Are you a paper piler? Most of us have at least a paper pile or two. Believe it or not a pile of papers is more functional than paper scattered over any available flat surface. The energy of a paper pile is MUCH calmer and less distracting that floating papers!

But, do you manage papers by piling? In other words, you are not really a filer of papers, you prefer to pile them. If that is the case, you are what I call a “horizontal filer.” Most people who pile site “out of sight is out of mind” as a primary reason for their piling preference. Papers that are filed out of sight might as well have been tossed in the trash. They are totally off the radar!

If you’re going to pile, I have several suggestions for creating functional piles (piles that help you stay organized) instead of dysfunctional piles (anxiety-provoking chaotic collections of papers).

• Give each pile one identity, e.g. bills to be paid, papers to file, current income taxes, current projects, insurance.
• Avoid mixing categories within a pile. A functional pile might be called “insurance.” In it you could put papers relating to life, home, business, disability, etc. insurance. However, it would become a dysfunctional pile if you added real estate and business incorporation papers to the insurance papers.
• Separate piles that hold papers you must take action on from piles that hold papers for reference. Keep the action piles close to where you will take action.
• Keep piles neat with all pages going in the same direction, specifically avoiding diagonally placed papers. Despite a common myth, neat piles do not indicate an inclination to anal retention or obsessive compulsive disorder. Neat piles have a more positive energy than disheveled stacks of papers. When papers are diagonally placed they make energies spin and create an out of control, chaotic energy. Since all piles of paper can have an annoying negative energy because they usually represent work that must be done or work that hasn’t been done, why not at least make the energy of the pile as calm as possible by making it neat?

Piling can be an effective organizing process if you create functional piles. Upgrade your piles and you will upgrade your productivity!

Clutter is negative energy. It distracts. It annoys. It attracts more clutter. And, it is an energetic obstacle that can block new opportunities. The best thing you can do to start the new year on the right foot is do some significant clearing in your home and/or office.

Here are some suggestions to get the most benefit from your efforts.

1. Don’t start with paper unless paper is the only thing you need to clear.
2. Start with big items like furniture, clothing or books so you immediately feel the benefit of your clearing.
3. Don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Doing some clearing is better than doing no clearing.
4. Make a commitment to look for items to clear every time you open a drawer, cabinet, closet or file for the whole month of January.

Remember, you will be stirring up energies in your space when you clear. Pace yourself. And, be sure to congratulate yourself for any clearing victories. You will be clearing a path to getting more of what you really want!

Happy Clearing! Have a great 2011!

For months I’ve been deliberating about whether I should renew membership in BNI (Business Network International) for another year. It is a sizable financial and time commitment. I’ve been a member of the same group for over ten years and my group feels like family to me. I couldn’t imagine how I could leave even though only a minor portion of my business comes from BNI referrals.

Then I rearranged the family room, the catalyst for a major clutter clearing of my attic, my husband’s office and the family room. I knew that moving and removing that much stuff was going to have some significant effect, but I was really surprised when suddenly it was clear to me that it was time to give up my seat in BNI, not two months from now when my membership expires, but right now.

I had pondered all the reasons for leaving before the clutter clearing, but the depth of my relationships with the members kept me hanging on. What the clearing did was shift my heart so that I could see the truth very clearly–that I really was bothered by the fact that I got very few referrals despite working hard to develop quality relationships with members, and my long-term commitment to the group and the BNI process of relationship marketing. It became abundantly clear that if BNI was going to work for me as a significant referral generator, it would have happened by now. It also became clear to me that my commitment to BNI was costing me energy and resources that I now need to launch Back On Track 4 Women, a new division of my company. Wow! That’s clarity!

So, I announced to my BNI group that I’m leaving. That’s another significant energy shift. I can’t wait to see what that change brings!

Are you stuck in any way? Mentally, physically, or emotionally? Clear some clutter and your life will start moving. Beware! Clarity is one of the gifts you may get–perhaps clarity you’ve been avoiding!

“My house sent me to your class!” Those are the words of a participant in a clutter clearing class I recently offered. Her story was that she’d been so busy with caregiving for older family members that her own house had suffered and had become quite cluttered.

There are times when the urgent needs of others take all our time and energy. When that happens one of the first things to slide is maintaining our own home. We figure that when the crises pass we’ll catch up. Unfortunately, if you let your own home go for very long, you’ll end up with a chaotic clutter challenge that you’ll find overwhelming and want to avoid.

When that happens, I recommend you first look for things to purge. Here are some suggestions:

• trash
• items you hate
• items to donate because they are still useful and you haven’t used them in more than a year
• items that are broken
• items that have a negative association with a person, place or event
• items that don’t work right
• items that are irritating (not children or spouses).

