apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm halfway through the book and I'm halfway through decluttering my place. I'm thinking of the whole apartment as one big room - at first...

Once stuff is out from the first sweep -I'll go back room by room (a la the cure) for the other junk I missed.

Maxwell -I really liked the landing strip idea -I read it yesterday - remove the stuff, remove the guilt (my mom gave it to me), free yourself from the 'necessity' of having to keep it in your home.

Onwards and upwards -I 'm moving on to the kitchen cabinets today!

Um, my last comment referred to a spam attack so...never mind.

8 step cure should not be a one time thing.

it should be a process some time everytime

Great book and I'm eager to do the cure.

But is it me? The book says we can print out the worksheets from the website, but I can't find the link. (I did search for "worksheet".)

help?

Kim

I have been adapting the worksheets over the weekend and should have them up today or tomorrow morning latest. Thanks for your patience.

As for what smear says, he/she is absolutely right - the cure is an ongoing thing and that is exactly the point of the 8 weeks. if you do something over 8 weeks you actually develop habits for the rest of the year. it's about learning and digesting new ways of looking at your space, not simply a quick Trimspa fix.

and now to those worksheets....

Ladies,

If you're going to do the Cure you must get serious and stop gambling.

Shannon--Information management has always been a problem for me. I'm constantly switching between Filofaxes, simple pocket calendars and mini notebooks, and PDAs (though my company won't support 'em, so that kinda defeats the purpose) because I can't find a system that works for me. I'm curious to know how other people manage their lives--appointments, To Do lists, birthdays, lists of things to buy, clips from magazines, etc.

Anybody have a great suggestion?

spcy -- I just use stickies and iCal on my mac and little squares of notepaper for everything that isn't computer-based. I've found that anything complicated also has a lot of upkeep and a lot of features I don't need. Maybe you need less organising stuff and a better system instead?

mary...you hit the nail on the head. i definitely need a better system. thoughts?

btw, i wish i had a mac. but i don't.

Well, I just use the by-the-seat-of-my-pants system, and it works just fine. Figure out what you need and then go find it or make something up that works for you... Take a look at GTD and 43folders, but figure out what in your life needs organising and how you want everything to work first... A lot of the Merlin Mann stuff is Mac-centric, but just because you don't have iCal doesn't mean that you can never use a calendar on your computer. Ditto stickies -- I'm sure there's a program you could give over to writing long lists of to-dos.

spcy-
I swear by my pda, which happens to be a Palm, but just the little handheld concept works for me. Also, you mentioned articles-I download them and then keep them on my hard drive at home. If it's something I think I'll need on my pda (like travel-related stuff), I can load it up there too.

Also, an amazing site I've been using for keeping track of myriad websites (rather than favorites or bookmarks on the computer, which are too hard to keep organized in any way that's easy and useful) is this site:

http://del.icio.us

You can keep all your favorite links there and search them by keyword. So, if I'm saving links for, says, mattresses, I can tag them with keywords such as mattress, shopping, home, whatever.

I second Mary on 43folders and GTD (Getting Things Done), a book by David Allen:
http://tinyurl.com/j95cv
(link to Amazon).

GTD is one of my organizing principles, imperfect as I am at it.

Pixie, have you ever had any bad experiences related to del.icio.us website privacy policy? Seems potentially problematic to me, but then perhaps everyone tracks users activity these days...

JenDC--I haven't had any issues with it. What do you think might be problematic?

spcy,

You have just asked one of my most favorite questions! I am utterly fascinated by how people organize themselves and I love developing systems to do that! Usually when I meet a new person at work, or a new friend, I ask them exactly how they organize themselves (and ask to see all of their goodies). I love listening to how people go about this. Everyone is different, and has different needs, so it is interesting to see where people's preferences lie, or how they problem solve particular issues.

So in order to help you, we would need to know a bit more about you. Do you like to do the PDA thing, or are you a person who likes the tactile sense of paper and looking at hand writing on a page? I would also need to ask, do you want to set up system that is totally mobile, or one that could be more desk or computer based? Is it just for "life" or also for work? Should it be able to include both?

Over the years, and at my different points in life, school, work, I have developed so many different systems that were tailored to whatever my needs were at the time. Ok, I love developing systems and could honestly talk about this FOREVER.

