Archive for Understanding disorganization

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Delay and Procrastination: Same or Different?

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 31, 2024
  ·  No Comments

How does one determine whether not doing something is delay and procrastination?

Procrastination is a one of the most common complaints and issues for all my clients whether they are seeking my support for decluttering, down sizing, business or life coaching. Curiously it all looks the same and the concerns are expressed the same way.

“Why do I keep procrastinating when I know I should be doing this (filling the blank with desired goal to accomplish)? Why can’t I just do it?”

Delay vs Procrastination: The Differencewhite balance scale with apples on one weigh plate.

Timothy Pychyl is one of my favourite resources on procrastination. His book Solving the Procrastination Puzzle has been a great resource and provided extremely helpful information.

Pychyl defines procrastination as “needless voluntary delay”. In other words an individual is choosing to delay action on an item, unnecessarily. He points out that other delay may be caused by factors outside of our control, resulting in a frustrating delay. For example we may need to wait for a supply back order to be available before starting on that fabulous DIY project. A delay may be caused by a shift in priorities. Instead of working on the project the weekend the supplies are available, you time is redirected to caring for a sick child. Balancing and juggling priorities is a day to day challenge for most people.

According to Pychyl all procrastination is delay but not all delay is procrastination. Some delay is waiting on another thing to be completed. Delay could activities out of our control.

Someday I Will Syndrome

Then there is the someday syndrome. Goals we have are unspecific. It is hard to accomplish something that is vague. When there isn’t an clear outcome, date and deliverable in place, often there is a lack of accomplishment that goes with the vagueness.

Solutionscalendar open to days of week with blue and orange market sitting on top.

Here are four key solutions that may helping with your delay and something thinking:

  • Write it down. Whatever it is you want to accomplish, get it writing down to make it real and tangible.
  • Break it down. Large vague project are really hard to move forward on. Make the project or item smaller and smaller into pieces and until you are guaranteed to e successful.
  • Schedule the action or project. Most likely unless it is a very small project, you will be scheduling pieces of activity that lead to completion.

Conquer Procrastination Cheat Sheet cover

 

 

For more help with procrastination strategies, pick up a free copy of the Conquer Procrastination Cheat Sheet.

 

Mindfully I AM Evolving Coaching Organizing Challenges Organizing Time Productivity
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Many pieces of paper with "Alternative" written on them in different colours and fonts.

Decision Fatigue: What it is and how to manage it

Posted by Carolyn on
 July 20, 2023
  ·  No Comments

Decision fatigue is more common than one might think. As an organizing professional I see it a lot. But what is it really, how does it show up and what can be done about it? This blog article takes a look at the idea from an organizers perspective.

Definition
many white tabs with "Option" writing on them in different styles and colours.

According to Wikipedia, decision fatigue refers to the impact of having to make too many decisions, or too difficult decisions, in a short space of time. In other words, it is the impact of that experience that is the fatigue referred to by psychologists.

Decision fatigue is “the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse,” said Dr. MacLean, a psychiatrist. “The more decisions you have to make, the more fatigue you develop and the more difficult it can become.”

What it looks like when organizing.

As I mentioned this is a common experience for me as an organizing professional. Because I work with individuals affected by chronic disorganization, I specifically designed the hands on portion of my business to be face to face with clients for only 3 hr sessions at a time. (Sessions for packing and unpacking associated with move management are longer). The reason is specifically due to decision fatigue.

It did not take me very long as a newcomer to the industry to recognize that clients would literally stop making decisions at about 150 minutes, or 2.5 hrs into our session. I had already been introduced to decision fatigue while taking a Masters in Health Services Administration degree. So, I knew this could be an issue.

There are six ways decision fatigue shows up. Avoiding decisions, or glazing over, is just one of them.Many pieces of paper with "Alternative" written on them in different colours and fonts.

  1. Reduced ability to make a trade off: in this impact, my clients can’t decide between choice A and choice B. If we agree that they will only keep one of two items, they can’t decide which one to choose.
  2. Decision avoidance: this second impact shows up as the client not wanting to make any decisions at all. Clients will sometimes show distraction from our task, ask me to make the decision or, for those who have more self-awareness, simply throw up their hands and state “I can’t decide”. For the record, no, I don’t make those decisions for my client.
  3. Impulsive activity: this is especially true for purchases at the cash register for shoppers. In organizing however, this impact of decision fatigue often show up as “throw it all out”. Clients impulsively decide to get rid of everything because they simply don’t have the mental energy left to decide.
  4. Impaired self-regulation: this is when the client doesn’t hold themselves to their usual standard of behaviour. Clients tend to get irritable and may be short or “snippy” with me or someone else in the family.
  5. Susceptibility to decision making biases: in this impact, the client tends towards an easier decision vs a correct or wise decision. It may be easier to simply not discard anything from a “I don’t like this” clothes pile than to be able to determine if any could hold any more value in the client’s future.
  6. Decision conflict and regret: In this impact the client becomes more and more worried about making a wrong decision. Eventually they just stop making decision altogether.