Just focus on reducing the volume of items in your space. Don’t worry about organizing anything until you’ve done a thorough purging. The magic of purging is that moving all those things out of your space shifts and releases energies that are then available to you. Purging also creates space that feels so good that you are more likely to want to keep working to restore order to your environment. You will also find it easier to think and make decisions.

Overwhelmed by the size of your clutter challenge? Focus on purging!

The sofa in its better days!

For about twenty-two years my husband Bob and I have sat next to each other on our sofa while watching TV. No separate recliners for us! Then we upgraded our TV. In order to view it without turning our heads we were no longer able to sit side by side on the sofa. Bob sat in a chair across the room and I sat on the sofa by myself. I’ll admit I’m a sentimental soul, and the new arrangement really bothered me. It was like we were on different planets. So, as I am want to do, I chewed on the challenge for about a week. Then the answer came to me. Get rid of the sofa and put our two chairs side by side.

While Bob was working I moved the furniture to see if putting two chairs together was feasible. Hoorah! It worked! Not only that, but Bob liked the new arrangement.

In the process of rearranging the room I eliminated one lamp and a small table in addition to the large sofa. To make room for the lamp and table in the attic, where they will live until I can take them to my brother’s apartment later this year, I had to rearrange the attic. While I was in the attic Bob asked me to look for a sign with his name on it. His request led me to look through boxes of things from a former job. All of those items came out of the attic and were eliminated. I also eliminated picture frames, old boots, decorative items and found some books that Bob needed in his office. To make room for the books on his bookshelf, I evaluated everything on the shelves and identified a box full of items to ask him about eliminating. Most of those things went to GoodWill or recycling. Bob suggested that we also clean out his office closet since I’d had no success finding the sign in the attic. Out went bags full of old office supplies. And, as I was getting the last of the boxes out of the attic, I found the sign.

My desire was to be able to sit next to Bob every night while we watch TV. By acting to get what I wanted, I got much more. There was a domino effect. Moving the furniture in the family room got the ball rolling and resulted

in a major release of static stuff from the attic and Bob’s office. I also know it would have been much harder to get Bob’s full participation in the clearing of so much of his space had it not been for the catalyst of the shift of furniture in the family room.

What do you really want that requires that you rearrange some furniture? Why not go for it and watch where that shift in energy takes you? What a great way to lighten your load without angst and get more of what you really want!

Some of you are thinking, “Duh! I already do that. Doesn’t everbody?” And others of you are going, “Ewww, I’d rather die! It’s overwhelming! It’s boring!”

For those of you who already have the good habit of corralling and processing paper daily, keep up the good work! Being conscious of the daily flow of paper and deliberately controlling its flow is the only way to win the war on paper.

A casual approach to paper is a guarantee that you’ll create your own personal paper nightmare. Paper is relentless in its flow into your space. You need to be relentless in your handling of it. Do it daily! It really only takes minutes! Minutes of agony or boredom are better than the hours and hours of excavation that will be required if you procrastinate and let paper accumulate.

Here’s what I mean by PROCESS PAPER DAILY:

Make sure paper follows a specific route, a paper path.

• Paper should not float from room to room. When paper comes into the house, make sure it lands in one spot to be sorted into categories instead of allowing it to land in any one of a number of different locations. If you decide the kitchen counter is that spot, make sure everyone in your family knows that mail always lands on the kitchen counter.
• After being sorted, make sure the different categories of paper are immediately moved to their next logical location. Bills, for example, would go to the bill paying area. Once the bills are paid, the paper associated with them would then be filed or pitched. So, the paper path for a bill would be: from the mailbox to the kitchen counter; from the kitchen counter to the desk of the home office where the bill is paid; from the desk to the filing cabinet. It’s important to create paper paths for every category of paper you regularly handle.
• To simplify this process, consider having all paper move from its sorting location to a home office where the different categories can be processed and stored if necessary. That way the path would be: from the mailbox to the kitchen counter for sorting; from the kitchen counter to the home office desktop for review and action; from the the desktop to the filing cabinet or the recycle bin.
• Making papers follow specific paths puts you in charge of paper instead of feeling at the mercy of paper. Your work is to determine the paths and to discipline yourself to make paper follow those paths every time. Just one lapse in maintaining your new paper system can cause paper to spiral out of control. Remember, digging out takes much more time and energy than maintaining paper paths! It will take over if you let it stray from a defined route.

Sort incoming papers into categories. I recommend these categories: trash; refer out to someone else; action; filing; reading; holding for later reference or action; and possibilities of things to do, buy, etc. It’s best to separate the action category into bills and other actions. That way you are less likely to lose sight of your bills.

Distribute papers by category to their appropriate locations. For example, trash goes to the recycling bin or trash can. Action papers are moved to the desk or countertop where action will take place. Filing is either filed or stored in a filing tray until you make time to file. Reading is taken to the location where you do your reading, perhaps a basket on your desk or next to the sofa.

