21 April 2007

Still More Spring Cleaning

Barry Izsak, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, says, "The main reason there is so much clutter is that it represents all the decisions people aren't making. Delaying decisions about what to do with things is what leads to the clutter in people's lives," he says.

Credit: I found this quote on http://www.angryfatgirlz.blogspot.com.

7 comments:

  1. How true. Chocolate Filo has been worked overtime on a project these past days. By writing in a tightly spaced Personal Filofax in royal blue ink, decisions are almost forced!

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  2. omein! by having the limited files i need all in one place i can now make decisions wherever i'm working instead hoping i had both of the hybrid two systems i was attempting to make work before. though i agree being forced to make those hard work-life-changing decisions.. i need all the help i can get. it's getting better.

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  3. Project closed out early this week. All was contained in the diary and part of one leaf of note paper. Though not life-changing; all was very compact. All can be recycled (hopefully long in the future). I’m good at feeding in data (medical stuff, bike stuff) though rarely plan – too chicken?

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  4. Congratulations on your project, Andrzej! Why do you think you're afraid of planning? Maybe you trust your intuition better than the plan -- and I think that's good. Do you want to tell us more about this?

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  5. Inky wrote, “Why do you think you're afraid of planning?” I used to be a planner in real life! There is an old saying along the lines of “a bad plan is better than no plan at all”. Intuition also mentioned; did I ride that last corner extra slow because something intangible told me a car was going to appear in the middle of it? This sort of thing can’t be pre written into the diary section of a Filofax, even a spacious A5. I’d have to take my hands off the bars!

    Before Filofax I relied on a Psion 3 (wonderful until drowned in the washing machine) and then a Pocket PC (touch screen and battery wore out). One day I was having my eyes looked at and the Doctor saw me committing his instructions to the Pocket PC, he said “that machine is your brain”. I think he meant that I was relying on the RAM like a drunk needs a lamppost.

    So my aversion to planning may be related to a job I once did and the words of a surgeon. Maybe I don’t want to fill Chocolate Filo with half-baked ideas and crossings out? That’s crazy, the pages can be moved and even discarded with ease.

    I hope you weren’t expecting a coherent, concise or complete answer? In a complicated project with a fixed timeframe, leather bound paper can be a huge help. No batteries required.

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  6. Thanks, Andrzej! I agree with you about a "bad plan" versus "no plan"! I just wanted to give you a chance to talk more about your experience. Sounds like the Personal Filofax was a very helpful tool!

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  7. Thanks inky! A useful tool is one that never sees the inside of the toolbox. With that in mind I have a new project in development. Royal blue ink will flow onto cotton cream leaf.

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