April was my month off from my practice. To stand at the precipice
on the mountain of experienced VA and ask what’s over there? I’d like to go find out! My journey has been rewarding,
relaxing, and renewing. It was also my month to organize. Uh oh!

I did organize my physical surroundings: my desk drawers and
cubbys plus my bedroom closet. I also gave a huge box of books, which I’d
outgrown, to the Friends of the Library. Oh, that was a learning streeeeetch
for me!

Feature-logo The part I procrastinated was organizing on the computer. I
have a HUGE list: My documents, past client files, my favorites under a dozen
folders in Firefox, not to mention my photos which are a haphazard disaster.
Every time I sat down to begin I would get distracted by something else on the
computer. I procrastinated all month—it was too overwhelming and I didn’t know
where to start.

I vented to my hubby. He had noted how well my new activity
cards were working for me! With his prodding I wrote the name of each folder or
individual task on a slip of paper. I folded them up and put them in a cup. At
a ‘down’ point in my day my DH brought me the cup and a timer. I would pick a piece paper
out of the cup and set the timer for 15 – 45 minutes, whatever I had space for, and GO. I’ve dipped
into the cup three times this week and have cleared out three Favorites folders
in Mozilla, there were hundreds of favs that I hadn’t been to in years. I feel
lighter and freer and motivated to dip into the cup again!

My task cup reminds me of the scene in 2012 where Lama Rinpoche
tells Nima as he fills Nima’s cup of tea to overflowing:  Like
this cup, you are full of opinions and speculations. To see the light of
wisdom… you first must empty your cup.

I also downloaded the audio book Getting Organized in the Google Era: How to Get
Getting organized Stuff Out of   Your Head,
Find it When You Need It, And Get it Done Right by Douglas Merrill (former
Google CIO). It will support my paperless direction and covers cloud computing
and becoming more familiar with Google Apps. After several frustrating glitches
I successfully synched my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar today—task
by task I am emptying my cup.

How full is your cup? What’s your emptying strategy? Do you
sip away at it or pour it out and refill it to the brim?