NEAT & SIMPLE LIVING

It's official! Neat & Simple Living Blog is winding down...but it has had a baby!

2011-10-03T13:31:50-04:00

It's official!

My exploration of Neat & Simple Living has evolved into Agile Living, Work Design and Productivity! This blog is six years old and rather than move it, I decided to just leave it here and start fresh.

The new blog is called "Becoming Agile" and lives on my new website www.arianebenefit.com.

Has the vision changed?

My ultimate vision is the same...help people heal chronic disorganization, overwhelm and frustration and design a simpler life that fits. I'm still working with the same audience of highly creative, gifted, ADHD or ADHDish, highly technical, sensitive people who struggle with the stuckness of procrastination, clutter, disorganization, depression, anxiety and chronic overwhelm.

To embrace all of us without so many labels...I am experimenting with the terms Neurodiverse, Outliers and Tweakers. It just feels better to have a label that is not a "diagnosis" - it makes it easier to accept myself as I am, not as a set of labels that focus on "what's wrong" with me. Over-identifying with the labels reinforces them. Changing the label changes the way you see yourself. It's powerful stuff.

The Agile Life Design philosophy, mindset, skills and processes is the distillation of everything I've learned about what it takes to navigate the whitewaters of Life 3.0, cultivate personal agility in the age of "perpetual beta" and have a simpler, less pressured more satisfying life.

The agile approach to designing life, work, systems and relationships is a toolkit that WORKS. It doesn't "prescribe" it gives you the tools to "do it your way." As I'm working on resources to share the concepts and methods with the world, I'll be blogging the journey. If you would like to continue with me on this journey

I warmly invite you to join my mailing list.

Going forward...the only way to get new content by email is to subscribe to a convenient, single mailing list...no more subscribing to both a blog and a mailing list. YAY! : ) Thanks to my new email system, you'll have a lot more say in what kind of updates you want to receive from me as well!

UPDATE Feb. 2012

My dream of a single mailing list is not working out too well. My email system (Infusionsoft) is so painfully difficult to use that it's hindering me from easily communicating with you. So, I'm looking into reinstating a "news" blog. Will keep you posted.!

Wishing you much peace and an ever agile heart and mind,

Sharing the love: Could you use a little salt in your soup today?

2011-09-27T15:13:53-04:00

Efforts, no matter how small or disappointing, are the ingredients of every accomplishment. Just a little salt in a soup makes a big impact. From bland to inspiringly delicious. Makes you really want to take the next spoonful, right?

A little acknowledgement of your efforts and ignoring of your disappointments and flaws is like that salt…it makes all the other ingredients taste better, AND it inspires you to take the next little step. : )

Today is my birthday — and I could not have designed a better example of how this works than the effect that all the notes on my Facebook wall have had on me today -

Every expression MATTERS.

Each little note counted. I feel deliciously inspired to keep going in spite of all the things I did not accomplish this week while I I’ve been sick. Each one contributed to illustrating the power of a little "salt."

Read the rest of this article ON MY NEW BLOG!

It's official...Neat & Simple Living is evolving!

It's six years old and it's time to graduate to a new platform - in both technology and mission! Instead of moving this blog, I'm just going to let it rest here for a while as the new home is being decorated. I've already done the initial move, and by January 2012 ALL of my new work is going to be published on www.arianebenefit.com.

If you would like to continue with me on this journey to designing a simpler, less pressured, more agile approach to designing life, work, systems and relationships that fit together - I warmly invite you to join my mailing list.

My hope to make it simpler for us to stay in touch...so going forward...the only way to get new content and updates by email will be to subscribe to a convenient, single mailing list...no more subscribing to both a blog and a mailing list. YAY! : )

P.s. Thanks to my new email system, you'll have a lot more say in what kind of updates you want to receive from me as well!

And

Read the rest of this article here!

Ariane Benefit, M.S.Ed

2011-09-07T18:34:49-04:00

via arianebenefit.com

Yes, good books can improve lives, shape lives, even change lives. But when was the last time a book literally helped save a life?

