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Interview on The Happiness Project
Yesterday, I was interviewed by the wonderful Gretchen Rubin who writes the inspiring blog The Happiness Project. Gretchen spent a year auditioning every major “principle, tip, theory, and scientific study [she] could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah” to see which ones worked, which ones didn’t, and how she could use them to help her be happy. She has a book coming out in late 2009 chronicling the year she test-drove all of the theories, and her blog also details these experiences. You may recognize Gretchen’s blog because she also is a member of the LifeRemix network and writes a column for Real Simple’s Simply Stated community in the Life section.
When Gretchen asked if I would sit for an interview, I dropped everything to do it. The topic of the interview isn’t directly related to getting rid of physical clutter, but it definitely touches on the bigger-picture idea of mental clutter that can prohibit a person from being happy. Check out the article if you’re interested!
Popularity: 1% [?]
The six way opener multi-tasker
While reading not martha last week, I saw a link to a wonderful multi-tasker: The Six Way Opener.
Look at all that it can do:
Now this is a multi-tasker! How nice it would be if more kitchen gadgets took the lead from the Six Way Opener and combined multiple functions into one, small unit. I can see this little guy being a perfect gift for someone with arthritis or who is just setting up a kitchen for the first time.
Popularity: 1% [?]
The big picture: Organizing work files
When I was in college, I served on the International Board of Officers for a community service organization. More than 10,000 kids across the world were members of the organization and 11 of us served on the Board the year I was a Trustee. Being on the Board was an incredible experience and it taught me a great deal about leadership, running a large organization, and time management. I was traveling nearly every weekend and I was constantly struggling to stay on top of my school work and other responsibilities.
A girl named Lisa was one of my fellow Trustees. She is one of the most naturally organized people I’ve ever met. If you say that you need something, she’ll reach into her purse and retrieve whatever it is you requested. You say that we should schedule a meeting, and her calendar is already open. Nothing is left to chance in Lisa’s world. And, since I was completely disorganized, she was definitely a positive influence on me.
At a meeting early in our year of working together, Lisa chided me for having a horrible filing system. I had four notebooks with pieces of paper shoved into them and referred to them as my “files.” After the meeting finished, she pulled me aside and gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received:
“This organization was here before you were a member and will continue on after you graduate. If your files are messy, it’s fine for you now, but you’re not thinking of the people who are to serve after you.”
She was right. At some point, I would have to pass along my “files” to the next group of Trustees. I didn’t plan on being on the Board forever. When I inherited my files from the previous Board, they certainly didn’t look like they did when they were in my possession. I wasn’t inconveniencing myself, I was making things harder on the people who would serve after me.
I went home and immediately organized my files.
Since that day, I’ve always kept organized files for the exact reasons Lisa outlined for me years ago. Eventually, I’ll leave a job and someone else will have to come in to do the work. Or, if I need to take time off, a colleague might need to access the files without me there to point the way. Some files may have personal use, but, on the whole, work files are there to serve as a record for those who come into the job after you leave.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Make your own shoe rack
One of the entries to our house has a rather tight space where we currently keep our shoes. It is very hard to find any sort of storage option that will fit into the small space. I have been searching for something that would do the job and I came across this solution on Apartment Therapy (via Not Martha).
I am one of the least handy people when it comes to household projects, but looking over the directions even I may be able to accomplish an easy installation of this J-Me inspired shoerack. This was exactly what we were looking for and it is also a less expensive alternative to the J-Me product which wouldn’t have fit in the space anyhow.
Popularity: 2% [?]
In case of …
No one enjoys thinking about the macabre. But, as Benjamin Franklin so accurately posited in a 1789 letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, “… in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
On Unclutterer, we’ve certainly glossed over the death topic this past year. The truth is that we don’t enjoy thinking about it either. However, if you’re going to take the time to get your life organized, you would be remiss to ignore that there will be a point where you’re no longer here and others will need to find important documents and information to close your estate.
