clicked my heels together like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.” Well, that sounded weird, so I tried to stop doing it. Immediately my golf game suffered. I’d disrupted my routine.

I appreciate the power of meditation and try to incorporate it into my schedule on a daily basis. Unfortunately, when I get out of my routine, this is one of the first things to go and I notice the change pretty darn quickly. As a matter of fact, I found myself internally screaming at my meditation app this morning because it wasn’t downloading fast enough. What does that say about neglecting a routine?

My schedule is pretty fluid. I do not have a Monday-Friday, 8:00-5:00 job. Some days I have on-site clients, some days I have virtual clients, some days I don’t have any clients at all. Because of this lack of structure I need to rely on routines I have total control over: exercise, meditation, positive self-talk, regular sleep routines, nutrition, etc.

What routines do you rely on?

What routines do you need to create?

What could a solid routine help you to achieve?

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

The Real Costs of Procrastination

Most of us do at least a little of it every day.

Procrastinate.

We tell ourselves “I’ll get to that later” and most of the time we do. But what happens if we don’t? What if we procrastinate too long? What are the costs?

We try to convince ourselves that there’s little-to-no cost of procrastination, but there can be significant costs, some very tangible, others more subtle.

Relationships: We’d like to think that the people closest to us know we have only the best intentions when it comes to follow-through, but what about the every day costs to our relationships that procrastinating causes? The partner that agreed to pick up the dry cleaning on the way home and procrastinates until the cleaner is closed. The parent who agreed to bake for the school event and procrastinates until it’s too late and disappoints their child by providing store-bought treats instead of the home-made they’d promised their classmates. The friend that promises to make a dinner reservation for a special event and procrastinates until the restaurant can’t accommodate the request. Yes, these are all small things, but significant in relationship-building. Cost of procrastination: Trust.

Health: As a breast cancer survivor, I am keenly aware of the cost of putting off health-related appointments. Regular health screenings and preventative maintenance, like flu and pneumonia shots, are critical to our well-being so they shouldn’t be put off. Use whatever strategy works to get things done: schedule mammograms with a girlfriend then go to lunch; schedule all the appointments on your birthday as a gift to yourself; schedule a massage or a round of golf after all the appointment are complete. You get the idea, whatever works to motivate. Cost of procrastination: Poor health.

Household Chores: I don’t know anyone that likes to clean the gutters. Cleaning gutters involves a ladder, dragging it around the house, possibly getting on the roof (I recommend hiring an expert if your gutters need to be cleaned from the roof or if the ladder is too high), and smelly, wet leaves. And, as gutter-cleaning procrastinators, we generally end up doing it in the rain and at night since that’s when we notice that the drainpipes are overflowing. Wouldn’t it have been much easier to have cleaned the gutters on a nice, sunny Saturday before the rain starts? From personal experience, I can tell you it is. And it’s not just gutters we need to worry about. Not cleaning furnace filters will result in reduced productivity and higher energy bills. Not cleaning the dryer vents may result in a lint fire. Not checking the water softener will result in spotty glasses. The list goes on and on. Cost of procrastination: Stress, money, and safety.

Home/Car Repairs: It’s a fact of life, things break. Whether it’s the toaster, the sink, or the car, stuff just happens and we have to deal with it. The cost of not fixing or replacing a faulty toaster could mean no toast in the morning or getting shocked while trying to retrieve the toast with a kitchen fork (strongly NOT recommended!). The costs of not fixing a leaky sink could be just a minor annoyance to extensive damage to flooring, cabinetry or walls. The cost of not addressing squeaky brakes could be devastating to the safety of ourselves and our loved ones. Cost of procrastination: Money, major home/car repairs, and safety.

Organization (my personal favorite): According to a study conducted by a Boston marketing firm, the average American burns 55 minutes per day – roughly 13 days a year – looking for things they know they own but can’t find. Disorganization manifests itself in many ways: wasted time because we can’t find things; finance charges because we didn’t pay our bills on time; late fees for not returning a library book or DVD; money wasted replacing things we already own because we couldn’t find them when we needed them; and trust because we didn’t finish a project on time due to dysfunctional time management. Being organized means we can find things when we need them, we can do the things we need to do when they need to be done, and we can get the places we need to get on time. Cost of procrastination: Time, money, and trust.

