Celebrating accomplishments

The other day I finished the draft of novel I had been working on for a little over two months. I wrote nearly every day and kept going even when it was tough to keep the story together and my ideas flowing. Typing the words The End at the end of a manuscript is a very satisfying feeling, no matter how much revising and editing you are going to have to do later. I allowed myself a moment to really savor the fact that I saw my story through to completion, and then the next day I started a new project.

I think it is incredibly important to allow and encourage yourself to acknowledge accomplishments, from large to small. Finishing a long-delayed task or checking off a major project from your to-do list is satisfying in itself, but reminding yourself that all of your effort resulted in that completion, that you accomplished whatever it was you set out to do, is vital. It creates the feeling that ideas can become reality and is gives you strength as you attempt even more abitious tasks and goals.

The next time you accomplish something, give yourself some kudos!

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4 things I love about NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. The new website is up and running and you can sign up now to be one of hundreds of thousands of other people around the world who will attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

I'm not sure if their author buddy system is live yet, but if so, you can find me via my username: lbakerrabe. Add me as an author buddy so we can watch each other progress toward the finish line.

4 things I love about NaNoWriMo:

1. It's only a month long. Even though sometimes I wish NaNoWriMo was year round, having it come but once a year concentrates the creative and competetive juices that make doing it so rewarding.
2. The goal is simple. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a very specific goal, and pretty easy to track. It's also just about numbers and output, not about quality or something else subjective.
3. It puts my priorities into perspective. Writing is extremely important to me, but often I can persuade myself to trade writing time for work time or house cleaning time or watching 30 Rock time. In November, I'm better at putting writing first.
4. It's kind of silly. The people who come back for NaNoWriMo year after year and the ones who get a lot out of the whimsical online community that surrounds it and who don't take it too seriously. It might sounds stressful to write that much that quickly, but it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be an adventure, just like all art.

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Goals for Conference

The NAPO annual conference is this week in San Diego. I have never before attended and I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity to learn from and with my colleagues. Here are my personal goals for the conference:

1. Get enough sleep, eat a lot of vegetables and try to exercise once a day (they have a pool at the conference hotel). If I'm hungry and tired, I won't be as effective during conference hours.
2. Have meaningful conversations with some of the conference attendees, and make a point to follow up with them, rather than just gather tons of business cards and make no real connections.
3. Explore the Expo. I have heard that it can be difficult to carve out time to visit the part of the conference where companies have set up booths to share their products and services, but I know it's a valuable feature and I want to make a point to do it.
4. Have fun. I'm going to a Padres-Dodgers baseball game Friday night with my conference roommate and a bunch of organizers I've never met before. Networking and sports - love the combo. Go Dodgers!

I'll be back to report on all the conference details. Have an awesome week!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Checking in: Lelah's plants

So, I have good news and I have bad news. In January, I wrote about my goal of keeping some new plants alive this year. Well, the succulents were as hearty as advertised and seem to be thriving. Yay!

But, my rosemary bush burned to a crisp. I didn't water it enough and it was getting too much sun. It seemed like all of a sudden it just turned crispy and I tried to move it to a more shaded area and give it more water, but it was no use. Sad.

I'm not gifted with plant insight. However, I do feel that I have learned from this experience and would do a better job of tending a rosemary plant in the future, should I get up enough nerve to try it again.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Visualizing the year

Normally around this time of year I like to grab a big piece of paper and a pen and make a rambling list of everything I'd like to accomplish or do in the coming year. I refer to it for at least the first three months of the year, but as more and more things get crossed off, I put it away and rely more on short term to do lists. I also try to distill a few of my major goals into resolutions that I can also keep in the forefront of my mind so they don't fall between the cracks of every day life.

A portion from my vision board.

This year I will probably still make a large 2011 to-do list (I really can't help myself where lists are concerned), but in lieu of resolutions I sat down and made a vision board. Vision boards have been around for a long time; they are basically visual representations of our goals and dreams. Mine took the form of a colorful collage covered in pictures and words. I had no definite agenda when I was putting it together, I just selected items that I felt were right to have on there. I have heard over and over again from others who have made vision boards in the past that they didn't always know why they put a certain image or idea onto their board, but it would always come into their lives in some way or another afterward.

I like the idea of visualizing a year that is abundant with things that will make us healthy and happy, but I also like the fact that things will happen that we cannot foresee and yet will enrich out lives even more than the things we plan out to the letter.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

2010 resolutions in review

Last year at this time I made four resolutions for the new year. Here's what they were and how I did. 

• Refresh my apartment by de-cluttering and rearranging the space (even professionals have to make a point to do this once in while). I definitely did this quite a bit in my old apartment early on in the year. Then my husband and I took it once step further by moving in September to an entirely new space, which was really wonderful from a decluttering and use of space standpoint. Not only do we have more room in the new place, but more storage area and I no longer feel like we live in a closet, as in, living side by side with all our stuff all day. Here, we can put our stuff in drawers and cupboards and just live in the space. Plus, we got rid of tons of stuff during the move, which always feels nice.
• Learn about and use more of the features of my digital camera and look into editing the images in some kind of effects program. I did learn to use my digital camera quite a bit better, but I haven't experimented with editing my photos.
• Revise a piece of writing to a point where I'd let other people besides my sister read it. I did this, sort of. I finished and revised the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year, and let a few people (including my sister) read it. But, I have yet to revise a second time incorporating the readers' notes. But I still plan to...in 2011!
• Buy more produce from the farmer's market and less from Ralphs. This goal was successfully completed in the first half of the year, when I bought most of my produce from the farmer's market. After we moved, however, the fact that the closest farmer's market is on Thursday mornings, and the fact that we live very close to Whole Foods, with its expensive but gorgeous produce, has meant less farmer's market shopping for me.

