Kristine’s Quotes
Please credit all quotes:
Organizational expert and career strategist, Kristine Oller (pronounced ALL-er) is the founder of Personalized Organization and a national columnist for BackStage.
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CLUTTER:
“The whole process of organizing in general boils down to making choices, because piles of clutter – mental clutter or physical clutter – are simply piles of delayed decisions.”
PERFECTIONISM:
“The quest for perfection is really a quest for control. A lack of focus, an overloaded schedule and delayed decisions can all create feelings of internal, emotional chaos – of being out of control. Sometimes people attempt to “fix” this internal chaos by tackling any evidence of external chaos. They jump on an organizing treadmill, arranging and re-arranging their spaces and stuff, drafting and re-drafting their plans and schedules, hoping that a sense of control over their environment will transfer to control over their emotional state. Most likely, it won’t. While an orderly environment can certainly clear literal and metaphorical space for you to attend to deeper issues, significant emotional repair always comes from the inside out.”
PURGING:
“Instead of equating throwing or giving things away as condemning them as ‘unworthy’ or ‘useless’, think of it as an act of releasing those items back into the world to find their next home. Also, know that releasing a gift you have been given is not the same as releasing the love that was given with the gift.”
CHILDREN’S ROOMS:
“It’s natural for a child’s bedroom to reflect the rest of the house. If the home is chaotic and disorganized, odds are their bedrooms will be too. If you want your child’s space to change, you as the parent must first role model that change by bringing organization to the common zones of the house (the spaces shared by the entire family) and requiring that everyone – mom, dad and kids – show respect for the family by keeping those areas looking good. You can start the habit of an evening pick-up “game.” Assign everyone a bin to collect personal items from common zones and carry them back into the bedrooms. Please, parents, pick your battles! Be stricter about the common zones and let the kid’s rooms get a little messy… that’s what doors are for.”
GOALS:
“Although goals are about creating your future, they are also about injecting your present with meaning and passion.”
TIME:
“Of our three valuable resources – time, energy and money – time is the most precious. Not only is it non-renewable, but you don’t even know how much you have. You can increase your energy to a certain extent and you can always make more money, but you cannot make more time. When people talk about ’saving’ time, what they actually mean is that they have found a way to spend less time on something they don’t like to do so they are now able to spend more time on something they do like to do.”
Interview Questions for Kristine
ABOUT CAREER STRATEGY:
1) Why do so many smart, talented people get stuck?
2) What do you mean by “feeding your focus”?
3) A common concern is that choosing a single focus will limit a person’s opportunities, but you say that is not the case. Why not?
4) You actually maintain that an economic downturn is a golden opportunity for creative people. How can that be?
5) Is it true that a performer’s entire career boils down to three sheets of paper?
6) You talk in your book about what it takes to shift a person from knowing something to actually taking action and doing it. How does someone make that shift from knowing to doing?
7) You also talk about your personal struggle with networking. Share something you learned that helped you overcome this fear.
8) When you suggest that a person can start changing their life without first changing their circumstances, what do you mean?
9) What is an “isolated event”?
10) If a person had only an hour or two each day to put toward feeding their focus, what is one of the best things they can do?
11) Describe your own strategic approach to writing your book?
12) How can people order your book?
ABOUT ORGANIZING:
1) What is the most common misperception people have about what organizing can do for them?
2) You maintain that the majority of your clients are actually not disorganized. How so?
3) What is the difference between being “neat” and being “organized”?
4) Is it true that a person will actually have more once they have less?
5) Why should people always buy containers last?
6) What is your advice in the sticky situation when someone loves the giver but hates the gift?
7) You talk in your book about how creative people with non-traditional schedules should use “floating blocks of time.” What are those?
8) You also mention that if someone manages their money on a regular weekly or monthly basis it will not save them time but it will save energy. Explain what you mean by that.
9) How can parents to motivate their children to keep their rooms clean?
10) Why should someone use a professional organizer instead of asking an organized friend to help them?
11) How can people find a professional organizer in their area?
12) How can people learn more about your approach to organizing?
