Enjoy the latest release (v50) of the “What’s Interesting?” series, which features my most recent finds that inform, inspire, and relate to organizing and life balance. These unique time management discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme.

You are an engaged, vibrant, and generous group. I am deeply grateful for your ongoing presence, positive energy, and contributions to this community. I look forward to your participation and additional contributions to the collection I’ve sourced.

What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? – 5 Best Time Management Discoveries

1. Interesting Read – Productivity Time

Do you or someone you know have ADHD and struggle with productivity, consistency, and punctuality? If so, you’ll love the latest book by psychologist, author, presenter, and thought-leader, Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA.

He draws on his 40,000 hours of client work to share strategies and insights on how people with ADHD can get things done.

In The ADHD Productivity Manual, Ari explores thirty-six areas that affect productivity for individuals with ADHD. Topics include:

• How ADHD makes it harder to see time

• Essentials for making the most of your brain

• Clarifying your goals

• Minimizing distractions

• Letting go of perfection

• Navigating feelings of overwhelm

Ari says, “The obvious goal of this book is to help you get more done. The less obvious, but more important goal is that I want you to feel good about yourself.” He goes on to say that “ADHD is a disorder of converting intentions into actions. This book is all about action.”

2. Interesting Article – Timeboxing

Have you ever tried timeboxing? In Rebecca Muller’s Thrive Global article, “Try This Now: ‘Timebox’ Your Tasks at Work,” she makes the case for using this visualization exercise to help you prioritize and focus on which tasks to tackle first and which can wait. This approach can be especially beneficial when you feel overwhelmed and stressed by a lengthy to-do list.

Here is one method to timebox:

• Grab a sheet of paper

• Draw a column of boxes

• Put each task in a box based on its priority level

You will quickly visualize which items require immediate attention and which are non-urgent. Muller quotes Marc Zao-Sanders in a Harvard Business Review piece. Zao-Sanders says about timeboxing, “It’s visual, intuitive, and obvious.”

In what ways could timeboxing be an effective strategy for you?

3. Interesting Product – Grounding Time

Busy schedules, excessive stress, and uncertainty can leave you feeling emotionally depleted and anxious. Does your day involve pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion? If so, it’s vital to restore your well-being by taking time to ground and calm yourself.

There are various ways to accomplish this, such as meditating, taking nature walks, journaling, talking with a loved one, slowly sipping a beverage, or gazing out the window.

Another idea is to use a time reminder for grounding. I found this adorable stress reliever made by Mindsight. The six-inch-tall Breathing Buddha helps you practice mindful breathing in short sprints. It features a simple visual soft light for guidance, pre-set breathing cycles, is rechargeable, and is portable.

What helps you feel relaxed and grounded?

“It’s vital to restore your well-being by taking time to ground and calm yourself.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Interesting Resource – Laugh Break Time

While life isn’t all puppies and rainbows, there’s something life-affirming about taking time for silly, joy-inducing moments. One way to do that is through laughter.

When was the last time you had a good laugh? I’m talking about full-body, uncontrollable, contagious laughter. Maybe you saw a comedian, heard a great joke, or watched a funny movie. Something tickled your giggle motor, and the laughter began.

By the way, if you haven’t seen the movie “Bad Shabbos,” I highly recommend it. I laughed so hard that my face hurt.

On a recent trip with my wonderful husband, Steve, we stopped at the Whispering Oaks Vineyard in Sunbury, PA. I gazed at the lush green landscape and sipped a delicious frozen wine slushy, which has become my new favorite drink. Then we shared this playful moment.

Steve started laughing, and I couldn’t help but join in. It makes me laugh every time I watch the video, and it reminds me of how essential laughter breaks are in life. While I recognize how personal humor can be, I hope this short clip brings a little lightness to your day.

What makes you laugh?

5. Interesting Thought – Progress Time

It’s easy to get discouraged when you are making changes or striving for a larger goal. The secret to moving forward and boosting motivation hinges on redefining progress.

Break large projects into smaller, manageable, and accomplishable parts. Celebrate the progress you are making with each action, even if that means simply acknowledging it. Keep going until you achieve the results you want.

