Archive for July 2009

What good intentions are buried in that clutter?

Professional organizers like to say that clutter represents delayed decisions.* Sounds catchy, but in my experience it’s more complicated. Clutter also represents reminders (“must pay bill today”), postponed actions (“I don’t have time to file this now,” “I really should call the insurance company”), current actions (i.e., active projects). And intentions. Some of my most stubborn […]

Building a better to-do list

A recommendation! I’ve talked about Mark Forster’s Autofocus system—an ingenious, paper-based way of tracking your to-do’s that works around procrastination by mixing up large and small tasks, considering them in relation to each other, and drawing on intuition (not in a touchy-feely way).  As the smaller things get crossed off, the bigger projects also move […]