I’m sure Starbucks is probably not thrilled that I use their stores as an extension of my office, filling a seat for hours at a time and buying just one drink. But, that’s what I do between clients, especially when it’s too hot or too cold to hang out in my car and too far from home or too short a time to make a return trip to my home office worthwhile.

Ever since Starbucks started offering free Wi-Fi I’ve been making Starbucks my coffee shop of choice. In the process I’ve visited a majority of the Starbucks in the Richmond area. Believe it or not, the feng shui of all Starbucks in NOT the same! I have my favorites and I’ve identified those where I just cannot work.

Recently I thought I’d try a new Starbucks in the Short Pump Town Center in Glen Allen, VA. I immediately noticed that the space was very small, not enough room to feel comfortable hanging out. And, the light was very dim. At first I thought the lighting must be different than in other stores, but then I noticed that the store was set back under an overhang that blocked natural light. And, it had windows on just one side of the store.

The stores that “feel” the best are places where I get the most productive work done. They have the best light, usually on at least two sides of the store. And, they have enough space to feel like a gathering space instead of a hit and run caffeine source, with a footprint that is more square than rectangular. Another factor is the clientele. I avoid one store because it is a drop spot for homeless people who ask for money.

If you too are a solopreneur who needs a temporary place to work out of the weather and enjoy Starbucks Wi-Fi and Starbucks coffee, chose a store with the best feng shui. Comfort matters! Comfort positively correlates with productivity.

Mom and Mark

Have you ever noticed that you can’t get some things done until you’ve leaped other hurdles? Some tasks take up so much psychic energy that they make any other task that takes some mental energy seem impossible. For example, I recently took my mom to Connecticut to visit my disabled brother, Mark. It was Mom’s first trip anywhere for almost four years. Even though I’d made all the travel arrangements and had made the trip many times before, this was the first time I was taking my mother to Connecticut since I’d become aware that she has some serious cognitive deficits. Because of her age and her deficits, I had no idea how she would do on the trip. Would it exhaust her? How would she behave? How would I handle managing Mark, whose brain injuries have left him with mobility and behavioral issues that can be challenging, AND my mother? After all, I was the conductor of the Connecticut symphony–the Mom and Mark visit.

I had no idea how big a psychic block that trip was until I got home. I felt so relieved! Even after a grueling nine and a half hour drive back, I had energy. After unpacking and settling back in to my life at home, I was excited and energized about getting back to my business, to writing and working to promote my new membership site, the 12 Month Clutter Clearing Community (www.ClutterClearingCommunity.com).

The same thing happened when I was preparing to give the “Move That Mountain: Clutter Clearing Tips for Staying the Course to Completion” speech the past few weeks. It was a new speech, and typically new speeches are tough to create and present. It’s a risk to step out of my comfort zone and present new material. It was as if I was getting ready to give birth to some new information, information that is near and dear to my heart, information that is difficult to present. I was feeling anxious about whether the way I planned to present it would work and whether I’d be giving my audience information they would value. That was big psychic clutter! I had some other important items on my to do list that I just could not focus on until I’d presented that speech. Once the speech was done, I rested briefly, and then was off and running again–tackling writing projects that had been waiting for weeks.

Have you got any big obstacles blocking your forward progress? What can you do today to move them out of your path? If moving them isn’t an option, know that when they’re gone you’ll likely enjoy a pleasant burst of energy from having leaped those hurdles.

© 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 your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

When I read Stop Organizing, Start Producing: Leverage the 12 Factors that Make or Break the Busy Professional by Casey Moore, I identified delegation as one of my weak links in The Productivity Chain®. As first child in my family I learned early on to do things myself and not to count on anyone else to get things done. Yes, I developed into one independent woman!

In my marriage I took the road so often traveled by women and over-functioned. I took care of many of the tasks that need to be done to run a home. It seemed so much easier to do that than ask Bob, my husband, for help and then getting varying results: things not being done at all; things not being done in a timely manner; things not being done the way I like them done. Does this sound familiar?

Casey’s book was a wake up call to me. She suggests that all the factors that affect productivity are connected. In other words, a weakness in one factor affects other factors and overall productivity. Using Casey’s model I was able to identify the cost of not delegating. My health suffers. I get exhausted and then get depressed. When I feel exhausted and depressed everything else is difficult: my relationship with myself, Bob, family, friends and clients; marketing my business; working with clients; enjoying life; handling my furry children. That’s a hefty price to pay for not delegating!

Awareness is the first step toward change. Becoming aware of the cost of being so independent has motivated me to start asking for more help. I still have a long way to go with delegation, but more and more often I find myself stopping to think about whether I am the only one who must do a task or whether it is something Bob or someone else can do.

