Harmony At Last, LLC

Plans can be great… you can schedule appointments or anticipate working on a specific project. Planning helps you think about what you’re going to do and when you’d like to actually do it.

Now enters the issue of “control”. There are some things within our control and somethings that are outside of our control.

When we are engaged in the planning process, ideally we are anticipating things that we can control that would impact our plan if something went awry. We might even develop a contingency plan to account for potential problems.

Even with the best created plan, there is the possibility of something happening that is outside of our control. When these challenges occur, it is up to us on how we deal with them- we can become angry and frustrated or we can choose to embrace flexibility. Flexiblity allows us to better roll with life’s surprises and deal with them in the best possible way that the situation allows. After all, our thoughts are usually not as clear when we are angry, resisting what is, complaining that our productivity is impacted, all because it’s not what we want it to be.

A palm tree in a hurricane can provide a great visual image of the benefit of flexibility. Instead of resisting the strong winds and snapping in two, a palm tree has the ability to withstand the winds by bending. It’s ability to be flexible allows it to survive and to resume it’s stately posture once the winds have passed.

It’s great to make plans. When life happens, let’s take a lesson from the palm trees and embrace flexibility to weather the surprises that come our way.

Alphabet Soup Part 1… I achieved my Certified Professional Organizer® (CPO®) designation in January 2008 from the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers (BCPO^SM). This required me to have completed over 1,500 hours of paid work experience and pass a written exam. I was excited to be one of the first to receive certification in the organizing field.

Alphabet Soup Part 2… In April 2008, I achieved my Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® (CPO-CD®) through the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD). This achievement culminated 80 hours of specialized study, training, and directed coaching in addition to passing a peer review board over an 18 month period of time.

Right about now you may be asking… so what?!?!?

I am now one of less than 10 individuals in the United States to have achieved both certifications (and I’m the only one in the state of Vermont). More importantly to my clients, though, is my continued desired to learn and develop myself professionally. I’m passionate about helping people say goodbye to chaos and hello to calm in their work, home, and life. Continuing to develop my skills adds value to my clients every day as I can share new learning and ways to approach challenges.

My clients are my inspiration and I’m thankful for each of you in allowing me to support you on your journey. Thanks!

Picture the ideal balance for yourself as a boat smoothly sailing in the water. The breeze is comfortable, the boat is steady, you are making meaningful progress, and enjoying each moment of the day. The term “smooth sailing” really fits when the balance is ideal. Now think of that same boat sailing in a storm. It’s teetering in every direction and taking on water. You are focused on keeping the boat from capsizing. The term “rough waters” now applies—your overbooked, overwhelmed, overtired, and you are certainly not in harmony with each moment. Complaining about this situation is not enough! When you sense that you are in the “rough waters” place, take a step back to assess what needs to be changed and then actually make these changes.

“Fuzzy goals, fuzzy results.”- Julie Cubino

I really like this quote because too often we meander about, not sure of what we really want and yet somehow we seem surprised when we get random results.

To really achieve your goals, you need to know what you want. Some questions that can help you to refine your vision are:

* What do you want?

* Why do you want it? (ie What’s motivating you?)

* How important is it to you to achieve it?

* What actions are you willing to take to achieve it?

It’s so easy to get swept away on the planning of what’s next and where we want to be, that it can be easy to neglect expressing gratitude for the blessings that surround us in the present.

It has become more important to me on my own personal journey to take time for gratitude and to appreciate that which is most important to me in my life. (Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance, is a great book for this topic.) As I continued to bring more gratitude into my own life, I realized that I wanted to share that learning with my family as well.

I recently came across an incredible method for encouraging the expression of gratitude within my family. It’s called “Thank Your Lucky Stars” and created by The Voice of Clay. It comes with this great mini pottery vase and twelve stars. You can say something that you’re grateful for as you drop a star into the jar. My kids love it- they each have their favorite colored stars of course! My spouse and I enjoy it as a nice family ritual.

Take a moment to reflect on the good things in your life. As you seek out your next challenge- whether a new organizing project, the next career move, or enhancing your work/life balance- how can you incorporate more gratitude into your day?

