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Hi folks! This week we have travel anxiety! We’re headed off on vacation, an we are dealing with the associated freak-out as we prep for our first big trip of the year. We also have a huge rant on how everything needs to be connected all the time and what a pain it can be. Fortunately after that, we have a talk with The Clutter Fairy herself, Gayle Goddard! Enjoy, and see you in two weeks!
Links for this Episode:
- Charity Spotlight: Donors Choose
- Gayle Goddard the Clutter Fairy
- The Clutter Fairy Houston YouTube
- Clutter Fairy Houston Weekly Podcast
- National Association of Productivity & Organization
I really liked this episode; the way Gayle Goddard talked about decluttering was very insightful. It’s absolutely true that the barrier between most people I know (cough, namely me, cough cough) and becoming tidier and more organized is an emotional one, related to the specific histories of each of my possessions, whether they are imbued with familial guilt, etc. (This definitely goes back to something you and Ursula have discussed on the show before — if the Marie Kondo method works for a person, it’s probably because they’ve developed emotional bonds with the objects they interact with every day over the course of years, and Marie Kondo acknowledges the strength of that animating force.)
I think there’s a pretty direct analogy between this way of looking at decluttering (that is, that the emotional labor is half the battle) and the strategies I’ve found *most* useful to become more productive over the years, which have to do with getting more skilled at managing the emotions around productivity, failure, and success. The more I have a system, even a loose one, for how to deal with dificult emotions around my work (“if [negative work thing], then [bad emotion A], then [mitigation effort B with predicted success rate [C]], then [distraction effort D with predicted success rate [E]]”), the more likely I can keep moving forward with some efficiency.
Also, Gayle point about sleep underpinning all function has always been true for me. There are eras of my life that one might describe as “multifarious collages of failure,” and in retrospect they all coincided with being consistently sleep-deprived for extended periods.
I’d like to request more information about the filing system that Kevin is playing around with, please.
PA is one of my favorite podcasts.