I’ve been going through the various stages of post-election grief and I know a lot of you are doing the same. When I find that the world around me is too much, too chaotic, or too overwhelming for me, there is one thing that usually distracts and/or makes me feel better. I organize something. Organizing gives me control over a small corner of my world, control that I don’t feel I have elsewhere. Especially now, I’m leaning on organizing hard as I try to make sense of what’s going on in the U.S. right now. Here’s what I’ve been doing and I hope this may help you too.
Organizing Things
A decade ago or so I had another blog about minimalism, called Minimalist in DC (it’s long gone now, but it was a fun one). My goal was to get rid of and sell as much as I could so I had a cushion of $10k cash that would allow me to stop working full-time. As working parents, I feel like we all want an out at some point. To dos builds up around you until you reach a breaking point. Getting rid of stuff was therapeutic for me. It brought me a healthy, productive feeling in my personal life and the lack of clutter made me feel calmer every day.
Organizing can be therapeutic.
I never did sell $10k worth of stuff, but I did train myself to stop buying crap I didn’t need (which has probably saved me many times that much in the years since). I did get rid of a lot using all kinds of techniques. Marie Kondo’s method of asking yourself if an item brings you joy is my favorite “de-owning” trick. It helps you cut back a lot deeper without regret. I found kindred spirits like Kondo, Josh Becker, The Minimalists, and Greg McKeown, who taught me that a simple life is a great life. I ended up moving from a four-bedroom house into a two-bedroom apartment. And let me tell you, that freedom from stuff and from house maintenance led to one of the best times of my life.
Digital Organization
A few years ago, I felt overwhelmed by work and an app notification popped up on my phone that pushed me over the edge. It was from an app I never used and it didn’t deserve to be interrupting my already overloaded day. None of the app notifications did. I went on a rampage then. First, deleting apps I didn’t use, then turning off as many notifications as I could. I felt better both during and afterwards. Much better. I had taken control back from my phone and that felt GOOD.
Right now, I’m going through my photos on Google Photos and getting rid of the duplicates and the ones I don’t need. It’s not only helping me feel less cluttered, but it’s helping me remember what a good life I have. In the past three months, I’ve seen friends, traveled, and spent quality time with my kids. The gratitude is helping me get through this period too.
Organizing People
Out of the ashes of my broken hopes and dreams for this country is spawning something much more important: the need to organize. There are some very real rights threatened right now. Rights that I’ve taken for granted for most of my life. Women’s rights, for one. The right for my kids to go to school safely and free of gun violence. LGBTQ+ rights. We won’t get these back without working together.
I’m quite happy to say that I joined the board of a new non-profit called Freedom from Gun Violence. It’s mission is to find the places where Democrats and Republicans actually agree (yes, we do agree on things) and make progress in those areas first. We’re about to make the non-profit official so more on this to come. Just being on the call talking about our mission and goals this week with my fellow board members was helpful. I walked away feeling far more optimistic than I had in days.
My next step is to find the right organization for Women’s Rights where I can sink a bunch of my time and talents. I’ve always felt so strongly about women’s equality and we’ve taken a giant step backwards in the last couple of years. I fear it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I want to be there to lessen the blow and then get us moving well beyond where we were pre-2022.
Organizing Thoughts
I’ve noticed that journaling before bed helps me sleep better. It allows me to get pesky thoughts running through my head out onto paper where they seem to get trapped, leaving room in my brain for pleasant dreams. Journaling is an incredibly helpful way to also organize your thoughts. Reviewing your journal will help you retrospect in ways that allow you to move forward faster and with greater purpose. If you’re struggling right now, journaling can be a very easy way to start the healing process. I don’t do this as much as I’d like, but I do keep a notebook by my bed for those nights when I feel particularly overwhelmed.
Another place I tend to organize my thoughts is through coaching. I’ve had a life coach for many years and I believe in the coaching process deeply. The truth is, we all have ideas that we’d like to move forward, but we don’t often carve out the time for ourselves to get organized. I find my time with a coach is my time to do just that. I can throw ideas against a wall, consider questions from my coach I never thought about, and start to make plans to execute on them.
I’ve found that since having a coach, the number of life goals I’ve been able to achieve has skyrocketed. I ran the Madison Marathon in 2021, I finished my book in 2023, and I quit my high-stress job as a tech executive this May and semi-retired early to travel and spend more time with my family. I credit coaching with helping me achieve these life goals faster than I would have otherwise. If you’re interested in coaching my husband, Graham Callis, is a life coach. He uses storytelling to help people move forward. Brandon Lambert at Skyverence has been my coach for years as well. If you’d like an introduction to either one, please contact me.
Simplify & Organize for Happiness
So, if you, like me, are struggling right now, I hope I’ve given you some ideas for how to cope. Grab something small and organize it. Whether it be something in your digital life or physical life, it doesn’t take much. I always find that I feel much better afterwards.
