There is something incredibly satisfying about starting the year with a new calendar. The past few years I’ve also been experimenting with an appointment book for structuring my day and I wanted to share the benefits of using one with you.

First of all, you don’t have to own a business to use an appointment book. In fact, they are incredibly helpful for busy households, parents, professionals, students and retirees. Really, anyone who wants to be more intentional with their time. They typically include a large monthly calendar followed by a two-page weekly spread. Each week is broken down by day, and each day is segmented into hourly blocks. Many also include space for monthly and daily priorities, which is great for productivity.

The real power of an appointment book is that it forces you to move from thinking about what you need to do to deciding when you will do it.

This year I focused my writing on holistic organizing — a practice that involves synching up your mind, heart and body with the space you occupy and the items you keep in your homes. Or, in other words, what do you think about your things, what kind of emotions do you have about your things and what kind of energy do you have to make decisions about your things. 

Here are some of the highlights:

Clutter often builds up from postponed decisions — maybe an item doesn’t have a home, you’re unsure about keeping it, or it just hasn’t made it back to its proper place. Over time, these little delays add up, and you’re left wondering how to even begin the process of going through it.

If you need a way to jumpstart progress on clearing your clutter, I suggest you try engaging your senses. Here’s how:

As summer winds down and the new school year approaches, it's the perfect time to reset, refresh, and get organized. A little planning now can make the months ahead run much more smoothly. 

Here are five tips to help you stay on top of schedules, reduce daily stress, and create a more focused, functional school year:

There’s something refreshing about traveling. A pared-down wardrobe, a minimal beauty routine, and living only with what you need. It can be truly liberating to experience fulfillment from living with less. It’s hard though . Even when packing for a trip it’s tempting to add in items for just-in-case moments.

As I stand in my yard, it’s obvious I didn’t do as much as I could have last fall. The flower beds are overgrown, weeds are enthusiastically sprouting up, there are leaf piles and sticks everywhere. And now, staring down at all that needs to be done, I feel a little embarrassed and overwhelmed.

It’s so easy to slip into that familiar loop of self-criticism. Why didn’t I take care of this earlier? What was I thinking? That voice in our heads is quick to judge, especially when we’re staring at a mess.

But here’s the thing: that version of you who didn’t rake the leaves or clear the flower beds had their reasons. Maybe they were tired. Maybe life was heavy. Maybe they were just trying to get through the day. That person was doing their best and that voice you hear should be full of compassion, not blame.

“I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about it tomorrow.”  I’ve always loved this line from “Gone With The Wind.” You may have thought that this was Scarlet’s attempt to avoid what was going on, but it’s actually a productive strategy to deal with worry. Many of us have uncertainty in our lives right now. Worry can plague our minds and make us less productive than we want to be in our homes or at work.

Do you have a room that overwhelms you? Perhaps just walking into it makes you want to walk right back out of it? Sometimes people think that if they just knew where to start, they could actually progress. When I get asked where to start in a room like this, I usually say, “Start with your why.” There are a lot of reasons why a room gets cluttered and reasons why change needs to happen. But, what if I was to tell you that there is another way?

I often get asked, “How do I schedule my day so that I am most productive?” This is not a question with a simple answer because even though we all have the same amount of time each day, we don’t have the same amount of energy. Everyone’s attention span and energy levels are different and they fluctuate throughout the day. For a productivity schedule to work, we first have to be able to recognize the energy levels in our own bodies.

At the start of every new year, I feel a burst of rejuvenation. We declutter spaces to make room for the new things brought in from the holidays. After decor is taken down, we work to cleanse the house. I open a window to bring in a bit of that January air to let each room breathe. I, too, breathe in the icy cold air. For a few moments it feels so good.  And then, of course, it gets too cold and I have to shut it down and wrap myself in a blanket.