Can You Live a Good Enough Life?

I am fascinated by how the concept of ‘good enough’ relates to being organized and our many attempts to be what we perceive as ‘well organized’.  What does being organized mean to you?  Most likely not the same as it does to your spouse, your best friend or your children.

What if, instead of constantly striving to be more organized, better organized or even, heaven forbid, perfectly organized we strove for ‘good enough’.  According to Sarah Hampson the author of an article entitled, The Secret to happiness? Live a ‘good enough’ life,  “. . . when you don’t expect much, when you manage the ideas of what you think your life should be, you can be pleasantly surprised – and grateful – for the good fortune that comes your way.”

Somehow this sounds like lowering expectations, reducing the standards of what is acceptable and seems to me like settling for mediocrity.  Not acceptable to someone like me who is a recovering perfectionist and still battling with doing my ‘best’ instead of striving for ‘perfect’.  So, the concept of good enough doesn’t sit well with me but I know for many of you it might be just what you need.

If your kitchen drawers are organized so that you can find what you need but you don’t have those fancy dividers that you saw in a friends kitchen that might just be good enough?  If your clothes are all hanging up but not on matching hangers is that good enough?  If your papers are all off the floor and in tidy piles on your desk where you can put your fingers on what you need that might just be good enough.  If your email inbox is down to 50 messages, instead of 500, maybe that is good enough?

I like the idea of good enough as opposed to perfectly organized as it does allow us to lower our expectations of what organized means and move towards a level of organization that is achievable.  I think this concept is especially important for those who don’t like to spend their time organizing or find it difficult to know when to stop organizing. 

What we see in magazines and on television is often not realistic and perhaps that is where some of our expectations of perfectly organized come from?  Have you ever noticed the desk in the corner of the living room on a makeover show with a computer on it but not a single cord in sight nor a stitch of paper – no matter how organized we are our space will never look like that so perhaps lowering our expectations is exactly what the doctor ordered!

Everything in life seems to come back to deciding what matters most.  As long as your home and office are organized ‘enough’ so that you can function effectively and enjoy your space, forget about what others may think and go with what works for you.  I think the summer is the perfect time to try some ‘good enough’ thinking – at least for you my dear readers even if not for me!

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Time to Look for Something but No Time to Put It Away?

Here are some wise words from my good friend Georgina Forrest from Smartworks Organizing in Calgary, Alberta from one of her recent newsletters. 

Doing Small Things Can Make A Big Difference.  Have you ever taken something out to use it …

• a file from the file cabinet
• the hole punch out of the supply cupboard
• a book off of a shelf
• something – anything – out of a drawer

. . . used it but didn’t put it back? You know, because you just didn’t have time to put it away.

Then you needed to find something – perhaps a file or a hole punch or a book or something – only to SPEND time digging through the piles of stuff that had accumulated because you didn’t have time to put it away in the first place.

It’s a funny paradox of life:

Why is it we always have time to look for something yet we don’t always have time to put it away?

Don’t just put stuff down when you’re done with it, put it away. It really only takes a few additional seconds to do this, but can save you oodles of time wasted looking for it again in the future.

Every little thing you can do to keep order, results in huge benefits for you down the not-too-distant road.

So put that file or hole punch or book or whatever away – right now.

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Home Office Design and Organizing Part 1

This if the first of a three-part series on designing and organizing your home office.

Let’s talk about everyone’s worst nightmare – paper, paper, paper – where does it all come from and what to do with it?  For most of the busy professionals I work with this is the most challenging part of keeping their home organized.  Can you relate?

Piles of paper going up the stairs and down the stairs . . . information on vacation plans still piled high on the dining room table along with unopened mail, bills waiting to be paid . . . and then there are the magazines.  Let me count the ways that I love my decorating magazines!  How difficult it is when the pile gets so high that it starts to fall over and I have to purge.

Aaah yes, purge, that nasty word.  Call it as you will – edit, cull, delete – it all means the same thing – before you can design and set up a functional home office, you’re best to get rid of all the excess. 

Keep your long-term vision in mind as you slog through the piles of paper, the mounds of old discs and stacks of newsletters that you mean to read one day.

Where do I begin, you ask?  Well, that depends, I answer.  If you are looking for instant gratification to keep you motivated, the best place to begin is with the visible surfaces. If you are not as worried about keeping motivated, you may decide to start with your filing cabinet if it is stuffed to the brim and can’t possibly hold another piece of paper.

Take one box, file or pile at a time and start with each piece of paper or item and ask yourself the following questions:

1. How old is this – is it recent enough to be useful?
2. Does this require action?
3. Can I really identify a specific use for it?
4. Is it difficult to obtain this again if ‘someday I might need it’
5. When was the last time I used this?
6. Are there tax or legal reasons why I must keep this?
7. If you still feel that knot in your stomach – ask yourself: What is the worst possible thing that will happen if I toss this?

 As you set aside your daily organizing time also be aware that you will need 10 or 15 minutes every day to deal with incoming.  Follow a system by separating items into ‘Action’ or ‘File’ or send them straight to the file known as the recycling bin!

 As you open mail, discard the envelope immediately and place the item either in an action folder or file away in your new filing system.  Designate a place for unread magazines and newsletters such as an attractive basket or magazine box. 

 I wish you good luck and much purging and look forward to the next phase, which is designing and setting up your home office space.

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