A puzzle consists of many pieces. Each piece serves a role in creating the complete picture. Completion occurs by finding and placing one puzzle piece at a time. Likewise, achieving your goals happens through small actions that support progress.

What will you make progress on today?

Making the Most of Your Time

Each person receives the gift of 24 hours a day. It’s up to you to decide how you want to use your days, what you will prioritize, and what you will put on hold or release.

How can you manage your time better? What is one thing you could change that would make a significant and positive difference? Which of these discoveries resonates most with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you want support to get unstuck, become organized, and utilize your time more effectively? I’m here to help. Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – local feel with global reach.

Please email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Change is possible, especially with support.

Can you feel it? Transitions are in the air. The summer is coming to a close. Fall is around the corner, and change is on its way. One transition signal I noticed on a recent walk was the appearance of these beautiful berries that start white and turn to blue and purple hues. Oh, yes. Fall is coming. The transition is happening.

How do you feel about transitions? Are you excited, optimistic, empowered, sad, scared, apprehensive, or overwhelmed? Change can be challenging. You let go or say goodbye to what was and move forward to something different. The ‘different’ could be an unknown, a new stage of life, or a smaller, seemingly insignificant change. Navigating transitions can be much easier when you get planning, implementing, and supporting help.

Here's the good news. Many people can provide support, including friends, family members, colleagues, or virtual professional organizers like me. Much of my work centers around helping people of all ages and stages during their life transitions.

9 Ways Organizers Can Help With Transitions

1. Resetting for the New Season

Can you enlist the help of an organizer to do a clothing edit and organization? As you store your spring/summer clothes and bring out your fall/winter ones, choose the items you will no longer wear and can release. Could you hire an organizer to support your decision-making and organizational ideas? Your seasonal clothing transition will go more smoothly.

2. Going Back to School

You had one pattern for the summer, but now it’s time for the kiddos to return to school. This is a transition time where habits and schedules change. An organizer can help you create great organizational systems that work for your family.

3. Becoming an Empty Nester

Perhaps going back to school means you’re now an empty nester. This is an enormous transition for both you and your kiddo. If you need help getting your college-bound kid organized to leave the nest or need help reorganizing your home and schedule now that your kid is out, enlist help from a professional organizer.

4. Becoming a Parent

When a new life arrives, everything changes. You will prepare emotionally and physically during this transition. You can use the services of an organizer to help create an organized space for your little one.

5. Changing a Relationship

Whether you are moving in with your partner, getting married, or divorced, these transitions can be stressful and complicated. There are emotional aspects to navigate. There are also scheduling and space transitions, which an organizer can be especially helpful with. Whether merging two households into one or dividing one home into two, it’s beneficial to have a non-judgmental, compassionate person to plan, organize, and navigate this transition.

“Transitions are an opportunity for growth, renewal, and possibilities.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

6. Moving and Downsizing

Moving and downsizing are significant transitions. This can be anxiety-producing, especially if you work with a tight deadline or do not want to move. There are many things to handle, even when your deadline is flexible, or you’ve purposely chosen the change. Hiring an organizer to help you plan, support your decisions, and share resources can ease the stress of these complex transitions.

7. Retiring

You worked a lifetime, and now you’re ready to stop. You’re used to being highly scheduled with less free time to pursue hobbies and friendships. As you transition into this new stage of life, consider what you want and no longer need. What can you let go of? What do you want to make space for? You can work with an organizer to figure out what ‘belongs’ now.

8. Experiencing Health Challenges

While you have your medical health professionals’ support team, an organizer can help with health-related transitions in many ways. Perhaps you need a system for documenting doctor visits, instructions, or medications. Maybe you need to reorganize space in your home, declutter, or create an unobstructed flow. Especially when you’re not feeling your best, having another person to support your transition and organizational needs can be helpful.

9. Losing a Loved One

When someone we love dies, life changes instantly. It doesn’t matter if it is expected or not. Loss is loss. Everyone grieves in their way. At a point when the grief fog lifts, you might feel ready to make changes, like rethinking the use of rooms or letting go of some of your loved one's belongings. This is a highly emotional time. Having an organizer to work with can help you honor your loved one’s possessions as you organize, let go, and move forward.