The answer is right now.

In this new book, 62 leading writers and thinkers share their best insights, strategies and tips to do more Great Work.

But the real magic is this: $20 from every book sold goes to Malaria No More. $20 is enough to buy a mosquito net and help with their lifesaving work in Africa.

Buy the book and save a life here: www.EndMalariaDay.com

Upcoming Events

2011-08-29T17:14:27-04:00

OCTOBER 3 - 6, 2011 VIRTUAL ADHD CONFERENCE - UNDERWAY!

This is one of the highlights of my year! Even though I'm not speaking this year due to other commitments, I can't wait to attend and hear all the latest from all the VERY BEST EXPERTS on ADHD out there! Every year this event brings together an international community of people affected by ADD and ADHD, including adults, parents, and professionals. It empowers us with lots of helpful information, tools, and resources to succeed with ADHD. It's not too late: Register HERE

Where do I start?

2011-08-13T09:00:00-04:00

I have a comment Wall on my website and a reader posted this note to me. I get questions like this in my email every day and can't possibly respond to all of them individually, so I thought I'd share this post with you and my response in hopes that it might help you figure out where to start too.

_______________________________________________________

Ariane,

Reading your articles is like reading about myself, except that I work in a classroom instead of the corporate world, and I have been a single parent since my daughter was born 17 years ago. I've gone through all the same thoughts about being disorganized, have sought help in several ways, but I have yet to find anything that truly works with me.

I will hyperfocus on cleaning until it's 3 in the morning, look and the clock and think

"crap, I'm only going to get 3 hours of sleep."

I will look at a mountain of mess on my kitchen table and think

"I only have 15 minutes, it's pointless trying to clean this right now."

I walk down the halls at work after the kids leave and most of the other teachers have left thinking

"how do they get their grading done so fast?"

I know that I have a hard time finding motivation, getting started, and not being such a perfectionist. But I don't know how to work with these and ask for help in ways that I'm wiling to tolerate. And my perfectionism makes me too embarrassed about the state of my house to ask for help in cleaning it.

I used to sit down with my daughter (also ADHD) and write a to-do list of chores, making each item as small as possible - mop kitchen, dirty dishes hunt, fold socks, etc. We would cut up the list and divide it (2 chores for me for every 1 for her), then we would race to see who could get the most done before the timer went off. It was super fun for both of us, and whoever won got a treat from the other person, a shoulder rub, toenails painted, a story, etc.

But now that my daughter's time is filled with marching band and color guard and choir, we aren't home together enough to play this game. When we are home, we're too tired to do anything other than share a movie together.

I don't know how to transition to make things work again. I'm so overwhelmed that all I want to do are hide in a good book, or find someplace to escape to and play task avoidance, usually a walk or a visit to my sister's house.

Where do I start?

_____________________________________________________________

How many of you reading this can relate? I sure can.

Here's my response.

Hi D,

Although from what you wrote, your situation is very similar to mine and to many of my clients, I cannot in good conscience advise on you on specifically where to start. That would be like a doctor giving a prescription without doing an assessment first. I can, however, speak in generalities and hope that may help in your situation. My guess is that underlying your resistance to getting started is the emotional conflict about your daughter growing up and not needing you as much any more, but that is only a guess..not a considered opinion.

All I can do, ethically, is share that in my experience, and FOR ME, I have found that "where I start doesn't really matter." What matters is starting. As long as I ask effective questions and look in the right places for answers, I will ultimately gets me to the real root of the issue. Starting itself is what helps you find the "real place to start.

Since the MOST important thing is to get started, if I can't quickly pick a place to start, I sometimes even write down my options and then just pick one out of a bowl. Sometimes I have trouble thinking of options for starting. In that case, I ask the question "What ARE my options for starting? Have I thought of enough possibilities? Have I thought of TOO MANY possibilities?" More than 5 options is too overwhelming, less than 3 may be too "limiting" and get me stuck in a vicious cycle.

