Prune Your Time
By Jean Marie Herron
We can't help but feel the birth of spring as we enter April. Usually people get into the "spring fling" mode and come out of their winter hibernation wanting to purge and declutter their spaces. Others want to get outside and start to prune Mother Nature.
As a professional organizer I know that working with people to help them weed out their homes opens up the potential to receive something new and better. For example, after clearing out a child's closet and dresser drawers of items that no longer fit or were in season, a client's mother-in-law showed up with a newly bought Easter outfit and her best friend left two bags of lovely hand-me-down clothes on her front porch for her daughter as well.
Well, just as we need to shear our garden of possessions I'd like to recommend that we also consider clipping our calendars. I'm positive that there are tasks and commitments that you have made that no longer fit the lifestyle your currently living. So let's pull out that Blackberry, blueberry or strawberry and find some breathing room in your life so you can truly enjoy this beautiful season ahead.
POSSE is applying the same principal here to time as we would to your closets. It's easy to see the clutter in your closets because it's visual but it's more difficult to "see" the clutter in your time unless you write it down making it visual. If you clear out the deadwood on your calendar, you open yourself up to take on other things you might love to do or simply time to catch up.
Here's a personal example. I used to teach country line dancing. I did this because people said I was really good at it and the jobs fell into my lap. For many years I did enjoy it. Then it started to become stressful to keep up with the new dances, the commute was lengthy to get to the dance club, I was out late at night teaching and found myself very tired in the mornings when I had to get up early with young children. So, I resigned. Within one month I found out a former dance coach of mine was giving lessons and holding social dances within 20 minutes of my house. I started doing couple dancing again, my first and true love of dance. If I hadn't given up the line dancing I never would have "fit" being a dance student again into my life. Now I know that every Wednesday night is my outlet to pursue a passion that brings me tremendous pleasure.
I'm not suggesting that we always replace one activity with another. What I am saying is when we prune back our time; it frees us up to make new choices. Time management is all about choices. Whatever you do with your time is your choice. Enjoy it.
"Just because someone throws you the ball doesn't mean you need to catch it."
A friend of mine used the above quote with me this week. I think it speaks volumes as to the point I'm hoping to make here. So when my daughter's Girl Scout leader asked me this week if I would take over the troop next year, I simply said, "No thank you."
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At POSSE Partners, LLC (Professional Organizing Solutions Serving Everyone) we cater to homeowners who want one-on-one help with their organizing endeavors whether it's their space, papers or time. Besides transferring these organizing skills to our clients, we also hold organizing classes called Clutter Corrals, have a monthly forum for supporting each other called POSSE's Pen and we also give organizing presentations as well. To learn more about the author and owner, Jean Marie Herron, and sign up for her free newsletter go to www.POSSEPartnersLLC.com.
