NEAT & SIMPLE LIVING

Visit me on my new home at ArianeBenefit.com - AgiliZen is Born!

  I've moved to
 www.ArianeBenefit.com!

December 2012

 

 

   

What is AgiliZen?

 

AgiliZen is trusting in your personal agility, habits and systems, so that you can RELAX, guilt and pressure-free, and feel confident the most important things will get done.

 

It requires strong Agile Self-Leadership and Advocacy skills and SMART goal setting strategies that encourage and nurture optimal performance.  

 

If you are suffering from chronic overwhelm, cultivating your personal agility, decision-making habits, and systems to fit your personal strengths and preferences may be just what you need.   

 

 

AgiLiZen offers unconventional people a new way to think about our organic, natural and improvisational lifestyles.  Instead of describing our different way of living as chaotic, messy or out of control, we use AgiliZen to harness the strengths that come with being highly sensitive, adaptable, intelligent, open-minded, innovative and flexible.   

 

Thinking of ourselves as great "agilizers" rather than as "disorganized" is about taking advantage of our strengths as "creative problem solvers" who are better at thinking on our feet than at doing routine, repetitive tasks.  Agilizing makes the most of our preference for doing things "as needed" rather than on a schedule. 

 

 
We do NOT have to live a "scripted" well-organized life to make a difference in the world.

We love constantly improving and making things better...

We thrive on exploring new ideas, learning and evolving...

 

We can't easily order ourselves around,
we crave flexible leadership - NOT tight control. 

 

We have a natural aptitude for rising to the occasion as needed.   

 

We were
 BORN TO AGILIZE!

 

Sound like you? Visit my new website and let's get started! 

 

 

See you at www.ArianeBenefit.com!

 

It's official! Neat & Simple Living Blog is winding down...but it has had a baby!

It's official!

 My exploration of Neat & Simple Living has evolved into Agile Living, Work Design and Productivity!   This blog is six years old and rather than move it, I decided to just leave it here and start fresh.  

The new blog is called "Becoming Agile"   and lives on my new website www.arianebenefit.com.

Sharing the love: Could you use a little salt in your soup today?

Efforts, no matter how small or disappointing, are the ingredients of every accomplishment. Just like a little salt in a soup makes a big impact and can take it from bland to inspiringly delicious, a little acknowledgement of even your smallest efforts (even if they don't work out as planned) can go a LONG way to encouraging you to keep trying.  

A little acknowledgement of your efforts, and simultaneously ignoring your disappointments, is like adding salt to the "soup" of behavior change. Acknowledgement and positive feedback make all the efforts feel better, AND that is what inspires you to keep going and take another step.  

Every expression of noticing that you tried, MATTERS.  

Each little note of support and encouragement counts. I feel  inspired to keep going in spite of all the things I did not accomplish while I’ve been sick, because I took the time to give myself some credit for any little thing that I DID get done.   

Read the rest of this article here.

p.s Neat & Simple Living is evolving! It's six years old and it's time to graduate to a new platform - in both technology and mission!  Instead of moving this blog, I'm just going to let it rest here for a while as the new home is being decorated. I've already done the initial move, and by January 2012 ALL of my new work is going to be published on www.arianebenefit.com.

 

 

 

Where do I start?

An updated version of this article is now posted at:

 

http://arianebenefit.com/blog/2015/03/02/deciding-how-to-get-started/

What's the best way to help a child organize?

 

With back to school season upon us, this is the time of year I get lots of inquiries from parents about their kids and organizing.

A reader recently emailed me this question:

 

Hi Ariane,

Do you work with children? I have a friend who recently asked:

I was wondering if you help children learn how to be more organized. My daughter had an auditory delay which affects other aspects of her life, especially organization. I'm working on it and wondered if you had any suggestions.

__________________________________________________________

My Response: 

Life Lessons - The 8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself - Part 2

One of the things I love about my backyard is how my garden is constantly teaching me how to be in flow - in a more healthy relationship with myself.  My backyard garden is a LOT like me. Like my garden, I do not respond well to being pressured, punished, bribed or overly scheduled. I love spending time in my garden because my garden gets me.  My husband says I have a green thumb - I think its just that I am in tune with the rhythms of my garden. 

Review Commitment 1

 

A Simple Mid-Year Financial Review Process - Keeping Our Relationship with Money Honest and Healthy

This weekend, my husband and I invested time in a Mid Year Financial Review - a Money Check In. Several times a year we review our finances and adjust as needed to feel confident that funds are available for all of our needs.

Some people call it budgeting...I call it keeping my relationship with money healthy and HONEST.

I posted a status on my Facebook page that I was doing this and my new friend Ian Garlic who I met at the Book Breathrough NYC Conference Last week asked me about our Process.  So I thought I'd blog about it!

Here's our " Money Check-up" process in a nutshell.  

IDEAS WORTH SHARING: Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and more

This book is just too juicy not to share! A great tool for deepening your self-understanding and hopefully, your self-compassion.