Wills: Not that any of us want to think about it, but at some point, our earthly possessions will need to be passed on to someone else. It’s true, as cool as our stuff is, we can’t take it with us. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we had some say in where our cool stuff went? Well, that’s what wills are for. A number of surveys recently showed between 55% – 64% of of Americans had not written their wills. That number doesn’t surprise me at all. It should, but it doesn’t. None of us want to think about death and dying, but it is irresponsible to our loved ones not to take care of this important process. Cost of procrastination: Money, Relationships.

Financial Planning: Detailed and thorough financial planning is critical to our long-term well- being. When we are in our twenties and thirties, we can’t see past a new pair of jeans, let alone think about planning for our retirement. Those days just seem too far away, but it’s never too early to start planning for our retirement. What’s the benefit of starting early? Using the compound interest calculator, I wanted to see how much a relatively small investment could grow over time. I started with $1,000 and estimated that I’d put in an additional $50 per month (about 10 lattes with a generous tip) and calculated the growth over 10 years at a 5% interest rate. What would I have at the end of that time period? $9,175.63. Change it to 20 years and the number becomes a staggering $22,492.87. Amazing what a little planning and discipline could do for our long-term financial well being. Cost of procrastination: Limited Retirement Savings, Reduced Retirement Enjoyment.

Taxes: According to a CBS News post, the cost of waiting until the last minute to file income taxes costs on average an additional $400. It’s not that we can just choose to not pay our taxes by April 15 (give or take). (Well, some folks may, but I’m guessing the cost of that decision is much greater than $400.) We are just delaying the inevitable. If we thought we were getting money back on our taxes, we’d be Johnny-On-The-Spot when it came to filing our taxes, right? Not necessarily. Procrastinators are procrastinators, and whether we think we are getting money back or having to give Uncle Sam money, we generally wait until the last minute to do it anyway. In addition, the extra $400, the stress of not knowing takes a tremendous toll. Cost of procrastination: Money, stress.

Business Costs: A 2012 CNBC post identified the cost of procrastination in business as being a staggering $10,396 . . . . per employee . . . per year. Wow! The article referred to procrastination as “the most invisible cost in business today.” I don’t doubt it. When I worked in “Corporate America,” I surely procrastinated a bit on projects that I knew needed to get done, but I just didn’t feel motivated to do. Why did I procrastinate? Generally, I felt I didn’t know enough about the project to get started, didn’t feel I had the appropriate resources to get the project completed, or just found other stuff that was more fun to do. Cost of procrastination: Money, Credibility, Possible Promotion

Insurance: After procrastinating on the project for a couple years, we went through a comprehensive analysis of our home insurance needs. After extensive research, we found an amazing insurance package that was far less in cost with far more coverage. Had I gone through the process a few years earlier, we would have been able to save several thousand dollars AND had more extensive coverage. It sickens me to think of what I might have been able to do with that money. The same goes for renewing any kind of insurance: auto, home, personal liability, health, etc. I worked with a client several years ago that hadn’t done a detailed review of their business auto insurance in several years. After an analysis of their coverage, it was determined that two of their vehicles hadn’t been included in the policy. Can you imagine the cost had there been an accident with one of those vehicles? Frightening. Cost of procrastination: Money, Peace of Mind, Liability

Fortunately, procrastination can be managed. It requires scheduling, initiative, and a drive to do better, but it can be done.

The best way to stop procrastinating? Just get started. Starting small will provide the momentum to finish. Unfinished tasks are uncomfortable for us. Once we get started, we have the drive to finish.

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Dr. Ari Tuckman on Time Blindness

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

Time Blindness

Today.

Tomorrow.

Next week.

Next month.

Now.

Never.

Time Blindness: The lack of awareness of the passing of time.

Although I work primarily with clients that struggle with ADHD, almost everyone has struggled with time blindness at some point.

In this 7:38 video about ADHD and time blindness, Dr. Russell A. Barkley highlights a few key points about time blindness and ADHD, but I find them universally applicable:

“What is the purpose of the frontal lobe to humans? It is to organize behavior across time in anticipation of what is coming at you. The future.”

