We’re in the midst of the holiday season. Do you feel like a juggler in a circus? Between planning or attending gatherings, keeping your family fed, helping your kids or aging parents, and completing your work deadlines, your time is in high demand. Add to that, preparing for visitors coming and going, selecting and wrapping gifts, and making time for some self-care (yes, self-care…I’m talking to you) it’s a lot. Seriously. How many balls are you juggling at once? How do you navigate the many roles and responsibilities you have? There is a delicate nature to finding a doable work-life balance. Many of you will probably agree that the ‘right’ balance is a constantly moving target.

When my balance is off, I look carefully at my commitments and evaluate what change is needed. Have I said “yes” too often? Have I said “yes” to things that are nourishing and energizing? One of the best decisions and yeses I made a year ago was to Marcy Stoudt, CEO of Revel Coach and Founder of The Executive Mom Nest. This visionary Executive Coach and mother of three launched The Executive Mom Nest, or The Nest, as we affectionately call it. Marcy created a team of vetted Advisors from diverse yet complementary industries, including marketing, finance, design, wellness, life and career coaching, travel, and organization. The team supports, coaches, and mentors moms navigating career, family, and self. I’m thrilled that Marcy invited me to join her team as the Professional Organizer Advisor.

For a better understanding of work-life balance, I immediately thought about these insightful Nest Advisors and their collective wisdom. We meet regularly, and I always learn so much from them. I reached out to several colleagues, Marcy Stoudt, Neela Asaadi, Lucy Carlisle, Lana Kitcher, Petra Krebbs, Alison Nissen, and Becky Roth. I asked them- What is one strategy you use to restore your work-life balance?

Their responses are philosophical, practical, personal, and inspiring. My deepest gratitude goes out to them for sharing their hearts, experience, and honesty with us.

What is one strategy you use to restore your work-life balance?

1. Balance through Self-Care

"One constant that every single human being has is time, and we have the same amount of it. What we choose to do with it is our choice. The secret to any success story is moderation and living in harmony with yourself. If something doesn't go as planned, learn from it, don't judge it. If you indulge, enjoy it, and get back on track later! If you overworked yourself, give yourself a well-deserved rest. 

Strive to keep yourself grounded through fulfilling practices and rituals that fuel your soul. Morning rituals are personally my favorite way to set myself up for success, in addition to a delicious night's sleep to restore. Spend time investing in yourself. After all, it is the greatest gift you could give so you can show up as the best version of yourself for everyone around you."

Neela Asaadi – Lifestyle Designer, Holistic Health Coach, Creative & Brand Director

2. Balance through Less Negative Self-Talk

“I get control of my negative self-talk. I'm a busy working mom. I'm proud of what I do. But, when I'm feeling overwhelmed, it's rarely because I am doing too much. It is almost always due to my mental chatter obsessing over my lack of time. I lose motivation, focus, and clarity when I have negative thoughts. If you are seeking work/life balance, start with the root cause: negative self-talk. When you control your thoughts, you control your day.”

Marcy Stoudt – CEO of Revel Coach, Founder of The Executive Mom Nest

3. Balance through Work Satisfaction

“Find a job that you love. Your career doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) constraining. If you hate what you do for work, it will inevitably seep into your personal life. When you find time for travel, self-care, or family time, work might be that dark cloud that stays over you even when you are trying to enjoy yourself. Having a job that I am so passionate about has brought me work-life balance in unexpected ways. When I unplug, I feel deserving, and when I get back to work, I feel excited and invigorated.”

Lucy Carlisle – Marketing

“When life is humming along beautifully, we rarely think about balance.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

4. Balance through Reflection

“When I think of balance, I envision two bowls dangling from a stick, delicately positioned to be even. Life doesn't work like that. Instead, I find harmony in my life through reflection, joy, and growth. If I dread an activity, I ask myself what purpose it serves. If it’s a class I know will help me professionally, I can look ahead to the end date and envision the success it will bring at a future date. If, however, it’s a toxic relationship with something such as junk food, I will replace the interactions with something that brings me joy, like giving myself a few extra minutes to read a novel.”

