Category Archives: time and task management

Welcome to my final Summer Clutter Tip. Indeed it is still summer, though it doesn’t feel so much like it anymore. Already school has started, fall is in the air and someone’s about to ask you what your plans are for the holidays. Yikes! But, cheers, Dear One. In any case, there is time. Take a breath.

Clutter comes in lots of forms. Most people think of it as stuff and that is the clutter we spend most of our time working with here at BALANCE Organizing. Yet you can be unorganized with more than just stuff. You could have clutter with your financial holdings, or in your business meetings, or with the outline for that book you plan to write and of course there is always the cluttered to-do list. While I have very little stuff clutter in my household and my cupboards and my drawers, I have huge amounts of clutter in my head! Smile. I work on this with regular meditation and yoga practices. I’ve also been known to have clutter in my relationships, but I won’t digress! Clutter, in it’s Middle English originations, basically means a blockage, a clot …heaped upon.

Given that, I wonder: if you’re busy, is that clutter? When I ask “how are you doing?” I often get the response “I’m busy, super busy” or the like. Is that OK? I mean, is that ok with you? I frankly am ambiguous on how to respond; do I say “good for you” or “I’m sorry to hear that”. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that tells us busy is good. For me, I dislike being busy. I don’t have the disposition for lots of things happening quickly all day long. I get anxious and am easily overwhelmed. Things start to fumble or break or get lost. While I will certainly max out on adrenaline and be effectively productive if I’m throwing a party or taking a trip, in general, I like to move slow and purposefully through my day. Take breaks, sit down and eat a meal; a pace that gives me time, by the way, to put things away as I come and go. This is not always how I have lived life, mind you. And there are days that I am “busy, super busy!”, but it is the lifestyle I strive for and have come to appreciate.

I’m using this expression of being busy a little loosely here. I’m not talking about productive busy  – business is booming or the kids are growing – the thriving vibrant busy of life. I’m talking about day to day being so busy that you’re exhausted, that you can’t take a breath, that you can’t sleep at night, that you overeat when you finally sit down to eat; that you have not had a moment for a touch, a feel, a smell of something sweet, a kindness, or just a moments’ peace.

This is a personal thing. Ask yourself: Do you enjoy being busy? Does it serve you? Or even deeper- are you achieving your life goals in this busy lifestyle?  There is a certain personal and chemical make-up of human animal where movement at a bustling kinetic pace is the only way to get anything done. But many of us, probably most of us, won’t stay healthy at that pace and struggle with a too busy life. If you end up with the fumbling, breaking and losing too often, your time management may be cluttered. Your busy is not serving you.

Now is the perfect time to start changing habits to get unbusy. I would like to promote this to you as we walk towards this last third of the year. I want you to consider how you can live a life where you are not always so busy.

Here is the Nancy list of simple habits that will get you on the path to unbusy. Pick one or two and go for it!

Make your bed every morning. It’s a good habit that sets your day up and rewards you at the end of it. Do it. Take the moment. Breathe.

Review your day the evening before. Take a quick look at your calendar and your plans for the day. Send a text or email to somebody if you are over-scheduled.

Meditate. Ugh, I know, but if you do it regularly, soon you will get the rich results of it. It is essential for slowing down and being at ease. Keep it simple. Start with 5 minutes a day. Get an app. Join a sangha community. Here are mine:

San Francisco Insight  https://www.sfinsight.org/weekly-sittings-talks/

Mission Dharma  http://www.missiondharma.org/

Spirit Rock  https://www.spiritrock.org/

Say No. You don’t have to say yes to every request. Unless it’s the core stuff of life, make sure the things you decide to do are because you choose to, not because you should, out of some sense of guilt or sacrifice. Do what you love. Do what serves your heart and soul.

Set some “best practices” around your day. That is, regular practices that set boundaries and engage you in chill. Some examples:

1. 1. 1. Wake up and/or go to bed at the same time every day.
      2. Eat something for breakfast each day at X o’clock.
      3. Take 2 deep full breadths every time you hear an ambulance or every time your phone gives you a low battery alert or every time you see repeat numbers when you read the time.
      4. Stop working each day at X o’clock.
      5. Don’t read any emails after X o’clock.
      6. Plug your phone into the power at X o’clock every evening in another room.
      7. In your calendar, schedule down time. Or prep time. Or break time.

Start one or two (or more) of these little habits and I expect by years end, you will not only be less busy but you will be more productive, vibrant and mindful.

In every case, there is time. Take a breath.