“Now is more important than what you are holding in the future.”

“The further out the event lies, the less they are capable of dealing with it” (speaking of people diagnosed with ADHD).

What does time blindness look like?

Company is coming in three weeks and there is a laundry list of things that need to be done. But, it’s three weeks away, so what’s the hurry? Time blindness convinces us we have plenty of time, but when the company is two days away, there literally isn’t the appropriate time to prepare. Shoot!
You need to pick up the kids from soccer at 4:00. No worries, it’s only 2:30 and we just need to check e-mail. And Facebook. And the new deals on Zulily. “This will only take a few minutes.” Well, an hour and a half later, you are now late to pick up the kids. Dang!
The sprinkler system needs to be shut down for the winter. No biggie, it’s September. I’ll call “next week.” “Next week” turns into October, then November, then December. Now the shut-off is buried under 2’ of snow, the service provider is shut down for the winter, and the pipes may have already frozen. Fingers crossed.

What are the consequences?

Not putting our best foot forward. Being unprepared. Panic.
Letting down family, friends, and colleagues. Shame. Guilt.
Expensive repairs. Frustration. Anxiety.

What to do?

Use a calendar. Keeping important appointments and dates in our heads is a recipe for disaster. Invest in whatever type of calendar works for how your brain works, then ensure all important dates/times are noted, with appropriate reminders (1 week before a birthday, 30-minutes before a conference call, etc.). Be sure to break down big projects into manageable steps and put those steps on the calendar.
Set timers. Transitions are hard, but especially hard if we struggle with ADHD, so set timers for any situation where an important transition needs to be made: leaving for work, picking up your kids, departing for a flight. You get the picture. If it’s important, set a timer to ensure follow-through. Use any timing device that works for you: timers on the microwave, timers on the oven, timers on your phone, timers on your watch, and my personal favorite the Time Timer.
Take into account whether or not other people are involved in the process. If someone else needs to be involved, be respectful and conscientious of their time also.

I’ve found the most important investment my clients can make to assist with time blindness is a bunch of analog clocks. There is an innate difference between seeing time pass on an analog clock vs a digital clock. Ensure there is an analog clock anywhere a transition needs to be executed: any highly-trafficked rooms at home or work and especially in the car (a quick stop at Target is almost never a quick stop).

More great stuff on time blindness:

Zara Harris, MS, OT, on Time Blindness

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know.” was one of the phrases I previously feared using the most.

Now I embrace it.

What did I used to think “I don’t know.” said about me?

I was uninformed.
I was unprepared.
I wasn’t as good as someone else.
I was vulnerable and weak.

Questions I wanted to answer “I don’t know.” to but was too afraid:

What were the annual sales of this product two years ago?
How long will it take to create that new report?
What changes did Kathy’s group make that cut their lead time by 15%?
What would be the benefit of assigning that project to another team?

Having to say “I don’t know.” struck fear in my heart and left me feeling stressed, anxious and exhausted. I had convinced myself that there was an expectation that I knew everything all the time. I certainly didn’t. I felt like an imposter.

I will admit, there were times when I truly didn’t know but would try to bluff my way through anyway. Not a strategy I would recommend as on more than one occasion this strategy did not work out well . . . at all.

But in actuality “I don’t know.” can be incredibly powerful, made even stronger followed by “Let me find out.” What does using these two simple phrases say about you?

You are honest about your knowledge.
You know your limitations.
You are open to exploration.
You do not always need to be the expert.
You are willing to be vulnerable, making it easier for others to be vulnerable around you.

Who would you prefer to be known as? The person in the bullet points above, or the stressed, anxious, and exhausted person that considers themselves an imposter.

I don’t know, do you?

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

Bucket Management

“I need to change everything.”

This is the answer I get most often from my clients when asked what they’d like to focus on first in our coaching or organizing partnership. But, change takes focus and we can’t focus on everything at the same time, right?

One of the most effective things I can do for my clients is to help them identify changes they can make that will provide the most benefit across all areas of their lives: home, work, friends, etc. For visualization purposes, I refer to these areas as “buckets.”

Bucket identification helps my clients recognize the broad categories within their lives and spaces, then drill down to concerns within each.

