Reducing Your Stress - Part 1

I received a brochure in the mail the other day, tauting the virtues of taking care yourself. In addition to getting regular check-ups, the brochure advised that one way you can take care of yourself in these challenging times is to “reduce your stress.” I turned the brochure over. Nothing else was written there. That was their advice. Just "reduce your stress."

In fact, where ever you turn these days you hear how we need to reduce our collective national stress. Well, okay. How do you do that when you’re lying awake at 3 a.m., worrying about your job, your home, your bills, your future, and your world in general?

Research shows companies undergoing layoffs and other financial problems have a dip in productivity. You think it would be the opposite with people trying to act the model employee, but the stress, uncertainty, and depression take its toll, turning people into anxiety-ridden zombies for a while. Everyone walks around with a shocked expression, waiting for the axe to fall and for small signs of hope.

People under stress react in different ways, including anger, insomnia, eating more, fatigue, and moodiness – just to name a few. Stress can cause you to blow up at the smallest thing and later wonder why you were so angry. Was it really about the issue or was it the stress talking? But you’re supposed to reduce your stress, remember? So how do you do that? Here are some solutions for you.

Exercise and Eat Right. Exercise is a great stress reliever and helps you sleep better. By eating better, you can save money by bringing your own lunch and snacks, making your own coffee, and making better choices at the grocery stores. Don’t forget to treat yourself once in a while. You don’t have to adopt a healthier lifestyle by yourself. Sparkpeople.com and Livestrong.com (Lance Armstrong’s organization) are two sites offering FREE help with creating new habits, such as losing weight, eating more fruits and vegetables, and exercising more.

Get Enough Sleep. In my ADHD coaching class we were given an assignment to get eight hours of sleep every night. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to actually get eight hours of sleep but I found that it made a real difference in my life. Try it. You might really like it.

Just Breathe. Meditation and breathing deeply can help relax your body and lower your heart rate. There are wonderful CDs and books out there on meditation and yoga classes focus on breathing. If you get worked up about something, step away from the situation and just take a few deep breaths and you will find that it might help settle your state of mind. Changing your focus is usually helpful.

Try these simple suggestions and let me know what worked and what didn't.

Are You as a Professional Organizer Working with the Right Client?

Please do not kick me off my own blog for blogging so infrequently in 2010. My excuse is that I have entered this New Year with a booming business. My business has fortunately grown steadily over the past 9+ years, and I have counted myself very fortunate that all of my hard work with and for my clients continues to keep my business "rockin & rollin." With the fact that our country is still experiencing such difficult economic times, some of my colleagues have had to change professions and get out of the organizing business.

That has been an unfortunate loss for our industry in some cases. Some of those P.O.'s were really talented, but came into the business at such a difficult time.
Anyone that knows the type of organizing I do, knows that my wonderful, challenged clients have more issues than simple space management problems, or what kind of container to purchase to match their family room furnishings. Their organizing issues are sometimes life threatening. Do not interpret my last comment to mean anything negative against the many different types of client needs and our diverse organizing profession. The beauty of our organizing industry is that there are countless client needs and really well-trained organizers to fill those needs. Those P.O.'s, like me are well-trained by our professional associations such as NAPO (Nat'l Assoc. of Professional Organizers, napo.net) and NSGCD (Nat'l Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, nsgcd.org)

It's when professional organizers step out of their field of knowledge and think that because they watched a program or two about hoarding, that they too can get in on working with hoarders. It has all of a sudden become "vogue" to work with hoarders, as if this is a new phenomenon.
That is a dangerous way to think. Do you, the person that has never done any study or research on hoarding have the knowledge base to work with this very wonderful and challenging population? We as organizers that abide by the code of ethic of our industry know that we do not want to cause our clients any type of harm for any reason. I have heard too many horror stories from my hoarding clients that worked with a professional organizer that had no specialized training, or a clue as to how to work with them. The organizer was hell bent on purging the clients possessions with the zeal of a 19th Century missionary, with no regard for the long-term detrimental effects that this action would have on their hoarding client.

Let's work with the clients that are best suited for our skill set. We as professional organizers have a huge responsibility to all of our clients to protect their best interests above all else.

Four Gadgets for Keeping Track of Things

Here are four new gadgets to help ADD'er (and anyone else) keep track of their stuff. Which one will work for you?

The Find One, Find All

($24.95; FindOneFindAll.com)
This Finding Essential is a battery-powered, radio-controlled homing device that you attach to the two items you never want to lose — your keys and wallet.

Put the fob on your keys and the credit-card-sized device in your wallet. When you press a button on the locator, the devices ring like a cell phone (as long as they’re within a 10-foot radius).

The EZ-Find! 25 Item Wireless Locator

($66.50; at amazon.com)
Have lots of items you tend to misplace? This consists of 25 colored fobs and a remote. Hook the fobs to things you need to take with you — or have trouble finding around the house (you can even hook up your pets or a small child).

The Dane Elec 4 GB Capless USB Drive

($19.99; at buy.com and target.com)
Want to keep track of valuable computer data? This allows you to keep your files with you at all times, and the sliding-top design means there’s never a cap to lose.

