Hasta La Ideas

Once again, I want to welcome the incredible Danielle LaPorte (author of the blog White Hot Truth) to Unclutterer. Read a more complete biography of her at the end of this article.

Last year was a biggie for me. I released a book, did speaking gigs in a dozen different cities, raised a bunch of money for my internet company, left that company for a new solo venture, and still made time to build forts and Popsicle stick boxes with my little boy. I knew that if I didn’t stand guard against the potential time, energy and stuff clutter that was coming my way, I was going to go berserk.

My initial inclination to planning for business growth was to do more. Work more hours. Put my kid into more programs. Just cram more into my life for a period of time. You know, weather the beautiful storm. But this time, I stopped myself. Maybe it’s maturity that brought me to my senses. Or maybe it’s all the sinus infections I’ve had from being over-worked. Or it’s the plethora of plastic toys and unanswered email that’s crept in while I’ve been juggling an ever-increasing more-ness to my life. But I finally had my eureka revelation and (I know, it may sound daft, you may have already mastered this incredibly obvious life lesson), but I finally realized that a girl can only do so much. Uh-huh.

When the going gets busy, the wise ones simplify … with a vengeance.

Managing chaos with beauty, quality, and ruthless simplicity:

1. Commit to your creativity. This may sound like it should be the last priority on your packed to-do-list. When we’re busy, the creative things are usually the first to go, but creativity is like a super vitamin juice for the soul – a little bit goes a long way. Whether it’s just a love note that you write on a napkin, or some flowers you arrange for the dinner table – find little ways to keep your creative nature alive. Beauty-making helps you keep things in perspective.
2. Get the best tools. Whether its more computer memory, a comfortable back pack, or a bus pass, invest in the best of what you use the most. Any carpenter will tell you that a house is easier to build with a sharp saw.
3. Have it delivered. What last minutes trips and essential to-dos are consistently causing you stress? There’s probably a service to solve that dilemma:
   • Arrange for direct deposits and automatic payments. I go into my bank only a few times a year (no more looking for a parking spot or waiting in line!) We auto-pay utility bills with an air mile-earning credit card, and write just one or two checks a month to the credit card.
   • Get a food delivery service. Once a week, the food dude drops off organic veggies, milk and other yummers we’ve ordered. It costs about 5% more than our usual grocery bill, but race-to-the-grocery-store trips before work/daycare/appointments – no more.
   • Send gifts through Amazon. It seemed like every girlfriend I have had a baby last year. I sent them all kids books directly through Amazon (you can fill out a gift card that is included with your order.) I give them the more personal, lovey prezzies when I see them in person (and know better what they really need).
   • Get DVDs by mail. Now THIS changed my life. No more, “We have to watch this movie tonight,” pressure for the sake of the $5 rental fee. And no more late fees!
4. Just say ‘no.’ Really. It’s a magic word.
5. Insist on good service. I switched banks because I could never get a human on the phone and it took too long to get my business done. And as much as I liked her, I broke up with my hairdresser. She kept me waiting every single time.
6. Give yourself a break. I adore books. I’d eat them if I could. But I actually committed to NOT read books for the first half of my very busy year. I also gave myself permission to be late with returning phone calls for six months. Sweet relief.

If you can see busy times coming, plan to do less, not accommodate more. Refuse to expand, insist on boundaries. Take your soul vitamins – be sure to do the little things that nourish your spirit. Reject anything that doesn’t foster your greatness, and put systems into place that support your freedom. Be ruthless. You’re worth it.

Danielle LaPorte founded www.whitehottruth.com because “self realization rocks.” Her blog is lauded as “kick-ass enlightening.” She is the lead author of the bestseller, Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design. A former think tank executive and communications strategist, Danielle helps entrepreneurs blaze their careers with her signature Fire Starter Sessions.

We’ve talked in the past about how nagging the people you live with is never a good idea. It’s disrespectful, it upsets you, and it usually angers the person you’re nagging.

But, what if the situation were different and you chose to have someone nag you to keep you from procrastinating? What if you didn’t have any kind of an emotional or physical connection to the person who was nagging you to keep moving?

Last week, I learned about just such a person — a professional nagger. Her name is Rachel Cornell and people pay her to nag them.

She offers a daily nag, a power nag, an on-going nag, a week-long nag, and a community nag. She even has troubleshooting services to help you get over your bump in procrastination. I must be honest, I was flabbergasted to learn that she offered so many nagging options.

One of the reasons I think a professional nagger is an effective idea is because there isn’t a prior relationship between you and the nagger. You don’t have to sit down to dinner with your nagger. You don’t have to worry about what your nagger thinks of you. You have a business relationship with this person, and nothing else.

