Archive for ‘Professional Organizing’ Category

Paper Doll Shares 12 Kinds of Paper To Declutter Now

Posted on: January 8th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 12 Comments

After last week’s 24 Smart Ways to Get More Organized and Productive in 2024, we continue with GO Month, an entire month devoted to getting organized and being productive. I thought it might be time to hit a classic Paper Doll topic topic: decluttering papers!

Quite often, Paper Doll focuses on the papers and documents you need to acquire and keep. Always start with the essentials:

How to Replace and Organize 7 Essential Government Documents

How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents

The Professor and Mary Ann: 8 Other Essential Documents You Need To Create

Ask Paper Doll: Do I Really Need A Safe Deposit Box?

However, we must also look at what we no longer need, and what papers we’d be better off without.

OLD RECEIPTS

Some people throw out all of their receipts. Their desks, bags, dresser-tops and bedside tables are clear of crumpled papers, but they have trouble reconstructing their financial history at tax time, they can’t figure out where their cash went, and can’t prove ownership or value of high-ticket items.

More often, people go to the opposite extremes and keep all of their receipts. When working with clients, I’ll often find zip-locked bags and drawers filled with random receipts. In addition to receipts strewn about, the collected and squirreled-away receipts tend to be older, anywhere from a year to five+ years in the past. 

These clients have a vague sense that someone once told them to save receipts in case they needed to return something or create a budget based on tracked expenses. The problem? Neither of these well-intentioned reasons are based on a realistic view of their paper-cluttered lives. 

Yes, you should hold onto receipts for purchases you might return, but most return policies that limit how long after the purchase something may be returned. In general, you’ll need the receipt to return something for a full refund for up to 30 days after purchase; after that, the best you can hope for at most retailers is store credit. (Stores vary, and Nerd Wallet has a great piece, Return Policy Guide: What to Know and Which Stores Stand Out, on the most generous return policies at stores like Costco, Kohl’s, and IKEA.) 

Similarly, if you were going to track your expenses to create a budget, receipts from years ago won’t help now. Paper Doll gives you permission to start fresh with January (and last week’s receipts) and let go of the bulk of your random receipt clutter.

Woman with Receipts Photo by Karolina Grabowska at Pexels

Reasons to Keep Receipts

There are five main reasons to keep receipts, and none are “forever” reasons:

1) The item is returnable — only keep the receipt until the return period ends.

2) It’s a big-ticket item — keep a Big-Ticket Purchases folder for these kinds of receipts in your financial filing section.

Figure out your comfort level to determine whether “big-ticket” is $50 or $500 or $5 zillion; if the receipt is above a certain threshold, you may want to add a rider to your homeowners or renters insurance policy.

The IRS allows taxpayers to choose between deducting state taxes and sales tax; if you opt for sales tax, the default amount is often the wisest option; however, you’ve purchased a house, auto, boat, private plane, or personal rocket ship, you’ll definitely want proof of that big ticket deduction.

3) The receipt helps you prove ownership. This tends to go along with Big-Ticket items, as you’ll rarely be asked to prove that the soon-to-be-moldy asparagus in your fridge actually belongs to you.

4) The receipt is for something tax-deductible. Non-business purchases are more likely to be deductible if they’re related to healthcare, government fees or taxes, child/dependent care, or tax credits for things the government is trying to promote, like environmentally beneficial or energy efficient home improvements.

5) The purchase will be reimbursed by someone (employer, insurance company, etc.) at a later date.

Additionally, if you’re divorcing and seeking alimony and/or child support, you may need to collate receipts to prove the costs of life maintenance.

Here are some basic guidelines for the receipts you can discard, with a few caveats.

Crumpled Receipt Photo by Michael Walter on Unsplash

Cash Receipts

  • Let go of cash receipts for consumable products (like food and beverages) whenever you want. If you’re not tracking expenses, you can toss them immediately. You can even refuse to accept receipts.

If you buy a Slushie at 7-Eleven or a burrito at the taco truck and pay with cash, you’re generally safe tossing receipt — unless you watch too many Law & Order reruns and are convinced you need to be able to prove your time-stamped whereabouts at all times. 

  • Keep cash receipts for things you might return, but only for the duration return period. After the return policy, buh-bye!

For example, if you buy clothes, a toy, or anything for your home, car, or family with cash, keep a plain #10 envelope to stash purchase receipts. Keep the envelope near where you handle your daily finances so that you know where to find receipts if you need to make a return.

Set a reminder, perhaps on the 5th of every month, to flip through the receipts. Once past the store’s return policy, shred the receipt.

The above assumes you’re not buying fancy-pants, expensive things with cash (and that you are not a member of a Sopranos-style crime family. If you are, please confer with your accountant.)

Debit and Credit Card Receipts

  • Keep debit and credit card receipts until the return period has expired and you’ve eyeballed your statement or online account to verify that the final price is accurate.

As with cash receipts, pop credit card and debit card receipts in that #10 envelope. If you get paper statements for your bank and credit card accounts, reconcile the values monthly when your statements arrive. If you no longer get statements, reconcile receipts against your running online account weekly. 

Deposit Slips and ATM Withdrawal Slips

If you think about it, a deposit slip is really a receipt, only instead of paying a store or service provider for what they’ve given you, you’re paying the future version of yourself who will spend that money later. 

As for the five reasons to keep receipts, none particularly apply here. If you wanted to return the cash you withdrew, you could do that without the ATM slip, and taking or giving back your own money doesn’t involve tax deductions. Reimburse-ability doesn’t apply. The “big ticket” status isn’t applicable with withdrawals (as banks limit how much you can take out in one day); deposits are a little stickier, as there’s a paperwork rigamarole to go through if you ever deposit more than $9,999.99.

Of course, if you’re sort who worries about that pesky Law & Order issue regarding your whereabouts, you might also fear having to prove ownership of the money you’ve withdrawn. 

In general, treat these as if they were debit or credit card receipts, and save them until your bank has accurately recorded the information. (But if you are making manual deposits of $10,000 or more, note the purpose, save the receipts, and tuck them in your tax prep folders just in case the amounts are questioned in an audit.)

A Few Other Notes About Receipts

Your pharmacy will print a summary of all prescription purchases. Once you’ve checked your receipts against your bank or credit card statements, you can shred pharmaceutical receipts; just ask your pharmacy to provide printout in early January for the preceding calendar year. (It’s to your benefit to only use one pharmacy so you don’t have to keep track of these things. If you must use a different pharmacy — if you’re on vacation or your regular pharmacy is out of your prescription medication — save those receipts.)

Collect all receipts for tax-deductible expenses (like charitable donations, or medical and pharmaceutical expenses in your Tax Prep hanging folder until you’ve completed your taxes for the prior year. (You won’t know until the end of any given year whether you accumulated a high enough percentage of your adjusted gross income to deduct itemized expenses.)

Keep receipts for anything for which you are due reimbursement until you get paid. This may include:

  • Work and travel-related expenses where your company reimburses you. Label a folder “Reimbursable Expenses” and toss receipts in there. Set a reminder on your calendar for the week prior to when expense reports are due, to ensure you don’t put it off and delay recouping your costs.
  • Healthcare expenses for which your health insurance company reimburses you. Usually, you pay a co-pay or co-insurance to a healthcare provider, but sometimes providers won’t file insurance claims. You may have to submit documents from the provider, plus your receipt, and forms directly to your insurance company to get reimbursed for medical expenses.
  • Sometimes, you’ll need to submit receipts to your car or homeowners/renters policy insurance company for repairs done to your auto or home. You might need to submit receipts to someone else’s insurance company if the other party was at fault. Always keep the original and provide them with photocopies).

If you’re reimbursed for a high-dollar amount for anything unusual, keep the receipt and the proof of reimbursement in your tax prep folder. If audited, it will be easy to say, “Hey, I anticipated that you’d wonder about this! So, here’s the receipt where I chartered a helicopter to get my boss to the top of the mountain for a super-important meeting, and here’s the income you’re questioning, where I was reimbursed for what I paid out.”

Always have a system for collecting your receipts until you get home. Do not stuff receipts in your coat pocket, no matter how many people are behind you in line. Do not put receipts in the shopping bag, because it’s too easy for them to fall out in the car, or for the bag to be discarded with a receipt still inside. Make 2024 the year you resolve not to have any crumpled receipts in your pockets or your car!

[We’ll take a fresh look at digital receipts in a future post, but the rules regarding what you can let go of are the same for digital as paper.]

OLD HOUSEHOLD UTILITY BILLS

It’s common for me to find that clients have saved multiple years of old electric, gas, water, and sewer bills. They shrug. Someone, somewhere, told them they were supposed to save all records.

People’s parents (particularly fathers) rightly told them that it’s important to keep all records regarding auto maintenance. A full and detailed record helps boost the resale value of a car. (Secondarily, if there’s a recall, the car owner can get reimbursed for work previously done.)

The thing is, even if you keep meticulous records, a prospective home buyer isn’t going to offer you more for your house based on ancient utility bills. Knowing what it cost to heat your home in January or cool it in July back in 1992 is not useful information!

Little House Photo by Kostiantyn Li on Unsplash

Keep paper utility statements for the prior calendar year and the current one, just so that you can easily compare year-to-year (for example, to trace the likelihood of a leak vs. “Oh, yeah, July water bills are always high because we use the Slip & Slide). Shred the older ones.

