There will always be tasks to do, projects to complete, and calls, texts, or emails to return. These can be motivation drivers. However, they can also derail and de-motivate. You can burn out when you’re constantly doing and striving without breaks or spaciousness.

Do you feel overwhelmed by your to-do lists, incomplete projects, and things you ‘should’ be doing?

I’ve been there, as have many of my clients, family, and friends. Surprisingly, one antidote to doing too much is to slow down. This may seem counter-intuitive and a strange way to boost motivation. However, it’s not just about taking a break from your list.

Make time to savor life and engage in restorative activities that replenish your energy.

Savoring Life

What works will be different for each person. For me, savoring and slowing down include:

• Getting enough sleep

• Meditating

• Refusing to rush

• Going away and changing my environment

• Practicing yoga

• Spending time with family and friends

• Having alone time

• Journaling

• Showering

• Being on or near water

• Getting a massage or pedicure

• Eating juicy summer fruit

• Slowing sipping an iced coffee or tea

• Sitting in the sun

• Exploring new places

• Setting boundaries

• Leaning into and being present in the moment

A Japanese Concept

Do you know about yutori? According to DailyOM™, yutori is “a Japanese concept of spaciousness. It refers to slowing down to simply breathe, and savor life – intentionally creating space to relax and reflect without being under constant pressure.”

How would integrating yutori into your life benefit you?

Motivation Cycles

I’m a doer and a completer. I love setting goals and accomplishing them. The first six months of this year were especially active. And guess what? I needed a break from that intensity, which I knew the summer would bring. My pace is slower even though I’m still actively working with organizing clients and on several projects.

This summer, I intentionally created more space for restorative, nourishing activities in addition to work. My latest motivation-restoring adventures include going to the beach, exploring new museums, listening to live music, and eating a delicious treat.  

“Make time to savor life and engage in restorative activities that replenish your energy.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4 Ways to Restore Motivation

1. Being by the Sea

Waves in. Waves out. The sound of the ocean waves moving forward and backward along the sandy shore is soothing. The sun warms my skin as slight breezes and cool water prevent me from overheating. By the sea, there is no agenda, no lists to take care of. Time stretches as I wiggle my toes in the sand.

2. Exploring New and Old Places

My husband and I visited the Queens Museum and Flushing Meadow Corona Park this weekend.

The Queens Museum is located on the Flushing Meadow Corona Park grounds, where the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs were held. I was there 60 years ago for the World’s Fair and have spotty yet happy memories of going with my family.

Steve and I walked the grounds, marveled at the 700,000-pound stainless steel Unisphere, talked about our childhood World’s Fair memories, and were wowed by the Panorama, a scaled cityscape model of the five New York City boroughs.

The exploration didn’t end there. We ventured on to another area of Queens.

3. Learning and Listening

Our next stop was the Louis Armstrong House Museum. We had a wonderful tour of his house, explored the museum, and, in Armstrong’s garden, heard a fantastic jazz quartet with Jon-Erik Kellso playing the trumpet.

It reminded me how much I love hearing live music. I grew up in a house full of musicians. People were always playing, practicing, learning, teaching, composing, jamming, and performing. Watching and listening to musicians share their gifts is so joyful. I had a positive, visceral response to being outside and hearing live music.

Louis Armstrong lived his life with passion, purpose, and generosity. It was moving and inspiring to be in his space, hear stories about his life, and listen to musicians embodying this rich tradition of jazz music.

4. Eating a Delicious Treat

The exploratory day was completed by dinner at a fantastic local Italian restaurant in Queens. However, before dinner, we ate dessert. It’s fun to shake things up sometimes.

Steve brought me to the famous Lemon Ice King of Corona to get ices. I was so excited! What’s not to love about a cold, refreshing dessert? The hardest part was choosing which flavor to get. They have over 50 options, although lemon ice is their most popular. They don’t mix flavors but will let you try one before you decide.

I ended up choosing cantaloupe ice, which was amazing! Steve got chocolate, which was also delicious. After dinner, we almost returned for seconds but were too full. We’ll return another time.

Motivation needs to be cultivated. Slowing down, savoring life, having new experiences, and giving yourself a break from life’s pressures is a great way to do that. What helps you restore your motivation?

If you need help restoring motivation and getting organized, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Reaching your goals is possible, especially with support.

Does this sound familiar? Your list of things to do is growing. It’s getting so large that you feel overwhelmed.

While you want to get things done, you’re having trouble getting started. You’re unclear where to begin, and the overwhelm squashed your motivation.

This is a normal situation. I’ve been there, and so have many of my clients. I experienced it just this week. We returned from part one of a beautiful vacation in the Finger Lakes. Our only goals were to relax, have fun, and not work. Mission accomplished.

The shorter part of the vacation was at home, where we planned to do some work around the house. Talk about many projects to attend to—it’s a never-ending list.

By the third day, it was more challenging to get motivated to start working. I kept thinking about our time away and the joy we had kayaking daily on Song Lake. I wanted to go back.

