I confess, I have lived by the schedule, inflexible and rigid. Therefore, rereading “How I learned to flex my schedule” that I wrote in 2005 caused me to reflect and take note to how flexible I’ve become, to an extent
Organized Behavior
The day I found the news article “How I learned to flex my schedule” with my profile in the top corner, I smiled. It was 2005. I worked as an editor for the Millbrook Roundtable (now defunct) and one of my responsibilities consisted of writing a column. A monthly column shared by several editors of the Taconic Press—the media holding company. When my turn surfaced, terror struck me because all the editors read and critiqued the printed piece. Subscriber feedback could be thumbs up or thumbs down. Some editors wrote about movies, or what was happening in their town, while others wrote about personal heartbreak and betrayal. I remember one of the editors wrote about the betrayal of his parents when they got divorced. All the other editors and reporters lamented over his loss and his anger. I didn’t want to get that personal; yet, I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. I’m having that same sensation now writing this post. But I pushed through. I thought about what I was most passionate about and that passion involved my organizational habits.
It’s 2018 and I’m still obsessed with my organizational behavior as well as the organizational behavior of those around me. For example, I text my eldest daughter a list of goals for self-care. She loves what she does as a graphic designer; works more than she plays and forgets about self-care. A gentle reminder: get eyebrows threaded, make a hair appointment, get Mani-Pedi, buy yourself something special, and make a list.
When I first starting dating my husband, I noticed he had two different calendars. Immediately I understood why he was overbooked. I instigated advising him to use one calendar for work, church, and personal. Of course, he hemmed and hawed but eventually, he came over to my side of the world. With the Tiny Calendar app, he remains faithful to IOS and me to Google, thus Tiny Calendar combines both our calendars. No more overbooking.
I’ve been an unconscious organizer since high school when I worked part-time in my mother’s beauty salon as a gopher. I swept the floor and removed endpapers from the rollers. I’m sure the rollers struck a nerve because they needed to be organized by color. Many of the cosmetologists just tossed the rollers around their trays. And let me not forget the shampoo station. Oh my, why weren’t those bottle in order according to size, combs, and brushes in barbacide.
My mother’s best friend, Barbara Lawyer, also attributed to my organizational habits with her highly organized purse—small purses inside of purses and a small purse for cosmetics, pens, letters. Guess what, my purse looks exactly like that, now.
One weekend, I was visiting my other daughter—the twenty-one-year-old. She looked inside my purse and said, “Mom another purse inside.” She turned to her friend and said, “My mom has a purse inside a purse.”
“Does she know what’s inside those purses?” Her friend asked.
I said, “It’s like a Russian Nesting doll. Inside the larger chartreuse zipper bag is a red rectangular bag and a small canvas bag. The red bag holds pens and a moleskin journal. The small canvas bag holds my checkbook, a pen, and coupons and a set of church keys. The chartreuse bag also holds excess papers I collect through the day that need to file.”
They both looked at each other. “At least she knows what’s in the bag.”
My daughter said, “Where are your keys, Mom.”
The front pocket of the leather purse.
“She’s right.” My daughter took the keys and jumped into the driver’s seat.
For more than twenty-three years, I’ve been working on organizing a more proficient and effective way to function. I’ve learned methods, techniques, and habits from varied people, books, workshops, and classes.
As an undergrad, my favorite class was Organizational Behavior where I learned to make list on index cards and pair the to-do list with my pocket calendar. I wrote down things I had to do; however, the most important aspect was where to keep the list for easy access. The Organizational Behavior Professor kept his index card in the shirt pocket, left the side. At first, I kept my list in the back pocket of my jeans. However, I didn’t always wear jeans. Afterward, I slipped the index cards inside the plastic cover of the pocket calendar.
As years progressed, I had organizational experiences with Franklin Time Management, Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Effective People, The Fifteen Minute Organizer, and Dave Allen’s Getting Things Done, and countless how to get organized articles.
I confess I have lived by the schedule, inflexible and rigid. Therefore, rereading the editor’s column “How I learned to flex my schedule” that I wrote in 2005 caused me to reflect and take note of how flexible I’ve become, to an extent. Then I maintained a highly organized schedule. Then I toted a Pocket PC, rarely double-booked appointments and planned every hour of the day, every day of the week and week of the month and month of the year. I even had a reading schedule, how many pages per day to complete a book.
I wrote the article in 2005 because a friend had a dilemma about a job, she would eventually decline. The job entailed her working for a department head who was highly over organized. She simply didn’t want to function as in a microcosm of organization: list making, calendar scheduling, and note-taking. Yet, this is my life and I have fun with it.
In 2016, I had fun making a list during my courtship. The list went something like this:
once engaged,
set a date,
secure a preacher,
write vows,
make a guest list,
design invitations,
send invitations,
create favors,
get photographer,
book date to taste cake,
get DJ, create a music list,
get a wedding dress, try on mom’s wedding dress,
buy shoes, earrings, a gift for the groom, and Thank You cards.
We eloped a month before the original date, which was changed twice from December 18 to December 24. And the list made our elopement happen smoothly as well as the wedding reception with one week’s notice. Something I would normally not do. The entire time I’m planning the reception, I say to my husband, “Four weeks is proper planning etiquette.” He laughs and everything goes forward within one week.
I’ve finally learned how to be flexible and go with the eleventh hour of planning despite my organized behavior.