For example:

Bucket: Marriage

Concerns: communication, division of responsibility, utilization of strengths, scheduling, understanding of vulnerabilities

Bucket: Job

Concerns: time management, conflict resolution, communication, overcommitment, difficulty staying within areas of responsibility

Bucket: Self-care

Concern: sleep hygiene, routines, negative self-talk, stress management, nourishment, making time for exercise

Bucket: Home

Concerns: household chore list, incomplete projects, division of responsibility, household organization

Bucket: Family

Concerns: creating boundaries, communicating boundaries, making time for family, managing conflict

Bucket: Friends

Concerns: finding time for friends, communication is one-sided, lack of follow-through on commitments

Looking through this list, you will see some common threads: communication and time management. Rather than work on one distinct bucket, it is more effective to work on improving communication and time management, which will positively impact multiple life buckets.

What are your life buckets and the concerns within them? What one or two things could be improved that would provide relief across all buckets?

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

Are you working with boulders or pebbles?

Things can be so dog-gone overwhelming sometimes, can’t they?

I worked with a couple clients last week that were paralyzed by their “to do” lists. The lists were so long and the projects were so daunting that the default action was inaction.

They were trying to work with boulders when it would have been much easier to work with pebbles.

What does working with boulders vs pebbles mean? I’ll use one of my projects as an example.

I realized that my current business name doesn’t speak to a large segment of my business: coaching. If you were looking for a coach would you think it made sense to contact “Organize to Simplify?” I know I wouldn’t, so I’m changing my business name which triggers a plethora of tasks. Some of these are Boulder tasks, some are pebble tasks.

Change business name and identity: Boulder task

Secure new domain: Pebble task
Create new logo: Boulder task
Create a new website: Boulder task
Outreach to clients and support base: Boulder task

Secure new domain: Pebble task (done)

Create new logo: Boulder task

Hire designer: Pebble task (done)
Engage with friends, family, and colleagues for their input on initial designs: Pebble task (done)
Submit preference to the designer: Pebble ask
Review 2nd round submissions, review updates with the designer: Pebble task
Review 3rd round submissions, review updates with the designer: Pebble task

Create a new website: Boulder task

Decide on new website platform: Boulder task (done)
- Review website options and costs: Pebble task (done)
- Review website templates: Pebble task (done)
Determine if the website will be self-created or hire sub-contractor: Boulder task
- Determine if I can do it myself: Pebble task
- Determine if I can justify sub-contractor cost: Pebble task
- Determine timeline availability of sub-contractor matches desired deliverable: Pebble task
Create website sitemap: Pebble task
Rewrite website pages: Pebble task
Choose images for the website: Pebble task

Market new company: Boulder task

Create marketing plan: Boulder task
- Determine marketing target: Pebble task
- Determine marketing vehicles: Pebble task
Order new business cards and note cards: Pebble task
Write a letter of introduction to clients and support base: Pebble task
Solicit LinkedIn endorsements: Pebble task
Solicit Google My Business endorsements: Pebble task

I fid this to be a pretty daunting, and I’m certain incomplete, list.

The task of “Change business name and identity” is a boulder task. I would never have been able to pick that boulder up all at one time. The boulder task was too big. I needed to create many pebbles out of that boulder in order to be successful.

What boulder tasks are you avoiding because they are too daunting?

What could you get done if you broke that boulder into pebbles?

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

Energy Management vs Time Management

“I just don’t have time to . . . . . “ Go ahead, fill in the blank.

Ever said that? I’ll be you have. I know I have.

But is it time we don’t have or energy? If we managed our energy better, would our time management improve? If we managed our time better, would our energy improve? What could we accomplish if we managed both just a little better?

Earlier this year I started with a new client. She said by noon her energy was totally zapped and she just couldn’t get anything done throughout the day, creating a tremendous amount of guilt and anxiety. Having ruled out health problems, we started to look at her routines, really focusing on where she was spending her time and energy.

