I wanted something that didn’t stick permanently, but held fast. So, I broke down and did some research online to find a sturdy sticky thing.

And I found it!

3M makes “Command Poster Strips” — and they’re genius! Each strip has two sticky sides that you reveal by peeling off a peel-y paper thing. You position them tab-side down when you hang your poster.

Then, when you want to remove the object from the wall, you slowly pull on the tab and it stretches and unsticks without damaging the wall or the paper.

Before, I probably had 2 feet of blue tape working ineffectively. My collage now has 3 of these strips and hasn’t budged all week. Yay!

Check them out!

Perspective.

If you peek into a day in the life of the average entrepreneur you’ll see email, social networking, appointments, bills, writing, more email, returning messages, home-life interruptions, and more.

Ever-present is the feeling that there’s not enough time to do it all – and the urge to get some space to sort it all out. Is any of this busy work helping?

Here’s what I do to get perspective

• Quarterly 4-day retreats – Back in September, I acknowledged that if I didn’t change how I ran myself in my biz, my head would likely blow up. Making a commitment to quarterly retreats seemed huge and scary. Now that I’ve already been on 2 of them, I’m finding that I feel emotionally and spiritually replenished AND I have more clarity about where I’m going and what I’m doing in my work. Now I’m unapologetic about taking that much time “off”.

• Monthly weekend retreats - This year I’m experimenting with a monthly overnight retreat in addition to the quarterly ones. My first one is at the end of January. Expect a good report.

• Weekly check-ins – As I type this, I’m thinking that this “quarterly/monthly/weekly” thing might sound too structured to you. It’s arbitrary, but helps me bring a rhythm to the ritual of stepping out of the “daily” and looking at the big picture.

Anyway, I meet weekly by phone with one of the coolest bizbuds ever. Marissa and I check in on last week’s progress and then work for a few hours together on our separate projects. At the end of our call, we state aloud our goals for the coming week.

Having someone who really sees what’s happening in my biz, helps me set realistic goals, and who looks forward to my progress updates (and I hers) motivates me like nothing else.

• The 2 column list – Also a weekly thing on Mondays, I stand up to write this list of “steps I will do this week or delegate to the divine” which gives me physical perspective (instead of sitting hunched at my desk) and a feeling of authority. It’s easy to read from my desk, so I can decide what to work on next that gets me closer to my goals.

Here’s what’s in the works

• Long term destination – Inspired by a recent talk by Robert Fritz, I realized that I want a clearer definition of where I and my biz are headed in the next 5 years. Something visible and, better yet, tangible. I don’t know how or what it is yet (and that’s just fine), realizing and naming that I want it will help me create it.

What do you do that gives you perspective?

Your turn! If you’d like, please share what you’re doing that helps you get perspective in your business and/or life – and also something that you’re working on/experimenting with.

Your comments on your own process are welcome. Just remember to give advice to me or others only when it’s specifically requested. This makes exploring safe and learning possible for every reader.

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Last week, I purchased a copy of the Better Homes and Gardens annual “Get Organized!” January edition.

The thing I love about this issue is it encourages readers to think beyond the day-to-day. Instead of mindlessly slogging through life, this issue asks subtly, “What kind of life would you like to have?” For example, the recipes looked delicious and the article on growing orchids (complete with gorgeous photos) was amazing. The two featured home makeovers were compelling as well.

I read it cover to cover and thought, “I want that life!”

Here’s the catch

If you have kids or cats or forced-air heating, you probably don’t have the right conditions in your home to grow orchids. You might not have the budget to make over your apartment or office. You might not have the time to buy fresh ingredients and prepare meals from scratch. So the life presented feels painfully out of reach.

(Um. And what, exactly, do these things have to do with organizing in the first place?)

When we want, but can’t have, this is the mental leap that most people take:

• “I can’t do the whole office makeover, but I could at least buy the chair.”
• “I can’t have that gorgeous bathroom, but I could at least buy the lined wicker baskets.”
• “I don’t have the body, but I could at least get the strappy heels.”

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with this thinking. That’s what the publishers want you to think. I counted – this magazine featured over 35 product endorsements and product suggestions not including ads. I didn’t tally up the costs, but that’s a lot of stuff to buy to get organized.

Inspired reality-check:

You only need two things to get organized, both of them are free.

A brain. It’s a mighty muscle. Identify any area that’s giving your trouble and your brain can solve it. Don’t let a magazine do the thinking for you. What do you really need? Let your brain create a solution.