Here’s a workplace scenario that you may be familiar with…

There is so much to-do during the workday and you can’t seem to get it all done. So you dutifully pack up your laptop and a stack of papers to bring home with you each evening. You end up some days carrying home several bags and they can get pretty heavy. Some evenings you end up getting some things done. On other evenings, the work simply lingers in the bags as the evening unfolds. You have so many other things going on in your evening that you just can’t seem to get to all the professional work you thought you would. The next morning arrives and you carry those same bags back to work. You feel guilty that the papers didn’t get touched. The to-dos weigh on your mind (and on your back as you carry them back and forth.) The cycle repeats. And repeats. And repeats.

How many bags do you carry back and forth to work? How frequently do you get to all of the work you brought home? How weighed down do you feel about the lingering to-dos in your bag? How would you rate your ability to get your work actions done efficiently?

Let’s lift the weight from your shoulders (both literally and figuratively)!

Try a simple step. In any given evening, decide what (if any) tasks that you are sure that you will complete. Be realistic. Some evenings it’s just not going to happen. (Your spouse is running late from work, you’re in charge of picking up the kids from childcare and then preparing dinner… you get the idea.) Other evening you may just choose to complete one or two tasks. Only bring those tasks home and leave the rest at work. Then make time to actually get the tasks you brought home complete. Find success in doing what you committed to yourself to do rather than failure at what you didn’t do.

Now try an even bigger step. Periodically give yourself the opportunity to leave your work at work. No bags, no papers, no to-dos. Total freedom for the evening. Does this step scare you? If you decide to give it a try, take note as to how it feels.

If you feel like delving even deeper into getting to-dos done efficiently, we’re offering a teleclass this Thursday, March 6th from 8-9pm EST.

Today was a snow day in Vermont. More specifically, we had a winter storm and preschool was closed. For me that meant that I was home with my two very active preschoolers. About halfway through the day, my husband was able to free up his schedule to give me about an hour of time to check emails and return phone messages. Great!

Well, I had been in my office under five minutes when one of my children began knocking on the door (it sounds more like banging) and saying “let me in, mommy”. I open the door to find him holding a hand-made Valentine’s Day card. He proudly says, “This is for Daddy. I need help wrapping it. He can’t peak at it.” I couldn’t resist how excited he was to be making a gift for his dad so I helped him put the card in a gift bag, place tissue paper around it, make a gift tag (I cut around it with the fancy zig-zag scissors and he wrote the name) and then tied curling ribbon on the handles of the bag. The curling ribbon had to be curled appropriately “Just like my curls on my hair, right Mommy?”

Thinking that I finished this project, I commended him and went back to my work. Two minutes later, he’s back with another card. Now this card is for me and needs to be wrapped as well. To sum this up for you, I have two kids, a dog, a cat, and a husband. Everyone of us got a hand-made card in a bag. Of course, both kids decided that this was a fun project so they each did it. (Thank goodness I had saved all of those extra gift bags to reuse.)

Needless to say, my hour went by very quickly. They were so joyful in their project that I chose to put my work aside and to give my attention to them. I may have sent out 2 emails during this time. I am sure that I’m not the only parent that understands the juggling that occurred in this situation.

Interruptions can be a huge factor in getting things done in a workday. In fact, in my work with clients, I commonly hear challenges of difficultly getting work done because of frequent interruptions. Some key concepts that can help you to balance the need to support others with the need to get your own job done are listed below…

1. Keep in mind what your job responsibilities are. Many jobs have interruptions as part of the typical day. This is not just for those in administrative assistant roles. In you are in one of these jobs, you may be able to reduce interruptions although it would not be possible, nor helpful for the business, to have them eliminated completely.

2. If interruptions are a part of the job, you’ll need to plan for them as part of the day. That means if a task will take you 1 hour to complete with no interruptions, it may take twice that long (or more) when you consider the impact of the interruptions.

3. Allow a bit of open time in your schedule. When your calendar is packed so tightly that one minor blip can throw off the whole day, you may want to add a bit of buffer to your appointments. You decide what you need to keep the flow of your day going smoothly.

3. Create a system to help you remember where you were. When the interruption occurs, it is okay to say, “Just one moment please. I want to jot down a thought.” You can write a quick note to yourself on where you left off in order to help you recapture that train of thought in the future.

4. “You’re lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part.” (author unknown) I’ve seen this sign posted in offices. You’ll want to assess if the particular interruption is one that you want/need to address. And if you’re one of those people who leaves things undone until the last minute, you may want to consider modifying your style in order to reduce the impact of your last minute requests on your colleagues.

