Mastering the Art of Success
Organizing, we’ll dig deeper into the reasons for procrastination and
learn new strategies for staying motivated.WRIGHT
So how did you develop the STO, Sort Things Out Method of
Organizing?ABREU
I created the STO Sort Things Out Method of Organizing out of
necessity, to help myself and my family k eep our sanity! I was working
fu ll-time in New York City and everything was just overwhelming. I was
newly married, had a new baby, and was working crazy hours,
commuting back and forth to New York. Piles were everywher e. At
work, there were piles of notes, piles of folders, piles of projects and
th en at home, piles of dishes, piles of laundry, piles of mail, piles of
gifts to write thank y ou notes for... I just felt so out of control.
At one point, I decided I was going to step off the corporate ladd er
and become a full-time mom at home, thinking I would get things
under control. It ended up getting worse! Here I thought things would
get better with all the time in the world at home, but I didn’t have a
system in place or the knowledge of how to run a household. I just
di dn’t know where to start.
I started discovering Web sites about how to get organized. I read
organizing books, watched television shows about organizing, and read
magazines with organizing tips. I started learning from o ther people
and other experts. What I discovered was a lot of great inform ation;
however, it was very difficult to put into practice what I was reading
and learning. There were different systems developed by different
experts, a different variety of organizing products to choose from, and
di fferent approaches to decluttering. I was suffering from OIO,
Organization I nformation Overload.
Litt le by little, I made note of certain systems and advice that really
popped out and seemed to resonate with me. I tried different m ethods
and kept track of what seemed to work best for me and what did not. I
began compiling the “best of the best” advice from many different
sources and started putting together a new system of my own, custom-