The newest release (v38) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature has my latest finds, which inform, educate, and relate to organizing and better balance. These unique, inspiring, life balance discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme.

You are a generous, communicative, and engaged group. I am deeply grateful for your ongoing presence, positive energy, and contributions to this community. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced.

What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? – 5 Best Life Balance Discoveries

1. Interesting Read – Happier Balance

Does life feel hectic this time of year? As we wrap up one year and head into the next, how can you move forward with a happier, more fulfilling life balance? In Happier Hour – How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most, social psychologist, professor, and researcher Cassie Holmes, Ph.D., shares her ideas on our most precious resource, time. Holmes says, “Our hours and days add up to years and decades, and ultimately our entire lives. How we spend our time defines who we are, the memories we cherish, and how we will be remembered by those we leave behind.”

Backed by research, wisdom, practical advice, and exercises, Holmes brings you through a doable process. You become aware of where your time is going, which activities are most meaningful, and how to use “time crafting” to “piece together your hours to design an ideal week, like piecing together the tiles of a mosaic.” With a focus on joy and meaning, Holmes says, “The mosaic you create is the magnificent life you get to live.” What makes your days happier?

2. Interesting Product – Office Balance

With a constant flow of emails, texts, calls, projects, and meetings, office life (be it at home or off-site) can feel anything but balanced. A simple solution to restore calm in this hectic setting is to bring nature indoors. Tons of research supports the positive benefits to our well-being when we’re in or near nature. The Container Store offers a simple solution with the Design Ideas Mini Succulent Planter Magnets. This set of three tiny magnetic plant holders is perfect for displaying small succulents or dried grasses.

While I don’t own the magnets, I have a small air plant in my office in a ceramic pot on a wooden stand that my daughter made. I love having greenery in view. It also brings me joy to care for plants. What helps bring balance to your office space?

“The mosaic you create is the magnificent life you get to live.”

— Cassie Holmes, Ph.D.

3. Interesting Article – Noise Balance

In Time’s article, How Listening to Silence Changes Our Brains, authors Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz remind us that the “world is literally louder right now than it’s been at any time in known history.” Research shows how excessive noise causes stress, hearing loss, cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, and learning lags.

“While the costs of noise are increasingly clear, the power of silence for the mind and body is actually something bigger and deeper than the transcendence of stress or interruption.” Silence can accelerate the growth of brain cells. “The act of listening to quiet can…enrich our capacity to think and perceive.” Whether you meditate, practice yoga, or listen in a quiet environment, your mind and body will benefit from the silence. “In an age of so much noise, silence deserves our attention.” What is a recent experience you had with silence?

4. Interesting Resource – Mood Balance

My friend and colleague, Julie Bestry, is an incredible organizer, researcher, and blogger. In a recent post, she shared a visual breathing app for calming the system. I was intrigued and discovered this other one from eXHALeR designed to help with yoga, meditation, anxiety, or panic attacks. You can adjust certain variables, including the timing for inhaling, holding your breath, and exhaling.

If you want to create an immediate shift in your mood and be more balanced, experiment with the eXHALeR. Breathe in. Hold. Exhale. Hold. Repeat. How do you feel?

5. Interesting Thought – Boundary Balance

Especially during this season, we get asked to do, attend, and gather more. That isn’t necessarily negative, but all the extra doing and saying “yes” to things can create added stress. Setting some boundaries can significantly affect how you navigate the holiday season.

Perhaps you chose to celebrate with a smaller group, take a self-care break between events, or get takeout instead of cooking. There are many ways to enjoy your time and feel more balanced by setting a few well-placed boundaries. What boundaries will you create?

Do you have an interesting life balance discovery? Which of these resonates with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Have you ever felt stuck moving forward? Maybe you felt challenged with decision-making, figuring out the next step on a project, or making a significant life change. Over the last few months, we’ve talked about the influence and motivation boost that a fresh start brings and how to embrace change through thinking and actions. Many of you have done fantastic work around those concepts. But now what? You have ideas, energy, and motivation, but next feels elusive. It’s as if a fog has washed over you, and you’re waiting for it to lift.

Getting unstuck and finding next is a regular part of the work I do with my virtual organizing clients. It’s also something I experienced recently. Without going into the specifics about a new project I’m starting, I felt stuck with figuring out my next step. I will let you know more about the project at another time. (It’s not ready for prime time just yet.) For now, I will share three strategies, which helped me move forward, and can help you too.

Three Strategies to Get You Unstuck and Clear About Your Next Step

1. Capture the Ponderings

Our mind is the vessel that holds all of our ideas. Isn’t it incredible how it expands to house an infinite amount of thoughts? However, while our mind is vast, it is useful to download ideas to another container. We often call this a “brain dump.” You can write in a journal, capture notes in an electronic document, or talk into a voice recorder. The idea is to transfer your project ideas from your mind to a specifically designated location or home. This helps you isolate and organize those thoughts from the other million swirling ideas in the vessel.

I found this tremendously helpful for my project. I thought a lot about it but overwhelmed myself with all of the possible ideas and directions to take things. I could almost visualize the bullet points in my head, but it was too much to organize. So what did I do? I opened up a Word doc, created headers with bullet points. Seven pages later, my download was complete. I captured the project ideas on paper, and my mind felt freer. But even on paper, it was still a lot to assimilate. Next wasn’t obvious yet. That’s when I paired this with the second strategy.

2. Talk With a Gifted Listener

We have different processing modalities. For verbal processors, like me, writing and talking aloud helps me make sense of the world. It’s not just talking but conversing with someone who is a great listener and reflector. I recognized how helpful it would be to discuss my project with someone who asks great questions, listens deeply, provides valuable feedback, and was objective. I reached out to Marcy Stoudt, the very generous and insightful Executive Coach and Founder of The Executive Mom Nest. She helped me distill things so that by the time we finished our conversation, I felt more focused and clear, less overwhelmed, more energized, and ready to embrace the next steps. I used one additional strategy that helped bring everything together.