Time. Yup. I said it. Time isn’t a commodity, it’s a tool. Use a few moments to create order and you’ll get clarity immediately. Use a few moments regularly and you’ll get momentum. Repeat the pattern of moments/regularly long enough and your space will feel like a haven. Can you imagine what it would be like to work in a haven?

The moral of the story…

The thing I liked best about the BH&G January edition was the editor’s message. Gayle Goodson Butler hits the nail on the head when she writes, “…living organized is something else entirely.” Amen. Although she contends that it takes persistence and good habits, I propose that all it takes are your brain and time. Either way, none of these cost a dime.

Thoughts? Yeah, buts? Me, toos?

And I’m having a virtual costume party!

To get the ball rolling, a few friends volunteered their favorite childhood costumes:

Lisa Hunter: Princess Leia, complete with double-donut hair and a dress my mom made from living room drapes.

Sally Kuhlman: One year when I was a teenager, I dressed up as Santa Claus for Halloween and little kids kept saying, “Look, Mommy, there’s Santa!” and wanting to come up and talk to me.

Sharon Roemmel: This isn’t from my childhood, but apparently people call me “Peter Pan” when I’m not around and I kind of remind people of a wood nymph or pixie. So this year I’m going to get elf boots with a wreath of leaves in my hair and many find some pointy ears.

Joanne Scharer: I went as a garbage bag one too many times (Mom wasn’t into costumes) and I was Strawberry Shortcake once.

Inspired Spouse: The Devil. Many times – because I liked the horns and the red costume… plus I was a little devil myself.

Jen Hofmann: Hands down, being a butterfly in nursery school was my very favorite costume. Nice job, Mom.

Costume Party instructions (there’s candy involved):

Mention your favorite childhood costume before Saturday night and get a chance to win some really good candy. We’re talking treats, not tricks. Winners chosen at random (it’s ADD day, of course it’s random!).

What was YOUR favorite childhood costume?

Maybe you’ve heard enough about retreats lately, but several people have asked where I went. Sooo…

Here’s a Top 10 of my favorite places to retreat.

10. My parents in Connecticut
9. My in-laws on the Oregon Coast
8. Orcas Island, Washington
7. Sharon and Theresa’s farm in South Salem (goats!)
6. A secret cabin in Prineville, OR (I’ll never tell!)
5. Basically anything on vrbo.com
4. Anywhere on Kauai
3. My meditation corner in my office
2. Mount Angel Abbey (where I stayed this month)
1. Breitenbush Hot Springs

Total ADD non-sequitor

I just learned this week that the owners of my favorite odor-eliminating product (that I highly recommend if you have pets) had a house fire. This would be merely heartbreaking if they didn’t also run their small business out of their house. They’re turning lemons into lemonade and doing a fire sale: everything they sell is half-off.

I make no money in mentioning it, I want to spread the word to help them out. More details here if you’re interested: http://odorxitfire.homestead.com/

Okay, so back to the main topic. : )

I’m wondering this: Where are your favorite places to retreat?

Pets.

God love them.

The Inspired Cat thinks (perhaps rightfully) that she owns the whole place. Including my bill basket.

Cat and mouse at rest

Read on and you’ll discover that it basically *is* her house. I can’t imagine my life without her, so I know pets are here in my life to stay. However, having pets in your home office presents some small challenges.

Keeping pet issues at bay

What is currently working well for me:

A designated resting place. When I’m not in the office, Inspired Cat thinks that my Captain Picard Chair is her bed. Fortunately, it’s big enough for the both of us. In reality, she has a real pet bed on my desk that she uses a lot. It’s close enough for me to pet her, but out of the way enough that I don’t need the turf for work stuff.

Noise-canceling headphones. Sassafras is fastidious. Just ask Bridget. Her licking (Sassy’s, not Bridget’s) is sometimes incessant and it can drive me up a wall. Especially when I’m trying to concentrate on something. Agh!

Yelling at or otherwise dissuading a cat from doing anything it wants to do is pointless. Not to mention, rude. And I don’t want to lock her out of the office because I’m a big ol’ softy.

So I use noise-canceling headphones once a day for about 20 minutes to block out the noise and keep working. Then, once the lick-fest is over, Inspired Cat deigns to take her afternoon nap on my desk. It’s very sweet.