When I use this agile approach, I find that my inner wisdom kicks in and starts speaking to me. I have trained myself to listen though. This may not work for you if you aren't used to listening to your inner wisdom. If you are used to trying to boss yourself around...it won't work. And so maybe that is the place to start. Practicing more effective listening to yourself.

Sometimes I find I don't like what I pick. So I keep going till I find or design an option that I can get myself motivated to start on.

Sometimes its the easiest place to start, sometimes the fastest, sometimes the "smallest" or sometimes the most frustrating thing is what captivates my interest and gets me into action.

Bottom Line: The "best" place to start is ALWAYS relative to everything else going in your life at that moment. And your inner wisdom is the part of you that is able to holistically process what your logical mind can't and it usually knows best where you to start if you listen to it. It is far better at prioritizing in the moment and understanding what you really need right now than your verbal mind is.

So, let go of the ideal of finding the "best" place to start and listen your inner guidance system. Keep proposing options to yourself until you get a "hell yes, I can do that" feeling. The idea that there is a "best" starting point is our logical mind's idealism and perfectionism kicking in.

Try redefining the question from "where is the best place to start?" to "what are my options for starting?" What would naturally motivate me right now to make a decision and start? How could I make this task super small? How could I take some of the pressure of and just do it because it needs doing? What if I just do what I can do in 15 minutes instead of feeling like it ALL has to get done in 15 minutes?

For example, in my garden if there are weeds and I only have 5 minutes...I jsut pull as many as I can in 5 minutes Instead of just doing one small area for 5 minutes and having it end up looking I started and didn't finish, I review the whole garden pick the BIGGEST weeds to get the most impact for my 5 minutes of labor. Perhaps look at all the things you DO get started on with ease? What helps you do that? What can you apply from your successes to this situation?

Hope this helps you find your own way to get started : )

With much love and best wishes that you find your answers.

Ariane

p.s. the photo is one I took in Atlanta 2011 while hiking by a stream. If you use it for something, I would appreciate you giving me a credit and linking back to me at www.arianebenefit.com

Thank you!

What's the best way to help a child organize?

2011-08-12T13:58:22-04:00

With back to school season upon us, this is the time of year I get lots of inquiries from parents about their kids and organizing.

A reader recently emailed me this question:

Hi Ariane,

Do you work with children? I have a friend who recently asked:

I was wondering if you help children learn how to be more organized. My daughter had an auditory delay which affects other aspects of her life, especially organization. I'm working on it and wondered if you had any suggestions.

__________________________________________________________

My Response:

Thank so much for thinking of me! I'm truly honored.

I have worked with children, but I no longer work in people's homes. Usually I work with parents to coach them to let go of their own organizing preferences and learn how to facilitate their child to learn to organize in a way that fits the child's unique needs. That is usually the most effective and long term approach.

9 times out 10, I find that children naturally love to organize, even the ones with the seemily "really intense ADHD." Organizing when done with love and an attitude of fun and creativity is very soothing to people with ADHD. We CRAVE structure, even as we seem to resist it. What we don't like is inflexible structure. Every child I ever worked with really wanted to organize and when approached with patience, in a non-pressuring way that allowed them to be themselves, actually enjoyed organizing. By encouraging them to harness their distractibility by making the process intriguing and allowing them to experiment and play with organizing, instead as process of "following rules, steps and instructions", they loved organizing.

It's actually much easier to work with kids than adults because trying to convince adults that organizing can be fun is not easy. They want it done "fast" so they add pressure to the situation. And that always backfires and ends up creating resistance and making the process slower. Logically it seems that if you pressure it will go faster, but that simply isn't true.

Often the parent, without realizing it, is pressuring the child to organize and do things the way the parent wants things done. Instead of asking questions and taking the time to patiently facilitate the child to learn their own organizing style, and play with organizing, they "tell" the child how to do it and give rules and punish them for not doing it right. I know this because most of the chronically disorganized adults I work with tell me about experiences like this every day. And I've personally witnessed parents do this so many times it breaks my heart.

