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Post by Ally on Aug 4, 2012 11:22:26 GMT -5
For some reason I'm feeling inspired to wield one of those curtain rods against the dark forces that have taken control of my house during the past 20 years. We are SHEDi warriors! I'm a little rusty on my star wars jargon or I'd be more clever with the wording in this post.
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Post by ClutterBlind on Aug 4, 2012 12:43:56 GMT -5
For some reason I'm feeling inspired to wield one of those curtain rods against the dark forces that have taken control of my house during the past 20 years. We are SHEDi warriors! I'm a little rusty on my star wars jargon or I'd be more clever with the wording in this post. You can borrow the Amnesty Fairy's dusting wand:
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Post by hiding on Aug 9, 2012 17:23:16 GMT -5
Did you folks give up on the book or are you just busy with other matters?
I finished Chapter 4 and its accompanying Chapter 7. I am having an awful time wrapping my head around the SHED concepts. I'm not stupid. I have a MS degree and my brain works fine - usually. "If only" I could approach her instructions as a math or science project, I think I could do it. But so far I haven't been able to. There is too much emotion, confusion, and fuzzy-headedness in the way. That stuff is way out of my area of education and expertise.
I'm not giving up on SHED yet. I'm going to at least read the entire book and take a few more tries at it. So far though, I've got to say that techniques I have heard from you folks here have been more helpful and have moved me along the road to recovery, if slowly so.
Perhaps SHED would work for me when I have a considerably lower level of clutter.
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Post by Ally on Aug 9, 2012 19:36:28 GMT -5
Hiding, I've been really, really busy, so have had to set the book aside for a while. I do think it is beneficial to have a "theme", a goal, something that you want, and then realize that you have to get rid of a lot of stuff to get to that goal. I'm not giving up on the book entirely, but I'm having to adapt her methods quite a bit to make them work for me. So far I've cleared out 8 feet of a hallway and a small closet that was filled with stuff. Lots of stuff was tossed, but I am undecided about what to do with some of the stuff. I do plan to work on a couple of different areas this weekend... We'll see how it goes. I'm finding that when I unearth something like some old sandals, I have a hard time deciding what to do with them. Sometimes if I set them aside for a couple of days, the decision becomes more clear. I really think about it, Would I wear them again? Where? and When? If I can't think on a specific time I'd be likely to wear them, out they go.
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Post by angelinahedgehog on Aug 10, 2012 7:27:34 GMT -5
I'm here! I haven't given up on SHED as such, but since I discovered the technical error in The Book Collection, I've been working on that. ... Actually, it would be nice to do some other areas. The backlog is going to take some time to work through (especially at the rate I'm going), and I could definitely clear out other areas in the meantime. "If only" I could approach her instructions as a math or science project, I think I could do it. That's where quantifying the stagnant areas helps. Once you have the size, the level of obsolescence and the level of attachment, you can look for the areas that will give the most dramatic results for the least effort - and that allows you some space and breathing room for the next area. Possibly, but as I understand it, SHED works well with a large amount of clutter. What seems to matter more is how organized it is. - A filing cabinet full of papers in folders may be 90% stagnant, but it's likely fairly organized. - Shopping bags full of stuff like housewares, clothes, papers, toiletries (and yes, I was definitely guilty of clearing areas this way!) may need a first sort. All papers here, all clothes there, all housewares over there. There would likely be some decluttering while sorting (tossing out the no-brainer junk), but there wouldn't need to be a full-scale decluttering before starting SHED. Because that's what SHED is for.
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Post by seashell on Aug 10, 2012 7:47:20 GMT -5
I'm still absorbing chapters 4 and 7, but I have begun working on my hall closet and bedroom of doom. I am also in the middle of painting my cabinets (insides only ). I am also finding it easier to decide what not to keep, rather than what to keep--picking out the treasures hasn't worked for me so far. I may also find that, once I have gotten rid of a lot of the clutter, it will be easier to decide what the treasures really are. I do like what she says about keeping only one or two treasures from each specific memory, rather than lots. I tend to keep every photograph, every piece of fabric, every item that reminds me of one event or time in my life. I am also finding that, if I have room for something, I will keep it, whether it is really a "treasure" or not. For instance, I was trying to decide what to do with two red and gold tinsel trees (about a foot tall each) that I got last year at the dollar store. Not a treasure. Common sense said, 'toss them, you can get them again.' But I kept them just because I was able to fit them in my box of decorations. sigh.