My husband and I call these our “In case of …” files. In mine, I include things like contact information for Unclutterer employees, server details and passwords, and a key to my fire-proof safe where I store my Will and a copy of my birth certificate. The idea is that if something does happen to me, I want things to be easier on my close family and friends who are mourning. I’d rather them have good thoughts of me after my passing, not angry thoughts because they searched for hours trying to find my life insurance policy to pay for the funeral.
If you’ve never put together an “In case of …” file, the best place to start is by visiting a lawyer to draft your Last Will and Testament. This document will include answers to all of the big questions: custody of children, property disbursements, where you want to be buried, etc. After you have this document created, you’ll then need to pass along the name of your lawyer to at least two different people — someone who lives near you (spouse, partner, close friend) and someone who lives in a different part of the country or world — and then store this document safely (such as in a UL 350 fireproof safe).
The rest of your “In case of …” file will be up to you in terms of its contents. Are there people who would need to be contacted at your job? Are you the primary care provider for a child, sibling, or parent who may need to receive immediate attention before the reading of your Will? Do you have bills that have to be paid? Look at your life and identify all of the places that could be stressful for someone to handle if you weren’t there to help. Now, provide information on those issues and put it in your “In case of …” file. It won’t be a fun process while you collect the information, but afterward you’ll have a peace of mind that things will be okay in case something happens.
Popularity: 2% [?]
A year ago on Unclutterer
- Clutter-free patio furniture ideas
Dual purpose, indoor-outdoor furniture and inflatable furniture can help to keep your yard and porch free from clutter. - Incredible folding furniture!
Designer Nils Frederking showcases in this YouTube video his incredible, folding furniture. - Reader question: Storing binders in a home office
The Binder Storage Carousel is the best solution for storing three-ring binders in a home office. - Unitasker Wednesday: Chocolate fondue fountain
So why not by a contraption to make a fountain of flowing chocolate? - Reader question: End table filing cabinets?
Multi-purpose filing cabinet can double duty as a filing cabinet, lap desk, footstool, and much more! - Will “Witricity” save us from cable clutter?
The recent news that a group of MIT researchers have developed a wireless way to deliver electricity to a device is very welcome here at Unclutterer. - Rid your shower of bottle clutter
You shouldn’t be distracted by a multitude of containers all over the walls and/or the floor of your shower. - Reader question: Procrastination ender
Big projects, like organizing a home or a business, often go undone because people feel paralyzed by the enormity of the undertaking. - The quest for the perfect charging station, part 3
The WildCharge wireless charging station is simple and intriguing.
Popularity: 1% [?]
iHome iH70 speakers also act as iPod dock
If you are looking for new computer speakers you may want to check out the iHome iH70 speakers. They also act as a dock for your iPod and syncs to iTunes. From iHome:
The iH70 charges, plays and syncs your iPod with iTunes while it’s docked securely into the base of the computer speakers.
Comes complete with a computer port, sync switch, volume controls and a headphone jack for private listening.
With the dock built into these speakers you can remove the iPod dock (does anyone ever use the actual dock) or wire from your desk. Less wires and multifunctional products are always a plus.
These speakers aren’t available until July, but you can pre-order them through iHome’s site.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Building Web Warrior Tools: A war on clutter
Glen Stansberry, author of the sublime productivity blog LifeDev, recently started a new retail website that sells ebooks on web and life issues. After the site launched, I asked if he could write a piece for Unclutterer reflecting on this process and how he kept the site free of clutter. (It’s beautiful!) He thankfully accepted, and below are his informative words on designing clean websites. Thank you, Glen, for joining us today on Unclutterer.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” — Albert Einstein
While building the Web Warrior Tools site, my business partner Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and I told our very talented designer that the one thing we wanted most was the site’s layout to be as simple as possible.
We hate sites with clutter.
Typical Shopping Sites Love Clutter
The ebook industry isn’t known for elegant design or user-friendly websites. Many sites selling ebooks have gaudy landing pages that look like they’re selling snake oil. Huge headers, lots of exclamation points, flashing text… ugh. We wanted to buck the trend of the “typical” ebook-selling site, and focus on aesthetics instead of flashy copy.
