Papers in the Wading Pool

10.14.10

My client Nancy is a creative thinker, and she has discovered that the key to making progress on reducing her piles of magazines and catalogs is to change her routine from time to time. 

During one session with me, we gathered all her catalogs, magazines,and miscellaneous papers together on a folding table and called it the “sorting table”. Nancy set herself the task of sorting into boxes by catagory while she watched TV during the week. This worked really well for a few weeks, but after a while, she noticed that the sorting table had become stagnant.  So she piled all her papers into a plastic wading pool to use it as a big sorting bin. Jumbled together In the blue plastic circle of the pool, the papers already looked less important. She set up the pool sorting system in a sunny room, and committed to work on it 15 minutes per day. More progress. Then this, too, became uninteresting, so she brought in a friend who made her laugh, and he helped her sort and toss another big pile. 

So Nancy varied her routine by changing her location in the house, by setting the game up with different rules (TV or 15 minute limit), using different tools (table, boxes, wading pool) and by bringing in some refreshing help when she needed it.  Try this yourself if you feel stuck - make up a new game from time to time!  I am always happy to brainstorm with my clients on new ways to approach organizing, so call me if you want some help - working with Visible Results could be one variation of your routine!