Podcast 133: Create a Spot of Transition, Accountability for Introverts—and Is There a Correct Way to Load a Dishwasher

Try This at Home

Create a place for things in transition. Having a system for things in transition helps a household or office to be more efficient, and also removes the visual clutter of having stuff out. Here’s a photo of my “spot of transition.” Library books to return are on the left, books to give away are on the right, and there’s room for other things in transition. Elizabeth and I will work on her spot of transition when I visit her in L.A.

Happiness Hack

As I describe in my books The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, I love my system of organizing my daughters’ paper-based mementos (birthday party invitations, our family Valentine’s cards, school photo, etc.): years ago, I bought two durable, slightly-more-attractive-than-cardboard file-boxes, added a file folder for each school year, and now I add anything worth saving. It’s organized, visually appealing, space-efficient — and it’s so satisfying to know exactly where to put the official camp photo or the special birthday card. Above is a photo of Eleanor’s box. You could choose any kind of file-box, but if you’re curious about the one I used, it’s here

Know Yourself Better

Do you have strong views about the right way to load a dishwasher? I’m astonished by how passionately people will argue about this topic.

Listener Question

Jenna is an Obliger who is shy. She wants to create the outer accountability that she needs as an Obliger, to meet her inner expectations — but doesn’t like meeting in groups. I suggest that she might consider joining an accountability group on my free “Better” app.

Gretchen’s Demerit

I’m going too fast. I remind myself, “Go slow to go fast.”

Elizabeth’s Gold Star

Gold star for whiteboards! At home and at work.

Free Resources

  1. If you’d like a discussion guide to one of my books, you can email me or go to the Resources section.
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