So with the dogs still eating up my regular schedule, I thought this might be a good time to check Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern out of my local library. I skimmed it ages ago but novelist Susanna Fraser’s recommendation prompted me to reread it a little slower. It’s primarily about organizing your home, not your time, but home organization never hurts either.
Morgenstern’s guiding principle is kindergarten where space is divided up according to its purpose: writing things in one place, reading in another, art stuff in a third, toys elsewhere. The first steps in organizing any space are to sort out items, purge what you don’t need, then assign them somewhere (she has suggestions on possible arrangements for different rooms). Next you, find ways to store the items in their assigned space (whether it’s a home office, a kitchen or a suitcase) and then check back and keep seeing how you’re doing. It’s a long-term process, so Morgenstern recommends taking your time, room by room, rather than rushing through.
She applies the same principles to organizing time: assign blocks of time for chores, family stuff, work, etc. Sort activities into different blocks, purge time wasting stuff, assign the rest to your schedule using some sort of planner or software to store them. Re-evaluate regularly.
I actually felt pretty good reading the book. Most of our house is well-organized. The parts that aren’t don’t really matter: my bathroom has so little stuff in it (in contrast to TYG’s) there’s no point in any sort of reorganization effort. As our kitchen is compact, most of Morgenstern’s suggestions wouldn’t save more than a few steps, though I did make a couple of minor tweaks.
Time-wise, I already rely on iCal, and daily planners before that. However she did get me thinking of treating dog-time as just one more block of time in the day. Assume about 90 minutes of doggy stuff during the workday, in various blocks, and the rest of the time I should be able to work. Provided I can get Trixie (and Plushie when he’s finally off crate rest) to go along. Trixie does not seem to have an “enough” setting in demanding attemtion/my lap. However that’s a behavior I can work to train away (I’ve been reading) though it’ll probably take longer than I want.
So a useful read. If things were more chaotic, it would be even more useful, so that’s kind of a neat thought.