Alison Nissen, DTM – Story Coach, Blogger, Speaker

5. Balance through Healthy Boundaries

“When I think of work/life balance, I think of seasons. I don’t believe there is a perfect balance to life because some seasons require more work, and some require more of life. What has helped me feel restored in each season is applying healthy boundaries. No matter the season, I keep within boundaries that align with my values, purpose, and goals. Should a season push up against those boundaries, I can adjust accordingly. When we know who we are and where we are going, then there is peace no matter the season.”

Petra Krebbs – Strengths Strategist™, Jon Gordon Certified Speaker & Trainer, Certified Gallup Strengths Coach

6. Balance through Energy Management

“A major way to restore my work/life balance is to manage my energy each workweek. When I break down my goals/tasks weekly, it is achievable. For example, I view the week as a pizza pie (yum) and try to eat one slice daily, so by the end of each day, I feel energized and have accomplished my daily tasks. Sure, there are weeks I’m planning special events or need extra time to cross the task of the list. By checking in on my energy rhythm, I usually feel less drained. Are you eating your slice daily or the entire pizza pie by Wednesday? Check yourself daily to understand your energy as it will balance your career and life goals.”

Becky Roth, MSW, LMSW – Certified Professional Coach, Career Coach, Speaker

7. Balance through Frequent Assessment

“When I'm feeling frustrated about my day, I can tell that it's time for me to restore balance. Restoring balance is a practice and needs to be assessed regularly. I have a three-step process for bringing back balance and suggest making time for this routine at least once a quarter.

1) Meditate – First, I need to calm myself down and take a moment to breathe and clear my head.

2) Process – Second, I need to make space for myself and process what makes me feel frustrated or overwhelmed. This is a great opportunity to go to my favorite cafe with a notebook and journal on the question.

3) Review - Finally, I review my calendar. I reevaluate everything on my schedule - declining meetings or removing responsibilities that no longer serve me. It's also helpful to look ahead and block some time in the future for myself, knowing how overwhelmed I'm feeling now.”

Lana Kitcher – Productivity & Efficiency Coach

When life is humming along beautifully, we rarely think about balance. However, when things start going sideways, we notice. Awareness is essential for change. There are many ways to restore work-life balance. My colleagues shared their favorite strategies with you.

Which ideas resonate most? What helps you create a healthy work-life balance? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

For almost three decades, I’ve enthusiastically helped people edit and get organized. Recently, I’ve become my own client and leaned into some organizing self-help. My motivation to let go of the extraneous was partially influenced by this summer’s tiny house vacation. While I no longer am obsessed with moving into a tiny house, I want to live in our right-sized house, but with less stuff.

Our home isn’t disorganized or cluttered. Things have a place. My husband, Steve, and I can easily retrieve and return items to their designated ‘homes.’  However, there are belongings that have overstayed their welcome. Those are the things that have been stored for a long time and are no longer used, needed, or wanted. They are taking up physical and emotional space. Their time has come to move on.

After returning from vacation, I set a long-term goal to reduce the amount of stuff I own. My plan isn’t a detailed room-by-room-do-this-by-x-date proposition. It’s a low-pressure, loose plan. I added one simple daily repeat on my to-do list that says, “Edit & release some stuff.”  There is no expectation other than to do something. I spend 15-60 minutes editing what I feel like working on that day.

In the last two weeks, I edited and organized clothing, shoes, handbags, toiletries, cleaning products, paper goods, dishes, and glasses. Additional edits included candles, vases, office supplies, books, photos, cards, letters, memorabilia, personal and business files, and email inbox. These items were from the dining room, entryway, laundry room, kitchen, office, main bedroom, and bathrooms.

I let go of

• Five 13-gallon bags of trash

• Two 30-gallon bags of trash

• Two 30-gallon bags of clothing and home goods for donations

• One bag of books for donations

• One bag of paper for recycling

• One bag of paper for shredding

• One container of pens for a friend

Like with all experiments, come learning. My ‘edit & release some stuff’ plan is no exception. There will be more insights, but here are seven discoveries I made so far.

7 Best Organizing Self-Help Discoveries Made With My New Simple Plan

1. Track Your Progress

There are many ways to enjoy progress, but for me, tracking with a simple chart helps me review and acknowledge my accomplishments. I created a Word document with three columns- date, area worked on, and result. Taking photos or journaling can also be helpful.