One Simple Motivating Question

This got me thinking about something the wise coach, Cameron Gott, PCC, once said. When I studied with him during my Coach Approach training, he always asked the best questions. This particular question is excellent for motivation. He asked:

“What’s a quick completion?”

— Cameron Gott, PCC

I love this question because it encourages you to:

• Reframe your overwhelm.

• Get yourself in a doing mode.

• Focus on what can easily be accomplished.

• Feel motivated to do something.

How to Use the Motivating Question

When I asked myself, “What’s a quick completion?” it immediately helped me shift my focus and give attention to something I could easily do. What did I choose? I repotted a few new plants for the greenhouse. Taking action, moving my body, playing with dirt, and caring for the plants energized me.

Once that was done, I no longer felt overwhelmed. I was motivated to do more, so I:

• Created my six-month blog calendar

• Updated my Calendly scheduler

• Emptied the dishwasher

• Wrote this post

All items were easy to accomplish and quick to complete, except for the blog post, which took more time to write, edit, and format. However, once I engaged in doing and completing simpler tasks, I was ready to do something requiring more time and deeper concentration.

Reframe Completion

The other aspect to consider is redefining completion. Specific projects require many steps, and finishing them takes time. Instead, reframe completion as accomplishing one aspect, one single step, or any progress made.

Use Cam’s question to jumpstart motivation. It will help you to:

• Get unstuck.

• Experience the satisfaction of accomplishing something.

• Motivate you to do more.

What helps you get motivated to take action? Is there a question that encourages you to start? How can the “quick completion” question work for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

If you want to increase motivation, activate, or get organized, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Getting unstuck is possible, especially with support.

When you read “leisure time,” what thoughts come to mind? Are you thinking, “What leisure time? I don’t have any free time!” Does downtime feel absent from your life because you’re constantly working, stressing, and feeling overwhelmed? If so, you’re not alone.

In 2014, Brigid Schulte, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author, introduced “time confetti” in her book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. Time confetti refers to fragmented pieces of free time that happen during the day. These moments are too brief to be productive or meaningful, and they spoil the downtime we do have.

Time confetti are “short, unenjoyable moments that end up stressing us out rather than relaxing us.” Frequent interruptions are typically due to technology or multitasking. Even if a disturbance seems minor, it reduces the quality of time off, which can lead to a feeling of constant busyness without a sense of accomplishment.

What is the Antidote to Time Confetti?

Strategies to balance the effects of time confetti revolve around reducing distractions and valuing and creating larger blocks of leisure and downtime. Some of Schulte’s suggestions include:

• Identify where time gets spent

• Prioritize what matters, including more leisure activities

• Lessen digital distractions

• Stop multitasking

• Delegate and share household responsibilities

• Schedule and protect leisure time

• Shift perception of busyness and success

What Does Leisure Time Look Like?

Several years ago, I jotted down a list that I rediscovered recently called “Help for those who do too much.” What’s interesting is it doesn’t specify what not to do. Instead, it focuses on creating more time to enjoy life. The list is relevant to this discussion, so I included it.

Siblings - Tod Machover and Linda Samuels

Help For Those Who Do Too Much:

• Taking time off

• Biking

• Connecting with family

• Kayaking

• Going to the beach

• Sleeping

• Waking up naturally (no alarms)

• Losing track of time (no watches)

“Schedule and protect leisure time.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

In the spirit of leaning into more downtime, I reserved two full days of fun this past weekend, which was so welcome.

Intentional Leisure Time Activities

• Spending time with family

• Exploring Manitoga, the house, studio, and 75-acre woodland garden of the mid-century designer Russell Wright

• Having a picnic

• Celebrating Father’s Day with my husband (Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!)

• Going on a day trip

• Taking a scenic train ride in the Catskills (ice cream included)

Happy Father’s Day!

If your days and downtime are disjointed and overwhelming, gift yourself a present of being more intentional and protective of your leisure time. Eliminate distractions that disrupt your focus. Time is precious. Yes, we need to work and handle life’s necessities. We also need balance to the busyness and overwhelm that many of us feel. What helps you carve out downtime? What do you enjoy doing? What gets in your way? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

If you want help organizing your time so you can enjoy life more, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call.  A life including downtime and fun is possible, especially with support.

When you have a dream or a goal, do you wish it would happen instantly? You want to wave a magic wand, and poof, it’s done. However, most pursuits require time and commitment. A wand won’t get you there.

Patience has become a rare commodity in our fast-paced, always-on, readily accessible world. While you can find the answer to a question in seconds by doing a Google search, most aspects of life require a more substantial time investment.

When you make time to pursue what’s important, you will experience growth, changes, and feelings of satisfaction and joy.

Since time is limited, choosing what’s important to pursue is essential. Understanding and investing the time needed to ‘get there’ will help you focus on your goals. Several things happened recently related to investing time, which I’ll share with you.

