Palais Professional Organizer

Posts Tagged ‘stress management’

Sometimes I think organizing is all about getting rid of the noise.  Visual noise distract and pull our focus just like auditory noise. Noise is just another form of clutter really…Looking around your office, what looks noisy? What doesn’t belong? What is pulling focus? If you don’t love it, it isn’t making you money and isn’t useful it can probably go. Keep clearing a little at a time until you hit the right note.

 

 
What does parking have to do with organization? I would wonder the same thing…until I saw someone take two spots in a very small lot tonight. That did not look very organized. That’s when I realized:  Parking and organization have something in common.

 

 
It takes generosity to be organized and the person who hogs two parking spots is showing their messy drawers for all to see. You could fit more cars in if they had taken just one spot. But really, that was not what I was thinking. I was not thinking – this parking lot is so disorganized! I was thinking, “This person is selfish weenie!” I would use another expletive but I’m feeling rather politically correct at the moment. Don’t worry, it won’t last.

Then I thought more about this and the thing is that being organized is actually about generosity at its core. If you are taking the time to keep your desk in order so you know where things are – that is being generous to yourself. It reduces stress, it saves time and it can save money in all kinds of ways. Therefore, all the acts that add up to being organized for yourself are acts of kindness and generosity for oneself. But these are also benefits for others.

 
Because when you are less stressed you offer that state of being to those around you, you can be more present, show up on time and guess what – you probably take only one parking spot when you get where you are going. Being organized shows a general respect for yourself and the objects and space around you.

 
The space around your desk, the space in your home and yes, the space (singular!) around your car.

Do you ever struggle with remembering names? I’m not going to mention names (Jennifer Palais) but I often hear people say that they are bad at name recall. Sometimes the person leaves the building and then the information magically comes and sits on their shoulder. I’m hoping this isn’t going to ruin my life or theirs and yet for sure it is annoying, to me and to the forgotten.

Martha Beck, Oprah’s life coach for her show and website, says that “when you’re thinking about what you want (to remember), you imagine the situations in which you’ll need to remember it, you’re more likely to succeed. Preparing your mind for a certain behavior increases (by as much as 50 percent) the chance that you’ll pull that behavior off.”  This technique seems more viable to me than an affirmation of “I remember names!”  Something (or someone?!) inside me yells back, “No you don’t!”

We hear about Olympic athletes imagining or visualizing themselves pulling off the big event performance exactly as they want to. But can it work for the more prosaic activities we encounter in life? Something as simple as remembering names?

I’ve been working on this technique for a few weeks now and it is really making a difference – about 50% of the time!  My success is increased when I repeat my new friend’s name in a sentence shortly after I hear it.

Remembering names feels a little more like poetry now.