Thus, coaching the parent to be more "agile" in their expectations and process is usually the real need.

Outside of my usual coaching work which is a 3 month commitment, I do personal consults with parents and professionals via video. Let me know if you or your friend would like further personal guidance on this.

Wishing you and your children much success in navigating the art of using organizing to design a lifestyle that fits you both.

Much love,

Ariane

Read more of my posts about Organizing Kids and Back to School here.

Life Lessons - The 8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself - Part 2

2011-08-10T10:51:04-04:00

One of the things I love about my backyard is how my garden is constantly teaching me how to be in flow - in a more healthy relationship with myself. My backyard garden is a LOT like me. Like my garden, I do not respond well to being pressured, punished, bribed or overly scheduled. I love spending time in my garden because my garden gets me. My husband says I have a green thumb - I think its just that I am in tune with the rhythms of my garden.

Review Commitment 1

8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself

Commitment 2

Before you say YES to anything, think through the full lifecycle maintenance needs of what it will take from you to nurture that commitment and follow -through.

Before you say "yes" understand how it will fit with other things you have already said yes to, and what you are fully committing to. What prior commitment will have to be sacrificed for you to follow-through on this new yes? Every yes represents a thousand nos. Become more conscious of what you are really saying no to before you say yes and your life will transform.

In a garden, it is very easy to say yes to an attractive plant (like the topiary in this picture) and then find out how very high maintenance it is. So you might be tempted to say yes, but then the plant dies or becomes overgrown from lack of pruning.

Much like a deadline or project we never finished because we didn't realize just how much time and energy it would take to do.

When you say yes to high maintenance things, people, or projects, what often happens is we start sacrificing self-care like sleep or eating healthy. That sets us up to become even less able to perform well and follow through on any of our commitments.

All of life, even the pleasures of sleep and eating start to feel like they are intruders on our ability to get things done, when truthfully, they are the most critical gas we need for our car.

It's funny, when we feel like we need our car to take us more places, would your first reaction be to give it less gas? If a plant is wilting, would you give it less water?

So why is it when you have more to do you tend to skip meals and lose sleep?

When you see it differently, the work of self-care does not feel like an obligation or a "chore". When you don't try to force or "should" yourself into sleeping or eating in a healthy way and see it as the actual SOURCE and fuel of your ability to get things done, it becomes much more than just another item on your To Do List. It becomes the number one most important relationship in your life.

When you approach self-care as an adventure in cultivating yourself to bloom, the work of taking care of yourself becomes an opportunity to constantly research and learn about yourself, a place to experiment, and discover new ways of seeing, being and doing.

When you fully commit and make at least minimum self-care your top priority, and you focus on the potential pleasure of it instead of on what you are giving up to do it, it transforms from feeling like work to feeling like a natural mood lifter.

You CAN become as addicted to eating healthy delicious food as to processsed foods.

You CAN become as fiercely protective of your own sleep as you are of making sure you have time to check your email.

You CAN have a much healthier relationship with yourself.

You CAN put a limit on high maintenance projects, people and things in your life.

In my garden, I replaced most of the high maintenance plants with low maintenance ones. I even took out my front lawn and made this landscape instead. It's even more beautiful than the lawn...and it's a lot less work, less chemicals, less water, everything about it is easier. Every single plant in it is perennial, even in the window boxes.

So that leaves me plenty of time to take care of the 2 topiaries I love. They are high maintenance...but I don't mind the work, because I only have 2 of them. I love my garden and the topiaries so much that I've designed my life to have plenty of time to do the work of pruning. Each plant has different pruning needs and that makes them interesting to me. The art of pruning and weeding to facilitate the health of my garden is such a life lesson in the value of frequent decluttering.

One of my topiaries is in the photo of my backyard above.

Here is my front "landscape" you can see the other topiary on the right and in the close up below.

Hope you found this helpful!

