An Excerpt from “A Visit With Patricia Diesel – New Jersey Countryside Magazine.”
In addition to deciding what’s important to your life, successful organizing is about time and how you use it. You have to organize your organizing. People say, I don’t have time to organize. I say you DO have time, no matter how busy you are.
One of my tricks is the 30-day challenge. Sit down with a calendar in front of you. Pick a priority project that’s really urgent. Maybe it’s the closets. Say: I’m going to give myself 30 days to clean out my closets. Mark the end date on the calendar. You can figure out approximately how much total time it will take and mark the days you’ll work on it, even if it means skipping a less important engagement or two. The point is that if you give yourself 30 days, you’re not rushing yourself. Noe excuses. Schedule it into your time.
At the end of 30 days, celebrate your victory. Give yourself a reward, some sort of treat. You deserve it!
A side benefit of the 3o-day challenge is that you are really learning about how you are using your time. Perhaps you can cut out something unproductive and substitute something you enjoy.
Sidebar: Learn how to set boundaries and limits for the use of your time. In doing so, learn how to say “No.” This is a big one. Before you make your decision about a request, ask, will this balance my day or put me on overload?