(Note: if you take a tax deduction for a home office for your home-based business, keep utility bills as supporting documents for business tax returns.)

OLD INSURANCE POLICIES

People have a habit of keeping really old insurance policy paperwork.

I advise that if you don’t have any pending claims against your insurer and nobody has a lawsuit against you, it’s OK to shred old declaration pages and toss the generic boilerplate from old home and car policies. You may want to keep the front page of the policy listing the old policy number and contact information for the insurer.

With health insurance policies, if you’ve changed policies recently, I find it’s helpful to keep the paperwork related to coverage you had in the prior calendar year. While medical providers are supposed to process claims within 90 days, I’ve seen where physicians’ offices were so disorganized they were trying to recoup fees (either through insurance or directly from patients) more than a year later. Keeping the essential info about the policy can help if you get caught with “zombie” claims. But policies older than the prior calendar year, unless you’re still fighting about claims, can be shredded.

One insurance policy caveat: If you cash in a life insurance policy, either for the cash value or after someone has passed, make sure you log that you have done so. I’ve worked with clients where there’s been great excitement upon finding old life insurance policy paperwork, only to learn the original policy holder cashed in the policy up to 50 years earlier, but never destroyed or discarded the old paperwork. Bummer.

For clarity, if you cash in a policy, make a note somewhere accessible (like your inventory of assets and debts) so that your future fuzzy brain or your inheritors can make sense of what happened.

EXPIRED WARRANTIES 

If the warranty or guarantee period has already expired, toss out the warranty/guarantee card. (If it was a bigger ticket item and you’d stapled the receipt to the warranty card, make sure the receipt gets saved.)

If you no longer even own the product associated with the warranty or guarantee, dunk it like a basketball! Swoosh! (But shred the receipt.)

MANUALS FOR THINGS YOU DON’T OWN (AND SOME YOU DO)

If you don’t own the thing anymore, you don’t need the manual!

If you own the thing, but know how to use it, you don’t need the manual! (I often joke that if you don’t know how to use your toaster or hair dryer, you have a bigger problem than clutter.)

For guidance, there are ways to pare down and organize your manuals, find digital alternatives, or even digitize your collection to help keep things streamlined:

Paper Doll’s Manual Override – Part 1: Declutter and Organize Owner’s Manuals

Paper Doll’s Manual Override – Part 2: Twelve Resources To Find An Owner’s Manual

Paper Doll’s Manual Override – Part 3: Create & Organize A Digital Owner’s Manual Library

OLD DRIVING DIRECTIONS MADE REDUNDANT BY GPS

As you go through your files and piles of old papers, you may find driving directions to anywhere from hotel venues to summer camps to doctor’s offices. 

If you’re never going there again, toss the paper. If Siri or Google Maps can get you there, toss the paper. If there’s anything special about the directions (maybe for the last tenth of a mile) and you could get the information again easily, toss the paper. If that last bit of the trip requires special instructions, create a contact (for the venue, the camp, or the office) in your phone and put those final, special directions in the “Notes” field.

DUPLICATE DOCUMENTS

Have you ever accidentally printed a copy of something multiple times and kept the copies? If the item is a form or a template you have to share (physically) with others and can’t just forward a digital file, make a folder. But if you just have random duplicate or triplicate or seventeenplicate of something you printed for no discernible reason, recycle or shred, as applicable.

OLD BOARDING PASSES

Yes, most of us now use digital boarding passes, but if anything changes about your flight, the nice typey-typey airport people will give you a new set of paper boarding passes. When you get home, don’t toss them in a pile with other crumpled receipts. Old boarding passes are of no future use to you. Shred them!

FYI, those QR codes along the edges have all sorts of personally identifiable information about you. They may not be useful to you, but leaving them out on your desk for anyone to find makes it easier for someone to purloin that information.

OLD CONFERENCE PAPERS AND BINDERS

Not all conference material is created equal. Go through your old conference binders and folders, especially those from early in your career. Be ruthless about letting go of handouts and notes related topics that no longer interest you or fields of study in which you never worked, or never intend to work again.

Trust that any information you want can be found again, and found more easily than spelunking in piles of old binders in the back of a closet.

Similarly, get rid of flyers, programs, and any other conference materials that don’t contain essential information.

JUNK MAIL

Did you ask for it? Do you want or need it? No? It’s junk! Instead of letting it pile up, shred it and sent it on its way. To stop junk mail in its tracks:

  • Opt out of credit card and insurance offers for 5 years by going to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688), operated by the major credit bureaus. You’ll have to supply personal information like your name and address. They’ll also ask for your Social Security number and date of birth; it’s optional, and they’ve always claimed it’s confidential, but this is the 21st-century, so who knows?
  • If you prefer to opt out permanently, start the process at optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT, but to complete the request, they’ll make you sign and return a Permanent Opt-Out Election form.

For other kinds of marketing junk mail, register at the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) consumer site, DMAchoice.org and pay a $4 processing fee for ten years of protection from most (but not all) junk mail.

OUTDATED, LOW-QUALITY, OR IRRELEVANT INFORMATION

I once worked with a (very) organized author. I initially joked that I wasn’t sure how I could help, as her office seemed orderly and tidy. However, when we looked in her files, I saw the problem.

The client wrote novels with storylines that included medical information, so she’d saved a few decades of internet printouts regarding diagnoses and treatments of various conditions. In almost every folder, any clip from the web from more than two or three years earlier was completely outdated. While some fields may include timeless information, research related to the sciences is likely to be superseded by newer data and analysis each year.

Unless your actual job description requires analyzing what used to be advised or believed vs. what is now known to be true, toss the outdated information.

Similarly, let go of any clipped articles or printouts that reflect information you already know (or that has become common knowledge), that has been disproven, lacks credibility, or isn’t related to your work or interests. 

Tips from 1999 on traveling to Europe won’t fly (pun intended) in a post-9/11 world, but even advice from pre-COVID may not be valid. Introductory-level parenting articles from when your kids were tiny might have been useful, but if you’re cruising toward grandparenthood, you’ll find guidance has changed. Just let the internet be your filing cabinet!

DAMAGED PAPERS

This should go without saying, but discard any papers that are damaged due to water, fire, or animal predation. Papers with tiny blobs of mold can damage your neurological and pulmonological health. If a piece of paper is readable but yucky, digitize it (but then disinfect your scanner).

FINAL RESOURCES

You’ll be delighted to lessen your paper clutter knowing that much of what you’ve saved (due to misinformation, fear, or just plain inertia) can go. However, anytime there’s anything personally identifiable in your papers, make sure you shred them. 

Paper Doll’s Secrets: Shred Successfully & Save Money is a good resource for making it easy to destroy what you don’t need and prevent identify thieves and other sneaky folks from benefiting from your decluttering.

Finally, knowing what to get rid of is only part of the paper decluttering process. For a full-on look at strategies for knowing papers to keep, and for how long, check out my classic ebook, Do I Have To Keep this Piece of Paper.

Recapping Paper Doll’s 2023 Posts — Which Were Your Favorites?

Posted on: December 25th, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 5 Comments

With one week left in 2023, have you taken time yet to review your year?

For the December Productivity and Organizing Blog Carnival, Janet Barclay asked us to identify our best blog posts of 2023, and I had a tough time.

“Best” is subjective, and Janet let us have free reign as to which post fit. Some bloggers chose their most popular posts in terms of readership; others, the ones that garnered the most comments. Some of my blogging colleagues picked their most personal posts, while others selected what they felt would have the most impact on people’s lives.

The problem is that picking just one means leaving the others behind, and I wrote forty-two posts this year! Eventually, I narrowed the selection to half a dozen posts, and then turned to colleagues and friends who were almost evenly split, bringing me no closer to a solution. In the end, I picked Paper Doll On Understanding and Conquering Procrastination because it served as the foundation for so many other posts, but also because I’d been lucky enough to find some great visuals, like this one from Poorly Drawn Lines:

 

Beauty, like clutter, is in the eye of the beholder. To that end, here’s a recap of everything we’ve discussed in 2023, with a few updates and tweaks along the way. My personal favorites are in bold, but I’d love to know which ones resonated the most with you during the year!

ORGANIZE YOUR INSPIRATION

After uploading last week’s post, Toss Old Socks, Pack Away 2023, and Adjust Your Attitude for 2024, I got to thinking about all the different ways we can take our word, phrase, or song of the year and keep it in the forefront of our minds.

I’d reviewed the traditional methods (vision boards, posted signs, turning the song into your wakeup alarm), but felt like there needed to be something that stayed with you, independent of your location. Only being reminded of your goal to be a leader when you’re standing in front of your fridge doesn’t really help you in your 1-to-1 meetings at work. (I mean, unless you’re the Queen of the Condiments or King of the Crisper Drawer.)

Only being reminded of your goal to be a leader when you're standing in front of your fridge doesn't really help you in your 1-to-1 meetings at work. (I mean, unless you're the Queen of the Condiments or King of the Crisper Drawer.) Share on X

Serendipitously, within minutes of thinking about this, an ad came across one of my social media pages. (Normally, I ignore ads, but this one had me thinking maybe “serendipity” would be a good theme word for some year!) The ad was for Conscious Ink, an online temporary tattoo retailer specifically for creating body art to help you mindfully connect with your themes and messages to yourself, disrupt negative self-talk, and promote the healthy habits you’re trying to embrace!