“Walking helped me define my essential next step.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

3. Walk in Nature

Research exists on the benefits to our mental health and well-being for walking in nature. Think forests, water bodies, gardens, grassy knolls, and mountains. Walking is part of my daily routine. I walk to shift my energy, stretch my body, and clear my head. To help me figure out the next steps for the project, I was specific about this particular walk. I wrote my notes and talked with Marcy. Walking helped me define my essential next step. Just as walking loosens and frees-up movement in the body, it has a similar effect on the mind. While I walked, I thought about what I wrote along with Marcy’s insights. I breathed in the fresh air, appreciated the beautiful Hudson River, and allowed my thoughts to simmer. My hope was by walking, my actual next step would magically appear.

Incredibly, it did! By the time I returned home, I knew what my next step was. You might be surprised by my choice. I decided to take a few days off from thinking about or taking action on the project. I needed balance at that moment. The project had been consuming my thoughts and creating undue stress. I needed some distance to move forward with clarity- not years or months, but just a few days.

There are many ways to get unstuck and figure out the next step. These three strategies- capture, talk, and walk helped me. I hope all or some of them will help you when you’re feeling challenged by next. Have you felt stuck recently? Has finding next been difficult? What helps you move forward? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation. 

Do you prefer to do everything yourself? Do you get overwhelmed because you do too much? I’ve been guilty of not asking for help because it seems like it’s faster, easier, or less complicated if I just do it myself. I’ve learned that this isn’t always beneficial. If you find it difficult to enlist help, the pros and cons lists might help you shift your perspective.

Enlisting Help:  The “Pros”

• Benefit by another person’s expertise, wisdom, and creativity
• Focus on using the best of self by delegating tasks that are less interesting
• More time to spend on what’s most important
• Learn new skills
• Move past being stuck and overwhelmed
• Accomplish more because of delegating and accountability

Enlisting Help: The “Cons”

• Have to clarify and explain needs 
• Help might not be the right fit (person or profession) 
• Work might not get done exactly as you would do it 
• Have to let go of some control 
• Need to manage, set boundaries, and expectations 
• Might feel embarrassed to ask for help 

Learning how to ask for help, knowing when you need it, and finding the right type of help can be tremendously useful skills to hone. All of the “cons” listed have a positive side. For example, enlisting help can be disappointing and ineffectual if it’s not the right fit. Let’s say you are looking to hire a professional organizer to help organize your home office. It’s worth getting referrals from friends or resources like NAPO or ICD. Contact more than one professional so that you can select the one best suits your personality, budget, and needs. Doing research will give you a better chance of finding that right fit.

Think about areas you are struggling with. Would you benefit by enlisting help from a family member, friend, or professional that you trust? What’s your next step? Come join the conversation and share a pro, con, or next step.

You are moving forward on your organizing challenges. You’re at the point where you want to enlist the help of a professional organizer. There are thousands of organizers in the world and each is as unique as the clients they serve. With so many choices, how do you find an organizer that’s right for you? By considering some of these questions, you can find a good fit.

6 Tips for Hiring a PO . . .

1. Assessment – Clarifying your needs will help you find which organizer is right for you.

• What kind of organizing help do you need? There is a wide-range of organizing specialties. Some organizers specialize in residential or business organizing. Some organize papers while others orchestrate moves. Some organizers are generalists while others specialize in working with the organizationally challenged.

• Do you need assistance with a single, short-term project such as organizing a closet or do you need help with a more complex long-term project including ongoing support such as organizing an entire household?

• Has organizing always been a challenge for you? If so, consider hiring an organizer that specializes in working with chronically disorganized clients.

• Do you have the time and financial resources to invest in your organizing goals?

2. Contact – Initial conversations can be indicators for the future success of your relationship.

• Did you find the organizer through a referral, ad, professional association, article or Internet search?

• When you first communicated with the organizer, were they responsive?

• Did they answer all your questions?

• Did they understand your unique challenges and organizing goals?

• Would you enjoy working with them?

3. Availability – Even though organizing is a service industry geared towards our clients, individual organizing companies are structured differently.

• Are your schedules compatible?

• Can the organizer accommodate your needs?

• Do you want to work with the organizer evenings or weekends? If so, is the organizer available then or do they only work during the weekdays?

4. Research – Exploring further will enable you to make a more informed decision.

• Did you interview more than one organizer? Organizers have different personalities, business practices and methodologies, so it might be beneficial to contact several organizers to compare differences.

• Did you ask the organizer for references? If so, consider the type of work the organizer did with those clients (was it similar to your needs) and the longevity of the relationship. What insights did the client share?

• Does the organizer have a website? If so, did you review it to learn more about them and their business? What impressions did you have?

5. Intuition – Let your insights help guide you.

• What does your inner voice tell you about the organizer?

• Were you able to easily communicate with them?

• Did you feel hopeful or hopeless after talking with them?

6. Education & Experience – The level of the organizer’s education and experience can have an effect on your organizing success.

• What type of special education or training does the organizer have?

• How long have they been in business as an organizer?

• Do they continue to educate themselves on organizing issues and trends?

• Do they have resources such as other professionals, publications or products that they will share with you?

• Do they belong to any professional organizing associations such as ICD, NAPO, POC, JALO, or NBPO? The more involved the organizer is with their industry, the more value they can offer to the client.

Like you, organizers want the relationship to be successful. If they are not well suited for you, they should be able to refer you to another organizer that can better meet your needs.

Are there any other questions that are important to consider? How did you find your organizer?