As Tom Stoppard said, “Every exit is an entry somewhere.” As you travel from where you are to where you are heading, don’t go it alone. Gather your team who will help, support, and be there as you navigate. Transitions are an opportunity for growth, renewal, and possibilities.

Are you going through a transition? Who is on your team? Do you want additional help? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

It’s not officially spring yet, even though we turned our clocks forward an hour, and spring’s cues began emerging weeks ago. Our beautiful purple crocuses have come and gone. I notice new growth daily- a patch of green here, some yellow blooms there. Seeds planted are beginning to flourish.

I appreciate the present and am simultaneously in awe of what will come next. What a hopeful time of year this is!

While the seeds I mentioned were literal ones yielding plants and blooms, there are other seedlings. You . . .

• Plant new ideas

• Create positive habits

• Change behaviors

• Alter mindset

• Chase goals

• Experiment

• Nurture relationships.

These require patience, compassion, consistency, awareness, trust, and receptivity. When we tend our garden in this way, those seeds will thrive.

Coach and artist Jane Pollak, CPCC, said, “Before you know it, the seeds you plant will leaf.” What a powerful idea! While you’re in the planting or becoming phase, it seems like nothing is happening. It’s hard to see any progress or change. The seeds sit quietly in the dirt. Movement and growth are imperceptible. You wait while occasionally adding water and fertilizer to stimulate growth.

While next might be nothing because you over or underwatered, more often, growth will be visible in time. I see this with my virtual organizing clients. The seeds planted begin with a goal and a desire for something else. Less clutter, more time, more space, or less stress. We use that seed idea and work to get there. I love helping with these internal and external transformations.

• Challenges with letting go bloom into ease of releasing.

• Stress caused by clutter morphs into calm from clearer spaces.

• Being overwhelmed by full schedules develops into relief by creating boundaries.

“Before you know it, the seeds you plant will leaf.”

— Jane Pollak, CPCC

You are now on the other side. You’ve patiently done the work. You’ve tended your garden even when you were unsure. You trusted the process so you could succeed. Your seeds have leafed.

What will be your next step? Do you want to reassess? Do you want to bask in the gorgeous blooms? Are you ready to plant new seeds to nurture? Progress and growth are yours. How will you build from here? What tiny step are you able to take? How can I help? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Do you love the surprise of reading fortune cookie fortunes? I do. Recently, I got one I want to share with you, which I will do momentarily. Cookie fortunes vary a lot. Some don’t resonate or make sense. Others are so timely or hope-filled that they become ‘keepers.’

As you begin a new month and year, anything you discover to inspire or encourage your fresh start is worth exploring.

Often, I’ve noticed how the start of a project or a change you want to make is the most challenging. Imagine rooms filled with paper piles, non-functioning closets overflowing with clothes, or schedules packed so tightly there is no time to breathe.

Figuring out where or how to start can be overwhelming and prevent you from moving forward. You remain bothered and stuck by the clutter in your space, calendar, or mind. The clutter weighs heavily on your thoughts.

enter the fortune cookie wisdom . . .

“Begin...the rest is easy.”

— Fortune Cookie

Perhaps that seems too simplistic. Play around with the phrase to make it more authentic for you.

How about:

• Begin…the rest is doable.

• Begin…the rest is possible.

• Begin…the rest will happen.

• Begin…the rest is achievable.

• Begin…the rest is within reach.

• Begin…the rest is manageable.

• Begin…the rest is ______.

I encourage you to begin. Take a small action step toward the project or change you desire. Maybe that means editing one tiny pile of papers, removing the additional hangers in your closet, or hiring an accountability partner or professional organizer like me. The operative word is, begin.

I’ve seen over and over the positive energy and momentum that come from taking the first minuscule steps toward your goal. I encourage you to lean into the fortune cookie wisdom. Just begin. If you aren’t sure how or where to start, reach out. I’d love to help you activate and work on your 2023 goals. How can I help?

How are your new year and fresh start going? Have you made progress, or are you feeling stuck? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.