As Conscious Ink’s About page explains, if you want to keep something top of the mind, why not try something that keeps it “top of the body?” Whether body art is your thing or you haven’t experimented since your Minnie Mouse temporary tattoo at summer camp <mumble mumble> years ago, this is a neat trick!

There’s even research as to how a temporary tattoo can support permanent emotional and cognitive transformation and improve mindfulness and focus on things that uplift one’s higher self. And that’s the point of a theme word, phrase, or song, to keep you focused on what you want rather than what you allow to drag you down! Manifest what you want your life to be.

Conscious Ink’s temporary tattoos use non-toxic, cosmetic-grade, FDA-certified, vegan inks. Each one lasts 3-7 days, depending on where you apply it, your skin type and activity level, and (I suspect) how many life-affirming, stress-reducing bubble baths you take. Categories include mindset, health and wellness, spiritual/nature, relationships, parenting, celebratory, and those related to social causes. Prices seem to hover at around $10 for a three-pack and $25 for a 10-pack. There’s even a Good Karma Guarantee to make sure you’re satisfied.

Whether you go with Conscious Ink (which is designed for this uplifting purpose) or seek an alternative or custom-designed temporary tattoo (through vendors like Momentary Ink or independent Etsy shops), it only makes sense if you place it somewhere you can see it often. 

After all, if you place a temporary tattoo reminder to stand up for yourself on your tushy, it probably won’t remind you of much. For most of us of a certain age, putting it at our wrists, covered (when we prefer) by our cuffs, will give us the most serene “om” for our buck.

If you place a temporary tattoo reminder to stand up for yourself on your tushy, it probably won't remind you of much. Share on X

Along the same lines as my advice on adjusting your attitude for 2024, you may want to consult Gretchen Rubin’s Tips for Your “24 for 2024” List. Rubin and her sister/podcast co-host always have an inspring Happier Trifecta: a year-numbered theme, along with with a challenge and a list.

PRODUCTIVITY AND TIME MANAGEMENT

This was a big year for productivity discussion. I’m a firm believer that keeping your space and resources organized is key to being productive. However, it’s hard to keep the world around you organized when outside influences prevent you from being efficient (doing things well) and effective (doing the right things).

We continue to see the value of body doubling, whether through friendly hang-outs, co-working (virtually or in person), or professional organizing services, whether you want to conquer garden-variety procrastination or get special support for ADHD.

Partnering for Success

Paper Doll Sees Double: Body Doubling for Productivity (I almost submitted this post to the carnival. Accountability and motivation for the win!)

Paper Doll Shares 8 Virtual Co-Working Sites to AmpUp Your Productivity

If you’d like to explore the body doubling or co-working experience, friend-of-the-blog Deb Lee of D. Allison Lee is offering a no-cost, two-hour Action Day event on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

This event is designed for her clients and subscribers, but after a cheery holiday conversation, Deb said it was OK to let my readers know about the opportunity. 

Deb describes an Action Day as “personal training for your productivity muscles!”

An Action Day (especially as Deb runs them) is a stellar way to narrow your focus and start taking action on your goals. (And what better time than at the start of the new year?) You’ll get to connect with others who are also working on goals and habits with the support of Deb, a productivity coach I admire and adore.

Just bring your top two or three priorities, and you can conquer anything, like:

  • organize your workspace
  • write your book outline
  • clean up your digital files
  • test a new productivity app
  • send out client proposals
  • anything! 

You’ll videoconference with a small, select group via Zoom. Share your goal and tasks, work for the bulk of the two hours, and then take time to debrief and share your successes! 

Moving Yourself Forward

Getting anything done involves figuring out what you have to do, knowing what’s kept you from getting started, making it easy for you to begin, and celebrating even the smallest wins. These next three posts were where the magic happened this year!

Paper Doll On Understanding and Conquering Procrastination (This is the post I submitted to the Productivity & Organizing Carnival.)

Frogs, Tomatoes, and Bees: Time Techniques to Get Things Done

Use the Rule of 3 to Improve Your Productivity

Dealing with the Pokey Times

If you’re overwhelmed by all you’ve got going on during late December and early January, you can skip onward. However, if your workplace closes down during the holidays, or your professional and personal lives just feel like they’re kind of in a slump right now, you may find some inspiration in two pieces I wrote for the summer slowdown.

The weather outside may be frightful (unless you’re reading from Australia), but if you are looking for ideas to pump you up when everyone is in a post-shopping/meal/travel haze, these posts may stir your motivation:

Organize Your Summer So It Doesn’t Disappear So Quickly

Use Your Heart, Head, and Hands to Organize During the Slow Times

Try To Do It All (And Knowing When to Step Away)

Maybe you did your annual review and found that you’re feeling burned out. If so, you are not alone. It’s easy for your groove to turn into a rut, and for all of your drive to accomplish come crashing down because you never take your foot off the gas all year!

If you missed these posts earlier need a second shot at embracing the importance of variety, small breaks, and actual vacations, here’s your chance to read some of my absolute favorite posts of the year:

Paper Doll Says: Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut — Take Big Leaps (Be sure to watch the diving board video!)

Was baby Paper Doll burned out? In a rut? Just pooped?

Take a Break — How Breaks Improve Health and Productivity

Take a Break for Productivity — The International Perspective (This is the post that introduced the Swedish convivial snack break, fika!)

If you had any doubts about what I said about the importance of taking breaks in your day to refresh your body, your brain, or your spirit, a new report just a few weeks ago confirms that we need that late afternoon break if we don’t want our productivity to turn to mush! And the more we push ourselves beyond work hours, the greater our decrease in productivity!

If you’re desperately in need of a full break, but are suffering from decision fatigue and don’t have the energy to begin planning a whole vacation, there are options to make it easier for you. In the BBC’s piece, Why 2024 May Be the Year of Surprise Travel, you may find some rousing options.

Need a little inspiration to spend your holiday gift money on experiences rather than tzotchkes? Check out Time Out’s 24 Best Things to Do in the World in 2024 to envision where you could take long breaks to refresh yourself. Those vintage trains in Italy are calling to me, but perhaps you’d prefer the immersive “Dream Circus” in Sydney, Australia, or Montréal en Lumière’s 25th anniversary?

(Never mind, I know. Everyone wants to go on the Taylor Swift cruise from Miami to the Bahamas. Just come back with good stories instead of memento clutter, OK?)

TOOLS AND IDEAS FOR GREATER PRODUCTIVITY

Sometimes, rereading my own posts reminds me how many nifty things there are to share with you, and how many are still to be discovered. 

Paper Doll Helps You Find Your Ideal Analog Habit Tracker — So many people have requested a follow-up covering digital habit trackers, so watch for that in 2024.

Paper Doll Presents 4 Stellar Organizing & Productivity Resources 

Paper Doll Shares Presidential Wisdom on Productivity — From the Eisenhower Matrix to Jefferson’s design for the swivel chair, from limiting wardrobe options to understanding the difference between being busy and being productive, we’ve had presidents who have known how to get more (of the right things) done. With an election year in 2024, I’d love a debate question on the candidate’s best tips for staying organized and productive!

Surprising Productivity Advice & the 2023 Task Management & Time Blocking Summit

Highlights from the 2023 Task Management & Time Blocking Summit

3 Simple But Powerful Productivity Resources — Right in Your Browser Tab — The offering that got the most attention this year was definitely Goblin.Tools. I’m sure that as we head into 2024 and beyond, I’ll be sharing more resources that make use of artificial intelligence.

Let’s just remember that we always need to give precedence to our own intelligence, in the same way we can’t follow GPS to the letter if it directs us to drive in to a lake. In fact, like all organizing and productivity guidance, remember what I said way back in 2020 in The Truth About Celebrity Organizers, Magic Wands, and the Reality of Professional Organizing: there is no magic wand.

AI and other solutions, tangible or digital, and even professional organizers, can make things easier, but the only way to get the life you want is to embrace making positive behavioral changes. 

RESOURCES FOR ORGANIZING YOUR WORK AND TRAVEL SPACE

Privacy in Your Home Office: From Reality to Fantasy — It’s interesting to see that privacy, and not just in home offices but in communal workspaces, has become a priority again. Check out this recent New York Times piece, As Offices Workers Make Their Return, So Does the Lowly Cubicle.

Paper Doll Refreshes Your Paper Organizing Solutions

Paper Doll Organizes Temporary Papers and Explores Third Spaces — Do you have systems for dealing with your “temporary papers,” the ones that you don’t need to file away but aren’t triggering an immediate action? 

Paper Doll Organizes Your Space, Money, and Well-Being While Traveling

Paper Doll is Clearly Organized — Translucent Tools for Getting it Together

Paper Doll Explores New & Nifty Office and School Supplies

Organize Your Desktop with Your Perfect Desk Pad

No matter where I go in 2024, be assured that I will be keeping my eyes open for solutions for keeping your paper and work supplies organized.

My Thanksgiving weekend shopping trips brought me a variety of intriguing options. At Kohl’s, I saw 30 Watt‘s Face Plant, a way to keep your eyeglasses handy while refreshing the air around you (and keeping you perky) with greenery. The 5.5″ x 6″ x 5.25″ ceramic planter holds a plant, gives you a place to rest your glasses (so you won’t misplace them under piles of paper on your desk), and is dry erase marker-friendly! (It’s currently on sale for under $14.)