2. Respect Random Approach

Typical organizing wisdom encourages us to organize one area before moving on to the next. I’ve shared that advice with many clients. However, as logical as that sounds, it’s not always possible or desirable. Clients sometimes get bored working in one area or encounter emotionally charged belongings they are not ready to organize. With my approach, I gifted myself the option for randomness. Instead of a specific plan of what to edit each day, I let myself choose more intuitively. Which area do I feel like working on today? It keeps the pressure low and the satisfaction high.

3. Honor Your Emotions

Is organizing emotional? It can be. While editing, I experienced a range of feelings like happiness, joy, sadness, ambivalence, resistance, frustration, annoyance, guilt, exhaustion, satisfaction, and love. I let my emotions have the space to surface. When editing my cards, I found a beautiful, love-filled note written by my mom for my 40th birthday. I felt sad that she is gone and simultaneously felt her love and encouragement. 

4. Trust the Exit

Honestly, if I wasn’t logging my progress and noting the stuff I said goodbye to, I wouldn’t remember what was gone. I have no regrets and don’t miss anything that I released. It feels good.

“It’s liberating to live with less.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

5. Live With Less

As each area or space is edited, I appreciate having less. For example, when I open the sticky note drawer, only my favorites are there, and the never-used ones are gone. When I get dressed, the clothes I like and wear most are in my closets and drawers. They have space to breathe, and it makes it easier for me to select what I’m going to wear. It’s liberating to live with less.

6. Rethink Your Space

One of the benefits of letting go is the opportunity to rethink your space. Having less visual and physical clutter makes it easier to improve flow and organization.  As I released stuff, I cleaned and asked a few questions. Is the space working as is? Or, could it use a slight tweak? Some areas were set. However, for others, I made improvements. For example, after the kitchen edit, I inserted freestanding cabinet shelves. This made use of wasted vertical space and also improved access to frequently used dishes.

7. Engage Self or Outside Help

While I’m making progress, I recognize the value of enlisting help. While I have released a lot, I’m pretty sure if someone supported and asked me questions as I edited, I’d let go of more. Help with facilitating decision-making is invaluable. For now, I continue to go it alone, coaching myself through the process. I will leave the door open to reach out for help if needed.

Have you been editing and organizing? Are you doing it on your own or did you get help? What did you learn? Did any of my discoveries resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

When we let go, what happens? We remove resistance. We free ourselves from angst and stress. We allow our minds and days to flow more smoothly. We give ourselves a break from holding on so tightly. We exhale.

I don’t know about you, but lately for me, I’ve had a multitude of opportunities to practice my letting go skills, or as I like to say, “letting go muscles.”

My letting go practice has tested me with tech, cooking, entertaining, family, business, attitude, and stuff. Each situation presented differently and with varying challenges. Yet they all had one thing in common. They provided me with a choice. I could either dig in and resist, or let go enough to move forward.

What’s interesting is that when we can’t let go, we definitely stay stuck. That “stuck” can manifest itself in physical and emotional ways.

In some cases, letting go meant shifting my attitude. By doing so, I could see that a belief I thought was true wasn’t. Letting go allowed me to open my mind to a different way of thinking and appreciating.

In other instances, I had to ask questions about why I was keeping something that was just taking up real estate and wasn’t being used. Just like many of my organizing clients, I struggled with letting go of some belongings such as books, clothes, and DVDs. I coached myself through the process, and ultimately was able to let go of some “stuff.” And you know what? I don’t miss any of the things that exited. In fact, I feel a little bit lighter.

In the process of my practice runs, I came across a short YouTube video by Knowable about letting go. The timely message resonated with me and I hope it does for you too. Here’s the link:  A psychologist walked around a room . . .

Have you had practice runs with letting go? What has your experience been? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

Cameron Gott

Our popular “Ask the Expert” interview series connects you with dynamic thought leaders. This year we’ve spoken with Dr. Thomas Armstrong about motivation, Harold Taylor about time management, Erin Rooney Doland about clutter, Francine Jay about letting go, Todd Henry about next steps, Dr. Debbie Grove about change, and Joshua Becker about fresh starts. For August, I’m thrilled to have with us coach and trainer, Cameron Gott to share his insights about enlisting help.

