Your Life. Organized.

Why Piles Aren't So Bad After All

"File, Don't Pile." It's something Professional Organizers have been saying for years. And for years I've been saying, "Pile if you want to! It can work!" If you're a piler (like I am) I have good news for you. Pile away, grasshopper! The secret to making piles work is HOW you do it...

Quote of the Week: You Are Important

"Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every tie you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes..."

~From the New York Times bestselling novel The Shack, by Wm Paul Young

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Are You Top Down or Bottom Up?

ATTENTION! We all have it and we dole it out all day long, sometimes indiscriminately.

We have two kinds of attention -- top-down and bottom-up. Bottom-up attention is stimulus-driven. It's the automatic response we have when something "catches our eye" or we're surprised by a sudden loud noise. It's an instinctive, protective response that warns us, "Hey something's different here and it could be dangerous so pay attention!"

Top-down attention on the other hand, is the attention we can steer and deliberately direct. It's our ability to visually or mentally focus on something of our choosing and UN-focus on other things around us. Our two kinds of attention allow us to
a) stay safe and aware of our surroundings and
b) get things done

But what if your bottom-up attention reflex is stronger than your top-down attention? You're easily distracted, that's what! You're probably also not as productive, effective or focused as you might like to be. So how do you fix that?

Some experts suggest meditating as a very effective way to learn to hone your top-down attention skill and build your focus muscle. Others suggest medication, while others suggest that simple mindful practice is the key.

Whatever you use, learning to improve your focus, and to direct your top-down attention will keep you on track to reach your personal and business goals, and will also give you that wonderful feeling of satisfaction  at the end of a productive day.

It's been said that the quality of life is determined by where you focus your attention. I invite you today to become aware of where you're focusing YOUR attention and to practice mindfully shifting it to create the life you want. Please use the comments section below to share with other readers your best secrets or tips for improving top-down attention to reach your goals.

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Quote of the Week: Forgiveness

"Forgiveness is first for you, the forgiver... to release you from something that will eat you alive, that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly."

~From the New York Times bestselling novel, The Shack, by Wm Paul Young

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Go Ask Alice!

 If you're anything like me, you reeeally don't dig shopping, especially for life basics such as groceries, cleaning products and toiletries. Is there any LESS glamorous shopping task? I've eased a bit of my grocery shopping by having organic produce delivered to my home every two weeks and I love the service! And now thanks to Alice, I can have many of my kitchen, bath, and toiletry items delivered. Alice even sells postage stamps without a markup!

To join, just create a free account, then set up your product list and preferences, along with how often you want to be reminded to purchase each item. Then Alice sends you reminders according to your preferences. When you get the reminder, if you want the items, just confirm your order and she ships you the items you've pre-selected. Cool huh? I just received my first shipment today, and you can tell from the photo there's no guessing who it's from huh?

One of Alice's quirks is that she has a minimum of six items per order, which I confess I'm not sure how I'm going to handle, because I'm sure I don't have six products on my list that I will need to re-order at exactly the same time. But I'm willing to continue to try it and I'll figure out the six-item thing as I go along.

A few more reasons to love Alice:

1. You can edit your product preferences at any time.

2. Alice allows you to sort by price-per-ounce or price-per-unit on every item so you can comparison shop.

3. Alice automatically applies any available coupons. 

4. Alice offers customer reviews of products and allows you to review products and share your opinions too.

But the BEST reason to love Alice? FREE SHIPPING! I don't know how they pull that off, but it's okay; I'm on a need-to-know basis and I don't need to know. Bottom line is that Alice is a great time-saving service and if it will reduce the number of trips I make to the store, I'm on board!

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Quote of the Week: Perceptions

"Paradigms power perception, and perceptions power emotions. Most emotions are responses to perception -- what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, emotional response to it will be false too."

~ From the New York Times bestselling novel The Shack, by Wm Paul Young

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Small Steps To Victory

"When my life is finally organized, I'll be so happy! I'll get so much more done! My life will be so different!"

Have you had similar thoughts, but you've still not started the process? I totally get that. Getting your home, office, or life organized can seem overwhelming because there is SO. MUCH. TO. DO! Human beings faced with a huge project often feel paralyzed, so they do nothing. To add insult to injury, when we do nothing, a problem typically just gets worse.

If you're feeling paralyzed by the thought of organizing your home, office, or life, just start small. You know how they say don't try to make more than one major change in your life at the same time? You can think about organizing the same way. There are many aspects to overcoming organization, but the two we'll discuss today are the PRESENT PHYSICAL CHAOS and the ASSOCIATED BEHAVIORS.

You need to nibble away at the present physical chaos -- the THINGS -- either by yourself or by hiring a Professional Organizer to help you sort, categorized and organize it. Of course that's important. But equally important are the associated behaviors that CREATED the physical chaos. Addressing behavior means identifying the causative behaviors, and changing them until the new behaviors become habits.

For example, if dishes are a big challenge for you, get the actual dishes caught up. That's the physical part. But then, for seven days COMMIT -- this means FORCE YOURSELF no matter whether you want to or not -- to wash your dishes or put them into the dishwasher as soon as you're finished eating. This addresses the behavior. Do this new behavior consistently, until it becomes a new habit. Once it becomes easy for you, then begin another small change.

If you tend to let a mountain of paper pile up for months at a time, sort, shred, categorize and file the paper itself. That's the physical. Once that's done, COMMIT -- this means FORCE YOURSELF -- to sort the mail and kids papers every day, getting rid of junk, setting aside bills and filing anything important enough to keep. Do this new behavior for a minimum of seven days, or until it becomes as easy and second-nature as the dishes.

You've addressed both the PHYSICAL and BEHAVIORAL sides of your two big challenges, and now you have two new habits, simply by making small changes to your daily routine. Don't be fooled by the smallness of the changes... these new little habits will powerfully mitigate clutter every day. And if you can make two small changes, you can make three. Or four. Or however many you need to make, to create a home, office and life you love.

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Quote of the Week: American Independence

In my opinion, Independence Day is one of the most precious holidays we celebrate in the United States. In this turbulent political climate, it's important to remember the brave men and women who pledged their lives, liberty and fortunes and many who paid the ultimate price to establish this nation. 

Here are a few powerful quotes to commemorate our Independence Day...

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever"
John Adams, in a letter to Abigail Adams, July 17, 1775

"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence."
Alexander Hamilton, Pacificus, No. 6, July 17, 1793

"The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796


"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
Ronald Reagan

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."
Ronald Reagan

There is nothing I love more than this country, the privilege of liberty and freedom we enjoy, and the endless opportunities she offers to her citizens. Today is an important day.

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