Do You have stacks of Magazines? Tips on How to let them go

One or more magazines arrive monthly and are scanned, or not, and plopped onto a pile of other unread magazines.  My Yoga Journal met this similar fate after its second 2-year renewal.  Does your Better Homes and Garden, National Geographic, Southern Living, or Time Magazine, for example, get treated like this too? 

My five reasons magazines may mount up:

1.  National Geographic may be like classic cars:  occasionally taken out, opened up, dusted off, and then put back.  Why?  Interest in them may be low.

2.  The new Sports Illustrated arrives in the morning and by afternoon the comfy couch beckons the receiver to rest and read.  The article's first paragraph gets read because it grabs your attention.  Then...the magazine slides off your lap and slithers to the floor, in a heap.  Nodding off requires repetitive rereading.

3.  The new Golf magazine joins its mates on the coffee table.  Your lifelong subscription and lack of actual golfing makes reading it unimportant in your busy life.

4.  The last, and previous issues of Better Homes and Garden nests in a basket by your chair.  Several weeks pass, and then, a telephone solicitor offers a new-subscriber rate--hooked!

5.  Throwing away or recycling magazines feels like throwing away money.

My thoughts about magazine reading and recycling

1.  Do you save magazines because you may read them in the future?  Maybe you won't.

2.  Check out this National Geographic website for reuse of this magazine.

3.  Keep a magazine in your vehicle for road repaving standstills, doctor's appointment waits, or friends delayed.  It makes the time pass pleasantly.

4.  Give your previous month's magazine to a friend when the new edition arrives, or try these tips for recycling magazines

5.  Let go of guilt about reading your magazines.  Lehmkuhl and Lamping suggest, in their book, Organizing for the Creative Person, "...Stop everything and decide either to do it and forget it, or not to do it and forget it, and not feel guilty...."

How to Relieve Stress From Overwhelm

Karyn Greenstreet's 44Tips for Dealing with Overhwelm, in her April 2, 2012 eNewsletter, Self-Employed Success, provides "practical tips" for small business owners who have "...too many tasks and projects, and not enough time or resources." Most of us experience this same state of overwhelm in our personal lives...some time; try Karyn's three useful tips to tame your overpowering task/project list:

1. "Do it. Sometimes, a bare-knuckle commitment to getting things done is necessary. That pesky colonoscopy you've been putting off? Do it. That phone call to a disgruntled employee? Do it. That 3,000 word article? Do it."

2. "OMD: Off My Desk. Make a concerted effort to handle each item that comes across your desk ONCE. do not stack it in a pile and think, 'I'll get back to it later.' Each morning, make a clean sweep of your desk while reciting the mantra: OMD, OMD, OMD."

3. "Action alleviates anxiety. Pick one high-priority task on your To Do list and do it. Nothing relieves stress better than getting off your butt and taking action. Don't fall in the trap of picking a low-priority task just because it is easy. Do the things that matter."

Preventative measures to get us procrastinators moving!

Paperwork Past Its Prime

Paper, in some form, arrives daily in most households. True?

Advertisements, bills, junk mail, magazines, donation requests, and newspapers are received by mail; documents are brought home from work and/or school; and business cards, fliers, and pamphlets are collected at business networking meetings, expositions, and trade shows. Upon arrival, the tendency is to lay the paper object on the nearest chair, couch, desktop, or kitchen counter with the intention of taking care of it...later.

Sometimes, years may elapse and many miscellaneous papers lie around, multiply, and may spread into other rooms. Eventually, the time is right, or an occasion arises and the paper finally gets some attention. Hours upon hours are needed to sort, review, and dispose of the amassed paper collection. Recently, I helped a client process decades’ worth of papers, and inspired me to write this cinquain poem:

Papers

Many Saved

Reading, filing, recycling

Stack up, clutter minds, cause disorder

Toss!

Quick Steps Move You

Do you make to-do lists to tidy your home and complete work projects? I do. Finishing one job and crossing it off this list inspires me to do another. Each lined-off task moves me on to the next.

Some days...I don't make a list and would rather "shut the door" on an untidy room...and nothing more. Does that happen to you? If it does, my friend and fellow organizer Jill Viglione, owner of Embrace Your Space, suggests we: Take ten tiny actions.

These may be as minute as turning off a light in an unused room; putting away a potholder in a kitchen drawer, or rinsing off one dirty dish. Finish one, cross it off your mental list, and then complete another little chore...until you've reached your goal of ten. Taking care of each little job is a reward in itself; and it might inspire you to bring order to an entire room. If others live with you, invite them to join in the fun and share in the maintenance of your home.

You can use this method on any space, room, or for paper pileups. Try it! It's fast and it gets you moving!