What do to about Decision Fatigue?hand with pole balanced on it show signs in opposite directions each saying "I don't know"

There are several ways to manage decision fatigue. When working with clients, I use whichever one works. I recommend you use whatever works for you.

  1. Take a break from the project you are working on. If possible physically remove yourself from the location and go to somewhere else even if it is just another room in the house or another office. Spend enough time in this other location doing something else until you feel at least a little bit refreshed.
  2. Change the task. If you are organizing clothes, try switching to working on a work project or making a meal. If possible, try switching to an entirely different task, however, even making decisions about a different set of items will help. If you are sorting clothes, try moving over to books.
  3. Go for a walk in nature. Walking in the woods, in a park or even just down the street will help to refresh your mind and your decision making muscles.
  4. Ensure you are adequately hydrated and have eaten enough to that point in the day. Many times while working, clients forgot to eat and drink. Hydration is most important however, being adequately nourished is also important.

Have you ever experienced decision fatigue? What was your experience? Drop me a note in the comments.

Action Declutter Organizing Challenges Organizing Resources Strategy
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Children’s Behaviour when parents exhibit Hoarding Behaviour

Posted by Carolyn on
 September 10, 2014
  ·  No Comments

A friend and colleague recently contacted me regarding behaviour she had seen in one of her contacts.  She poses an interesting question and I thought you all might be interested.

VB writes: Is Hoarding in the genes? Have you ever seen young children hoard? In a family I recently worked with, one of the children cried and was very upset when his Dad sent a couple of pieces of furniture to the curb hoping someone would pick up for free.! (The aunt is a “collector” and another aunt shows evidence of hoarding behaviour.) Dad is worried about his child. He understands not wanting to part with toys, but furniture? Any thoughts or advice for this situation?”

Here is my response: Although there is much work currently being done with children of those with hoarding behaviour,  I am not aware of any definitive research on the genetic link for hoarding behaviour. We do know, however, that individuals with chronic disorganization, of which hoarding behaviour is a subset, personify objects and have unusually high emotional attachment to objects. These charact traits I see in the children of my clients all the time.

In the absence of a psyche degree, we as organizers ought not to be trying to remove or change those traits but there are tried and true techniques for managing them so the impact of the traits is not harmful. My fear is that this child has now been emotionally impacted – which he/she will remember long after the furniture is gone – and carry forward to other objects preventing him/her from healthy separation in the future.

Try this:
1. Let the child “say good-bye” to the furniture just like they would a friend.
2. Take a picture as part of the goodbye process and create an agreement on how long the picture hangs around.
3. Help the child understand the furniture needs a new home that can use it better. It will have new life with its new family.
4. Help the child understand objects have a natural life cycle with us. We need/ desire, they come, we use/love/use up, they leave (donation/ sale/recycle/garbage), they have a new life.

I’d be interested in hearing from others on similar experiences to VB.

Organizing Challenges
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desk with chair and bookshelf

Your Organizing Personality

Posted by Carolyn on
 February 5, 2014
  ·  No Comments

What is your Organizing Personality?4 pictures collaged together including sissors, sewing notions stuck in a tomato cushion, tools on a peg board and files in a file cabinet.

Back in 2008, one of the first posts on this blog discussed the concept of individuals having a unique organizing personality.  Through nine years or working with clients,  understanding the individual organizing personality has become even more important to the success of my work with clients.

Processing Modality Traits

The organizing personality includes many traits.  Those most frequently discussed amongst organizers are the processing modalities  or sensory modalities that one uses to process information and learn from stimulus in the environment.  In her book Processing Modalities Guide: Identify and Use Specific Strengths for Better Functioning … for Organizers, Coaches – and Those Who Want to Live with More Ease and Effectiveness – and Less Frustration, Denslow Brown provides a full discussion of the difference between how sensitive we are to stimuli (you become irritable in a noisy room) and how competent we are (you learn best through hearing new information).  Some organize best by seeing, some by hearing or talking to themselves and some by actually moving objects around or touching them.

Piler, Filer, Tosser, Dropper TraitsPiles of paper and filed on a desk top.