And, guess what? Bob is stepping up to the plate. He actually seems to enjoy being more involved in household tasks. We are now working more as a team instead of Bob just playing a minor role in the Debbie Bowie show. My health is improving and I am feeling relief not to be carrying such a heavy load of responsibilities.

How comfortable are you at delegation–asking for help from co-workers, children, husbands, wives? Are you able to regularly ask others for help to lighten your load? If not, what is it costing you? Are you sure you want to pay that price?

“I’ll mow the lawn tomorrow.” Those are my husband’s words. In my head I thought, “He just wants to get back in that warm bed and snooze a little longer.” Normally I’d just keep my thoughts to myself, but we were going to have company over the weekend and there were few windows of time available to get that task done. So, I responded, “ But, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow!” We checked online and sure enough, rain was expected. The lawn got mowed.

As I thought about that interaction with Bob I realized that he two or more ways of rationalizing away doing something in the moment. One of them is to push the task out just a little further on the timeline of his life. My favorite is to look at my calendar and find another open block of time to schedule something I really need to get done. If I can reschedule it, I can postpone it.

What is your preferred procrastination process?

Do you

• use illness as an excuse?
• lose track of the items you need to get something done?
• use the weather as an excuse?
• convince yourself that there just isn’t enough time to get the task done?

If you want to learn to procrastinate less you must first take a good hard look at all the mental games you play with yourself. Watch yourself for the next week. Notice every time you put off doing something. What procrastination processes do you use? Make a list of them.

Then catch yourself using them. When you recognize yourself going for a tried and true procrastination process, first laugh at yourself. Self-castigation hasn’t been found to be an effective method for changing ineffective behaviors. Then, make a different choice. I promise you will experience different results in your life like increased productivity, increased self-awareness and increased self-esteem.

By the way, I’d really appreciate it if you’d send me a copy of your list with permission to share it with my readers. We procrastinators can be creative folks. It would be fun to see how it’s expressed in procrastination processes.

I recently attended the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers. I so enjoy being in the presence of like-minded people who want to make a big difference in our world. I always come away from that experience with a few new ideas that help me better help my clients.

This year the best experience I had was at a seminar by Casey Moore, a Certified Professional Organizer® and productivity coach from Virginia Beach, Virginia. She had just published her first book, Stop Organizing, Start Producing: Leverage the 12 Factors that Make or Break the Busy Professional and presented the main ideas from the book in her speech. I can’t even remember the last time I was blown away by a new approach to helping people be better organized and more productive. After all, how many organizing approaches can there be? Casey’s Productivity Chain® blew my socks off! It is a compelling new model for productivity that is easy to understand and use for self-evaluation and evaluation of others regarding barriers to productivity.

Casey has identified twelve factors that affect productivity. Getting organized is just one of them. They include boundary-setting, reinvention, planning, goal-setting/prioritization, decision-making, task/project management, communication/relationships, drive, delegation, health, resources, and organization of objects/data. She describes those factors as links in a chain, the Productivity Chain. Chains work well when all the links are strong and in place. It takes just one weak link to reduce the effectiveness of the chain. Essentially, you can only be as productive as your weakest link. Often you have several weak links. When you identify them and strengthen them, your overall productivity will improve. Casey’s book will show you how!

I highly recommend Casey’s book to anyone who wants to be more productive.  It’s an easy read with lots of case studies that make the content come alive. You can take her information and ideas and immediately begin improving your productivity. The best way to get it is by ordering it from Casey’s website at www.CaseyMooreinc.com.

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!

Want to create a high performance environment? My guess is that you already know many of the characteristics listed below. But, you may need some incentive to motivate yourself to create that type of space. Here you go! High performance environments:

• are comfortable and make visitors immediately feel comfortable
• are places where you can be productive and accomplish your goals
• are optimal for positive human interactions
• are places where you want to spend time

Following are ten characteristics of spaces where you can be both productive and comfortable.

