I’ve been vacationing on Corfu lately. My nightly trip to a remote Greek island has been the perfect antidote for this land-locked, travel-free year. Have you discovered The Durrells in Corfu? (affiliate link). If you loved Downton Abbey (new movie coming out this Christmas!!!), chances are good that you’ll love meeting the Durrells. Thank goodness I’m disciplined enough to only watch one episode a night. It’s been a lovely few weeks on the island, which I’m still dreaming about even after finishing all four seasons. It appears that after 15 months of lockdown and schooling-at-home, I needed a wee break.
France recently announced that Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 would be allowed to visit France again as early as this summer. Sadly, I won’t be in that group, but I enjoy my escapes with the free online magazine, The Good Life France, written by Janine Marsh, a Brit who’s been restoring a house in a small village in Northern France for years.
I’ve also “returned” from two industry conferences that take place every year. Usually I travel to The Photo Managers’ conference and also the annual NAPO conference (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals), but this year the days-long Zoom meetings on back-to-back weeks had me glued to my office chair. I’ve always found it hard to synthesize all the great classes into a blog post, as some are classes only an organizer could love. 🙂 One highlight was teaching a half-day Learning Lab for business owners called Forms, Templates, and Checklists to Keep You Sane. I designed it for small businesses of 1-10 people to help them identify, develop, deploy, and maintain time-saving and productivity-improving forms and automation in their business. Sexy, right? If this sounds like something your business or networking group needs, please get in touch.
As usual, conference added to my reading list. Traction by Gino Wickman is a current darling of the small business consulting world, and where you can find more on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). I was already reading Mac Unlocked by David Pogue to help me with the subtleties of the Big Sur operating system updates on Apple. It’s rare when I don’t also have some behavioral psychology or neuroscience books on rotation, and that’s what I getting with Calm Clarity: How to Use Science to Rewire Your Brain for Greater Wisdom, Fulfillment, and Joy.
I want to say a special thanks to my local bookstore, Main Point Books, for keeping me safely supplied with books during the pandemic. I hope you, my readers have been supporting your local indie bookstore, too. I’ve probably bought more books this last year than in the last three combined. (Remember, you can order any of the SORT and Succeed books from your local independent book store, even if they aren’t on the shelf.)
A whole day on the couch to read this lovely, completely unexpected book called West With Giraffes: A Novel was my Mother’s Day treat to myself. It’s billed as an emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America. There are so many touchpoints of loss and the triumph of humanity that ring familiar today in 2021. The tale of crossing America from coast-to-coast was surprisingly full of white-knuckled action, too! Maybe it will inspire you to head to your nearest zoo this summer, where you can try out my tips for taking excellent keepsake photos at the zoo.
As I read on Instagram the other day, when you are tired (exhausted?), rest, but don’t quit. There’s so much talk and research about mental health care and self-care right now. I hope you’ve found activities that keep you grounded, give you pleasure, and bring the world a bit closer even during social distancing. I’ve been thinking a lot of how organizing isn’t something that I have to do, but in fact, it’s often a form of self-care for me. When I make time to arrange my clothes and books, when I come home to a lovely kitchen, when I can find everything I need easily in my organized home office and take care of my clients and family, then things look rosier and feel better, for sure.
If you haven’t found your perfect mix of self-care yet, borrow my magic potion of travel (if only by proxy), pleasure reading, a cat to snuggle, and of course, organizing. Even better if you can combine a few of your loves, which is easy to do when it comes to cats and organizing bins!
I hope you have a lovely week, wherever you are in the world. Sending light and love (and organizing mojo) to you.
