It’s a fact of my life. I always have ‘too many’ projects going on at once.

Juggling them can be a challenge – sometimes an absurd goal. But recently, my little ADDiva brain came up with an idea for corralling them that feels, well, organized!

I have created a series of ‘buckets’ that contain everything about a particular project. For instance, I have a ‘bucket’ for Retreats, one for Coaching, one for my Website, one for GardenSpirit, one for Finances, one for New Products. You get the picture.

Since I am trying to gain control of the paper critters in my office (they breed shamelessly when they think I’m not looking), I literally set out plastic containers (‘buckets’ by name if not by design) and started filing papers, software, equipment, notebooks into each one. Oh — really important: labeled each one of them immediately. I have about 18 of them — so it’s crucial to be able to glance at them and know what’s inside.

Now I have a place to look to find my retreat handouts, for instance. Granted, the retreat handouts have a home in my file cabinet and eventually they will live there again. But in the meantime, I can go to the bucket to search for an errant folder.

The challenge, of course, is to get the ‘buckets’ emptied one at a time. For me, that requires time set aside specifically to focus on filing, labeling and often reorganizing (am I the only ADDiva who reorganizes CONSTANTLY?).

It’s not perfect. But for now, it seems to be working for me.