To all my students and clients I encourage an accountability partner: friend, partner, spouse, coach, consultant. Find someone who will hold you to completing your goals and projects. And decide what your reward or consequence will be when you complete or don't complete your goal. Some people work better with a positive outcome/reward than a negative consequence, so you need to decide what works for you.
A client once shared with me her motivational plan to complete projects. She gave her accountability partner a check (for quite a sizable amount) made out to the political party whose platform she did not support. Her partner was instructed to mail that donation if she DID NOT complete her project by the deadline date.
Find an accountability partner, choose a reward (or consequence), set a deadline date for each project's completion, and be realistic about what you can actually finish.
1. It's Done! Look at all the stuff I got done because I told you I would. Five items have been photographed, measured, detailed and placed on Craigslist. That includes getting those photos out of my camera and on my laptop. Philip helped me copy all my photos from PC to external hard drive, checked it and triple checked it and now I'm ready to delete them from my PC. I got my smartphone email fixed and spam filters set with a call to my Internet provider (who was especially patient in helping me navigate my old PC). I worked with my web manager and completed my web site including the dreaded call to tech support for the link to sell my book on my web site. Changed default from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome (this was interesting), and sold a large box of Chinese takeout boxes and tissue paper (which have been packed in my basement for several years) to Michelle Cobb, feng shui jewelry designer extraordinaire, to gift wrap her beautiful creations. Wow! What do you think of that? I got a bunch of the hard stuff done first. Best of all, I reviewed my to do list and can't believe how many items I completed.
2. This Week. My eBook is a project I need to get on yesterday. After editing and proofing my book for paperback publication, I found several things needing updates in my eBook, which was published four months earlier. Like the word 'infinity' instead of 'eternity' and a few tables that need clarification, some punctuation, and the eBook front cover has an extra comma that isn't in the published edition. This is a job I have put off far too long, so I will be working on it this week. I also need some lessons on FaceBook shares and event invites and the Evite tool so I can send invites for the 3rd Annual Christmas Book Festival (see details below) like all the other authors and organizer. Everyone else seems to know now to do this, but me.
3. Priorities. I also discovered this week that one of the reasons we may keep putting items on the back burner--electronics/tech or not--is that completion isn't necessarily a priority at this time. For example, my laptop CD drive does not seem to be working, but it isn't something I use frequently, so it feels okay to put it at the end of the list and get other tech things done first. A reader emailed me concerned at how much was realistic to get finished by the end of December when she works full time, is a single parent, and has a long work commute. I asked her to consider whether or not one item a day was too much? I also suggested she group items by how much time they might take and do less time-consuming items once a day and maybe only two of the more involved items in a week. Finally, she might categorize like items (laptop stuff, web tasks, camera/photo tasks, mailing, emails, holiday prep, etc) and then see if she can complete two or three of those groups in a week. Do the priority stuff first. Consider tossing items that really aren't important any more. Anything you get off the list will be an accomplishment!
This week celebrate all that you accomplished last week and then keep moving forward toward getting a more items and projects off the list. Be sure to find an accountability partner that will support you and hold you to your deadlines. When you begin to clear clutter the feng shui way, you may find you have more time to enjoy what you love to do instead of spending time on what you have to do (clean, organize, manage, display). Happy de-cluttering.