5 Ways Prioritizing Your Time Can Lead to Growth and Change

1. Nurturing Time

A few weeks ago, my husband, Steve, and I were gifted three beautiful hydrangea plants. Steve prepared the bed where they would be planted before they could be dug in. It wasn’t easy work, but he did it. Thank you, Honey!

The plants will eventually grow to be about three feet tall. To flourish, they’ll need watering every few days. Each day, I check to see how they’re doing. If they need water, I drag out the hose to hydrate them. Seeing more new growth and bright blueish-purple blooms appear daily makes me happy.

With this investment of physical labor, water, sun, patience, and time, visible growth and change are happening before my eyes. What a gift.

The hydrangea is a literal example of how nurturing something brings growth and change. How can you adapt that idea to other aspects of your life? Time investing is the common denominator, but the nurturing agent will differ.

2. Virtual Organizing Time

I love working with my virtual organizing clients. They are wonderful people who are dedicated to pursuing their goals. It’s exciting to help them facilitate change and witness their growth.

Their changes are often noticeable by the end of their 60—or 90-minute sessions, but they don’t stop there. Growth and change continue weekly, monthly, and beyond. Regular accountability check-ins and tweaks help them stay on track. These shifts show up as changes in perspective, space, or feelings. Confidence and self-esteem improve, obstacles get removed, clutter is released, letting go happens, priorities are focused on, and achieving their goals becomes the norm.

I am so proud of my clients for investing in themselves, prioritizing what’s most important to them, and scheduling the time to pursue their goals one hour, day, and month at a time. Progress is noticeable when you make a time investment.

3. Workshop Time

One of my goals several years ago was to develop and sponsor my own Oh, So Organized! workshops. Creating and presenting was the easy part. Figuring out the technology, back-end stuff, and marketing felt daunting. I invested time and energy to bring this goal to fruition.

Since October 2022, I created, presented, and sponsored five Oh, So Organized! workshops. The most recent one, How to Let That Sh*t Go, was last week. What a great group we had! One section was about letting go of time-related things (distractions and boundaries) that aren’t serving you.

To reach my workshop goal, I had to overcome the fear of doing it wrong. Instead, I leaned on curiosity, experimentation, and my belief in continual learning. Each workshop taught me something new, helped me refine the process, and allowed me to remain open to change.

I’m grateful to the people who helped and encouraged me. While I invested time and resources, I could not have reached this goal alone.

I leaned on a people to . . .

• Listen to me, ‘think out loud’

• Share valuable insights

• Give advice

• Answer questions

• Provide technical support

• Broaden my understanding of options

• Troubleshoot

• Promote the workshops

• Participate in the workshops

• Provide feedback

Taking one step at a time, reaching out for help, and being willing to get it wrong led me to this point. Fear is no longer part of the equation. Instead, I’m excited for each new workshop. My next one will be this fall.

“Progress is noticeable when you make a time investment.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Professional Time

NAPO-NY Area Golden Circle Group - Back row (left to right): Karen Caccavo, Linda Samuels, Jocelyn Kenner - Front row (left to right): Susan Kranberg, Brenda Kamen, Andrea Bowser, Klara Carames, Amanda Wiss

In 1999, the then-president of the NAPO-NY chapter asked me if I’d be willing to start a NAPO Golden Circle Group for the New York area. She noticed that the veteran organizers weren’t participating as regularly in the chapter events and meetings. Her sense was that if we created an opportunity for the seasoned organizers to get together, it might reignite their engagement.

As I was already volunteering with NAPO Golden Circle nationally, developing and leading a local group interested me. Guess what? I said, “Yes.” We held our first meeting in April 1999 and continued to grow and lead the group for eight years.

The group has had many leaders since, and it’s still growing. I enjoyed attending the first in-person Golden Circle gathering since pre-pandemic this past weekend. My friend and colleague, Jocelyn Kenner, hosted us at her house. We shared advice, asked questions, ate, laughed, and invested time in each other, our businesses, and our industry. Based on the number of years in business, collectively, we had over 150 years of organizing knowledge and experience. Talk about a time investment!

I wouldn’t have guessed that the volunteer time given and the commitment I made 25 years ago would still be producing fruit. I am grateful for all the leaders and members who have kept this group growing and thriving.

5. Big Goal Time

Then there are those big, audacious goals. Some remain as ideas and dreams, while others manifest. When I was very young, one of my big goals was to have my own business. While I dabbled in many things from an early age, it wasn’t until January 1993 (over thirty years ago) that I launched my organizing company, Oh, So Organized! Without investing my time, money, and sweat equity, I wouldn't be here now.

Recently, I had the joy of being interviewed by the fabulous Janet Barclay about my organizing background, educational journey, and organizing industry growth. Our conversation reaffirmed my belief that big goals can happen. You will reach your big goals using small blocks of time and focusing on your priorities.

What have you noticed about your time investments? What types of goals have you realized? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

If you want help organizing your time so you can reach your goals, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call.  A life focused on what matters most is possible, especially with support.