After learning about Rachel, I did some research and learned that there are hundreds of professional naggers available to nag at people who want their services. If you’re in the market for a push to keep you from procrastinating, do a search for “professional nagger” on Google to find one who might work best for you.

What do you think of a professional nagger? Would you ever use such a service? I definitely think I could have used one in college.

Before I became a full-time writer, I didn’t give much thought to what a realistic day at the office would be for me. I had an idealized image of a writer in my mind — one that included afternoon drinks at the White Horse Tavern with Jack Kerouac and Anais Nin — and most of my wayward fantasies didn’t actually include writing.

Ha ha ha. Ho ho ho. Hee hee hee.

I love my job, but it usually doesn’t include shots of whiskey every afternoon with New York’s (deceased) literati. Mostly, it involves sitting behind a computer for 10 hours a day moving my fingers up and down on a keyboard.

One way that I kept (and continue to keep) 10 hours of typing from being painful is to make sure that I’m involved in its planning.

At the beginning of every day, I set aside five minutes to plan my perfect day. It doesn’t always turn out exactly the way I expected, but it rarely gets completely uprooted. Also, the plan is more about putting anxieties to rest than a rigid to-do list.

How To

1. Identify the work that has to be completed by the end of the day. What, if you fail to accomplish, will get you fired/stressed/full of anxiety/arrested/etc.?
2. Identify at least three things you want to do in addition to the must-do items.
3. Identify any routines that should take place to keep you on track. Is today a laundry day? Is it your night to make dinner?
4. Estimate length of time to complete all of your must do, want to do, and routine projects.
5. Write out a plan for your day, where you stagger easy and difficult tasks and schedule the hardest task when you’re the most alert.
6. Get working.

Example

• 6:10 a.m. Wake up, drink coffee, eat breakfast, enjoy the silence.
• 6:30 a.m. Get ready, shower.
• 7:00 a.m. Go to work.
• 8:00 a.m. Check in with staff/boss.
• 8:15 a.m. Plan day, check e-mail, read RSS feeds.
• 8:30 a.m. Work on difficult projects.
• 11:30 a.m. Have lunch.
• 12:30 p.m. Check e-mail.
• 1:00 p.m. Work on easy projects.
• 2:30 p.m. Zone out unintentionally, drink coffee.
• 3:00 p.m. Work on difficult projects.
• 5:00 p.m. Check e-mail.
• 5:15 p.m. End of day check-in with staff/boss, file, put materials away, set up desk for next day.
• 5:30 p.m. Go home.
• 6:30 p.m. Fix dinner, eat dinner.
• 7:30 p.m. Daily chores.
• 8:00 p.m. Help children with homework.
• 9:00 p.m. Relax, spend time with spouse, be social, read, watch tv, meet a friend for a drink, call mom, work out at gym, and/or do something fun.
• 11:00 p.m. Bed.

The example schedule isn’t mine (I don’t have kids needing help with homework, and I’m already at my desk writing on my book at 6:30 a.m.), and it probably won’t work for you either, it’s just here to give you an example of how you might schedule your day. The point of the example is to show you how you could keep time from slipping away from you, and make sure that you accomplish what you want to accomplish. Give it a whirl and see how you might plan your perfect day.

A November article in Scientific American magazine explored the topic of procrastination in its controversial article “Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit.” The article concludes, as the subtitle of the article aptly states, “although biology is partly to blame for foot-dragging, anyone can learn to quit.”

The most promising advice it gives to getting past the procrastination habit is to plan time-specific actions into your schedule:

Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer of New York University and the University of Konstanz in Germany advises creating “implementation intentions,” which specify where and when you will perform a specific behavior. So rather than setting a vague goal such as “I will get healthy,” set one with its implementation, including timing, built in—say, “I will go to the health club at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow.”

Setting such specific prescriptions does appear to inhibit the tendency to procrastinate. In 2008 psychologist Shane Owens and his colleagues at Hofstra University demonstrated that procrastinators who formed implementation intentions were nearly eight times as likely to follow through on a commitment than were those who did not create them. “You have to make a specific commitment to a time and place at which to act beforehand,” Owens says. “That will make you more likely to follow through.”

The article also includes some startling information about the percentage of adults who regularly put off tasks:

Almost everyone occasionally procrastinates, which University of Calgary economist Piers Steel defines as voluntarily delaying an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. But like Raymond [an attorney who is a self-proclaimed procrastinator], a worrisome 15 to 20 percent of adults, the “mañana procrastinators,” routinely put off activities that would be better accomplished ASAP. And according to a 2007 meta-analysis by Steel, procrastination plagues a whopping 80 to 95 percent of college students, whose packed academic schedules and frat-party-style distractions put them at particular risk.

What strategies do you invoke to keep from procrastinating? Share your tips in the comments.