A stop at IKEA in Atlanta was so productive for organizing tools that you’ll be seeing posts with nifty names like Övning (for tidying a child’s desk accessories and creating privacy), Kugsfors (wall-mounted shelves with tablet stands for keeping books and iPads visible while working), Bekant (sit/stand desks) and more.

ORGANIZING YOUR FINANCIAL & LEGAL LIFE

Not everything in the organizing and productivity world is fun to look at, and that’s especially true of all the financial and legal documents that help you sleep soundly at night. Still, Paper Doll kept you aware of how to understand and protect your money, your identity, and your legacy.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t created your Apple Legacy Contact and your Google Inactive Account Manager, why the heck not? Use the power of body doubling up above, grab a partner, and get your digital life in order!

Lost & Found: Recover Unclaimed Money, Property, and Savings Bonds

Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Legally Changing Your Name

Paper Doll Explains Digital Social Legacy Account Management

How to Create Your Apple & Google Legacy Contacts

Paper Doll Explains Your Health Insurance Explanation of Benefits

DEALING WITH EMERGENCIES AND STRESSFUL SITUATIONS

Sometimes, I write a post I wish I’d been able to read earlier (like the one on preventing and recovering from a car theft). Other times, like when a friend had a health emergency, or when Paper Mommy had her fall in November, I’m glad the posts already exist. If you missed these the first time around, please be sure to read, share, and bookmark them; think of them as an insurance policy, and let’s hope you won’t need them.

How to Organize Support for Patients and Families in Need 

Organize to Prevent (or Recover From) a Car Theft

Paper Doll Organizes You To Prepare for an Emergency

GRAB BACK OF INTERVIEWS, UPDATES, AND PHILOSOPHY

Paper Doll Interviews Motivational Wordsmith Kara Cutruzzula

You already know how beloved my friend Kara Cutruzzula‘s Brass Ring Daily newsletter and Do It Today podcast are at Paper Doll HQ.

After having read and enjoyed Kara’s Do It For Yourself — A Motivational Journal and her follow-up, Do It Today — A Motivational Journal (Start Before Your Ready), I had no doubt that I’d be jumping on her third when it was released in September.

If you haven’t already picked up Do It Or Don’t — A Boundary-Creating Journal, use that Amazon money you almost certainly got this holiday season!

One of the Paper Doll themes for 2024 will focus on setting (and maintaining) better boundaries to accomplish more of what’s meaningful, and I’ve got multi-color tape flags sticking out of Kara’s book from all the chapters to share her bounty with you.

What’s in a Name? “Addressing” Organizing and Productivity

Paper Doll Suggests What to Watch to Get More Organized and Productive — As we head into the new year, I’ll be keeping my eyes open for podcasts, webinars, and TV shows to help you keep your space organized, your time productive, your finances orderly, and your life joyous. Readers have been sending in YouTube and TikTok videos that inspire them, so please feel free to share programming that you’d like to see profiled on Paper Doll‘s pages. 

Paper Doll on How to Celebrate Organizing and Productivity with Friends

Paper Doll and Friends Cross an Ocean for Fine Productivity Conversations

From in-person get togethers with frolleagues (what my accountability partner Dr. Melissa Gratias calls those special folks who are both friends and colleagues) to Friday night professional organizer Zooms, accountability calls, and Mastermind group collaborations, this has been a great year for staying connected and sharing the benefits of those conversations with you.

I also loved guesting on so many fun podcasts related to organizing, productivity, technology, and more. If there’s someone you’d like to hear me debate or banter with, let me know!

SEASONAL POSTS

Spooky Clutter: Fears that Keep You from Getting Organized 

Paper Doll’s Thanksgiving Week Organizing and Productivity Buffet

Paper Doll De-Stresses Your December

Paper Doll on Clutter-Free Gifts and How to Make Gift Cards Make Sense

Are you stressed out because you haven’t gotten someone a gift yet? Maybe a good start would be to help an overwhelmed special someone take my advice about going on a travel break. Consider gift certificates for something like Get Your Guide, with opportunities to get guided tours of locally-vetted, expertly-curated sporting, nature, cultural, and food experiences. With 118,000 experiences in 150 countries, pick a multiple of $50 or set your own amount, and your recipient can pick the domestic or international travel experience that fits best.

If you know your recipient will be traveling by rail, consider a gift card for Amtrak or ViaRail in North America. Eurail doesn’t sell gift cards, but you can pay for a pass, or buy a gift card for a rail pass for more than a dozen specific European train lines. And if you’d like to help someone organize vacation serenity and secure a bundle of travel attractions for a given city, try TurboPass in Europe or City Pass and The Sightseeing Pass in North America.

HERE’S TO A MORE ORGANIZED AND PRODUCTIVE 2024

Whether you’ll be spending the next few days reading, traveling, or doing your annual review, I hope this last week of 2023 is a happy and healthy one.

To send you off for a cozy week, I’d like to share a Whamagaddon– and Mariah–free, retro 100-minute holiday playlist from the late 1930s through the early 1960s. It’s somehow easier to dismantle the tree and write thank-you notes to Guy Lombardo. (My favorite clocks in at 52:42 with “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”)

Please let me know your favorite Paper Doll posts from this year, and I’ll meet you back here in 2024!

 

Toss Old Socks, Pack Away 2023, and Adjust Your Attitude for 2024

Posted on: December 18th, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 20 Comments

I don’t know about you, beloved readers, but 2023 has been a rollercoaster.

In January, someone rang my doorbell late at night to tell me they’d hit my car in the parking lot; in August, my car was stolen. And in November, just ten days before she was set to join us for Thanksgiving, Paper Mommy fell and fractured her pelvis in two places, and then developed pneumonia 48 hours later, and complications after that! (As of this weekend, she’s finally home and recovering.) 

I’m a positive person, but when the TV ads promote stage productions of Annie and the music swells for “The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow,” I’ve been struck by a powerful urge to throw the remote through the screen. 

Professionally, 2023 was a mixed bag. I’ve maintained and added wonderful clients to my roster, and had a dazzling variety of in-person and virtual speaking engagements. But I was also saddened when a cherished elderly client passed away, and I must confess to not having made any headway on a passion project I’d wanted to write.

This is the traditional time to look back and pack away the prior year and set the tone for the one to come. 

Letting go of what’s awful or unnecessary comes as second nature to professional organizers; it’s almost therapy to us. For example, I’m not much for Black Friday, but I used the opportunity to replace almost all of my socks with snazzy new ones and jettisoned the old, sad ones. I’m ready for a new foundation, literally and figuratively.

Evaluating and state of a hosiery drawer and replacing all of hole-y socks is easier than doing a deep dive into how we’ve lived our lives over the past year and designing change for the coming one, but they are similarly life-affirming and necessary.

Editor’s Note: if you want to feel doubly-good about getting new socks, consider Bombas, which donates a pair to unhoused individuals for every pair you buy, or John and Hank Green’s Awesome Sock Club, where 100% of the profits go to a charitable organization working to decrease maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone.

LOOK BACKWARD AND EMBRACE THE PERSONAL ANNUAL REVIEW

There are myriad ways to reflect on your past year, with multiple purposes. The main categories you might want to consider are:

  • Health — Please don’t focus merely on weight, but consider stamina and strength, lab results, mental health, and health-related habits (both positive and unsavory).

If you don’t know how you’re doing in these areas, calling to make appointments with specialists and getting a handle on your numbers and benchmarks is a good place to start in the new year.

Don’t have a primary care provider or dentist or OB/GYN? Behind on your immunizations or age-appropriate health screenings like mammograms or colonoscopies? Make 2024 the year to catch up on your adulting! (In 2022, I finally got my overdue tetanus booster, an important one for professional organizers. We never know when something sharp is going to jump out and bite us!)

  • Finances — Your bank balance doesn’t tell the whole story.

Did you stay within your budget? (Do you actually have a budget?) Are you comfortable with your rate of savings over the past year? Did you make good or bad investments (or avoid signing up for that 401K at work because you didn’t understand how it worked)?

Is your credit score trending up or down? Are there mistakes on your credit reports, or have you not even checked AnnualCreditReport.com since before the pandemic…or ever? 

Dollars Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

  • Professional Development — If you work for someone else, prepare for your company‘s annual review (likely done on  your work anniversary) by asking:
    • What were the top projects I worked on this year in terms of financial return or impact? Am I happy with my contributions? Did I meet expectations? Exceed them? 
    • What achievement am I most proud of? Where did I fail to hit the mark of expectations, either my own or the company’s?
    • What do I wish I had known or done earlier in the year to have improved my performance? What training, skills, knowledge, resources, or support do I need to make my performance next year better?
  • Business — If you own your own company, business development means all of the professional development category, plus a much more detailed analysis. Look at all of your goals, not only to see if you achieved them, but to understand how you can improve their specificity, measurability or relevance the next time around.

Do you know where your clients or customers came from? Do you know how satisfied they are with your service or products? What are your metrics for sales, followers on your social media platforms (and interactions with those followers), newsletter subscribers, and your standing in the community?

Competition doesn’t matter as much as client satisfaction, but neither matter if you have no idea how your company (of one employee or one thousand) is trending.

  • Relationships — Nobody can tell you what your relationships should be, but if you’re not feeling loved and supported most of the time in your interactions with your partner, family, and friends, it probably won’t get better on its own. Organizing relationships matters!