Currently, I am settling into a new system which uses: a PDA (really only for contacts), a thin spiral calendar, and a notebook (moleskine) for notes, to do lists, etc. This system does use three items, but they are not large and can fit easily into my bag.

In terms of organizing clips from magazines or other paper things, including bills, I use binders. I love binders. I also use binders and the plastic pages to organize business cards from shops/restaurants around town, and for people.

Tell me more about what your needs are...

spcy,

For lots of ideas about analog organizers, search Flickr for hipsterpda (or click my name). I've at least sipped the Kool-Aid on GTD, and my implementation consists of colored index cards--some blank, some templated--which I carry around in a little 3x5 accordion file. As a writer, people are always giving me blank leather-bound notebooks and such, which I despise. I need the lowered barrier to entry that I get with 3x5, and you can't beat it for low cost and high portability.

I'm with Shannon on this one. I also don't like fancy -- I never draw well on special paper because I'm nervous about ruining it. I tear waste paper into quarters and use that for notes and it works a lot better than having a "real" calendar. I have space to write out whatever it is I think I'm doing, and I never feel like I'm wasting pages in a calendar when I rewrite something for the third time.

Two good sites are pocketmod.com and diyplanner.com. There's GTD forum on David Allen's website, plus a lot of situation-specific sites like organizedwriter.com.

I tried a PDA a few years ago and maintain I'm still trying to clean up the mess it made of my scheduling and record keeping.

I thought it was me until I stumbled across a book by Julie Morgenstern on time management. There's a self-test in it to help determine whether you're pixel or paper in terms of organization.

It turned out I was paper; went back to Letts diaries; and have been happy ever since.

It is safe to say I'm not a "gizmo guy".

For years, I lugged a Filofax around. Yes, I was organized, but it weighed a ton and only fit in larger handbags. It ended up causing major shoulder pain that I still live with today.

I got a Palm III when they first came out and loved it! Upgraded to a Palm V a couple of years ago, but I couldn't link it to my computer at work so I was frustrated with having to maintain two contact lists, calendars, etc.

Just a few weeks ago, I got a Treo 700W from work and I am stoked! I maintain my contacts, appointments and to-do's from my computer and they sync up wirelessly.

The PDA/phone combination works for me because it combines two devices into one and it's lightweight. I maintain differed to-do lists so that I am always prepared when I go to the store, the hardware store, etc. so those excursions are more efficient. Being able to set alarms means that I am (usually) on time.

Unfortunately, it kind of sucks as a cellphone.

All: Love this thread. I too am constantly looking for the "perfect" system for me.

I use a small Moleskin diary for appts, to-dos, reminders, journal, etc.

I have a Moleskin accordian book for measurements of things, books (to read, find), movies (to see, rent) and the sorts of things I need as a 'reference.'

I also have a small spiral pad to leave notes for people, etc. This also has things-to-buy organized by store built up as and when I remember so when the list gets fairly long, it makes sense to make a trip to a store (and by this, I mean specialty store).

Since I am an amateur artist, I also carry a sketchbook around.

So suffice to say I carry a big handbag. I desperately want to trim this so I am enjoying this thread. (I am however a non-pixel person.)

I, too, can talk about systems all day. I greatly miss the old AOL "Systems and Planners" board.

Great PDA programs: AgendaFusion, Pocket Informant, and ListPro. ListPro has pre-made lists for downloading, and you can also *upload* lists you create, and share with the world!

I use Excel for my version of GTD (that version came from the AOL Get-O days), and there's always Microsoft Project (which I'm lucky enough to own, but of course most people don't).

Jean,
I had heard a lot of good things about ListPro, so I got a free trial of it on my Palm, but didn't really give it enough attention to see if I liked it. The other two programs you mention I haven't heard of. What do you like about these three programs?

3x5 index cards or PDAs are a cure for the noise in your head? Not my head... It's like the accordian file came alive or the pixels started swirling around my brain.

Any advice for quieting the noises, not just filing them to come back later and haunt me as soon as I close my eyes? The "mindfulness" link might have something there, but it's also a lot of additional input to compute.

