Getting Time

Time is something that most of us seem to have in such short supply.  Yes, some are busier than others.  But then again, is it simply the choices we make?  Or that make us.

With money we all have different amounts we have access to, but then a lot of it is the choices we make about how we handle it.

Is time the same thing?  After all, we all have the same amount of time to start with.  24 hours in a day.  It’s what we choose for those hours that make a difference.

I mentioned in previous blog post about taking a class on how to control clutter.  Yeah, well, I have wrestled some to ground, so to speak, but is still a work in progress.

But there is some progress.  Which is a good thing.  As was mentioned in blog post, seeing progress encourages us to keep going with our projects.

And to encourage everyone Debbie has created something extra to help us, 

12 Month Clutter Clearing Community

www.clutterclearingcommunity.com

Recently she sent out to her 12 Month Clutter Clearing Community 10 steps to start getting what you really want from your time. 

 [See below.  Especially the First one.  Okay here it is in case you might miss it - 

Focus on what you really want in life and remind yourself daily that tending your time carefully is the only way you’ll get it.

I thought it was interesting timing since last night was JRW’s monthly casual get together, Writers Wednesday.  Yes, despite the dreadful weather there were several of us that turned out.

We all made time to gather together and talk writing.  And since as writers we Must also be readers, we also talk reading and books, as well as writing.  [Not to mention Other things.] So don’t ever feel like you would never fit in.

Good Times!

Which there never seems to be enough of.  

Especially as writers, that have lives to manage, and jobs to do.

We often wonder how other writers get so much done - Talking about Maggie! - which as she has told us, and told us in her blog, she makes choices….. So these steps from Debbie are something interesting to look at and think about.

Especially when we are ready to get serious about our dreams.

If that is writing then we are pretty good around here at encouraging that.

In the meantime you might go take a look at Debbie’s blog and sign up for her emails as well.

After all as we get our time, and our life, under control, there’s hope that it will help us get our writing under control right?

Recently sent out to Debbie Bowie’s Clutter Clearing Community -

12 Month Clutter Clearing Community

www.clutterclearingcommunity.com

Ten Steps to Adding More Time in Your Day 

Focus on what you really want in life and remind yourself daily that tending your time carefully is the only way you’ll get it.

Identify the tasks that are the best use of your time (your frogs).

Identify the tasks you are doing that aren’t the best use of your time.

Delegate or hire outside help for tasks that aren’t the best use of your time.

Schedule time on your calendar for tasks that must get done by you. Don’t leave essential tasks to chance – just get them done and be done with them.

Identify YOUR time robbers and commit to eliminating them.

If you know you are not good at estimating how long it will take to get something done, double or triple your best guess and act as if that’s the time it will take to do tasks.

Embrace the freedom of saying NO to obligations you don’t really want to do that will eat your time.

Set simple, realistic task goals every day and give yourself time to work on your goals. Remember the number of goals you set for yourself is always your choice.

Step 10 QUICK TIP: if you have a task you know will take less than one minute to do, get in the habit of doing it immediately. This will give you a huge sense of relief and eliminate the mental stress that comes from tasks building-up. Get it done and let it go.

YOUR SPA (SIMPLE PLAN OF ACTION):
Where can you make time this week to take action? Below, list ways you

can make this happen.

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I’d love to hear anything that this TIP SHEET has stirred up for you. I invite you to post your questions and comments or start a

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Tel 804-730-4991 |www.clutterclearingcommunity.com

And if you need Debbie to help you with your clutter, and / or your feng shui, here’s her info’

Debbie Bowie

12 Month Clutter Clearing Community

www.clutterclearingcommunity.com

debbie@rockscissorspaperinstitute.com

tel 804-730-4991

Organization and Being Creative

Being a creative type, ‘sometimes’ things get away from me.  Like time.  And things to be done.  So sometimes things stack up ‘a bit.’

Okay, so sometimes maybe a bit more than a ‘bit.’

I am more of the out-of-sight out-of-mind person, and filer / put-away-er.  I think that has do with creative juices flowing by what I see.  Or maybe because I am a very visual thinker.  My husband wants to put everything away, hidden.  Which is fine if he’s going to be the one to keep track of it / take care of it.  If I’m going to have to be the one to be responsible then that’s not going to work for me.  So trying to find a system that will work for us both is ‘a bit’ challenging.  Add to my side the growing up with much older parents that grew up during the Depression and in very poor circumstances, it makes things very challenging.

No matter what system you have, things have to be tweaked sometimes.  Sometimes a lot.  So I signed us up for local organizer / feng shui expert Debbie Bowie’s How To Move That Mountain organizing class.  We had first met Debbie long ago when she was just starting her organizing / feng shui business and we took an organizing class from her then. [I went to the feng shui class alone back then.]

We keep growing and tweaking things and Debbie has grown and tweaked as she and her business has grown over the years as well.  This organizing class and her new 12 Month Clutter Clearing Community are part of that.

It was the first time Debbie has presented this particular class [How To Move That Mountain] and my brave husband was the only male there.  But since he has been used to working with mostly women, he was hardly intimidated or out of place.  Well, necessarily anyway.  I do think it helped him realize that I wasn’t the only one that had similar organizational issues.  Hopefully.

One of the key points Debbie made early on was that you need to identify what you want 

- what you want your clearing and organizing to give you, what you want at the end.  