Identify areas of improvement, like better communication or ways to nurture one another and connect. Maybe you just need to cook and eat meals together, which a recent study has found leads to well-being. 

Perhaps you need to consider whether this relationship has outworn its welcome. Just as with clutter, people buy into the sunk-cost fallacy; instead of throwing good money (or time) after bad — whether it’s an outgrown/defective car, gadget, or relationship — sometimes the best thing we can do is break free of inertia and let it go! (Cue Frozen!) 

  • Intellect and Education — What did you learn in 2023? What did you read or listen to that made you better at what you do or in terms of who you are? Students get report cards; as adults, it’s harder to evaluate our intellectual growth.

Try writing reviews of the books you read or tracking them in a notebook, or online in an app like Goodreads. (With only two weeks to go, I doubt I will hit my Goodreads Challenge goal of 39 books this year; I’m at 28 and will probably only finish two or three more. But that’s probably more than I’d finish if I didn’t keep track.)

  • Personal Growth — What’s different about you now versus last January? Have you grown in any way that’s discernible to your others or yourself? Did you embrace any new hobbies or skills?

If you’re happy with your life, huzzah! But if you feel like there was something missing in 2023, or if you participated in activities that no longer float your boat, now’s the time to explore and set some goals with actionable benchmarks for enriching your life. Make time for hobbies and passionate pursuits, and make room in your schedule for serendipity to offer you surprises!

  • Community — Do you have a community outside of your work? Whether it’s social, political, charitable, spiritual, or otherwise, do you feel like you were involved in something bigger than yourself this year? How (and with whom) do you want to move forward next year?

WHAT TO DO WITH WHAT YOU LEARN FROM YOUR ANNUAL REVIEW

Knowing how you did is only the first step. Next, focus on three activities: Celebrate, Acknowledge, and Grow!

Celebrate 

When I worked in television, I had a wonderful general manager who used to say, “One ‘Aw, <bleep>!’ wipes out ten ‘Atta-boys!'”

While his salty statement was designed to address public perception, it also calls to mind that even if we celebrate our successes in the moment, when we sit down to evaluate how we’ve done, we tend to focus on our failures and our shortcomings. With the perspective of weeks and months, we can revisit the areas of our lives where we’ve done well (or at least we did better than circumstances might have otherwise allowed).

Go through your calendar, emails, and task lists and find the wins! And because we can be unreliable narrators of our own lives, ask your partner, closest friends, mastermind group, and/or colleagues. You may be delightfully surprised by the successes you’ve forgotten while focusing on the day-to-day or even the fumbles.

Acknowledge 

Yes, we do fumble. At work, with our families, with our promises to ourselves. We fail to aspire by believing we cannot succeed in organizing our spaces or our time or our lives, or we aspire without realistic planning, writing checks our overwhelmed future selves can’t cash.

The point isn’t to get mired in where we’ve fallen short, but to cash in our reality checks, measure our ending points against our starting visions, giving ourselves credit and then acknowledging what we must do differently. Do we need new goals and aspirations, or do we need to seek professional help,  comradeship/support, and different tools?

Grow 

There is little point to looking back as a pure exercise unless we plan to sit on our laurels or self-flaggelate. Instead, we should use the knowledge of our past year to determine what we want our next year to reflect. Often misquoted or truncated, there’s an excellent quote by Dr. Maya Angelou:

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”

After evaluating your year, ask yourself how you want to do better. Do you really want to lose weight to hit an arbitrary number on the scale, or do you want to feel more comfortable and more confident in your clothes? Do you want to jump on the fitness trend everyone else is trying or do you want to explore something that fits your needs and workout style?

I recently learned that our ability to get off the floor by ourselves, without using our hands, is highly correlated with longevity. So, even though I start every year wishing I were good at yoga (and not both klutzy and bored to tears by it), for 2024, I’m looking at continuing my 10+K walks, getting back into Pilates, and exploring functional workouts designed to help improve stability and strength. I’m also giving myself a benchmark date by which if I haven’t gotten into a regular routine beyond walking, I’m going to hire a coach to guide me on functional aging skills.

If you aren’t happy about (or aren’t feeling informed on) your finances, start by gathering intelligence. Your credit cards likely have a dashboard that sorts your expenditures into categories you can evaluate, like restaurant service delivery or monthly fees for apps you’re no longer using. Look for “spend analyzer” or “year-end summary” on your financial account apps to note trends. If you’ve been using Mint as an independent financial dashboard, note that Intuit is suspending it and moving some (but not all) of its functions to Credit Karma, so you may need to find an alternative.

PICK YOUR ANNUAL REVIEW STYLE

I know from experience that I flounder when trying to do a free-form annual review, so over the years, I’ve embraced Year Compass, which I learned about from Janet Barclay. Year Compass is free, downloadable and fillable, printable PDF. (It’s available in translations to dozens of languages.)

Just print the booklet version and fill it out by hand. (Be sure to set the page to US English to get North American paper measurements.) Alternatively, you can type your answers directly into the digital version. (My penmanship gets more unwieldy each year, but I think we all feel more connection to the past year’s version of ourselves if we hand-write responses.)

Explore the innovative questions to generate a thorough evaluation of how your past year turned out and how to approach the coming year. Do this on your own or with a group of friends or family after a yummy at-home brunch.

In last year’s post, Organize Your Annual Review & Mindset Blueprint for 2023, I talked about the importance of evaluating your year based on your personal values, as well quantitative and my own list of qualitative questions, which I’ll share again:

The Good

  • What challenges made me feel smart, empowered, or proud of myself this year?
  • What did I create?
  • What positive relationships did I begin or nurture?
  • Who brought delight to my life?
  • Who stepped up or stepped forward for me?
  • What was my biggest personal highlight or moment I’d like to relive? 
  • What was my biggest professional moment I’d want to appear in my bio?
  • What’s a good habit I developed this year?

The Neutral

  • What did I learn about myself and/or my work this year? 
  • What did I learn how to do this year?
  • What did neglect or avoid doing out of fear or self-doubt?
  • What did I take on that didn’t suit my goals or my abilities?
  • What was I wrong about? 

The Ugly

  • What challenges made me feel weaker or less-than?
  • Whom did I dread having to see or speak with this year?
  • Who let me down?
  • Whom did I let down?
  • What did I do this year that embarrassed me (professionally or personally) or made me cringe? 
  • When did I hide my light under a bushel?
  • What am I faking knowing how how do? — Instead of pretending you know how to do something but are choosing a different path, ask for help. Make decision about what to do from a position of strength rather than weakness.
  • What’s a bad habit I regret taking up or continuing?
  • Where did I spend my time wastefully or unproductively? (It’s social media. For all of us.)
  • Where did I spend my money wastefully or unwisely? (Target? Let’s take a poll. Was it Target?)

WHY LOOK FORWARD?

Unless you’re a fourth grader watching the clock tick down until recess, time moves too quickly. We have little opportunity to savor the good, and before we know it, the years have flown by. If I don’t plan for how I want to live my future, time will go by without achieving what I want. To remind myself of the brevity and value of each day (without getting too maudlin), I use the simple but motivational app Life Clock.

Life Clock, available for iOS and Android, envisions a lifetime as the equivalent of a 24-hour clock. You feed it limited personal information and it extrapolates your life expectancy (though you can always adjust the number). It then identifies, for the given date, what “time” it is in your life.

Gulp!

Life Clock shares mini-facts about how to extend your lifespan (and notes what shortens it), and details historical trends and where traditional benchmarks (like graduating and moving out of your family home) fit on the clock of life. Each minute of your “life clock” equals about 20 days in real life.  

We don’t need to “optimize” every bit of our lives; we deserve downtime. But we only get 1440 minutes in a real day, so let’s not waste a single one of our life clock minutes on things that aren’t good for us and don’t make us happy.

Nobody gets to decide for you what matters most. That said, it’s hard to stay focused on what matters to you when kids and world events and who Taylor Swift is dating all get in the way.

RESOLVE TO GIVE UP RESOLUTIONS

As I’ve written for many years, I don’t think resolutions work; they lead to disappointment and frustration. Why? 

  • People set unrealistic expectations. Resolutions are often overly ambitious and fail to account for the time and effort you need. 
  • Not all goals have to be SMART goals, but if your resolutions lack specificity (“get out of debt” or “get it shape,”), you have no actionable steps to take. 
  • Most resolutions have no real plan of action and no method for achieving accountability.
  • Far too many resolutions have no intrinsic motivation. If your resolutions are designed to make someone else happy (whether that’s your mother-in-law or society) or compete (with a societal ideal or another individual), you’re bound for misery. I prefer SMARTY goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-based, and most importantly, yours.
  • Too many resolutions are made and evaluated with all-or-nothing thinking. Success based on perfectionism is demotivating. Give yourself grace.

Instead of resolutions, focus on changing your habits. I’ve written about this at length, including in Organize Your Life: The Truth About Resolutions, Goals, Habits, and Words of the Year back in 2019 and earlier this year in Paper Doll Helps You Find Your Ideal Analog Habit Tracker.

So read those two posts, and for real, meaningful change, read Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business 

and James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.

We don’t change who we are just because we decide to. We need a game plan. I will never embrace brevity in talking or writing. I will never be a morning person. But, I can change my habits. And so can you.