A Simple Mid-Year Financial Review Process - Keeping Our Relationship with Money Honest and Healthy

2011-08-01T14:19:55-04:00

This weekend, my husband and I invested time in a Mid Year Financial Review - a Money Check In. Several times a year we review our finances and adjust as needed to feel confident that funds are available for all of our needs.

Some people call it budgeting...I call it keeping my relationship with money healthy and HONEST.

I posted a status on my Facebook page that I was doing this and my new friend Ian Garlic who I met at the Book Breathrough NYC Conference Last week asked me about our Process. So I thought I'd blog about it!

Here's our " Money Check-up" process in a nutshell.

The Questions We Ask:

Are we profitable?
Are we still living well below our means?
Are our savings growing?
Does our "cushion" need adjusting?
How is the 401K doing?
Is debit creeping up unexpectedly somewhere?
What is our current "cash on hand"?
What investments are we looking to make this year? e.g. Vacations, Home improvements, Work Related Projects, etc.
Have our needs changed?
What adjustments might we need to make to reduce overhead expenses or to fund a new project / goal?
Can we simplify our paperwork? declutter? etc.
Do we need to pay Estimated Taxes? If so how much?
Have we got everything we need in place to make it easy to file our Tax Return?

The Essential Steps

Calculate "profitability" to date
Review our upcoming investments / expenses we want to make in all the key areas of our lives
Determine where the funding will come from
Decide if we need to to adjust our automatic contributions to 401K, savings etc.
Review our insurance, mortgage, credit lines, etc. just to see if it's all still serving our needs.
See if we can simplify anything.
Clean out papers we no longer need
Update our digital financial filing system, etc.

It takes 3 - 6 hours to go through everything and discuss, but the feeling of peace and clarity of mind that comes from knowing exactly where you stand financially is PRICELESS. It's a strong foundation for navigating life with confidence. It makes it easy to know what to say YES to and what to say NO to.

How I evolved my process and philosophy of relating to money

I think growing up with a 5 times divorced mother on welfare, and then graduating college with a mountain of Student Loans plus finding my way back from $25,000 in credit card debt (back in the 80's when that was a LOT of money) taught me that I can live with next to nothing and that I CAN do what it takes to bounce back - BUT I WOULD RATHER NOT HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN : )

I become highly motivated to figure out a better relationship with money when I had to sell everything I owned to avoid bankruptcy. I lost pretty much everything I had. I went from having my own 2 BR 2 Bath Luxury apt. to living with a roomate in a small apt where I had just one room and shared the bathroom. It was a tough experience. I was 31 yrs old and had fallen big time..even though my career had blossomed, I was a personal wreck. NOT a good place to be. Since then I have done everything in my power to figure out how to keep getting back on track and not derail like that again with money.

If it does happen again, it won't be because I wasn't paying attention.

Finding my peace with money and what ENOUGH really is has kept me from falling too deep into the trap of living bigger and always wanting more. It taught me to really take care of what I have and not get too spoiled by the material trappings of life. And oddly enough, making peace with money actually taught me (and is still teaching me) how to detach and let go of stuff and not keep much more than I need. I still have some stuff I don't really need, but I'm no longer "attached" to my stuff and I don't keep stuff out of fear that someday I might need it and won't be able to get what I need then. Huge difference.

I also am far more at ease with spending money. I don't spend as much for emotional reasons...I am clear what I'm investing in and am glad to pay for things, services and information that serve my ability to serve others.

Once again: whether paying bills, doing chores, or "checking in"

"It's not what you do, it's the energy you do it with that matters."

If you want to read more of my ideas, experiences and tips related to money, check out these blog posts related to Money.

What I Learned from Overcoming Welfare and Poverty Culture

IDEAS WORTH SHARING: Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and more

2011-07-26T18:10:08-04:00

This book is just too juicy not to share! A great tool for deepening your self-understanding and hopefully, your self-compassion.

We are all so very human...and mistakes are part of the package. We can't change that.

All we can change is how we look at our mistakes and how we use them to navigate our lives.

The Book :Why We Make Mistakes

The Blog: http://whywemakemistakes.blogspot.com/

by Joseph T. Hallinan

Yours in the quest for complete acceptance of your mistakes and my own.