We quickly learned, however, that building a simple web site was kind of tricky, especially for an ecommerce site. Ecommerce sites (or sites that sell goods online) have a reputation for clutter-filled layouts. The common practice is to cram as many products on a page, hoping that the user will buy something because of all the products displayed. Sort of a spray-n-pray approach. It kind of makes online shopping a stressful event, as there are just so many things that grab your attention on the page.
Doing More with Less
Providing lots of information in a simple, clutter-free manner isn’t an easy task. Each link, each picture, each word has to be weighed carefully. If you go to the Web Warrior Tools homepage you’ll see that there isn’t much of a sales copy. We have one line of three short sentences. We only have 4 categories of ebooks, and we feature a single ebook on our homepage.
Our landing pages for each ebook don’t have a ton of information and a long sales copy. Just a few succinct sentences about what the ebook is about. We add some quick facts about the author and the ebook, and make a major point of the page the preview of the ebook. We think it’s enough information for the buyer to make an informed decision, and yet not enough to make the experience stressful.
Simplifying is a Process
By no means is the site perfect yet. We’re always going to be modifying the layout of the Web site to make things simpler, and more aesthetically pleasing. In fact, we’ve been told that our layout is a bit too simple, that it doesn’t provide enough information about what Web Warrior Tools is. So we’ll be changing the homepage slightly in the near future. But the simplicity will always remain.
We believe that building a service that is easy to use and doesn’t frustrate visitors is ultimately going to be more successful, and bring back repeat buyers. It adds a level of trust and credibility to our brand. People will refer our ebooks to friends because we care about their experience using our site.
Uncluttering goes farther than just a home office. It’s important in site designs, and especially sites that have a lot of information. Giving just enough information to inform a customer, but not enough to overwhelm him, is a fine art and one that we’re still learning. But taking the time to Unclutter our site is going to pay off in the long run. People want simple solutions.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Workspace of the Week: Creative craft office
This week’s Workspace of the Week is Jobyx2’s scrapbooking office:
I have to admit that when I first saw this office, I squealed. I have always wanted a workshop exactly like this. I’m not a scrapbooker like Jobyx2, but I paint and sew and could be very creative in this space. It’s organized, colorful, and functional. You should definitely check out the additional photograph of her Ikea Expedit bookshelf and this picture of her closet. Wow! The closet itself is a work of art. Thank you, Jobyx2, for submitting these gorgeous images.
Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.
Popularity: 2% [?]
When is it okay to start a collection?
If you follow Erin’s column over at Simply Stated, you may have seen Holly Becker’s article Starting a Collection. First, let me state that there is nothing wrong with collecting things you love. In fact, it’s a great way to display some of your personality in your home. However, you need to be careful that it doesn’t get out of control and become clutter.
That’s why Holly’s question “How do you start a collection when you don’t even know what you are interested in?” caught me completely off guard. I think my eyes may have actually jumped out of my head as I exclaimed “WHAT?!” I cannot think of any good reason to start a collection just for the sake of having a collection. That type of behavior is often at the root of massive clutter problems. Ever watched an episode of Clean House? Then you know what I’m talking about. Under no circumstances should you start a collection just for the sake of having a collection.
So when is a good time to start a collection?
- If you have something that you love and it inspires you, by all means collect it and put it on display.
- Sentimental collections can also be done without cluttering your home.
- Some people collect items as investments. While it can be done, it is very difficult to turn a profit especially in this age of globalization and mass production.
All in all, collecting is not a bad thing. You just need to be mindful of it to ensure it accurately represents you and is not clutter in disguise. As for me, I’ll be paring down my stuffed animal and shot glass collections as part of the big move, and I’ll be looking for a better way to display my sports collectibles. If you have any ideas for me, please share them in the comments!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Organize your smart phone voicemails with YouMail
Yes, the iPhone already has an organized and easy way to check your voicemail, but if you use another brand of smart phone you may want to check out YouMail. The visual voicemail service can be accessed via your smart phone’s browser (or any browser for that matter) and you can scroll through your messages and listen to them in the order that you want.