What I’m currently working on:

Cat toys. Everywhere. There’s the collection of feather toys, ribbons, the catnip pillow. If you have pets, you know what I mean. I’ve managed to move the scratching post to another room, but I haven’t found a handy way to store toys that she likes to play with during the day. It’s an organizing dilemma, I tell you.

Mom’s lap is a bed. We just can’t find a win-win for this, either. I don’t have enough lap or arms for her to lay on me/have me hold her while I’m trying to work at my computer. She looks at me adoringly and I usually give in and pick her up… but I “hate” that she can play me like that. Doesn’t she appreciate everything I do to keep food in her dish and a roof over her head? Doesn’t she know I have work to do?

It’s true what they say: Dogs have people, cats have staff.

What do YOU do to keep pet issues at bay?

Dogs? Cats? Echindas? Enlighten us. What works really well for you? What are you working on?

Remember when you were a kid, and “getting mail” was really exciting?

Maybe it was a card from your grandmother, a letter from a pen-pal, or even the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes envelope (am I the only one who used to play with the little magazine stamps as “stickers”?). Back in they day, getting mail was fun and kind of exciting. Of course, we got less of it, and we usually didn’t have to worry about things like “filing” or “paying” or “sorting.”

Nowadays, getting mail usually means bills (ugh), junk mail (double ugh), or magazines (fun, but potential clutter). While most of our everyday communication takes place on the phone or online, snail mail is still a presence in our lives… and on our countertops or desktops!

Here’s what I do for snail mail

What works well for me:

Most junk never crosses the threshold into my house. I keep my recycle bin near the door between my garage and house, the entrance I use when I’m coming in the house after retrieving my mail. Before I enter the house, I pause for a minute and pull out all of the flyers, pamphlets and junk mail envelopes that don’t contain private information, and I dump them directly into the recycle bin. They never come in the house.

The shreddable items (credit card offers, for example) come in the house, but go directly into the shredder. If I set them on my desk or counter (ostensibly to “shred later”) they sit there for weeks. Directly to the shredder they go!

The magazines go onto a small end table that sits near my loveseat. Once the shelf on that end table is full, I have to either recycle magazines currently on the shelf, or (if everything on the shelf is Need To Read material) the new magazines get tossed into the recycle bin with the junk mail before ever coming in the house–until some room is made on the end table shelf for new ones!

What I’m working on:

The “needs some attention” stuff is tough. The flyer for a conference I want to attend and need to register for. The bill I need write a check for and pay. The invitation I need to RSVP for (after checking my calendar and figuring out travel details).

The items that require some interim step between receiving it in the mail and disposing of it are the ones that befuddle me, and often end up being tossed in a pile on my desk where they promptly… sit. (Well, they sit *and* act as the foundation layer for additional pieces of “needs further action” snail mail that come later… so let’s not pretend that they’re completely useless.)

And then there’s the outgoing mail that I need to generate: birthday cards, thank you notes, the stuff that I want to send the “old fashioned” way rather than by email. I have the card, I have the stationery, I have the stamps… but all those separate pieces usually wind up sitting on my desk (near that nefarious pile of “needs further action” mail) rather than getting assembled and mailed.

What do YOU do with your snail mail?

What works really well for you? What are you working on?

Asian Pears by Chris Beck. Used with permission.

What feelings and sensations come up for you when you look at this image?

Time wasting

You might think it’s evil, but it holds a precious place in the life of the self-employed. Sure, it’s not visibly productive, but giving your brain something to do helps it concoct the next money-making scheme, the next cure for the flu, or the next way to create world peace.

Don’t knock it. : )

Here are some totally random fun things that my buddy, Lisa Hunter of Inner Business Diva, likes to do to totally zone out. She calls it “Zombie Mind”.

• Play “Gold Strike” on www.deadwhale.com
• Go to www.myinnerworld.com. Lisa suggests clicking on the wishing well and playing “word magic”. She said, “I LOVE THIS SITE and it’s SUPER fun for dreaming, visioning and connecting back in with yourself.” A step up from zombie-mind, to be sure!

At Inspired Home Office, zone-out websites of choice include:

• The vocabulary game/food donation site: www.freerice.com
• www.jigzone.com – the free place to do jigsaw puzzles online
• Solitaire. Unoriginal, but brain-deadening nonetheless
• Watching cake decorating videos on YouTube (yes, seriously)

The ADDness goes on, but I’ll stop here for now. Have you any random suggestions to add?

White Anemone by Chris Beck. Used with permission.

What feelings and sensations come up for you when you look at this image?