My wonderful friend and mentor, Denslow Brown introduced me to Cam many years ago. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of not only hearing Cam speak about coaching and ADHD, but also trained with him directly through Coach Approach for Organizers. I love our conversations whether they are in person, over the phone, or through our social media channels. He’s insightful, interesting, and always offers a unique perspective. Before we begin the interview, here’s more about him.

Cameron Gott is a champion of Global Creatives who helps smart people with ADHD get the stuff done that really matters. He also trains and mentors coaches, and blogs about thriving as a Global Creative. With Denslow Brown and Andrea Sharb, Cam develops and delivers high quality coach training and certification uniquely tailored for professional organizers through Coach Approach for Organizers. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, blog or website.

Linda Samuels:  Your life’s work is about coaching others to take action on what really matters. What prompts your clients to reach out for help?

Cameron Gott:  Clients seek coaching support when they see a real need for change - That what was working no longer works. For my clients it is a desire to have a different daily work experience than just addressing the most urgent matters on their lists.

Linda:  What are some of the challenges we might encounter when we enlist help?

Cam:  Ourselves, namely a fixed mindset powered by dusty old beliefs that no longer serve us like, “To be successful I have to do this by myself!” or “I’m too messed up to be helped!” or “I shouldn’t need help!” These old, fixed beliefs can convince us that enlisting help equals giving up, which in turn equals failure. We don’t want to be perceived as weak so we don’t ask for help. It’s a vicious cycle. False beliefs about ‘going it alone’ can become even more amplified when we think about our biggest dreams.

Linda:  What is the “Lone Ranger” approach and how does it sabotage success?

Cam:  Americans can have a romantic idea about how success looks. It’s based on the image of the lone cowboy, independent and self reliant who rides in to save the day.  Success stories in business magnify this storyline of grit, determination and self-reliance.  These are not bad qualities but don’t be fooled. In this day and age of  connectivity and specialty, success comes through these qualities but also collaboration, communication, strategic support and what Stephen Covey refers to as valueing differences. When we embrace the ‘go it alone/Lone Ranger’ mindset and focus only on the our pre-conceived notion of success, we shut ourselves off from incredible resources and offers of help along the journey.

Linda:  What has been your biggest personal enlisting help challenge?

Cam:Learning about and living with my own unique brain wiring. Diagnosed with ADD at age 28, I had to overcome a lot of shame to reach out for help. I also had to get clear on what I actually needed help with! I am still learning at age 49 about my strengths, sensitivities and challenges. What’s shifted is how I view enlisting help. Before I viewed it from a ‘helpless’ perspective. Now I view enlisting help from a curious/learning perspective, which is very different, very empowering. This approach to enlisting help is a central theme when working with my ADHD clients.

Linda:  What is your most surprising discovery about enlisting help?

Cam:When we open ourselves to help amazing people come forward and amazing things happen.  Some of my richest connections first started out as a request for help.

Linda:  Is there anything you’d like to add about enlisting help?

Cam:Enlisting help is good boundaries practice and management. Be aware, stay engaged and pay attention to your limits. Be open and vulnerable but also be specific with ‘the ask.’ Don’t hand it off completely. Stay informed and stay present. Research your help needs before you ask for help. Help doesn’t mean giving up responsibility or ultimate control. Create mutual agreements with help partners defining roles and expectations with clear end points. When it comes to enlisting coaching help interview more than one coach and be curious about whose agenda they will champion, theirs or yours.

Thank you, Cam for being here with us. Where to begin? There are so many gems that resonate with me like “dusty old beliefs that no longer serve us.” How often do we get in our own way by holding on to ideas that aren’t productive? Guilty as charged! Your “Lone Ranger” idea also strikes a chord with me. How often do we shut ourselves off from potential resources and help because we think we have to do it all alone? Did you write that for me? I’ve learned over time how to reach out for help, collaborate, and let go of the “going it alone” idea. Then there’s your idea about getting clear with what help you really need and the growth and learning that follows. While I could go on and on, I’ll stop here because I’d love to hear from others.

Join Cam and me as we continue the conversation. What are some enlisting help challenges or successes have you experienced? What are your thoughts?