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Post by missjean on Aug 10, 2012 8:59:11 GMT -5
I haven't abandoned SHED but, like AH mentioned, the amount of disorganized clutter affects how fast it's going. I have a neat stack of boxes containing Treasure - items I will be using from here on out, including a scanner and art supplies. However, I must sort out their new "homes," which currently contain boxes that have only been sorted by type (books, paper, electronics) and not by use or value.
Like Seashell, I kept these things because they fit into boxes and the boxes into available space. This go-round, I am looking at whether they have value (are they Treasures, Keepers or just Handy-If-I-Actually-Used-It).
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Post by hiding on Aug 10, 2012 18:48:23 GMT -5
All, thanks for providing clarity and guidance. When it comes to my professional life and when I was a student, my academic life, I am organized and clear thinking. When it comes to my personal stuff, my brain seems to turn to mush. Well, as Auntie Script says, "onward".
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Post by angelinahedgehog on Aug 10, 2012 19:12:04 GMT -5
Onward!
I looked at the thread about Sandra Felton's book, and had to smile.
I had copies of her books (Pigpen was a fan, and I wanted to read them), but they're now in the giveaway bags. By the time I read them, I was past the point where they would have been helpful. I liked the speech about being a person of dignity, but... that was about all I got from it. I could see the use in general, but not for me personally.
I also had copies of Don Aslett's books (Clutter's Last Stand, Not for Packrats Only, Life After Housework, and How Do I Clean the Moose Head?), and while I found the decluttering books inspiring (I would reread certain chapters and want to throw stuff out), I also found them somewhat irritating, and ultimately not as helpful as I wanted. Because even after I got rid of clutter, I wasn't organized.
Those books are also in the giveaway bags.
Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out *clicked* with me. It was the one that MADE SENSE. And it was the one that ultimately led to me to discard far more than Aslett's books ever had.
(It also didn't hurt that I found about her books through the forum on her website, where I first encountered Pigpen and Celeste, and a bunch of other awesome people.)
I'm NOT putting Julie's books in the giveaway bags. I still reread them, and get value from them.
Hiding, if SHED isn't quite right for you right now, you may want to read OFIO. The first two steps of SHED (separate and heave) could be seen as a turbocharged version of the first two steps of SPACE (sort and purge), and that be an easier starting point for you.
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Post by Ally on Aug 10, 2012 20:37:46 GMT -5
AH, You have books on decluttering and organizing, and I happen to have a book here titled: Restoring Junk: What to do with a sidewalk find? A thrift store bargain? From broken clocks to battered furniture, an A to Z guide for the junk store scavenger. Fully illustrated, by Suzanne Beedell. Copyright 1970. Hmmmmm... I'm not kidding.
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Post by missjean on Aug 10, 2012 21:22:47 GMT -5
I've been working a little on the Time issues. I really recognized myself in Morgenstern's description of having a To-Do list that has a backlog of things that keep me constantly busy. But it bothered me that a lot of my backlogs were TREASURES, like setting up a doctor's appointment, getting my physical therapy in, doing my taxes in a timely manner (so I wasn't finding receipts this summer and doing the Face Palm).
I paid special attention to this:
"If you choose your backlog as a Point of Entry, your SHEDing job is to reduce that number by 80 percent on a permanent basis. So let’s say you add up your backlog and the total is 40 hours of tasks. Reducing it measurably would mean that you would go from being someone who usually has 40 hours of backlog to someone who never has more than 8 hours of backlog." Morgenstern, Julie (2011-01-11). SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life (p. 81). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition
I thought it would be hard to reduce the backlog because work tasks are on the top of my to-do list. My personal tasks are all backlogged. But I figured out the real problem: our organization has bad project management skills!