You’ll notice I don’t recommend that you complete all the tasks associated with those papers on a daily basis. That would take more time than you have every day. I am just recommending that you control the flow of paper coming in, sort it and distribute it to the place where it will be acted upon or stored. If you do that much paper processing every day, you will find your stress goes down and your productivity goes up. You’ll be in charge of paper instead of feeling at the mercy of it!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner, Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in life. If you’re ready to clear clutter and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

How many times this week have you heard, “I can’t wait until spring!”? The gray days, the cold temperatures and the frequency of wet weather are all difficult for the psyche. It’s normal for you to crave light, color, warm temperatures and blue skies. You feel best when in environments with a predominance of positive energy and minimal stressors which are negative energy. These days the sun peeking through the clouds is a cause for celebration!

There are a variety of ways to handle the winter blues: take a vacation; spend the winter months in Florida; self-medicate with food, alcohol, shopping, sleep and other mood altering behaviors. But, one of my favorite choices is to clear clutter from my home. I can imagine your thoughts at this moment, “Has she lost her mind? Why would I want to do something so overwhelming?!?” I make this recommendation because if you can find a way to make yourself reduce the quantity of things in your home that you no longer love or use, your mood will make a positive shift. Why? Lightening your load by reducing the quantity of items in your home does the following:

• reduces the quantity of negative energy that affects your mood and the mood of everyone in the home;
• makes space for new, good things to come to you;
• gives you less to manage, in other words, less work;
• gives you the opportunity to create new order in the places that have been cleared; makes finding things much easier;
• makes you feel more competent and less incompetent.

Even doing 15 minutes of clearing once a week will make a difference. Give it a try! If the thought of clutter clearing makes you want to take a nap or eat a cake, invite a supportive, respectful friend over for coffee and 15 minutes of keeping you company while you clear clutter. You can repay her for her help by returning the favor. That way you both have two pleasant social events and the opportunity to experience all the benefits listed above.

I make a living as a professional organizer. You’d think that it would have been a cinch for me to get organized to write my first book. Unfortunately, when it comes to enormous new projects that I’m scared to death to do, I need more than my organizing skills to get me going.

I had known for years that I had a book in me. I believed that writing a book would be beneficial for clients who often left my seminars and speeches wanting more information. And, I’d even made some feeble attempts to get started. I kept getting hung up on the organization of the content of the book. I had so much information to share. I just couldn’t figure out how arrange it in a simple, easy to understand outline.

In 2009 I began working with Mark LeBlanc, a business success coach, to help me launch myself as a national speaker. In the first session he said, “I want you to write a book in 90 days.” After taking a deep breath I squeaked out, “OK, and how am I going to do that?” He replied, “Write 50 minutes a day five days a week.” I said, “I can do that. Can I still use Rock Scissors Paper as the title?” He asked me to clarify the meaning of Rock Scissors Paper. After I explained the meaning of the words he said, “Great! And, the three chapters can be Rock, Scissors and Paper.” With those words he gave me the solution for the organization of the book. I was off and running. The bulk of the content of the book was written in less than 90 days. And the finished product was in my hands 7 months later.

If you’re reading this article, I imagine you’re looking for some help to make the enormous task of writing a book less daunting and more doable. Here are four lessons I learned that may help you with your journey:

1. Tell others, especially people who have already published a book, about your intention to write a book. You never know what kind of helpful advice you might get! Those of us who have been on the journey to book publication are happy to share advice and resources that could make your experience easier.

2. Start with tasks that you can do. Doing anything will give you momentum to keep going. Writing a book is much more than writing the content. Other tasks include editing, layout, cover design and then choosing a publisher, not to mention marketing the book. Part of the reason I was afraid to really commit to writing a book was because the whole process from start to finish included so many unknowns. For example, I had no clue how to choose a cover designer or editor. But, I could look at other books of the same genre and make some decisions about the look and feel of my book. I found an organizing book with a cover and layout that I just loved. It gave me a model to use when I was making design choices about my book size, the cover and content fonts and layout.

3. Consider blogging to get yourself writing and develop your content in small bites. Dan Poynter, the guru of self-publishing, first introduced me to the idea of “blooking”. Blooking is writing blog entries until you have enough content to organize it into a book. The idea of writing a whole chapter is pretty overwhelming, but writing two to five paragraphs is much more doable. Doing it as a blog entry and publishing it also gave me the opportunity to try out my content on interested readers before committing to a whole book.

4. Ask others who have already self-published to share their resources with you. My coach, who had already published a book, gave me the name and contact information of his cover designer and publisher, and recommended a reputable editor. What a relief that was for me! I hate researching services! I liked the look and feel of Mark’s book, so I knew I would be in good hands if I used his resources.

If you have a book inside you, don’t let overwhelm and fear of the unknown stop you from giving birth to it! Writing and publishing a book can’t be a solo project if you want to successfully complete it. Start where you can and be open to help from knowledgeable others.