PROMOTE YOUR 2024 PLAN TO YOURSELF

Along with habit changes instead of resolutions, I believe in boosting your mindset so you can remind yourself, regularly, that you want to live a certain way, and why. 

In the annual review/forward-looking posts I’ve linked to throughout this post, I’ve done deep dives into ways to keep the motivation and energy of your “why” alive. You can read about them in detail, but they include:

  • a word of the year
  • multiple words (like a trio of words) of the year 
  • a quote or motto or mantra of the year
  • a song of the year

Whatever you pick, this word or phrase or song is your personal theme for the coming year. It reflects what you want to remember about your goals and your attitude. We all know that advertising works, so whatever you pick, or however you combine these ideas, use your (organized) space to keep your attention on your intention for the year.

Promote your theme word or phrase or song — to yourself — on a vision board to reflect and encompass any or all of your motivating words, phrases, and songs. Post your message to yourself on your bathroom mirror, your fridge, the inside of your front door — anywhere that it will give you a boost! Change your wakeup alarm on your phone to your song theme!

PAPER DOLL’S WORD OF THE YEAR FOR 2024

Some years, I do better than others with my word choice. In 2020, I picked “ample” and embracing the phrase “Ample: it’s not just for bosoms anymore.” I’ve carped about how the “ample” opportunities for experiencing a global health crisis weren’t appreciated, but upon years of reflection, I did grow the virtual organizing and productivity coaching side of my business.

2021’s “delighted” kept me seeking opportunities for delight, but I never managed to find a word that fit well for 2022. This year, I chose “fulfilled,” and it was a guiding principle behind work and life choices.

So far, I have two contenders for 2024.

One option came to me mid-summer in a flash, so I wrote it on the December page of my calendar so I wouldn’t forget. The word is UPGRADE.

I have a habit of overthinking a word’s unintentional implications. (Like how the year I picked “resilient,” I ended up with too many things from which to bounce back.) 

Upgrade, though, has real potential. While there might be a slight implication of expense — having to replace things — I really feel the vibe of improvement. This isn’t about upgrading tangible things (socks notwithstanding) but about the quality of my experiences. 

But “upgrade” has a quirky competitor: PRONOIA.

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it. Honestly, the first time I heard the word, I assumed it was made up. It’s opposite of paranoia; a person experiencing pronoia believes that the world around them conspires to do them good. Obviously, taken to extremes, it might seem like psychological or spiritual irrationality. 

But Buddist principles haven’t been working for me, I’m still trying to get a handle on the Stoics I talked about in Toxic Productivity Part 2: How to Change Your Mindset. I feel the pull of a bigger change in my life, and I think “pronoia” dovetails with the idea of a life upgrade.

Thus, I keep coming back to the Carly Pearl song in which I first heard the word “pronoia.”

While song is about psyching oneself up after a heartbreak, there’s something in the lyrics (and Pearl’s intonations) that I find inspiring.

You ever heard the word Pronoia?
It’s the opposite of paranoia, pronoia
The belief that the world conspires in your favor
Honey, it’s a game changer
It’s a cherry lifesaver

When I feel like everything is breaking down
It’s the dip before I hit the higher ground

(©2023 Carly Pearl, Renee Hikari, and David Baron)

How do you feel about the year that’s ending? What word or phrase or song is emblematic of what you want in 2024? 

Paper Doll on How to Celebrate Organizing and Productivity with Friends

Posted on: May 22nd, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 17 Comments

DO IT TODAY

Back in March, I told you all about my fabulous friend-of-the-blog (and of the blogger — me!), Kara Cutruzzula in Paper Doll Interviews Motivational Wordsmith Kara Cutruzzula. Writer/editor/playwright/lyricist/librettist & all-around-cool-kitten Kara and I have been collaborating for years and sharing one another’s achievements, and today is a chance to share something fun we’ve created together.

If you didn’t get the chance to read that post back, I recommend you jump over to do that. (There are some cool comedic and musical interludes!) We covered Kara’s talents at writing dialogue, especially spitfire-fast banter for whip-smart female characters like those in The Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and her skills at writing musicals. That post dug deep into Kara’s background and the resources she creates, including her uplifting Brass Ring Daily newsletter, and her books:

Do It For Yourself: A Motivational Journal,

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Do It Today: An Encouragement Journal,

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and her forthcoming Do It Or Don’t: A Boundary-Creating Journal.

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In that prior blog post, I also told you that Kara and I had recorded an episode of her Do It Now podcast to air in the podcast’s second season — and that episode is out now!

Today with Julie Bestry: Letting Go of the Stress of Getting Things Done

And it’s not just out, but it’s hot! The episode premiered last Monday, while I was off celebrating a long Mother’s Day weekend with Paper Mommy. Meanwhile, Kara promoted our lively conversation in her Brass Ring Daily newsletter, and listeners really took to it. Kara even forwarded one fabulous email message she received:

“I just wanted to share that on average, I listen to zero podcast episodes a year (it’s not a format that works for my brain usually) — and I could have listened to another two hours of you two talking. I enjoyed that so much this morning. Thank you for making this and sharing it, and to Julie of course.  Inspiring as always, and so expansive. Wow. ❤️ thank you.” 

Given that Paper Doll readers know how extensively I like to cover a topic, and how delightful and wise Kara is, I’m pretty sure we could have spoken for another two hours — maybe even another two days!

Kara’s podcast usually involves interviews with people I’d consider a much bigger deal than I am — Broadway bigwigs (performers, producers, and stage managers), screenwriters, musicians, journalists, and others who do their work on a big stage (no pun intended). But what we all have in common is the need to get things done each day, and that’s exactly what Kara asks guests about as a jumping off point —  what we’re doing that day, and what goes into making sure we get it done.

I’d been fascinated by, and had taken gems away from, every episode of the podcast’s first season, and I was a little uncertain as to what new I could bring to the table. It’s not like I could break into song or share any behind-the-scene secrets from Hamilton or Six. (Oh, if only I could!) But it took all of two seconds for Kara to put me at ease, Oprah-style, and we were off and running. We covered a lot of ground, including:

Having so much fun talking to Kara and riffing on these kinds of topics *almost* makes me wish she and I had a regular podcast where got to talk all the time!

You can catch Kara’s and my conversation on the podcast episode page, or at pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, Castro, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Player FM, and Deezer. (And no, I hadn’t heard of most of those services, either.) You can also subscribe to the podcast by RSS. 

WORLD ORGANIZING DAY

This past Saturday, May 20, 2023, was World Organizing Day. To quote from NAPO‘s web site: 

World Organizing Day is a global initiative founded by the International Federation of Professional Organizing Associations (IFPOA) to celebrate the work of organizing and productivity professionals.

This designated day aims to increase public awareness of the benefits of getting organized. It highlights the work of organizing and productivity professionals who enrich the personal and professional lives of their clients.

It also recognizes the accomplishments of individuals and organizations in their efforts to become more organized and productive. 

With regard to benefits, it’s obvious that being more organized allows us to save time and money, and to be more productive. When we have organized systems and skills to get (and stay) organized, we can more effectively and efficiently use our space and find what we need when we need it.

However, the psychological benefits of organizing are manifold, as well. When we declutter our living and working spaces, we also reduce the psychological friction that stands between us and getting things done. We reduce frustration and overwhelm, giving ourselves a sense of confidence about our abilities and our surroundings, and increase our sense of ease around having others in our environment with us.

In honor of World Organizing Day, the Institute of Challenging Disorganization (ICD) is making four 90-minute sessions from their 2021 virtual conference available for free to professional organizers as well as to members of the public. Start by watching this video:

Next, go to the ICD website page for World Organizing Day. If you’re already a subscriber or otherwise have an account, you can just log in and go straight there; otherwise, you can quickly create an account.

Then you’ll be taken to the Request for Access to World Organizing Day online form. Once you fill in a few details, you’ll immediately be sent an email granting you access to watch any or all of the four available courses in the World Organizing Day 2023 Package, covering a wide variety of issues related to chronic and challenging disorganization:

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  • A Fabulous Way to Build Resilience to Mitigate the Impact of Compassion Fatigue, taught by Barbara Rubel MA, BCETS, DAAETS, author of a variety of books on loss, grief,  bereavement, and renewal.
  • Neuroarchitecture Contributions To Challenge Disorganization, taught by Andréa de Paiva, MA, professor, founder of NeuroAU, and an architect seeking to bridge research, education and design.
  • Turning Pain into Purpose: My OCD Journey, taught by Ethan S. Smith

Please note that while all four sessions are free of charge, they are only available through June 3, 2023.

OLD HOME WEEK & PRODUCTIVITY PEEPS

Meanwhile, as my colleagues across the planet were celebrating World Organizing Day, I went on a little road trip and got to enjoy camaraderie and talk about productivity with two people whose names might be familiar to Paper Doll readers.

Each March for the past several years, I’ve participated in the Task Management and Time Blocking Summit run by Francis Wade. As I’ve mentioned, not only do I know Francis from the productivity community, but we actually lived in the same dorm, the International Living Center, at Cornell University!

Although we’ve popped up on the same podcasts, webinars, and virtual meet-ups, Francis and I hadn’t seen each other in person in about 37 years! A few months ago, I found out Francis was flying in from Jamaica to Atlanta to present at an International Association for Strategy Professionals (IASP), and would be taking a quick jaunt to Alabama to see family and meet up with our fellow productivity colleague (and my fellow Evernote Certified Expert), Dr. Frank Buck. We knew we’d have to find a way to meet up!

