A quote for the day: But above all, meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule. An organization in which everybody meets all the time is an organization in which no one gets anything done. Wherever a time log shows the fatty degeneration of meeting — wherever for instance, people in an organization…
Category Archives: Books
NAPO-LA announces Organizing Awards finalists
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC The Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers has announced the finalists for the 2009 Los Angeles Organizing Awards. This program — which has been getting bigger and “glitterier” every year since it began in 2006 — now features celebrity hosts, red-carpet photo ops,…
Planning: try a change of place
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC While you’re working on your plans for 2009, make use of the creative juice available by putting yourself in a new space. Here’s an exercise to accomplish it: On a fresh sheet of paper, make a list of everything you’d like to be, do and have during…
Announcing February's SF coaching book
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC In October I requested recommendations for a book to share with the San Francisco coaches-and-friends book group. Several people, including authors, offered wonderful suggestions (see below for more good reads), making it excruciating to choose just one book. But choose we must, so here it is: If…
Book Group in San Francisco Welcomes Recommendations
By Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC In February I will be leading the book club of the SF chapter of the International Coaches Federation at Books Inc. at Opera Plaza (Van Ness Street) in San Francisco. Is there a book you would like to read or discuss? Any book related to organizing, coaching,…
Life Simplified: Complex Problems
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC I’ve been reading Out of Poverty, what works when traditional approaches fail, by Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises. Polak excels at designing the simplest possible technology to aid the millions of people around the world who live on a dollar a day or less. Though…
Improvement: The Butterfly Effect
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company LLC Can small changes really make a difference? If I rely on tiny changes to get me to my productivity goal, won’t I have to wait forever to see progress? Consider the story of the work of MIT mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz, told so compellingly in James…
From Intention to Action
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company This afternoon I was jolted out of my seat when my terrier, Ginger, exploded in a fit of barking. What set her off was the daily appearance of the mail carrier. Every day the postal employee approaches the door, Ginger sets up a nerve-torquing bout of barking, the…
Perfectly Awful
by Margaret Lukens, New Leaf + Company Perfectionists are made, not born. So says an article in the April, 2008 issue of Psychology Today by Hara Estroff Marano. If the word “perfectionism” brings to mind images of Boy Scout virtues such as tidiness, preparation and thrift, think again. Perfectionism is one of the greatest barriers…
Does this clutter make my butt look fat?
Yesterday Peter Walsh’s new book, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?, was released with a home-and-body makeover televised for Oprah. It has been my delight to meet Peter on a couple of occasions. While he is known for his skill as a “clutter expert” and adorable media star, he is also a passionate…