Ariane : )

Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average
By Joseph T. Hallinan

Life Lessons - The 8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself - Part 1

2011-07-25T19:45:20-04:00

We have lived in our home for 10 years and this year our "big" project is paying attention to our backyard and giving it the loving care it needs to be 'restored to glory" : ) One of the things I love about my backyard is how my garden is constantly teaching me how to be in flow - in a more healthy relationship with myself. My backyard garden is a LOT like me. Like my garden, I do not respond well being pressured, punished, bribed or overly scheduled. I love spending time in my garden, because, my garden gets me. My husband says I have a green thumb, I think its just that I am in tune with the rhythms of my garden.

This weekend I was inspired to start a series of lessons I've learned. I'm going to share them with you a little at a time instead of posting a huge long post.

So here is Part 1.

8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself

Commitment 1

When you learn how to take care of your garden - JUST ENOUGH and AS NEEDED, it can teach you a lot about how to treat yourself.

When you care for your garden in a natural, un-forced, unscheduled way, it thrives. And, you do too. The work of self-care does not feel like an obligation or a "chore" when you don't try to force or "should" yourself into say sleeping or eating in a healthy way.

Doing the work of taking care of yourself becomes an exercise in gratitude, an opportunity to learn, experiment, and discover new ways of seeing, being and doing. When you fully commit to self-care it transforms into an opportunity to gain insight into yourself, and experience a sense of how connected you really are to nature, You get to tap into the flow of life and notice how to find the easy in the hard, the small in the big, how to become satisfied with just enough. To allow a few weeds to crop up and not try to live weed free but rather find the level at which you get to enjoy your garden without it having to be perfect.

Commit to understand your natural personal characteristics, needs and resources just as you must understand what each plant in your garden needs as well as of which area of your garden is the best place to plant it so that it can flourish. (How much sun, rain does it get? What is the climate? soil type? drainage characteristics? rockiness level? slope? What kinds of bugs, creatures, insects are native to the garden? etc.)

Commiting to finding the right "fit" of needs and context is the first rule of garden design. It helps you decide what plants to put where, and minimize the work needed to keep the plant healthy and happy. It helps you determine what you need to do to supplement the garden or the plant's own natural resources without overwhelming it. It will help you decide:

What to give it
How much to give
When to give
What to let it do on it's own
When to intervene and when not to
What tools to use
How much to RECEIVE from your garden without depleting it.

This one lesson has some really deep and wide implications for life design as well. Life design skills are about understanding yourself as you are, your natural strengths and designing your life to fit you.

When you find yourself in a job, career or business that "fits" you, your life almost automatically becomes happier, healthier and a lot less stressful. When you commit to understanding what you really need AND commit to paying attention and noticing when your needs change, then you can commit to also redesigning and reorganizing your life systems to fit your changing needs.

Trying to change who you are to fit your life (instead of changing your life to fit you) is a dead end street. Put a plant in a garden that is not right for it and it will never blossom to it's fullest potential. The best possible outcome is that you become a really weak and stunted version of what you could be if were in an environment that met at least your minimum needs.

Chronically deprived plants never flourish. And neither to chronically deprived people who don't take the time to understand and differentiate their true needs from their wants, figure out what enough is, and design their lives to first meet all their minimum needs without depriving themselves chronically in any of the other areas...like sleep, exercise, rest.

How does this lesson speak to you right now?

Super Simple FREE Productivity Tool: Online Mindfulness Timer Enhances Time Awareness

2011-06-19T09:36:00-04:00

The ultimate in easy, small changes for Quantum Productivity Breakthroughs A client shared this with me and I love it! Thank you Susan! : )

If you tend to lose track of time like I do, timers are an aswesome strategy. But you have to remember to set them. With this tool...you just set up the interval and it goes off regularly for as long you want! Plus you can set up more than one interval and more than one sound.