You readers know Frank from when he interviewed me for his own podcast. And all three of us have crossed paths in a variety podcasts and summits recapped in Paper Doll posts, including those mentioned above and Paper Doll Picks: Organizing and Productivity Podcasts.

I wonder if anyone frets over (I mean, “embraces the challenges of”) logistical concerns more than organizing and productivity people. Over several weeks, we squared away the details of triangulating the travel details of our little circle. (See what I did here?) Francis was arriving from Jamaica and driving west to an outer suburb of Birmingham, Alabama to spend the weekend with family before heading back to Atlanta for his conference. 

(Ignore the total time and mileage; I couldn’t figure out how to make Google show two separate routes simultaneously, so it added two routes together.)

Added to the complications of planning were my continuing reliance on COVID precautions (not dining indoors) and the fact that I don’t eat meat, but Frank took on the role of cruise director with aplomb and dove into research mode!

Once we knew Francis had arrived safely, I’d be driving southwest from Chattanooga, and Frank would drive a far shorter (but not insignificant) route westward. Through the magic of Google, we identified the unfortunately-named but absolutely delightful community of Trussville, Alabama for our meet-up. There were a few kerfuffles due to weather and communication (take note: always agree on which method of communication — email or texting or whatever — before arranging any muti-location adventure), but we still managed to arrive at our destination within moments of one another.

For anyone ever hoping to meet up with friends in the general vicinity of central Alabama (and I’m not sure how many of Paper Doll readers might find that likely), and not having a reason or inclination to go all the way to Birmingham, I can’t recommend Trussville more highly. This walkable community, filled with restaurants, shops, and a central “entertainment district“ with a communal dining pavilion, outdoor theater, and hanging-out lawn was perfect for getting together for a late lunch/early dinner.

Interrupted only a few times by bursts of rain that moved along in minutes, Francis, Frank, and I enjoyed an afternoon and evening of hearty discussion of productivity methods, Evernote, Artificial Intelligence, video editing, our respective families’ genealogical histories, the current politics of education in America, international perspectives on long-term strategic planning (as a nod to Francis’ conference topic), and the meaning of an all-gender bathroom pictogram (which apparently is not a common sight in Jamaica — we assured Francis that it’s just like any one-person bathroom available to all, like in one’s home or on an airplane, ).

At Pinchgut Pies, the fellas partook of a specialty “Gaitor Bait” pizza with alligator sausage, while I ordered a pesto-and-fresh-mozzarella pie; later, after hearty discussion of all of the above topics, plus early 20th-century treatments of polio and our experiences of 9/11 (Frank was a school principle; I was working in television), we sampled the wares of Cookie Dough Magic, which sells both ice cream and edible cookie dough.

After three years of COVID and not traveling to any professional gatherings in person, it was a delight to gather outside and talk to colleagues/friends (about productivity as well as personal topics), and getting to finally meet Frank in person, and seeing Francis for the first time in 37 years, seemed like something worth sharing with all of you readers.

Being organized and productive is wonderful, but we must remember that we do it in service of a greater good, to have the opportunity to accomplish not only our labors, but achieve our joys.

As Memorial Day weekend approaches and we head into a (hopefully) more sociable summer, may you be organized and productive, but I hope you also get to enjoy good company, good food, and good times.

Paper Doll Suggests What to Watch to Get More Organized and Productive

Posted on: May 8th, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 8 Comments

You may have heard that for the first time in 15 years, the Writers Guild of America has gone on strike. What they’re asking for is reasonable, especially in light of all that’s changed in the television industry (including streaming services). Meanwhile, you may find yourself with a shortage of your favorite shows to watch.

You’ve got lots of options to fill your time. You could read a book (or several), in which case, you might seek guidance from 12 Ways to Organize Your Life to Read More — Part 1 (When, Where, What, With Whom) and 12 Ways to Organize Your Life to Read More — Part 2 (Reading Lists, Challenges & Ice Cream Samples) Or you could get out in the sunshine or hang out with friends.

But what can you do if you really like to sit in a comfy chair and watch things on a glossy screen? Well, if you’ve already exhausted every English-language comedy and drama on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+, Disney+, and YaddaYadda+, you could try watching one of the many Korean-language dramas on Netflix. (I recommend Extraordinary Attorney Woo — it’s charming and delightful.)

Or you could try something completely different. Today’s post offers up a mix of webinars and actual TV programming designed to help you live a better, more productive, more organized life. 

DAILY DOSE MINI CHALLENGES

Could you use a little support in reaching your goals? My cool friend Georgia Homsany runs Daily Dose, a wellness company celebrating its 3-year anniversary! How do you celebrate three years of supporting people’s health and wellness needs through corporate and individual endeavors? With three really cool weeks of 5-day mini-challenges! And I get to be part of one of them!

  • 5-Day Positivity Challenge (May 8-12) — Learn how to conquer stress and negativity with simple reminders and healthy habits to transform your mindset. (It starts today!)
  • How to Overcome Perfectionism (May 15-19) — Learn how recognize the signs of perfectionist tendencies, understand the negative effects of it, and gain skills to minimize the idea of perfection in your workplace and personal life.
  • Declutter Your Space and Schedule (May 22-26) — Receive actionable advice to help you get motivated, make progress, and gain control over the life and work clutter that weighs you down. From chaotic mornings to cluttered desks and screens to procrastination and wonky schedules, I’ll be telling you how to make it all better.

Yup, that last one is my mini-challenge. And you KNOW how much I pack into whatever I deliver. 

For each mini-challenge, you get:

  • Video content delivered daily over the course of five days. Videos are designed to be short and to the point so you can learn and get on with your day to incorporate the advice.
  • Email and/or text reminder notifications — and you get to set your reminder preference!
  • An interactive platform to ask questions and chat with other participants.

Plus, there’s a BONUS: Each participant will also be entered in a raffle to win one of three wellness prizes! (One (1) winner per challenge.)

The cost is $25 per challenge, or $65 for all three! (And remember, the first challenge starts today, Monday, May 8th!) So go ahead and register before it falls to the bottom of your to-do list!

5-Day Positivity Challenge!

How to Overcome Perfectionism

Declutter Your Space and Schedule 

If you have questions or want to sign register for all three, email Daily Dose with “5 Day Mini Courses” in the subject line. And say hi from me!

HOW TO FIX MEETINGS

Graham Allcott of Think Productive is the author of How to be a Productivity Ninja: Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do, which has a prominent place on my bookshelf.

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He’s also written How to be a Study Ninja: Study Smarter. Focus Better. Achieve More (for students), Work Fuel: The Productivity Ninja Guide to Nutrition, and more.

Graham and Hayley Watts, his writing partner on their book, How to Fix Meetings: Meet Less, Focus on Outcomes and Get Stuff Done, are offering a free Zoom-based webinar this week, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (Note that Graham and Hayley are in the UK, and the start time listed is 2 p.m. GMT, which is 9 a.m. Eastern Time, so please synchronize your watches accordingly.)

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If you struggle with attending (or scheduling) meetings that should have been emails, if you have no planned itinerary for meetings, if your meetings tend to go on forever, and especially if your meetings don’t seem to ever achieve anything, this should be a good webinar to help you find your way forward. In Graham’s own words,

“Our approach to meetings in the book is much like Think Productive’s entire approach to productivity: it’s all about making space for what matters. That means eliminating so many of the unnecessary and unproductive meetings we have, but then in that space that we’ve created, we are able to focus in on the meetings that make a difference. The ones where collaboration and consensus generate the magic and momentum.”

They practice what they preach, so the webinar is only 45 minutes…and unlike broadcast TV, there are no commercials!

If you like what you see, you might want to sign up for their other upcoming free webinars (Human, Not Superhero on May 17, 2023, and Getting Comfortable with Mistakes and Imperfection on June 7, 2023), as well as their YouTube channel and paid public workshops.

Not only is the material great for building productivity, but everything is delivered in posh UK accents!

THE GENTLE ART OF SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING

Over the years, I’ve read a lot of books about organizing and decluttering, and am often conflicted. If you read my post, The Truth About Celebrity Organizers, Magic Wands, and the Reality of Professional Organizing, you know how I feel about celebrity organizers (and non-professionals) offering up advice that’s one-size-fits-all and doesn’t take into account individual’s personal situations, mental health, family and work obligations, home sizes, and comfort levels. In short, such an approach does not please me!

But that doesn’t mean I eschew all books on the topic, either by celebrities or non-professionals. Five years ago, I read The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter with curiosity but few expectations.

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The author, Margareta Magnusson, wasn’t a professional organizer; she hadn’t even been previously published. Was this going to be another “hygge” kind of movement where everyone and his brother would take a cultural phenomenon and profit off of it? Was “death cleaning” even actually a thing in Sweden? And would the advice be any good?  

First, I got a little taste of Magnusson’s style by watching this interview clip.

Eventually, I sprinted through the book. Here’s an excerpt from the Goodreads review I wrote at the time:

“Gentle” in this book’s title is the key to guiding your expectations. If you’re looking for a detailed how-to book on decluttering, this is not your resource. It’s something else, and as a professional organizer, I’m inclined to say it’s something better. Swedish artist Margareta Magnusson, self-reportedly somewhere between eighty and one hundred years old, is experienced at döstädning, translated as “death cleaning,” but meaning the essential downsizing one should do in one’s 60s, 70s, and beyond so that one’s children and friends are not left with the sad labor of separating the wheat from the chaff and risking missing gems among the clutter.