Interestingly, women sometimes have real difficulty with identifying what they really want.

I think we are trained to think of others feelings and needs and to put ours on the back burner, if at all.  Which makes it difficult to really think about, let alone say, what it is we really want.

Speaking of feelings, once you start looking at things to clear and get ‘real’ about, feelings come up.  Feng shui has the belief that everything has energy and affects us.  Good or bad [more on that down aways].

Debbie said it is important to let the feelings come, ‘feel’ them, and to address them.  I think of it as honoring the feelings.  She said we are taught to tamp down feelings, push them away, etc…  but that they will still keep coming up.

So it’s better to deal with them.  Even if we have to take breaks in our clutter clearing, it’s important to address the feelings.

Once we understand our feelings about what we are surrounding ourselves with and why, we can begin to move it, move it out, and have the life and things we really want.  And live the way we want.

Another key point, Don’t Start with Paper.

Unless that is the only thing that needs to be cleared.

Paper is a time consumer since you have to handle each piece and then decide what to do with it and then actually do something with it.

Pick the easiest thing first so you can feel you accomplishment.  

Back into the hard things like paper - or a lot of anything tiny.

It’s important to see that you are accomplishing things when you look around.

So pick the easiest and biggest things that will make the most difference right away.  

Always straighten up at the end so it will look better.  So you feel like you actually did / accomplished something for all your hard work.  And it is hard work.

And it gets the energy moving.  Which being a Feng Shui expert, Debbie wants to do as quick and early as possible to get the positive energy flowing around.

There were several people in the class that were part of the ‘but I might need it someday’ thought of keeping things ‘in case.’  

The feng shui ‘creed’ to start clearing space is to let it go, into the trash, or to someone else’s home, unless 1) you Love it.  Or 2) you Use it

So -  Love It,   Use it,    or Lose it.

And get it out of the house Right away once you’ve made the decision.  So you don’t take it out of the trash bags or the donate boxes.

It’s also a matter of trust and faith to believe that the universe, or God, or fate, or whatever you believe in, will make sure you have what you need when you need it.  

Once you clear out the space for the energy to flow around like it’s supposed to / should.  [Which also helps clear the path for good creative energies, like writing.  Just a thought.]

I think a lot of people have trouble understanding when they first hear or read about feng shui about how Everything is always ‘talking’ to you.  [Just f.y.i. having characters talk to you when you are a writer is okay.  Sortta.  But anything else, please get help.]

Things don’t actually physically talk - but things are always talking to us in the sense they are always reminding us of something or someone.  Good memories or bad.  Every time we look at it there is that memory.  For everyone that is a reason to figure out if you are happy in your space and with everything you surround yourself with.  For people that are sensitive to things like that it can be a real health reason to look at your space and things and question if you are happy.  And what it is you really want.

What do you surround yourself with?  And why?    What do you want?

Everyone has 24 hours.  

Every day you have to make choices.

Every day you make choices about what you do with your time and energy

As Debbie has prominently listed around her site -

Is What You Are Holding On To Holding You Back?

And for another one of her points - Ask for help.

For more information to hire Debbie Bowie to help you with your organizing or to sign up for her newsletter etc…here’s more info’ -

Debbie Bowie

12 Month Clutter Clearing Community

www.clutterclearingcommunity.com

debbie@rockscissorspaperinstitute.com

tel 804-730-4991

Is What You Are Holding On To Holding You Back?

Debbie Bowie

Debbie’s book -

Rock Scissors Paper

Check out Chapter Summaries here -

Debbie’s Blog -  

Clear Clutter to Get Your Dream

If you are interested in learning more about feng shui, this is my favorite book -

                Move Your Stuff Change Your Life by Karen Rauch Carter

Can read first chapter here.

For those that have attended past James River Writers Conferences will remember the Very cute, Very smart, accomplished, etc… Marcela Landres  who edited the Move Your Stuff book years ago. [And will now help you with your book.]

Here’s to better energy flows, for all of us.

Which will make us better writers.  Right?

Keeping busy - or keeping your dreams at arm’s length

Not that you have to tell Me. But your inner self might be trying to get your attention. And tell You.

Yeah, that inner longing. That inner knocking to get your attention. To stop being so busy so you can’t hear that inner voice at all.

Or the fear that rises up that you have to face someday.

Not easy is it? Facing ourselves.

Facing the risks.

Yeah, ‘flog’ you Debbie Bowie - okay so not really, really. But I get her feng shui and organizational insights in my in-box and it’s so much easier to read that than actually work on all the things I ‘should’ be doing, or ‘supposed’ to be doing.

Or it was.

You should go read it too - Here

Here I’ll help you -

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach for another is to risk involvement.

To expose your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To believe is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The people who risk nothing do nothing, have nothing, are nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, cannot feel, cannot change, grow, love and live.

Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

Author Unknown

Okay, now you see. Understand?

So that was a mean thing of me to do? Heh, heh, heh. Now you know all about the old saying about misery and company, right? I’ll explain it to you if you want. Heh, heh.

Oh, come on, I am not heartless. Here’s Debbie’s helpful blog.

And here’s her website - Rock Paper Scissors Institute

Now, See how nice I am to you.

So, what are your dreams really worth to you now? Don't tell me. Tell that inner self.