Last year I wrote, "Even if we plan out the year and what we want to get done in it, there are still surprises along the way, and we may end up in a place in December that we couldn't have imagined in January." That is definitely true, as the year end finds me in a new apartment, with new goals for my business and wonderful new clients. I can't wait to see what next year brings.


Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Masahiro Ihara

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Goal setting: 30 minutes to greatness

Okay, I don't have a problem with goal setting, list making, calendaring or crossing things off my to do list. But I am the kind of person who likes to do all the little things on the list before tackling the larger ones. Also, as much as I value routine, I love variety. Lately, I've been looking at my large projects and goals in a different way. Of course, I know that breaking a large task into several smaller ones is a good approach and keep things from being overwhelming, but I didn't realize how much assigning a very low time limit to those smaller tasks would help me visualize getting them accomplished and motivate me. What do I mean by low time limit?

Here's an example. I have three large projects going on right now - one is related to the maintenance of my apartment, one is a creative project and one is related to my business. I want to make progress in all of these areas every day, on top of my client work, etc. I know from experience that doing a little bit every day adds up to something massive more quickly than you think, so I wasn't concerned about making giant progress in a single day. Instead, on each day I include the following on my to do list:

• do one thing on my apartment list
• work on creative project for 30 minutes
• either do one thing on my business project list or spend 30 minutes on one aspect of an item

The very low time commitment is enough to stop me from being overwhelmed by my task list. Also, one can do practically anything for 30 minutes. The bite size pieces keep me engaged in the projects because every day I'm doing something new - to a point where I've actually been looking forward to putting in my time on each and every one, each and every day. I don't even have to put on a timer for 30 minutes because I can sort of gauge my progress and often find myself motivated to work even longer. Now that I've been taking this approach for a while, I can see the work adding up, which is satisfying. 

This is all pretty common sense, but it really showed me that even if you are pretty good at getting stuff done - from the tiny to the massive - your systems always have room for improvement.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by R Stanek
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Checking in with resolutions

It’s February first and a good time to check in with resolutions made about a month ago. Have you made any progress with yours? Here’s a summary of mine and where I am a month in.

I have a little reminder sheet stuck to my calendar so my resolutions can be recalled at a glance.

Resolution: Refresh my apartment by de-cluttering and rearranging the space.

Progress: I have consistently decluttered this month, and consequently have about four bags and boxes of things (mostly books) waiting to exit my house for their new lives elsewhere. Rearranging of the space hasn’t happened yet, but it’s still a high priority and should get started in February.

Resolution:Learn about and use more of the features of my digital camera and look into editing the images in some kind of effects program.

Progress: Haven’t really done anything with this one yet.

Resolution: Revise a piece of writing to a point where I'd let other people besides my sister read it.

Progress: I’m in the process of finishing the book I started during NaNoWriMo last November. I’m about 13,000 words from the end, and once the first draft is done, I’ll be revising away!

Resolution: Buy more produce from the farmer's market and less from Ralphs.

Progress: This has been far and away the most successful. I’ve been to two different farmers markets three times this month, and have bought very little produce at Ralphs versus the markets. I’m looking forward to exploring some new markets in the next few weeks and am enjoying the fruits and vegetables greatly!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

My resolutions

The two biggest keys to making and accomplishing one's resolutions are specificity and accountability. The more specific you are about what you want to do, the easier it will be to name the steps needed to fulfill the resolution and the easier it will be to see if you've succeeded. Accountability speaks for itself. If you tell other people your resolution (such as writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days), you'll have a support system encouraging you to keep on the path to your goal, and you'll have the satisfaction of being able to show those people that you did it! So, in the interest of accountability, here is a recap of my 2009 resolutions and how I did with them, and a partial list of 2010 ones.

My 2009 resolutions were:

• Go camping
• Seek alternate headache treatments
• Sell a piece of writing
• Visit Griffith Park, Griffith Observatory and the LA Zoo

How did I do?

• I did not go camping, mainly because I don’t have a tent. But I realize that’s not a great reason, as I could have bought or borrowed one. I think I’m going to have to go with Gretchen Rubin and take this one off of my list, since this is the second consecutive year on there. As soon as I take it off, perhaps a way to do it will appear.
• I suffer from biweekly migraines. They have lessened in intensity this year because of some alternate treatments, mainly strong doses of black tea. The caffeine seems to help, but they haven’t gone away completely. I think that counts, though.
•  I did not sell a piece of writing. At the beginning of the year I thought I might start making my living from writing. Instead, I started my professional organizing business and have been writing as a creative project. Both choices have been great for my life. So I’m content with not having achieved this one as my priorites shifted and I accomplished so much more.
• I did go to Griffith Park and Griffith Observatory and while I didn’t go into the zoo, I parked in the parking lot there to do the LADWP Festival of Lights, so that counts, sort of.

My 2010 resolutions are:

• Refresh my apartment by de-cluttering and rearranging the space (even professionals have to make a point to do this once in while)
• Learn about and use more of the features of my digital camera and look into editing the images in some kind of effects program
• Revise a piece of writing to a point where I'd let other people besides my sister read it
• Buy more produce from the farmer's market and less from Ralphs

Of course, I've got a ton of other little and big things on my 2010 to do list, at this point mostly things I want to do to promote and expand my business and things involving my upcoming wedding. The beauty of ushering out an old year and beginning a new one is that it truly feels like anything is possible. Even if we plan out the year and what we want to get done in it, there are still surprises along the way, and we may end up in a place in December that we couldn't have imagined in January. What are some of your resolutions?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com