100 Things That Make Me Happy Besides Money

I’ve almost become addicted to it. It all started with StumbleUpon and me stumbling upon LifeOrganizers.com. I started leaving the site up in my browser at home. I’d read a few articles everyday.

And it infected me. Slowly at first, but now, two years later, organizing and maintaining that organization has become a part of my life. It makes my happy, it makes my life run smoothly, and it makes me want to find more ways to organize the other areas of my life that aren’t organized yet.

Plus, as my life changes (which happens every semester), my system has to be adapted. So it’s fun to modify my current system to the new semester, the new courses, the new demands.

I also enjoy reorganizing a cluttered space: home office drawers, messy bookshelf, kitchen cabinets that are over-stuffed, or the purse that’s become unusable because there’s so much crap in it.

My latest task is my email inbox. I love Gmail because the conversation view changed the way I processed email messages. The filters are great for auto-sorting and filing. I have set it to check all of my other necessary accounts (like work and webmaster accounts) so I don’t have to. I love the sleek design and intuitiveness of the controls. But those features only help the onslaught of emails to a certain extent. Since February, I’ve been trying to figure out how to respond to all the email I receive in a timely manner, how to keep track of the emails I need to keep track of (by moving them to my ToDo list or calendar, or labeling and archiving them). I tried Zero Inbox during March and April, but once the semester started, I didn’t have the processing time each day. Which means I’m currently trying to figure out the process that works for me and my mind. I’m getting there, but I still get behind in my emails. Maybe I need a 9-to-5? Teaching is so variable that it is hard to change a good routine once you’ve found one!

Time is harder to organize for me than physical space. Even so, I like organizing.