Other traits include how you like to put objects together.  Some like to file while other prefer to toss.  Are you a tosser who like to “toss” items into a storage bin/basket/file/drawer?  Children are frequently in what I call the “toss and drop” stage of their lives and would be most organized with open bins to toss and drop their belongings into.  The pilers, prefer a collection of piles and are very adept at remembering what is in each pile of objects.  This is frequently seen in the office setting and a common way of handling large amounts of paper.  Early on in my organizing career I identified the filer when working with a client in the editorial industry.  Their preference was to file as much as possible – not just the paper –  into a filing cabinet by alpha order.

The Tool Maven

Some individuals find that time is a key sorting or organizing tool.  These individuals will often have their files, to-do lists and projects organized by date due, date received, age or some other sense of time.  Others prefer grouping, sorting and containing by another common element such as size, to whom an object relates or the special meaning of an object.

Why Does it Matter? What Does it Mean?

By understanding one’s organizing personality, one is able to develop organizing systems that more closely meet their  natural organizing tendencies and will more likely be successful and sustainable.  A mismatch will lead to systems which don’t get used and processes which fall apart with the resulting disorganization and frustration that ensues.

How do I Know What is my Organizing Personality?orderly clothes closet

To determine your personality, take note of how you sort, contain and retrieve items. Do you talk out loud (auditory)? Do you like to sort your files by colour (visual)? So you like to sort by date? Do you prefer all your surfaces to be clear but don’t care about the inside of your drawers or cupboards? Maybe you need everything out where you can see it (visual). Or would you rather get up and file or toss things in your office (kinetic)?  Would you put everything you could into a filing cabinet?  See if you can identify your own traits and then gradually modify your organizing strategies to match these traits.

Organizing Challenges Organizing Strategies
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Books – Enough Already

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 9, 2009
  ·  No Comments

Peter Walsh’s most recent book Enough Already is now available on Amazon. I highly recommend this to those of you who are overwhelmed not only by your clutter, but by your life in general. True to his character, Peter handles not just the stuff in our lives but the issues of emotional and mental clutter.

Whether you are tackling little clutter, big clutter at home or at work, I recommend this read to you.

Organizing Resources
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Top 5 Series – Excuses Professional Organizers Hear

Posted by Carolyn on
 February 4, 2009
  ·  No Comments

Over on Wellrich for Business, I periodically post on the Top 5 Series. While they generally address the small business or home office organizing issues, I felt this particular post would be of interest to my residential readership as well. Do these excuses sound familiar? Maybe some help from a professional organizer would be a good idea!

  1. “I don’t have time to worry about tidy piles of paper“. You don’t, however, mind asking everyone else to wait while to try and find whatever it is you are all looking for?
  2. “I don’t need to be more organized; I can find anything I want in my office“. Except that it takes you three hours to find a single piece of paper or file folder and meanwhile, everyone else is held up.
  3. “I’m not disorganized, I just like to keep things in case I might need them, someday“. Meanwhile you pay for a storage unit that you haven’t accessed for months or years (would that money help pay off the mortgage?) You have rooms you can’t use due to the clutter and boxes covered in dust i.e. they haven’t been touched in years.
  4. “I am actually very organized. I know exactly where everything is“. Have you noticed you are chronically late for appointments, submitting school forms, paying your bills (and therefore wasting money on late fees) and rushing for completion of tasks at the last minute. You think you’re organized? Have you asked your family or friends recently?
  5. “I have my own style of organization. No one else would understand it“. You might be correct – no one else can find anything in your home either. Some professional organizers are specifically trained to understand your particulary style of organizing, and help you to make it work for your life.

Are you children learning their organizing habits from you? Is this a good thing? Would you like them to live with the harried existence that you live?

Think about it.

Organizing Challenges Top 5 Series
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Top 5 Series – Excuses Professional Organizers Hear for Disorganization

Posted by Carolyn on
 February 4, 2009
  ·  No Comments

This probably isn’t you, but perhaps someone you know, is chronically disorganized, forever holding everyone else up and causing deadlines to slip, and shrugs off the suggestion for help form a professional organizer or complaints from colleagues with:

  1. “I don’t have time to worry about tidy piles of paper“. You don’t, however, mind asking everyone else to wait while to try and find the quarterly report or have to reprint it because it is truly lost in your mess.
  2. “I don’t need to be more organized; I can find anything I want in my office“. Except that it takes you three hours to find a single piece of paper or file folder and meanwhile, everyone else is held up in their work.
  3. “I’m not disorganized, I just like to keep things in case I might need them, someday“. Meanwhile you keep insisting you need twice as much filing space as everyone else, your office is a stack of boxes covered in dust i.e. haven’t been touched in 5 years.
  4. “I am actually very organized. I know exactly where everything is“. Have you noticed you are chronically late for meetings, late on work submission, rushing for completion of tasks at the last minute. You think you’re organized? Have you asked your colleagues recently?
  5. “I have my own style of organization. No one else would understand it“. You might be correct – if you didn’t show up for work tomorrow no one else would be able to find any of your relevant work. Your office and your contributions to the company would be dismissed as meaningless.