Magnusson is like a worldly but sweet elderly aunt, writing lightly amusing, firm-but-gentle, philosophical guidance for her friends and age cohorts. If you’re in your 40s or younger, you may roll your eyes at this book, thinking, “Oh, I know that!” but as a professional, I can tell you that the difference between knowing you should dramatically reduce your clutter (or not acquire it in the first place) and doing it represent a chasm as vast as the ocean that separates us from Sweden. […]

Some of Magnusson’s tips are about dealing with what you keep, rather than about letting go of items. My favorite, and one that I think we all need to hear every so often, came after her story of boating with friends and the constant loss of the boat keys, and how a small hook for the key inside the cabin door might have improved upon the crankiness of the participants. She said, simply, “Sometimes, the smallest changes can have amazing effects. If you find yourself repeatedly having the same problem, fix it! Obvious.” Perhaps, but do you always follow that obvious advice?

Magnusson seems uncertain about my own profession, noting that she thinks it’s important, when death cleaning, to seek out advice on things like the best charities to which to donate certain items, how to deal with beautiful items with no monetary value, and the wisdom/safety of gifting or donating potentially dangerous items. Elsewhere, she expresses the notion that she sees the value in professional organizers but worries about the cost (of many hours of help) if one is reluctant to actually let go of things. I can’t disagree with her. This is why she slyly uses her book to (again) gently encourage people to work toward understanding the wisdom of really looking at their possessions and considering what they really need and want as they age.

Again, her philosophy rather than her step-by-step advice is the value of the book. In one section, Magnusson offers some conversation starters for younger adults to help their elderly parents and grandparents (or those approaching their dotage) consider the very issues that she raises in the book. In another, she lays out how possessions can yield strong memories, but that one shouldn’t be sad if one’s children don’t want/need the unusable possessions just to remain attached to the memories.

At no time is Magnusson harsh; she’s wistful.[…] She says, “You can always hope and wait for someone to want something in your home, but you cannot wait forever, and sometimes you must just give cherished things away with the wish that they end up with someone who will create new memories of their own.” Lovely, and true, and yet so hard for so many people to accept.

There were two small areas of the book I particularly liked. First, Magnusson very briefly speaks of how death cleaning has traditionally been a woman’s job — women have historically been the caregivers, they live longer, they want to avoid causing trouble for the kids, etc. But although she is a woman of advanced years, she doesn’t give in. She notes that women of her generation were brought up not to be in the way, and to fear being a nuisance, and then notes, “Men don’t think like I do, but they should. They, too, can be in the way.” Death cleaning must be an equal-opportunity endeavor.

The other parts of the book I especially liked involved her focus on “private” and “personal” things. I won’t spoil the paragraph on “private” things except to say that what caused a few reviewers to call Magnusson “dirty” for one small paragraph in an entire book causes me to declare her refreshing. (I laughed out loud, joyfully.) This is not a prim old biddy, but a woman who has lived, and who understands that leaving behind one’s truly “private” items is not quite fair to those you predecease. The “personal” section that I enjoyed was the notion, towards the end of one’s time on the planet, of having a small box, about the size of a shoebox, for things that are yours alone. Think: love letters or a small whatnot that gives you pleasure but that will mean nothing to anyone after you’re gone, and which you can easily advise others to toss if you so choose.

As no translator is listed, I believe that Magnusson, herself, wrote the English version of this book. (Perhaps it was written for an English-speaking audience and Swedes have no need for what may seem like common sense to them?) This gave the text a warm, quaint feeling, as Magnusson’s English is excellent, but perhaps a tad formal. Yet she is not old-fashioned, nor are her ideas, and her recognition of the importance of technology will set at ease the minds of potential readers who might feel this book is too behind the times for them.

[…]If you are overwhelmed by clutter, certainly you can read this book, but don’t expect a primer on decluttering and creating new systems. (Better yet, call a professional organizer!) But do read this book to immerse yourself in the mindset that Magnusson puts forth, and you will likely find yourself more at ease with the notion of letting go of excess as you go through life.

I even liked the book enough to read her follow-up, mostly a memoir of her fascinating life, The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You.

So, I was surprised and delighted when my colleague Hazel Thornton told me that there was going to be a TV show based on the book, and then let me know it was launching before I’d even seen the trailer (below). 

I’m generally dubious about reality shows, especially organizing-related reality shows. They can be exploitive or silly, reductionist or melodramatic. I haven’t made my way through all of the episodes yet, but many of my colleagues have praised the sense of hope the show puts forth, both for the individuals portrayed on the show and for the useful new lives of the possessions that have been “death cleaned” out of their homes.

A note about the tone of the show. While Magnusson’s writing is, indeed, gentle, the show is produced and narrated by comedic actress Amy Poehler, who has been known to be on the sarcastic side, and the show has some instances of adult language (including the words George Carlin once noted could not be said on television), so if you are sensitive or uncomfortable with such, or tend to watch programming around impressionable children or adults who are uncomfortable with such language, please proceed cautiously. 

The team is made up of Ella, a professional organizer, Kat, a psychologist, and Johan, a designer, and the show is thematically similar to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, produced by the same company. Some of my colleagues have called attention to the fact that the team’s practitioners are Swedish, so some sensibilities are quite different from our attitudes and practices in North America. 

As I haven’t had the opportunity to finish the entire series, I’m still formulating my thoughts, but I think only good things can come of looking at our time left and making the best use of it by not letting possessions weigh us (and those who live on after us) down.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning is streaming on Peacock; there are eight episodes in the first season, each ranging from 46 to 56 minutes in length. If you have cable, you can likely watch it for free (with commercials); if you do not have cable, you can subscribe to the Premium version for $4.99/month or Premium Plus for $9.99/month, and access it directly on a variety of devices and through services you already have. 

HOW TO GET RICH

Of my many complaints over the years about how organizing and productivity concerns are portrayed on television, the one that bothers me most has less to do with attitudes, performances, and advice, and more to do with what gets completely ignored.

Almost every organizing show I’ve ever seen has focused on decluttering residential spaces! 

It’s not that this isn’t important; it’s just that it’s not the only important thing. I’ve yet to see a television program designed for mass viewership that covers procrastination, productivity, organizing one’s tasks and time, or anything that goes into organizing non-residential, non-storage space. Even office organizing gets ignored. (One minor except: Tabatha’s Salon Makeover included small segments of workspace organizing in a hair salons.)

I’ve also noticed that there have been very few shows for a mainstream audience on organizing personal finances, an important sub-speciality for NAPO financial organizers and daily money managers in the American Association of Daily Money Managers. Financial organizing — everything from budgeting to investment planning to decluttering bad financial habits — is definitely important for leading a healthy, productive life.

And yet, how many reality or educational shows have you seen about personal finance? Suze Orman used to have a weekly call-in advice show on CNBC, the reruns of which you can see on Amazon Prime using Freevee, but that was more like watching a radio show and you only got narrow slices of people’s lives.

I preferred Til Debt Do Us Part, a Canadian show with Gail Vaz-Oxlade, where she visited the homes of a few different individuals and families each episode and doled out applicable financial advice. 

How to Get Rich, led by Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, reminds me of a louder, glitzier version of Vaz-Oxlade’s show.

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Over the course of eight episodes in this first season, Sethi meets with couples and individuals and offers financial (and seemingly life-coaching) advice to help them reach their goals. Sethi has degrees from Stanford University: a BA in Information & Society (in Science, Technology & Society) with a minor in Psychology and an MA in sociology (Social Psychology and Interpersonal Processes, and he’s a writer and entrepreneur. As far as I can tell, though, he’s not an accountant or Certified Financial Planner; he’s a self-labeled financial expert, so before you implement his financial advice, speak to a licensed expert in your state or jurisdiction. 

That said, the advice he provides to the guests on the show are generally common-sense on researchable topics. He comes out in favor of renting rather than buying when the cost of buying is excessive, and against multi-level marketing (MLM) in such a way that really makes clear how, mathematically, expectations of success are similar to middle school athletes expecting to be NBA All-Stars.

Like the majority of organizing shows, there’s not a lot of opportunity to provide in-depth financial organizing solutions or guidance. It’s TV, and TV is designed to entertain first and foremost, to keep hitting the dopamine centers in the brain in order to encourage viewers to keep watching.

That said, shows like How To Get Rich (and The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, all those other organizing shows) do one great thing. They call attention to the fact that pain points can be soothed, that bad habits can be reversed, and that there is hope if you are willing to seek guidance and make behavioral changes.

The first season of How to Get Rich is on Netflix.

I’m not just a fan of good narrative television; my first career was as a television program director and I served on my network’s Program Advisory Council, giving network executives feedback on programming and scheduling. You can take the girl out of TV, but you can’t take TV out of the girl.  As such, I hope the deep-pocket corporations come to the negotiating table with the WGA and work out a deal that is fair to the hardworking professional writers who create the comedies and dramas, the TV shows and movies, that entertain and enliven us.

Until then, whether it’s an educational webinar or a edutainment reality show, I encourage you to mix some organizing and productivity into your viewing habits. And please feel free to share in the comments any recent shows, webinars, or other programming that slakes your thirst for guidance toward living your best possible life. 

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