I feel stressed when I have so many promising projects I would like to work on and so little time to accomplish them all. This stress affects all areas of my life, which is not healthy. I decided I have to stop drinking from this firehose of ideas and just focus on one project at a time.
It was hard for me to think this way. I can benefit from doing all the projects, but in reality it’s im-possible to work on them all at once and get any of them accomplished.
One morning, I sat in my favorite chair and listed all the projects that were surfacing in my mind. I then listed the top 10 I wanted to tackle first. I prioritized these by importance. The first project to tackle, my book. A project that I have been thinking about for years.
If you find yourself wanting your house organized but never make any headway, you can apply this technique to your home.
Begin by listing all the rooms and storage areas in your home, include the garage and any out-buildings. Also, if you have rented a self-storage unit to store your stuff, add those to your list. Prioritize the rooms by importance of completing them.
You might pick the room that bothers you or your spouse the most. Maybe it’s the room where you can let go of many things easily because they’re no longer needed. Perhaps you start with a room that also coincides with another goal.
For example, you can organize your kitchen because making healthy meals has become important to you. Maybe your goal is to get to work on time. If so, organizing your clothes closet and the bathroom you get ready in may help you achieve this.
If you have items in a self-storage unit, add up what your investment has been to date. When I asked a client to do this, her total came to $10,000. Stopping this future debt became important to her, so we started with that project first.
No matter what room you start in, other rooms will be begging for your attention. Ignore them, their turn will come.
As you organize one room, others rooms often get messier. This is normal and will work itself out as you tackle each room.
Be patient through this process. Your home didn’t get disorganized in a day, which means you won’t fix it in a day. This quote may help you: “When you feel like giving up, remember why you started.”
Take time to celebrate your success as you complete each room. Have some girlfriend time or a beer with your buddies.
When my book is compete, you’ll find me out on the town with a martini in close proximity.
Cheers to accomplishing our projects!
GET ORGANIZED
Lori Firsdon will teach an organizing class on Tuesday, Feb. 28 from 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. at the Kettering-Moraine Library, 3496 Far Hills Ave. It’s titled “Attack the Stack: Organizing Your Paperwork.” For information, call the library at (937) 463-2665.
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