I’ve been
bitten by a bug. Not a real bug,
thankfully, but a bug to organize and prepare for the next season. It’s an urge I get a couple of times a year and
doesn’t just involve the change in weather.
It’s the urge a squirrel must have when he begins to hide food for the
winter; although the urge I have has nothing to do with food.
Well, I take
that back. I am cleaning up around my
gardens and I’m going to be storing away my garden decorations later this week
after what I expect might be one of the last really hot weeks of the year. Once the gardens are all cleaned up and ready
for the fall, my pumpkins can wreck as much havoc as they choose once they can
stretch out to invade the areas they haven’t been allowed to inhabit until now. I admit it feels good at the end of the
summer when the gardens need very little attention.
I’m also
preparing for the next season of projects.
It’s a funny thing what happens when I’m in the middle of writing a
book. I tend to make a lot of
piles. Piles of articles or magazines I
need to read. Piles of paperwork I
should spend time going through. Piles
of books I’d like to read. Piles, piles,
piles.
Any why so
many piles? Because I spend so much of
my time working on my book that I tend to get behind on everything else. I try to get through the piles, but I get
through them much more slowly.
So, now that
I’m not in the process of continuously writing but with the knowledge that very
soon I will be, I must clean up those piles to make room for the next version
of creative chaos which will soon surround me.
And when I get
the bug to clean and organize…watch out.
My family knows to steer clear of me because they’ll just get in my way. Getting organized means getting back on
track. To stay on track, I need to continue
to stay organized. Creative chaos is one
thing but getting too far behind on many tasks to the point of feeling buried
is quite another.
So what do I
do to stay organized?
I do use
piles, I will admit, but many would argue that piles are no way to stay
organized. It works for me but it’s finding
the time to get through the piles that becomes difficult. So once again, I need to focus on time
management and, maybe, I need to limit the need for so many piles.
I use a day
planner, as well. I make list upon list
of what I need to do, need to buy, who I need to call, errands I need to run,
etc. But eventually, those lists become
useless if you never find the time to cross everything off the list. Again, there’s the issue with time management
and, maybe, learning not to fatten those to-do lists beyond what I’m capable
of.
I also like
boxes. I have boxes for items I need to
store, items I need to go through, items I need to file away, and items I need
to save in a scrapbook or photo album. But
eventually, those boxes pile up, which turns my space from creative chaos to
just plain clutter.
To dig
myself out of the clutter, I like seeing new ideas on how to stay
organized. I was recently reading
through a magazine from one of my piles and there was an ad for some websites
designed to help organize all areas of a person’s life. Intrigued, I checked them out and overall
they do appear to have something for everyone for every area you could think of…
-
there’s a page for geeks (tech accessories to protect and personalize);
- a page for parents (products and advice to help parents who are overworked);
- a page for everyday organization (many storage products and ideas);
- a page that caters to those who adore pens and other writing instruments; and
- there’s a page for planners and other paper products to help you stay organized (from one of my favorite companies for organizing products).
Until next
time…
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