You may want to check it out if you have a smart phone and are tired of going through your voicemail one at a time in the order that the calls were received. The basic membership is free, so there isn’t any harm in checking out this service. Standard data rates may apply, however, through your cell phone service provider.
(via Crave)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Unitasker Wednesday: Battery eater
Of all the unitaskers that I’ve written thus far, this may be the most confusing. The Battery Eater is a battery powered gadget that drains the remaining charge of your nearly dead AA batteries. While the monster face sucks out the remaing charge its eyes blink providing entertainment for the whole family.
From a description I found :
Battery eater can help you recycle your old AA batteries. Feed them to it and watch the eyes blink. When they stop blinking throw the batteries away.
That just doesn’t sound very green to me. Are the makers of this thing sure about what “recycle” means? Draining the battery of its last charge may provide some blinks of the monster eyes, but isn’t the battery used to power this thing being drained as well? What good does a fully drained battery achieve before you chuck it into the garbage? I’m at a loss. Can someone figure this out for me? For us?
(Thanks to reader Jack for sending this gem our way.)
**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.
Popularity: 5% [?]
A year ago on Unclutterer
- Wallet alternatives
Over the years my cellphones have become smaller and sleeker, but my wallet has stayed the same unforgiving size. - Lose weight without gaining clutter
Keep the exercise equipment clutter out of your home. - Police drummer Stewart Copeland enjoys simple life
Popularity: 3% [?]
In Praise Of (A Little) Mess: Be (A Little) Scruffy
At Unclutterer, we know that getting started on an organization project can be a difficult task — especially when your home or office are in complete disarray. Since we believe in baby steps, we wanted to present a guest post from someone who has found that a little mess is still better than a lot of mess, and that striving for perfection may not be necessary (at least not immediately). Thank you, Stowe Boyd, for once again sharing your valuable insights with us!
I am not a naturally organized person. Left to my own devices, I think I might have become a truly obsessively messy type. As it is, I have adopted some of the tools of being organized — like task lists, and well-honed scheduling for meetings and calls — but I am definitely a bit scruffy compared to most.
I use the term scruffy not just for a poetic turn of phrase, but in its application as a scientific term among those who study human organization, pro and con.
[from A Perfect Mess, by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman]
What is it in your office environment that helps you figure our how to pick up where you left off or to being a new task, when you’re interrupted, leave the office, or finish a task? “Neats,” he’s [researcher David Kirsch] found, depend on a small number of “explicit coordinating structures” such as lists, day planners, and in-boxes to quickly and surely determine what to do next. Scruffies, on the other hand, are “data driven” — that is they don’t explicitly plan out and specify what they do but instead rely on the office environment to give them clues and prompts, in the form of documents lying on the desk, files piled up on top of the filing cabinet, comments scribbled on envelopes, Post-it notes (which , surprisingly, many Neats disdain) stuck here and there, books left open on the floor, and so forth.
Kirsch and others have shown that Scruffies do overestimate their ability to keep track of things in the physical world as a means of structuring work, but they have also demonstrated that Scruffies gain a significant amount of traction from this approach, anyway. Perhaps most important, Kirsch states that different folks work better in ‘different work landscapes:
“People shape their environment over time until it conforms to the way they are comfortable working, even if it seems out of control to someone else.”
Worst of all, trying to make Scruffies into Neats won’t work, and will just make them less productive. They will just end up disorganized anyway.
So, organizations may want to be somewhat more tolerant of (slightly) cluttered desks than they generally are. Many companies have an explicit clean desk policy that simply doesn’t take into account the brain/desk landscape relationship of Scruffies.