Today I finished a series of training sessions. On the very first day, there were so many technical problems that I spent several hours chatting with other participants (and skimming old magazines). Eventually the 30-hour training grew into more than 40 hours as I worked on it at home.
It's worse for new projects and initiatives: We meet to learn about the project and its deadline. But that's not when the project starts. A few days later, we receive an e-mail explaining details. Often there's a link or attachment to a screencast we must watch on our own. Now we're ready to start, but maybe that's not a good idea - because clarifying memos and sometimes even brand-new spreadsheets will arrive LATER.
Even if there are technical issues, the deadline does NOT change. And most of the time, the work hours that these projects require is GROSSLY underestimated. This past year, I had a three-month stretch of working working 10 - 11 hours every day except Sunday.
The more I look at it on paper (because I kept track for a few months in my planner), the angrier I get. I'm salaried, so the director of one program said that I'd be getting "comp time" for the extra hours. I wasn't because 10 "low duty" hours don't equate to more than 100 hours of extra work. And this doesn't even count the scheduled after-work meetings that were canceled (never by me) and re-scheduled - a whole lot of them in just a month, too.
So I can see that these fit the "right impulse (doing a good job), wrong activity" that Morgenstern describes. I just don't see yet how to get them into the backlog and give room to the Treasures.
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Post by angelinahedgehog on Aug 12, 2012 13:31:52 GMT -5
missjeanclean, have you read Julie's book called either Making Work Work (original title) or Never Check Email in the Morning (later title)? Some of the things you're mentioning sound like they might be addressed in that book.
In SHED, Julie says that you aren't looking for time commitments that you should be doing more efficiently. You're looking for things that you shouldn't be doing at all.
If the work tasks are things that you need to be doing (no matter how badly managed they are), then you may not be able to get rid of them. The best you may be able to do is fence them in, contain them, so you have time to work on your personal items (like fiscal and physical health!) during non-work hours.
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Post by missjean on Aug 12, 2012 21:51:00 GMT -5
In SHED, Julie says that you aren't looking for time commitments that you should be doing more efficiently. You're looking for things that you shouldn't be doing at all. That's it exactly. I didn't HAVE to take the training session; I was told that if I did, I would end up completing an optional resource that other teachers have used. I shouldn't have done it. The projects are "optional" but we're pressured to do. I am a teacher, so what I should be focusing on is teaching, tutoring, and creating material that helps students. I shouldn't spend time... 1) updating optional summer projects that will be done by less than 1% of the student body. I created them last year when we actually were given time to work on them together, but these "revamps" were unnecessary because I'd already made it so that the project changed by level - a sophomore can't do the freshman project again. I've since found out that some of my colleagues simply changed the font and images! 2) driving long-distance to sporting events. It was supposed to count toward our evaluations, build relationships, etc. Most of my non-coach colleagues simply didn't attend ANY games, and there were no repercussions. And my students are more likely to talk to me during lunch than at a game, when they just want to hang with their friends. 3) calling the UK because an order was messed up. Calling from my house phone, I might add; no one at the school has international calling. According to protocol, I'm supposed to make the request through my building administrator, who'll also handle problems. But his "handling" consisted of forwarding a July 12 e-mail alerting him to the error - instead of calling me, since I'm not supposed to be in the building the week after next. I could go on, but you see the problem here. These really aren't required duties; they're tasks that make an administrator look good. These are the sorts of things that give me an Entry Point to eliminate or reduce time spent on them.
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Post by missjean on Aug 12, 2012 21:52:33 GMT -5
missjeanclean, have you read Julie's book called either Making Work Work (original title) or Never Check Email in the Morning (later title)? Some of the things you're mentioning sound like they might be addressed in that book. I think I read Making Work Work waaaay back in the day, when I worked in the private sector. I'll have to see if the library has it. Thanks!
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Post by angelinahedgehog on Aug 13, 2012 8:27:51 GMT -5
Wow, missjeanclean - looks like you've got your treasure list right there: teaching, tutoring, and creating material that helps students
And if you can get rid of even some of the stuff on the (incomplete) heave list, that'll free up time. Hours from badly managed projects, hours from driving... Wow.
Fingers crossed!
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