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trilobite_gw

Ten in 2011 - January

trilobite
13 years ago

(I posted in the other thread, but I think it got buried, so I'm starting a new thread.)

Updates and encouragement for January projects for anyone who is doing "Ten in 2011", getting done ten projects over the course of the year. Bumping this because we're one week into January. How is everyone doing?

I have cleaned out a lot of old email, posted new pictures to my Facebook, completely revamped my bookmark organizing, updated a website that I maintain for a craft society and I'm more or less up to date on returning emails.

I started when I first posted (12/29) At first every time I sat down to deal with electronic clutter it was soooo difficult. I could feel internal resistance and having to push all the time. Now I really feel like I've turned at least a small corner and it feels much easier to sort, respond and purge.

For February I'll do our disaster of a snail mail inbox and for March I'll work on our office (another disaster). Haven't decided on anything else yet.

Comments (7)

  • jannie
    13 years ago

    Sounds like a good idea. I'm jumping right in! Today the Christmas tree comes down.

  • trilobite
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I'm still clearing my electronic clutter and wanted to put in a shout for Google Reader. (Anyone who doesn't have Gmail can just skip all of this.)

    I follow a lot of blogs (too many) and having new posts "tucked away" in the Google Reader for when I have time to read them is great.

    Also, there's a setting where you can specify that everything over a certain date (two weeks, one week) is considered "read", so if you don't have time for a couple of weeks, you don't have an large backlog.

    I still use iGoogle for anything that updates on a daily or near daily basis which is very few blogs. If you wanted to compare the two approaches, I find iGoogle is good for the daily newspaper type blogs, Reader is good for the blogs that update more rarely, your magazine type blogs.

  • mvastian
    13 years ago

    Ok, I have knocked down my #9 "Update and print my phone/address book (I have it as an excel sheet)."

    And trilobite has inspired me to tackle my electronic clutter as well. (Thank you!) It was nightmarish and I still have a long way to go, but at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel...

    Maria

  • msmarieh
    13 years ago

    I'm in and I'm hitting the ground running!!!

    My Project for January: DECLUTTER THE HOME OFFICE!!!

    Due to a number of ridiculous circumstances that are no real excuse whatsoever, it had been three years since I had filed any papers in there, so crap just kept accumulating and the final straw was that we had our carpets cleaned (every other room in the house) just before Thanksgiving, so all random around the house paperwork was dumped into the office all at one time... :(

    I started on Jan. 6 in the home office and it took me fifteen hours total over a little more than a week's time to beat it back into submission.

    However, I have been victorious!!!

    I've posted before and after pictures on my blog (link below). I'm really proud of the final results. It was a lot of hard focused work and it looks SO much better!

    Next up for February??? The basement... I'm going in... if I'm not out in six weeks, send in a search party!!! ;)

    Here is a link that might be useful: My Home Office Decluttering - Before and After Pictures!

  • mvastian
    13 years ago

    Lovely, lovely, lovely! Thanks for sharing.

    Maria

  • msmarieh
    13 years ago

    Thank you Maria!!

    It's such a weight off my shoulders to have this project done. It was truly embarrassing. Although fortunately it was on the second floor so there was no reason for most people to see it, periodically someone would need to go upstairs or I would think "my gosh, what if there was a fire?".

    It had just gotten so overwhelming that every time I looked in there, I would basically shut down mentally. I didn't even know where to start because literally every single surface in that room was covered.

    Finally I just took a deep breath and started in one corner. Getting started was definitely the hardest part. I forced myself to put in an hour a day in there (every morning before I had to leave for work) so that I would start seeing some progress immediately and that was a huge help. After a couple days, seeing that floor appearing before my eyes was a huge motivation and I WANTED to get in there - so I was throwing in an extra hour or two here and there to move the project along. It was actually pretty amazing how fast it went once I got started, even working in relatively small chunks of time.

    Imagine, stressing about something for a couple of years that when you actually started working on it, took only a week. What a waste of mental energy (usually something I am extremely protective of!).

  • mommabird
    13 years ago

    I am concentrating on paper and files in January. I posted a new thread about buying two file cabinets. I feel so great getting files under control.

    February is going to be "basement month." I'm going to spend 15 or 10 min a day on the basement. Compared to most basements it's not bad because I did the deep declutter last Fall, but it can still use some work.

    The other 8 will come...