1. Clean–Dust, dirt and grime are sources of negative energy. Negative energy is distracting and interferes with your ability to feel comfortable and motivated.
2. Organized–When you’re organized you can find what you want when you want it, keep track of what you need to do and work efficiently. Being organized also helps you feel more in control and empowered.
3. Uncluttered–Clutter distracts. Clutter irritates. Clutter attracts more clutter. It also talks to you. I’ll bet the last time your space was cluttered with paper it said something like, “Why don’t you take care of me?” or “What a mess!” Who needs a space that says unkind things to you!
4. Walls painted a color, not white–When you are in an environment that is predominantly white you are more prone to anxiety and depression. The reason for that is that color doesn’t show up against white walls. You are nurtured by color. When you don’t have enough color in your environment, you’re more likely to feel blue or anxious. Paint your walls a color and watch the color in your wall hangings and window coverings pop off the wall.
5. Good natural lighting–We all know that rooms with windows are preferable to rooms with no windows. But, for optimal performance you want to have rooms with light that is not too bright and not too dim. Light is energy. In rooms that are too bright, you run a risk of burnout because there’s too much energy. If windows let in too much light, bringing in heat and glare, window coverings can be used to moderate the level of light. If a room is too dim, there isn’t enough energy in the space and it’s very hard to feel motivated to take action. In that case adding additional light is essential.
6. Well lit with at least three sources of incandescent light–Avoid fluorescent lighting. We need full spectrum lighting to thrive. Fluorescent lighting is not full spectrum. It also makes noises–buzzing and popping–that are irritating to the nervous system. Many spaces feel most comfortable with at lease three light sources, two lamps and one pole lamp that provides up-lighting.
7. Attractive, comfortable furniture in good condition–It is most important that you avoid having furniture that you hate because it’s ugly, is uncomfortable or is associated with bad memories or bad feelings. Always choose comfortable furniture whose appearance you love.
8. Healthy live plants or clean silk plants–Our natural habitat is the out of doors. Plants make spaces feel comfortable because they bring the outdoors inside. Live plants also remove pollutants from the air. Their green color will nurture you and can transform a sterile environment into a comfortable space. While live plants are preferable, silk plants that look like real plants can be used as long as they are kept clean.
9. Interesting, colorful art–Art feeds a space with color and scenes that can lift your spirits and your energy. Violent scenes and scenes with a negative association should be avoided because their negative energy will affect your energy and could attract negative circumstances.
10. Mementos that matter to you–Mementos hold the energy of the memory associated with them. When that association is positive and you bring them into your space, you are anchoring positive pieces of your history. When surrounded by things that remind you of some of the best experiences, accomplishments and people in your life, those things can help you keep on track, focused on your abilities and blessings.

Want to get more done? Stop answering the phone every time it rings. I watch clients when the phone rings. Will they automatically answer it? Will they ignore it? Or, will they check the caller ID to see who is calling so they can decide whether it is essential to answer the call.

The clients in the last two categories tend to be most productive. Why? Because they view answering the phone as a choice, not an imperative. They are choosing whether to allow an interruption. Interruptions always reduce productivity.

Make answering the phone a choice not an imperative!

“God sent you to help me!” Roberta said as I entered her office. It was quite coincidental that I stopped by her office just as she was receiving word that she would have to put her beloved dog to sleep. As you would expect, she was crying. And, she was working very hard to convince me that she was OK.

As I observed Roberta working so hard to pull it all together I felt both disturbed and angry. I was disturbed that she was doing what has become a norm in our society. If you lose a loved one, especially someone as insignificant as a dog (I’m being sarcastic), it’s expected that you get back to “normal” as quickly as possible. Why? So other people won’t feel uncomfortable being around you when you are grieving.

I felt angry because that special woman has a right to be human and grieve, even though she holds a leadership position. In fact, her sharing her loss with others could really make a positive difference. It would give others permission to be human too!

As I was thinking about this situation, I thought about the effect of grief on productivity. What is the cost of not grieving to work settings? When you don’t take the time to grieve, to allow the release of sadness, and to honor the person or animal who is no longer part of your life, that grief stays bottled up inside. It’s strength doesn’t dissipate. It is carried as a weight of unexpressed feelings. It takes energy to carry that weight, energy that is not available for efficiently getting things done.

The grief, even when it has gone unconscious, is also very distracting. When you carry grief it’s difficult to get and stay focused on anything for any length of time.

Imagine how much more productive you could be if you routinely took a break to grieve privately when you experience a serious loss instead of immediately getting back to being “normal.” Imagine how wonderful it would be if you could grieve and not worry what others will think of you when your sadness shows.

© 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 your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

Today I found myself thinking that since I’ve been keeping only the hottest of my “to do” items on my desk, writing my book, blogs and news tips has been easier to do. Keeping many fewer distracting papers out and visible has made it easier for me to go inside, access ideas and put them into writing.

Now, you’re probably wondering where all the rest of the papers went. I filed many of those that I knew I wouldn’t deal with anytime soon. I can access them when I’m ready. They don’t have to stay in an overwhelming pile in my line of sight.

The rest that I might take action on sooner than those I filed are in a basket behind me on top of a filing cabinet. They are out of sight, but not out of reach! The only papers on my desk are those I intend to do something about this week. That stack is much smaller than the total stack of all I’d like to get done.

Just think of how much important wisdom you could access if you weren’t distracted by piles of paper! How can you make them disappear and still access their information when you need them?