No larger than a fingernail clipper, the flash-memory device can carry up to four gigabytes of data/files, and it comes in a variety of colors, for those who like to make a fashion statement. Bonus: It doubles as a key chain.

Remote Play’s TagAlert 200

($59.95; remoteplay.com)
If you lose things outside your house, you may be the answer. Attach the "monitor" fob to your belt loop or key ring (or keep it tucked into your pocket) and attach the "alert" tags to two valuables (such as your wallet and cell phone)

Happy New Year!

I can hardly believe that another year has flown by. On this New Year, I had the pleasure of celebrating with my darling husband and my two brothers here in New Jersey. We enjoyed a fabulous party at my youngest brother Peter's really good friend Brian's gala New Years Eve party.

I am not a believer in New Year resolutions. I am more comfortable making resolutions throughout the year that are more realistic ones that I will stick to. So far, I have not made any new resolutions to date. One that I feel compelled to write about now is that I will write more blogs in 2010 that will be useful to my readers.

I look forward to working with many of my regular clients and working with new clients and their organizing challenges. This year will hold many new and exciting challenges for all of us.

If there is an organizing challenge that you have, please post it here and we will discuss it. If it is private, please email me at: rlyman@ahelpinghandforyou.com.

ADD Holiday Survival Guide

With the holidays fast approaching, I want to share some useful information to help you through the holiday season.

To budget for all the wonderful gifts you plan to buy this holiday, here is a well known website where you can order your credit report. Log on to annualcreditreport.com. You’re entitled, by law, to a free credit report once a year from each of the major credit-reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

Another useful bit of information is a wonderful survival guide offered by ADDITUDE magazine. Here are the first three tips. I will send out subsequent tips in the next few days.

1 REPLAY YOUR GREATEST HITS

Make a list of all the activities your family did last year—everything from attending a religious service to seeing local light displays. Have each family member rate them on a scale from 1 (very important) to 3 (unimportant). Do your best to fit in the 1s and some 2s, and forget about the 3s.

2 SAVE THE EARTH—AND YOUR WALLET

Set a date on your calendar to send out cards, and make the job fun and easy by using your computer to send cute, interactive e-mail cards.

3 STREAMLINE GIFT-GIVING

Keep shopping simple by buying everyone varieties of the same thing, such as books, gift certificates, or clothing from the same catalog or website. Stock up on decorative candles or bottles of wine to give out as hostess gifts, too.

These simple tips might save you some time and stress. Happy Holidays!

Power of Positive Thinking

Therapists and ADHD coaches tell ADDers to practice “self-talk.” There is great value in talking to ourselves, assuming that we speak as we would want others to speak to us. Unfortunately, that’s not what typically happens. In revisiting the various events of our lives, it is the 20 percent we did wrong -- not the 80 percent we did right -- that we remember and castigate ourselves about.

No Use Being Negative

The negative words we reserve only for ourselves are counterproductive. Did you know that the unconscious mind does not compute negation in language? That’s right -- the deepest recesses of the mind don’t process the word “no.” Therefore, when we say, “I will not fritter my time away on the computer today,” the words are read as, “I will fritter my time away on the computer.”

And we wonder how we manage to find ourselves, once more, firmly stuck in those black holes. We talk ourselves into them! No amount of “but I said...” changes the fact that we have commanded ourselves to do the very things we want to avoid. And we beat ourselves up over our transgression. What is this telling us about the path we must choose for our positive growth? we must head towards the positive.

The bottom line to all of this is that we are our thoughts. If we think negatively, we will be in a negative state. If we think positive and speak positive, we will be and do the positive. Our intentions are within our powers. Speak the positive and see what happens.

As an ADHD coach, I steer my clients to the positive. If you are interested in ADHD coaching, please contact me at www.ahelpinghandforyou.com.

(Portions of this wonderful article are excerpts from ADDITUDE magazine, Peggy Ramundo, Kate Kelly, Winter 2009.)

Thanksgiving In New Orleans

I am so glad to be spending a week in New Orleans with my husband, brother, brother's girlfriend, my niece and nephew. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving withg everyone. The other great thing is to be taking some time off from organizing. As much as I love my business and my clients, I really needed some time off. Fortunately, I have been very busy and working like a maniac. So, it is really good to be taking some time off and visiting the Cresent City.

We were supposed to go on a walking tour of the Garden District this morning. It was cancelled, so we will be taking that tour tomorrow morning. This morning, George and I took our dog Sammy for a walk in the French Quarter. We took a carriage ride and the carriage driver conducted a tour, which was quite good. I also love walking down Royal Street, checking out the wonderful antique shops, not that I want to buy anything. I love the crystal chandeliers and beautiful jewelry in the shops.

This afternoon we went to Cooter Browns (cooterbrowns.com) for oysters on the half shell. Boy were those oysters good. Cooters has at least four hundred different beers. George enjoys drinking Dixie Blackened Voodoo and Abita Turbo Dog.

This evening, we are going to the Mid-City Rock & Bowl (rockandbowl.com) to bowl and hear some really great Zydeco music. We will be rockin' at Mid-City. It's good to be on vacation...