We are all so very human...and mistakes are part of the package. We can't change that.

All we can change is how we look at our mistakes and how we use them to navigate our lives.

The Book :Why We Make Mistakes

The Blog: http://whywemakemistakes.blogspot.com/

by Joseph T. Hallinan 

 

Yours in the quest for complete acceptance of your mistakes and my own.

Ariane : )

 

Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average By Joseph T. Hallinan

 

Life Lessons - The 8 Commitments of a Healthy Relationship with Yourself - Part 1

We have lived in our home for 10 years and this year our "big" project is paying attention to our backyard and giving it the loving care it needs to be 'restored to glory"  : )   One of the things I love about my backyard is how my garden is constantly teaching me how to be in flow - in a more healthy relationship with myself.  My backyard garden is a LOT like me. Like my garden, I do not respond well being pressured, punished, bribed or overly scheduled. I love spending time in my garden, because, my garden gets me.  My husband says I have a green thumb, I think its just that I am in tune with the rhythms of my garden. 

This weekend I was inspired to start a series of lessons I've learned.  I'm going to share them with you a little at a time instead of posting a huge long post.  

So here is Part 1.

 

Super Simple F*R*EE Productivity Tool: Online Mindfulness Timer Enhances Time Awareness

If you tend to lose track of time like I do, timers are an awesome strategy.  But you have to remember to set them.  With this tool...you just set up the interval and it goes off regularly for as long you want! Plus you can set up more than one interval and more than one sound.  

It's called a "mindfulness bell'.  The timer is really meant to chime to stop and take deep breaths, but you can set it to chime every 15 minutes or hour or whatever.

It works on your computer so

• There is nothing you have to do or buy. 
• No equipment taking up your desk space.  
• Just set up a book mark on your Quick Links bar  and CLICK.  
• If you have a laptop, it travels with you!  No need to remember to pack a timer. 

This is a clip of a portion of the screen.  Could it be any simpler?  : ) 

 

I'm in love with this as a supplement to the 8+ timers I have all over my home : )  It helps me be more mindful of the time that is passing while I am on the computer or on the phone.  Hope it is useful to you, too.

http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/bell/index.html  

There is a similar bell at:  http://www.fungie.info/bell

 ________________________________________________________________

"Enhancing your ability to make a difference in the world starts with
enhancing your relationship with yourself."

________________________________________________________________

The Power of Thinking Small: What could you do with just 2 minutes to make a difference in your productivity?

The power of Quantum Productivity is all about the smallest thing you could do to turn "drains into gains." So let's start with the idea of 2 minutes.  Two minutes is a lot longer than most people realize...and it's much easier to wrap your brain around in every way.

For me, thinking small is my secret power weapon for outsmarting procrastination.  I use it every day to help me get started doing all kinds of stuff I tend to procrastinate about.

For example: If I'm resisting taking a walk, or making breakfast, or answering email, or whatever.  I say things to myself like:

 

"okay...try it for 1 or 2 minutes - then you can stop if you can't really get into it."  

 

For me, it's critical to include giving myself permission to stop because it takes some of the pressure off.

Once the pressure is off, I truly don't mind doing things as much. It's like my resistance just melts.  Kinda like when a guy takes you out on a date and stops pressuring you for the kiss, right?  Once the pressure is off, you get more in the mood.  hmmm...think about that.   : )

I may be a freak, but it really works for me and for most people who, like me, tend to put too much pressure on ourselves and then shut down.  : ) 

With the pressure off, I usually do more than I intended and then feel better about myself in many ways.  Doing MORE instead of less than I intended to actually gets me more energized, feeling more optimistic, and then I'm ready to tackle even more challenging tasks.  

So yes.  I'm going to stand up to all those people who tell you to do the challenging stuff first and offer another way to look at things.  I'm not saying they are wrong, but it's only one possible strategy.  It may work for them, but

Designed to Change: Putting the FUN Back in Functional Organizing - Want a real taste of this webinar no charge? Learn how...

I gave an 8 hour Video Webinar Workshop for clients only in March on

"Designed to Change: How to put the FUN back in Functional!"

 

I'm so excited about how this video webinar produced results for the 12 participants that I'm considering doing it again.

In the meantime, I would love your feedback on one tiny piece of the program -  My new model of a more creative approach to organizing for people with unpredictable frequently changing lives.

 

 

There are several more photo clips posted in my Facebook Album  Please click Like or leave a comment to let me know what you think : ) 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this! 

 

Realizing Your Potential - Agile Performance Development and Facilitations Strategies for Gifted, ADHD, Creative, Neurodiverse

 If you were inspired and had a customized game plan, would more of your potential be realized?

This is a question that performance coaches help clients think through and strategize every day.  The truth is that managing life as a gifted, ADD or highly creative neurodiverse person is a performance development and facilitation challenge.

When you have a high-speed, highly sensitive, idea spewing brain (like mine) getting things done is not an easily controllable process. It's one that needs to be