It's called a "mindfulness bell'. The timer is really meant to chime to stop and take deep breaths, but you can set it to chime every 15 minutes or hour or whatever.

It works on your computer so

There is nothing you have to do or buy.
No equipment taking up your desk space.
Just set up a book mark on your Quick Links bar and CLICK.
If you have a laptop, it travels with you! No need to remember to pack a timer.

This is a clip of a portion of the screen. Could it be any simpler? : )

I'm in love with this as a supplement to the 8+ timers I have all over my home : ) It helps me be more mindful of the time that is passing while I am on the computer or on the phone. Hope it is useful to you, too.

http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/bell/index.html

There is a similar bell at:

http://www.fungie.info/bell

Got a tool that is this super simple? Please do share it with me! If I love it, I'll post it here, and if you have a website or blog, I'll post it with a link back to you. : )

________________________________________________________________

"Enhancing your ability to make a difference in the world starts with enhancing your relationship with yourself."

- Me : )

________________________________________________________________

The Power of Thinking Small: What could you do with just 2 minutes to make a difference in your productivity?

2011-06-08T20:06:32-04:00

The power of Quantum Productivity is all about the smallest thing you could do to turn "drains into gains." So let's start with the idea of 2 minutes. Two minutes is a lot longer than most people realize...and it's much easier to wrap your brain around in every way.

For me, thinking small is my secret power weapon for outsmarting procrastination. I use it every day to help me get started doing all kinds of stuff I tend to procrastinate about.

For example: If I'm resisting taking a walk, or making breakfast, or answering email, or whatever. I say things to myself like:

"okay...try it for 1 or 2 minutes - then you can stop if you can't really get into it."

P.S. For me, it's really important to include the permission to stop part.

Once the pressure is off, I truly don't mind doing things as much. It's like my resistance just melts. Kinda like when a guy takes you out on a date and stops pressuring you for the kiss, right? Once the pressure is off, you get more in the mood. hmmm...think about that. : )

I may be a freak, but it really works for me and for most people who like me tend to put too much pressure on ourselves and then shut down. : )

With the pressure off, I usually do more than I intended and then feel better about myself in many ways. Doing MORE instead of less than I intended to actually gets me more energized, feeling more optimistic, and then I'm ready to tackle even more challenging tasks.

So yes. I'm going to stand up to all those people who tell you to do the challenging stuff first and offer another way to look at things. I'm not saying they are wrong, but it's only one possible strategy. It may work for them, but it never works for me. So there. I'm sticking to doing the easy, small stuff first and giving myself permission to do just a little. : )

I've had personal trainers tell me it's not good enough to walk for just two- five minutes a day. I just ignore them, honestly. Cuz, at least by doing 5 minutes a day, I

got in the habit of really liking to go for walks.
AND I also feel more energetic
AND I can walk a LOT faster now
AND I can go further in that 5 minutes than I ever used to.

To me...that's plenty good enough for me to feel good about myself and I'm NOT gonna let them or anyone else minimize what an accomplishment and personal victory it was for me to even do those 5 minutes!

Here are some other things you can do with the power of thinking small...or with just 2 minutes.

Pay just 2 of the bills in that growing pile.
File 5 - 10 papers or more? How many can you file in 2 minutes? Hmmm..I dare you to find out!
Clean out just one section of your wallet
Clean only the toilet instead of the whole bathroom - could you do it less than 2 minutes?
Answer just 5 emails - or take just 2 minutes to answer as many emails as you can.

BONUS TIP: Set up a timer to notice how long it really takes to answer each email. Start noticing what kinds of emails tend to take longer...what the pattern? How could you create a "template" that would help you speed up your responses to those types of email?

What could you do today with just 2 minutes to change course and make a difference - in not only your productivity - but in how you feel about yourself and your "little dones"?

NEAT & SIMPLE LIVING

It's official! Neat & Simple Living Blog is winding down...but it has had a baby!

Sharing the love: Could you use a little salt in your soup today?

Ariane Benefit, M.S.Ed

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Life Lessons - The 8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself - Part 2

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