Here are just a few examples of what we found:

Nine months ago she became an empty-nester and no longer had the time or energy commitment of children at home. She hadn’t decided on what her next chapter was going to look like (volunteer? go back to work? go back to school?), so now she had all this time on her hands without a clear strategy on how to use it. She woke up without a blueprint for the day, so the day just slipped away. At the end of the day, she felt guilty and unfulfilled. Not having a good time management plan drained her energy.
She didn’t have a good, consistent sleep pattern. She went to bed late because she was easily distracted and didn’t make it through her day’s “to do” list until 1:00 – 2:00 AM. She got up early to see her husband off for the day, but since she’d only slept for about five hours, she was running on empty in the energy department by noon. Her poor time management the day before affected her energy management the following day.
She loved to shop, consequently spent a lot of time either in stores or online looking for the “perfect . . . .” Again, fill in the blank. So instead of buying one thing that was “good enough,” she bought several hoping to find “perfect.” This created both a time and energy management problem since she would spend hours returning items she purchased that she wasn’t going to use. Not creating a boundary around the energy expended looking for “perfect,” resulted in a time management situation when hours were spent coordinating returns.

As we reviewed her routines, we continued to find situations where poor time management affected her energy and situations where she was expending an enormous amount of energy on an activity that in the end had an impact on her time.

To better manage both her time and energy, we created some structure around how she wanted to manage both.

We started with:

Creating a structure that included time for sleep, exercise, meal preparation, social interaction, and mindfulness.

She made a commitment to get in bed by 11:00 PM at the latest.

She didn’t know if she was a Zumba or Yoga girl, a runner or a hiker, a golfer or a tennis enthusiast, so some self-exploration when it came to an exercise routine was necessary.

Because of poor time management and the diminished emotional need to feed “the family,” she and her husband subsided on a significant amount of take-out. Recreating her vision of “family” as just the two of them, changed her perspective on the value of daily meal preparation.

Because of the previous time commitments for the family, she’d reduced her social interaction in her local community. Looking for opportunities to become involved in the community, recreating some social connections that may have fallen by the wayside in the day-to-day rush of household management, provided an emotional high that had been missing since the kids moved out.

She included mindfulness in her regular routine. Focusing on living in the moment, not rehashing the past and living in an undefined future, can provide a great amount of peace and clarity. Mindfulness can be anything from meditation to a simple walk in the park. Whatever brings your mind into the present is extremely valuable to mental and physical well-being.

Creating balance and structure has been extremely beneficial for my client to manage her time and energy. Where might you be out of balance in the time and energy department?

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President

Level I Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding.

Level II Specialist Certificates earned in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

Balance: Self Value vs Stuff Value

Balance is a tricky thing. Too much of one thing tips the scales in the other direction and we get totally out of balance.

But balance is not just about stuff vs space (although stuff vs space is a huge issue for a lot of people). For some interesting information on how much stuff Americans have, here are some statistics from a recent CBS Morning show.

There are 50,000 self-storage facilities in the U.S., more than Dunkin’ Donuts (8,500), Subways (28,000) or McDonald’s (14,027) combined.*

And that’s just for the stuff we CAN’T fit inside our homes, where there’s more “stuff” piled in closets, bedrooms, garages and basements.

The CBS segment speaks to the stuff vs space conundrum with an interesting question: why do we park $10,000 cars outside when we fill our garages with stuff of largely no value?

Nearly all my clients struggle with the self value vs stuff value balancing act.

A client spoke to a situation at their home. His comment to me: “my wife asked me a while ago to clear out the garage so she could park in it.” When I inquired what “a while ago” meant he admitted it had been 18 months. It was clear he was prioritizing the stuff value in his garage above the his wife’s self value (her request to be able to park in the garage). The prioritization realization created a perspective shift.

Another client comments regularly about how her closet (stuff) drives her crazy (self). It is packed. She could easily get by with half of the items in her closet and still be considered one of the best-dressed women I know. If she eliminated half the stuff she would feel the benefit of open space, organization and clarity (self value). For years she’s been prioritizing her stuff over herself.

And then there is the client who tries to cram too many commitments (stuff value) into his schedule resulting in limiting his time with family and friends (self value).

What’s your balance of self value vs stuff value?

* Note: This is a direct lift from the CBS segment. No, the math doesn’t work, but it’s close. 🙂

Cindy Jobs, COC, ACC

Looking for more information?

Click here to schedule a free coaching consultation.

National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, Seattle Chapter Vice-President