The Iowa-based First Federal Bankshares posted their policy on the web:
Work areas should be kept neat and orderly. The Company must always look its best. Just as we are judged by our personal appearance, so is the Company. Good housekeeping makes it easier to organize your work, prevents loss of items, and provides a professional appearance. Excessive display of personal items is unprofessional. Supervisors and managers are expected to maintain a professional appearance in their department and stores, and they may request that you remove items if they detract from a professional appearance. In addition, they may require you to clean or straighten your work area.
The implication is clear: a well-ordered desk leads to better work habits. Or else.
Let’s be clear: I am not advocating McDonald’s wrappers under the desk, or a White Snake poster in the cubicle. But leaving your active work open on your desk when you leave for the day — three folders, a manual, a stack of reports on the corner of desk, and post it notes hanging off your PC monitor — could save an hour of time the next morning. Every morning. And trying to force Scruffies to be Neats just won’t work.
Some of this is driven by senior executives who have assistants to keep their desktops empty, and some of it is motivated by a misplaced overemphasis on empty desks as a good in their own right, independent of actual functionality.
Many extremely productive people rely on a messy work landscape. Looking at the desk of a busy scientific genius, it’s clear that the piles of papers and books that fill the surface give a pretty good indication of what an Einstein has been working on recently.
Albert Einstein has been considered the patron saint of useful messiness, and once stated “The cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind; what does an empty desk sign?”
You might say that a messy desk is fine if you are a Da Vinci, but the average guy isn’t a Da Vinci, and without genius you need structure to compensate.
The evidence suggests otherwise. There is a psychological division in the world, and all the hypothetical benefits of an uncluttered desk simply don’t play if you are a Scruffy.
There are many other benefits of (a little) mess, not the least of which is that the novelty of looking up from our task lists periodically, and scanning the real world for new inputs can enliven a hidebound agenda of work, work, work.
Kevin Kelly perhaps takes this thinking to new extremes in his writings on what he calls the “Network Economy” — this new era we live and work in. The gist is that the old measures of personal productivity don’t really matter as much as they once did, as we move away from industrial age notions of work and efficiency, and when the major challenge is not really doing many things but choosing the right thing to do:
Productivity, however, is exactly the wrong thing to care about in the new economy.
The problem with trying to measure productivity is that it measures only how well people can do the wrong jobs. Any job that can be measured for productivity probably should be eliminated from the list of jobs that people do.
In the coming era, doing the exactly right next thing is far more fruitful than doing the same thing twice.
I think that Einstein would have thought a (slightly) messy desk can play a structural role in helping people decide what is the next right thing to do given all the things you might do. Well, at least if you are a Scruffy, anyway.
And what about places like First Federal Bankshares? Increasingly, the sort of work being done in places where clean desks prevail is being automated, so people won’t be processing banking reports, or processing claims, or any of the myriad office jobs of the past. As Kevin Kelly puts it:
Productivity is for machines. If you can measure it, robots should do it.
Perhaps he goes a hair too far into a glistening future, but we shouldn’t accept the premise that invention, insight, and imagination are less important than and somehow disconnected from the tangible landscape of our work, either. We have to accept a (little) disorder in the world, if only for inspiration; and for Scruffies, a smidge of disorder is like a signpost, pointing the way forward.
Signpost image from alisdair.
Popularity: 4% [?]
A simple reminder
I had a conversation the other day with our summer intern, Julia, that has stayed with me. During the conversation, she talked about how college forces many students to live with very few possessions. That a dorm room can only hold a limited number of things and most kids survive on a couple dollars a day.
I thought about my own experience, and she was right. I had a lot of fun in college even though I didn’t have much money or much stuff. I have a few more responsibilities now, but not many. I had a part-time job, 18 hours of course work most semesters, and a car. Now, I have a full-time job, no classes, a spouse, a house, and a car. The list isn’t drastically different, but I have acquired significantly more stuff since college.
I’ve made a sign and hung it above my desk that reads “Simple living frees you to simply live.” I need it to help me remember that it isn’t stuff that makes me happy, but the people and experiences I choose to bring into my life. Thank you, Intern Julia, for reminding me of this valuable fact.
Popularity: 4% [?]