I've also heard good things about SplashWallet (for a pda) and the same thing happened - I downloaded a free trial, and then didn't give it enough attention to see if I liked it. Anyone have experience with that?

Anna,
Have you read Getting Things Done by David Allen? That's exactly what he talks about-setting up and maintaining a "trusted system" to get all that stuff out of your head and into a system so that your brain isn't chasing it around all the time and you can just focus on what's in front of you. As a chronic list piler (post-its, scraps of paper, etc), it's helped me tremendously, although sometimes I lose focus; I just have to return to it when I stray from the path and my reviews of my system aren't kept up to date.

I like www.tadalist.com
it's easy and free.

I keep multiple lists there...
for lists that I use repeatedly...like grocery shopping...It's handy to keep a list of all the things I buy regularly..and then check the items I specifically need to pick up at any given time.
I also add errands to this list...so that I can combine trips.

I also keep lists of ongoing longterm projects there for things I want to accomplish around the house. Clean the basement has been on this list way too long!

Plus, I have a list of books there..as I hear about titles that I want to remember for future reading, they get added to the list.

now, now. I think we're all pixel people here -- at least to one another. Perhaps even pixel pixies.

Like Moleskeins, but really like the MiguelRuis notebooks I've picked up at Kate's and other places. Sort of leatherette binding in black, blue, red or green. However, the Moleskien accordian is great for receipts when I travel.

Hmmm...according to one of the Cure threads, you are a different Jonathan, so there are now two Jonathans?

I'm definitely a pixel pixie!

I use 43things.com as a personal to-do list site for things that don't belong on my daily to-do list. For instance, I'm blogging about the 8-week Cure over there...

Lori 2:

Thanks for your help! To answer your questions, I think I prefer writing everything by hand--I like to be able to look at a great deal of information at once, the overall picture, instead of one screen at a time. I'm looking to get control over my personal and work information, though not necessarily in one system (though if it's possible to do so, that would be great).

I've actually read GTD by David Allen, and while I thought it provided a lot of useful information (I really like the 2 minute rule), I found it a bit complicated. I'd prefer a more simple system.

I sit at a computer all day long, so I suppose I could store my lists and stuff online, but what do I do when I'm at the bookstore and want to recall the name of a book I need to buy? Or conversely, where would I write down the name of a book I want to buy if I don't have my list on me?

I'm also terrible at remembering to pay my bills and such...

I think that part of the problem is that I'm a perfectionist, and since I haven't found the "perfect system" yet, I keep my life in disarray. Yes, I am getting professional help for this ;-) LOL

well, I don't know how many jonathan's there are. It's not that uncommon a name. would it help if I signed off as Jon or JonathanB?

Jonathan, it would be great if you did that - just my opinion.

...or you could be "nice, non-cranky jonathan"...

I just use a calendar. One at home and one at work. Works great for me.

I can be pretty cranky too. It's just that I believe whizzing outside the home should be restricted to the Gents.

spcy,

I am not familiar with David Allen (nor have I read anything about organizing one’s life/developing systems). What is the 2 minute rule?

So you said you like paper, and you also said you have used a filofax. Couldn’t you
base your system on a filofax, where you use the calendar to write dates, and also, why not every time you get a bill, just write the due date in the calendar? Then you could have sections in your filofax for to-do lists, ongoing lists of books to buy, movies to see, cool stores you come across, etc. , work lists, life lists, etc.

I am interested to look online at the various tools people have suggested, but I agree with you – when you are out and about a desk based system won’t work, unless you are a lover of PDAs and want to hotsync everything. Paper makes sense to me. I have also been thinking that I might use the computer to keep some lists, but more like long term lists that I don’t need on a daily or even weekly basis, and, as I mentioned before, contacts are nice to store on the computer.

How large is your filofax? One thing I have noticed as being a barrier for me when I have used those is if they are too small, then it is not pleasurable or easy to jot things down – especially with the rings getting in the way. Is yours large enough to write comfortably?

What do you see as the limitations to using something like a filofax?

Here's something from Wikipedia on the Getting Things Done system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gtd

The two minute rule is "any new task which can be completed in less than two minutes should be done immediately."

Getting Things Done=book by David Allen.