When we work for someone else, the work they pay us to do generally belongs to that company: files, paper, reports etc. You have an obligation to ensure that if you don’t show up to work tomorrow, for whatever reason, someone else can step into your shoes can pick up the baton. When was the last time you asked your colleagues how they feel about waiting for you to finish reports – chronically late

Think about it.

Organizing Challenges Top 5 Series
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Right Brain Organizing – For Messies

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 30, 2009
  ·  No Comments

Your best friends are engineers. You cringe at the thought of straight books on a shelf. Your world is full of colour and ideas – and mess. And you are tired of it. The mess that is (engineers are ok). How about tailor made organizing support for the right brain world.

Organizing for the Creative Person is just that. Dorothy Lehmkuhl and Dolores Cotter Lamping have captured the world of the right brained soul and provided clear, concise information on how to harness your gifts to end your world of mess. For a taste of their humour and understanding of the issues consider the following excerpt:
“The acronym ‘PUT OFF’ can be used to summarize the specific causes of procrastination:

  • P = Priority
  • U = Unknowns
  • T = Time

  • O = Overload
  • F = Fears
  • F = Feelings

An easy read, great suggestions for all you right brain creative folks who have fatigued of living with the mess. Enjoy.

Organizing Resources
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Chronic Disorganization

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 27, 2009
  ·  1 Comment

As with most states of being, there are different degrees of disorganization. One can think of a continuum from very organized to severely disorganized. Chronic disorganization, however, is considered to be a different situation altogether.

People who are chronically disorganized likely live in a state of severe disorganization. They do not typically respond to conventional organizing practicies and strategies no matter how hard they try to make them work. They have three difining features as identified by Judith Kolberg in Conquering Chronic Disorganization:

  • They have been disorganized all or most of their adult life;
  • Being disorganized negatively effects their quality of life in some way everyday; and
  • Previous attempts to be organized have not been successful.

Chronically disorganized people think, learn and organize in ways that are unconventional and therefore conventional organizing strategies do not work for them. Fortunately Judith Kolberg and a number of colleagues have made it their business to understand how to help individuals with chronic disorganization. She founded the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization which now provides education to professional organizers and related individuals on working with those who suffer from chronic disorganization.

So if you think you may be chronically disorganized check out the

NSGCD website. The professional organizer directory on both Professional Organizers in Canada and National Association of Professional Organizers includes identification of those who specialize in this area.

You don’t have to live with your disorganization.

Organizing Challenges
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Client Questions – Is Anyone Else Disorganized Like Me?

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 26, 2009
  ·  No Comments

Q “Now that you have seen my disorganization and mess, tell me, are there other people that are disorganized like me? Do their colleagues know?”

A Yes. Usually.

It often takes a lot of courage for a seriously disorganized professional, manager or executive, to let a professional organizer into their office. Many of my residential clients have not had anyone into their home for a very long time. They are too ashamed. Their embarrassment and concern that they will be chastised by friends and family ensure that those friends and family will never be invited over. Their embarrassment is expressed in a desire to know they are not the worst or most disorganized people I have ever worked with. In the business environment, executives, often the highest producers, are running scared that the rest of the office, especially their boss, will find them out.

The reality is that there are many business executives teetering on the edge of collapse because their business world is so disorganized. There are a lot of people in this world with a lot of stuff they a) don’t need b) don’t use c) don’t have room for and d) don’t know how to manage or part with and e) can’t manager their time. The impact on their lives is no different than the impact on the disorganization in the life of the clients that express their frustration and embarrassment in the form of today’s question.

If there weren’t lots of disorganized people in Canada, the country would not support the growing roster of industry professionals such as the members of Professional Organizers in Canada , now with over 600 members, or its affiliate, the National Association of Professional Organizers in the United States.

More important, however, is how each individual or family, struggling with disorganization, gets a grip on their lives so that they too can achieve their business or personal objectives without the emotional and mental stress of always covering up for their disorganization. So if you are wondering if anyone else in the world suffers from disorganization like you do, the answer is yes. Lots of people. Does the rest of the office know? Yes. The symptoms of your disorganization or visible to everyone. Now what will you do to manage it?

Office Organizing
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