Over the years I’ve had a lot of clients who like to ask about where they stand in relation to my other clients:

“Do other clients have as much paper as I do?”

“Do other clients have you in their lives for as long as I have?”

“Do other clients hold onto as many newspapers as I do?”

On YouTube, my video Minimalism Tutorial 4: The Sweater With Sentimental Value has a reply by someone who was struggling to donate some very sentimental Irish wool sweaters. As I was writing my reply to her, I had a new idea on how to more easily let go of this type of thing.

It used to be that when someone died, the loved ones were able to rummage through drawers and files to locate records and account numbers for the myriad of important matters to address. Difficult as that may be, it was do-able.

Fellow Organizer Amanda Jefferson in Philadelphia recently wrote a blog post that I immediately wanted to share with you (and add to my arsenal of questions I ask my clients). In Would you wait in line 30 minutes for that, Amanda says:

2016 was apparently a good year for insights on productivity. Fast Company’s 2016 article Why Saying This Four-Letter Word Can Transform Your Productivity continues to be a favorite of mine. Let’s face it: productivity (and the feared lack thereof) evokes an emotional response.

Confession: The Guardian’s 2016 article Why Time Management is Ruining Our Lives by Oliver Burkeman was an open tab on my iPad for probably 4 months. The funny thing is, within a week of mustering the courage to close that unread article, Organizers starting buzzing about it on the NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) list serve. I couldn’t escape it.