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Julie Morgenstern is my new BFF. I read her book years ago and it really helped with my space. Right now, as you know, I am just back from Wellington, and although all the boxes are unpacked, nothing is yet properly put away in my bedroom or office. The kitchen, bathroom, my daughter's room and my closet are beautifully unpacked and organised, but there is all my stuff. And this is the stuff that I took with me to Wellington and brought back.
Personally I love being organised and productive. I always have lots of different projects on the go, and my life is normally well compartmentalised into the four areas of my 8 word mission: Home and Garden - includes food (live simply), Friends and Family - includes gift-making projects (love uniquely), Study and Change - non-work learning that is (learn abundantly) and Work and Creativity, which includes all manner of beautiful things I may be doing (create beauty). I even have all that colour-coded in case I need to have things filed in coloured folders and fileboxes. It is also handy for the gmail labs star system (green tick is home, red exclamation mark is family/friends, yellow star is learning/interests and blue star is work/art). I even have my book shelf organised like this, and it makes it so much easier to find anything - not the dewy decimal system, it's the 8 word mission system. That is the essence of my 8 word mission, to live my life around my own important things: live simply, love uniquely, learn abundantly, create beauty.
I am truly happiest when everything is organised in this way, as strange as it must be to other people, and maybe even a little obsessive? Oh well. It's just that my brain works in a way where I find so much in life endlessly fascinating, but unless I categorise it somehow, it is just a big confusing mess.
So before I put away the mountain of belongings which are unpacked but shoved any which way into my big cupboard, I am treating myself to a reread of Julie's book, Organising from the Inside Out, and have ordered her new one, SHED, although I don't have that much clutter left now. I thought that would be a great one to read, because I am in a place of transition. (I also have her book, Making Work Work, which I look forward to reading again as well.)
From Julie's site:
What is the difference between organizing and SHEDing?
Organizing works when you know where you want to go, but don't know how to get there. When you want or need to make a change, but are unsure of your destination, your don't need to organize, you need to SHED.
Think of it this way: if organizing is dropping anchor once you know what you want, SHEDing is lifting anchor so you can go some place new. Here are some additional distinctions:
Personally I love being organised and productive. I always have lots of different projects on the go, and my life is normally well compartmentalised into the four areas of my 8 word mission: Home and Garden - includes food (live simply), Friends and Family - includes gift-making projects (love uniquely), Study and Change - non-work learning that is (learn abundantly) and Work and Creativity, which includes all manner of beautiful things I may be doing (create beauty). I even have all that colour-coded in case I need to have things filed in coloured folders and fileboxes. It is also handy for the gmail labs star system (green tick is home, red exclamation mark is family/friends, yellow star is learning/interests and blue star is work/art). I even have my book shelf organised like this, and it makes it so much easier to find anything - not the dewy decimal system, it's the 8 word mission system. That is the essence of my 8 word mission, to live my life around my own important things: live simply, love uniquely, learn abundantly, create beauty.
I am truly happiest when everything is organised in this way, as strange as it must be to other people, and maybe even a little obsessive? Oh well. It's just that my brain works in a way where I find so much in life endlessly fascinating, but unless I categorise it somehow, it is just a big confusing mess.
So before I put away the mountain of belongings which are unpacked but shoved any which way into my big cupboard, I am treating myself to a reread of Julie's book, Organising from the Inside Out, and have ordered her new one, SHED, although I don't have that much clutter left now. I thought that would be a great one to read, because I am in a place of transition. (I also have her book, Making Work Work, which I look forward to reading again as well.)
From Julie's site:
What is the difference between organizing and SHEDing?
Organizing works when you know where you want to go, but don't know how to get there. When you want or need to make a change, but are unsure of your destination, your don't need to organize, you need to SHED.
Think of it this way: if organizing is dropping anchor once you know what you want, SHEDing is lifting anchor so you can go some place new. Here are some additional distinctions:
- You can be entirely organized and still need to SHED. A pristine closet filled with items you never use of an orderly calendar with commitments that only weight you down) can be cleared for something new.
- Its possible to get organized without throwing anything away. It's impossible, however to SHED without letting things go.
- While organizing has a clearly defined end point (e.g. you can organize your garage or home office in a weekend), SHEDing is an ongoing process that generates movement, and fuels transformation. SHED is another phase in the journey of living a rich and fulfilling life.
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