Feng Shui for the Lazy Woman

Recently I attended a workshop on Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of placement in order to achieve harmony, comfort and balance. Now, as a busy professional woman, I realized I needed a system to keep track of my events, private appointments and ever-expanding ‘To Do’ list, so I decided to apply what I learned about Feng Shui to the pile of clutter that I call my office. So, on the advice of the workshop leader, I purchased a day planner – my very first! When it arrived, I felt something akin to what I suppose those who discovered the Rosetta Stone felt. I had in my hands the key to unlock the mysteries of my disorganization. Harmony, comfort and balance were soon to be mine!

Now, my day planner is not one of those run-of-the-mill day planners that you might find in any stationary or office products store. Good heavens, no! This is a top-of-the-line day planner, one so worthy of my use, that it comes with a recommendation for a $500 week-long course just to learn all its secrets. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that my day planner is not going to solve my mounds of paper and I agree. My hope was that it would prevent future mounds from forming and eventually that I’d whittle down the existing paper explosion to a manageable set of files. Well, it’s been three months now and my day planner and I have yet to bond. Part of the problem is that it arrived with a stack of pages easily four times the size of the actual book. It arrived with its own little mound of paper – another stack to go on top of the stacks.

It’s a little daunting when you can’t fit the contents of your day planner into the day planner itself. Plus I’m not really sure why I would use all those pages. I’m a simple kind of person. I wanted my day planner to free me from the various little bits of paper on which I write phone numbers, appointments, ideas for my writing, things I have to pick up at the store, and so on. In my mind I envisioned a really nice calendar with room enough to write notes to myself in the margin. I wanted something with training wheels and I somehow purchased the Tour de France professional racing model.

I recently took my day planner to one of those networking events where everyone chats briefly, hands off business cards, makes appointments and moves on; all the while munching on tasty hors d’oeuvres and sipping glasses of wine. I have to caution against balancing a chardonnay in one hand while trying to open your day planner and extract a business card with the other. I’m hoping my potential business contacts secretly wanted chardonnay-drenched cards handed off with gooey fingers and mumbled apologies about my lack of dexterity.

After those experiences, I stationed myself throughout the event at the only free table in the room so I could manage the complex physical act of socializing while eating, drinking and networking. My approach was like the octopus that makes a home in the rocks and just hopes that something swims by that he can grab. Networking protocol, however, frowns upon grabbing at events – gabbing, fine; grabbing, no. So, unless you happened to swim by my table as you cruised the ocean floor, you missed the opportunity to meet me and my wonderful day planner. It’s clearly your loss!

My day planner also comes filled with lovely artwork and inspirational quotes on each page. Here’s one of my favorites: “When was the last time you took a pack of colored pencils or crayons and doodled?” asks Karen Cross at the top of one of my calendar pages. Well, doodling is what got me into this mess! I doodle, draw, kvetch, procrastinate and just plain waste a whole bunch of time – it’s the creative soul’s process. Doodle in my day planner? I think not.

Here’s another one: “Take a personal day on Friday and don’t go to the dentist or run errands – sleep in and only do very ‘chill’ things such as window shopping, reading magazines at your favorite café, and scribbling in your journal.” This advice comes from someone named Hailey Klein. Who are these people!!??! As a writer who works from home and makes her own schedule, every day is a personal day for me. My day planner it seems would have me sipping mocha lattes, happily eroding my tooth enamel, while doodling to my heart’s content – still disorganized but having a heck of a good time along the way.

All is not hopeless, however. I have taken the advice of a management consultant friend who introduced me to the really mini Post-it® stickums. Now I write my little notes to self on my mini Post-it® papers (in various colors depending on degree of urgency) and slap them in the appropriate month of my regular calendar. When the item is done, I toss the Post-it®. If it’s something I need to keep (like a new phone number) I devote some time each week to transcribing the information into my computer – digital files instead of paper. Organization at last!!

Oh, and at those pesky but sometimes necessary networking events? Now I just have a small purse holding my business cards that I can drape over my shoulder while drinking and cavorting with new contacts. When I get home I put all those cards in a nice, decorative bowl and then, after about a month, I throw them out to make room for next month’s batch. Comfort, harmony and balance at last! Now, if you know anyone who needs a really pricey day planner . . . .