People are always telling me about a new organizing method they are using. First it is Organizing from the Inside Out, then it is SPACE, NEAT, KonMari or some other method of decluttering your house and your life in a year or whatever.
When my kids were still little, my mom read Sidetracked Home Executives by Pam Young and Peggy Jones and told me about it. The book was new. It wasn’t at our local library yet. I had already checked out, read and tried everything on the 640 shelf at the library. I tried each one for a while. And each one really does work while you actually do it.
I saw the book, so I bought it. I don’t know if it is actually that much better than every other method, or that the act of purchasing the book gave me a personal investment to keep using it longer than the three weeks I had to turn the other ones back in to the library… But, Sidetracked Home Executives quite literally changed my life. It did not just give me a house that I was always proud to have people visit. It gave me time. I wasn’t stealing time with all the things I should be doing guiltily hanging over my shoulder. It gave me a way to catch up, stay caught up, and have the rest of the time to do things I chose to do. I had time for what is important to me.
Just a little box of index cards! I had always made lists. And I like to scratch each thing off as it is accomplished. This worked the same way, but much more efficiently.
So, long introduction to get to where we are going.
Starting Again
My husband and I just moved into a new house. I started making edits to the cards based on this house. My granddaughter is visiting. Her father was a new baby when I first started using the cards. I dug through the boxes of books to find Sidetracked Home Executives or Get Your Act Together (newer version, same cards). I don’t still have the first one. Over the years I have loaned them out to a lot of people and I don’t always get them back. So any time I see them at a thrift store or garage sale, I pick up another copy to pass on.
I picked up the Happiness File. I remember when it came out. The two sisters were interviewed on a talk show. It could have been Oprah or maybe Phil Donahue. I don’t even remember why I bought it. I don’t think I was unhappy. I am basically a happy person. Even with a disorganized house and life, I was a happy person punctuated by anger and frustration.
But this book, The Happiness File, made me a better person. A better happy person.
So I am going to do the book again. Each week has an action plan for the week.
Week One
The first part of the book you just read like a book. It is light, amusing and lets you know the sisters writing the book. They are not big fat know-it-alls. They are relatable.
Look at the used copies. They start at around $3.00.
If you want to, you can just start at Part II, One: The First Week – Starting the System. This chapter gives you a shopping list for the supplies you need. I started “shopping” my house, then decided that none of these things cost much at all, so rather than searching for and making do, I deserve to pick out new things. I think we can afford a brand new pack of index cards. Duh.
Then it talks you through setting it all up.
Week one also has you establish a bedtime. When I did this the first time, back in… the copyright on the book is 1985 and I’ll bet it was that long ago, I was already in the habit of getting up early to get everything done that I had to do before I went to work. But a bed time? That was for the kids.
The concept is, what time do you fall asleep in front of the TV? Turn off the TV half an hour before that so you have time to “floss, rinse, pray, and moisturize.”
Different people need different amounts of sleep.
Perhaps you’re a genius like Edison and you suspect you only need a few hours a night. Still, you owe it to yourself to know for sure. Think back to what time of night you fall asleep over your inventions. If you want to be a more balanced and happy person, shut off the TV or close down the lab a half hour early and get ready for bed.
The Happiness File
Pam Young and Peggy Jones
So, set your own bed time.
So, that’s it! Shop for supplies and find my bedtime again is my first assignment. Then set up the system. This week.
Oh, and I found out that Sidetracked Home Executives was updated in 2001. I’m going to order the new version.