5. Stephen Covey talks about an “Urgent/Important” matrix in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. You may be frequently asked to play “firefighter” by people who claim that something is urgent. When the task evaluated against other business priorities, it might be not very important. Minimize time spent on urgent/not-important tasks.

6. Shut the door. Although the banging on the door by my children was very distracting, many colleagues will respect that you need to have some focused time when they see the door closed. You’ll need to work within your office protocol for this one. The idea gets a bit tricker when in a cubicle.

7. Work at home. Some offices allow a bit of opportunity to work remotely at least some of the time. If you can take advantage of that, you may find that you get more accomplished when you do so.

With all of the push to getting more things done, it’s easy to pack a schedule so tight that there is no time for any relaxation. I came across an interesting quote recently about the need to take the time to play. Maybe this will even encourage you to take a break (or more!) from rigid time management.

“It’s more than the shoes, the raquet or bike

It’s more than your swing, the fish, or the hike

It’s more than the skis, the skates, or the snow

It’s ignoring the work and deciding to go. ”

By: Kristen Sheldon

I was able to experience this myself just this evening. After dinner, when it was precariously close to my kids bedtime, they requested to go outside on a night time walk. (We just received 14 inches of snow over the last two days and it was beckoning them outside.) My first thoughts were, “Ugh, I don’t really want to go outside right now. It’s cold and dark. I’d rather just get them ready for bed.” Their little (and persistent) pleas won out and outside we all went. It turned into 20 minutes of sledding, two very happy kids, and a joyful mom. Thank goodness for play!

Harmony At Last just started two new phone groups to help you reach your goals from the comfort of your own home. These groups have been in development for awhile and we are so excited to be announcing them (finally)! Julie Cubino, Professional Organizer, Coach, and Owner of Harmony At Last will be the facilitator for each of these groups.

Organize My Home with Harmony Group:

To help individuals organize their home and keep it that way in a friendly, supportive group learning environment. Flexibility and convenience are built in through periodic phone meetings and a private, moderated message board. Virtual Organizing made simple! (2nd and 4th Monday of each month from 8-9pm EST)

Rejuvenate with Harmony Group:

To inspire and support women as they develop and implement their personal plan to create more balance in their life. Participants in this group will also explore the components of work/life balance and time management in a small group setting. Guest speakers will also be invited to some of the meetings to share their knowledge on inspirational topics. Flexibility and convenience are built in to the supportive group environment through periodic phone meetings and a private, moderated message board.

Register now to begin your journey!

Ahhh… the holidays are upon us once again…

And you probably have noticed that I haven’t blogged in awhile.

I’ve had every intention of doing so and it seems that there are many other things vying for my attention as well. I’m sure that you’re probably in a similar situation- lots of activities, parties, shopping, cards, decorations, crowds, traffic, cookies, … and only just so much time in a day.

I have several different thoughts about holiday preparation this year and wanted to reflect on them with you.

Are you ready for Christmas? How organized and prepared are you for the holidays? Responses range from “ugh” to “I’m never ready” to “Of course- I finished my shopping before Thanksgiving”.

The good and bad news about the calendar is that Christmas comes whether we’re ready or not. And what does it mean to really be ready? Usually so much is built up into the preparation for Christmas that by the time it gets here, we all need a break. We can hear the loud, collective sigh as we finally take a breath and hopefully reflect on what is important to each of us individually.

Due to my profession as an organizer and coach, I am also asked very specifically on if I’m personally ready for Christmas and if so, what is my secret? The short answer is “Yes, I’m ready.” The secret is equally simple… I only do that which I am able and nothing more. I still leave time for myself to breathe prior to the holidays and maintain the calm around me.

Here are some of the ways that I’ve simplified.. dare I admit this in the internet forum …

* I send holiday cards with a picture of my children and the message being the same for all recipients. Definitely takes less time although I admit it’s not as personal.

* I didn’t put all of my decorations up. I did the basics and I omitted the extras. I was honest with myself that I just didn’t have energy to put it all up and take it all down this year.

* I sent shortbread for some gifts. Vermont Shortbread Company is fabulous and they take care of the shipping for me!

* I turned down some party invitations even though I’m sure I missed a great time.

I share these with you so that you know I, like you, have to make choices. I prefer to choose calm and so my choices reflect that personal balance for me. I wish for you much peace and happiness throughout the holiday season, regardless of which holiday(s) you celebrate . May you find harmony in the season and enjoy the time with your family and friends.