ProdPod, a Productivity Podcast

Ray: We're discussing hoarding in the ProdPod series…and I have Professional Organizer Sally Reinholdt here to define hoarding and how it's classified.  Sally: Hoarding is considered compulsive if it meets three criteria. First there is accumulation accompanied by great difficulty in discarding items that most people would consider useless or of limited value. The second criteria is that the clutter is to the point that the intended use of living spaces is severely limited or not possible. The third and last criteria is that the cluttering in combination with the acquiring and difficulty discarding causes significant impairment and distress.   Sally: The Institute for Challenging Disorganization classifies hoarding with a clutter measurement tool called the Clutter-Hoarding Scale. Homes are classified from Level I through Level V. A standard household is considered to be a Level I. Level II homes can have some narrowing of household pathways and inadequate housekeeping. Level III to Level V homes present increasingly serious situations. Clutter can be present outside as well as inside the home, there can be insect and rodent infestation and generally unsanitary conditions. Individuals working with hoarders in these types of situations need to have backgrounds ranging from but not limited to mental health and financial counseling to professional organizing, pest control and project management. Ray: If you believe you might have hoarding issues, click on the link in the show notes here on ProdPod.net to download the Clutter-Hoarding Scale [ http://goo.gl/dy9xWf ] tool to see where you fall in the scale.  In the next episode we'll cover how hoarding is treated and managed.

Ray: We're discussing hoarding in the ProdPod series…and I have Professional Organizer Sally Reinholdt here to define hoarding and how it's classified.  Sally: Hoarding is considered compulsive if it meets three criteria. First there is accumulation accompanied by great difficulty in discarding items that most people would consider useless or of limited value. The second criteria is that the clutter is to the point that the intended use of living spaces is severely limited or not possible. The third and last criteria is that the cluttering in combination with the acquiring and difficulty discarding causes significant impairment and distress.   Sally: The Institute for Challenging Disorganization classifies hoarding with a clutter measurement tool called the Clutter-Hoarding Scale. Homes are classified from Level I through Level V. A standard household is considered to be a Level I. Level II homes can have some narrowing of household pathways and inadequate housekeeping. Level III to Level V homes present increasingly serious situations. Clutter can be present outside as well as inside the home, there can be insect and rodent infestation and generally unsanitary conditions. Individuals working with hoarders in these types of situations need to have backgrounds ranging from but not limited to mental health and financial counseling to professional organizing, pest control and project management. Ray: If you believe you might have hoarding issues, click on the link in the show notes here on ProdPod.net to download the Clutter-Hoarding Scale [ http://goo.gl/dy9xWf ] tool to see where you fall in the scale.  In the next episode we'll cover how hoarding is treated and managed.

These next three episodes will be on hoarding and I have with me to help explain hoarding, Sally Reinholdt, owner of Commonwealth Organizing Solutions [ http://cosolva.com ]. Sally is a Registered Nurse and professional organizer who uses many of the skills she learned as a nurse to help her clients become more organized and productive. Sally: The short answer is that it can be anyone. Hoarding doesn’t discriminate. In some cases it appears to have a genetic component as hoarding can run in families. It can be the result of a traumatic experience but sometimes there is no clear trigger. Sadly, hoarders are many times very creative people who see all sorts of potential in the things they collect. Unfortunately their potential for using that creative energy is stymied by their need to constantly accumulate. There are also high levels of anxiety, depression and perfectionism associated with hoarding.   Sally: The number of hoarders in the United States is very difficult to calculate because in so many cases hoarders are able to hide their situations from family and friends until some sort of event or crisis brings the hoarding to light. Depending on the literature estimates for the number of hoarders in the United States ranges from 1.2 million to as many as 6 million people.   Sally: May, 2013, was the first time hoarding was included in the DSM-V with its own discrete clinical definition. It was previously categorized as symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ray: Not that sweeping all your stuff under the carpet is the solution, but putting your clutter out of sight is a productivity hack in which you can reap immediate benefits. Princeton University Neuroscience Institute found that when you clear physical clutter in sight, you are less likely to be distracted and are more productive. If you're feeling distressed from physical clutter, take as much as you can and put it away so you see less of it…the more clear surfaces in sight the better. Try it. [ PUNI article, "Top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in biasing competition in the human brain": http://www.princeton.edu/~napl/pdf/BeckKastner2008.pdf ] In Part II in this series on Hoarding, Sally and I will discuss how compulsive hoarding is defined and classified.

These next three episodes will be on hoarding and I have with me to help explain hoarding, Sally Reinholdt, owner of Commonwealth Organizing Solutions [ http://cosolva.com ]. Sally is a Registered Nurse and professional organizer who uses many of the skills she learned as a nurse to help her clients become more organized and productive. Sally: The short answer is that it can be anyone. Hoarding doesn’t discriminate. In some cases it appears to have a genetic component as hoarding can run in families. It can be the result of a traumatic experience but sometimes there is no clear trigger. Sadly, hoarders are many times very creative people who see all sorts of potential in the things they collect. Unfortunately their potential for using that creative energy is stymied by their need to constantly accumulate. There are also high levels of anxiety, depression and perfectionism associated with hoarding.   Sally: The number of hoarders in the United States is very difficult to calculate because in so many cases hoarders are able to hide their situations from family and friends until some sort of event or crisis brings the hoarding to light. Depending on the literature estimates for the number of hoarders in the United States ranges from 1.2 million to as many as 6 million people.   Sally: May, 2013, was the first time hoarding was included in the DSM-V with its own discrete clinical definition. It was previously categorized as symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ray: Not that sweeping all your stuff under the carpet is the solution, but putting your clutter out of sight is a productivity hack in which you can reap immediate benefits. Princeton University Neuroscience Institute found that when you clear physical clutter in sight, you are less likely to be distracted and are more productive. If you're feeling distressed from physical clutter, take as much as you can and put it away so you see less of it…the more clear surfaces in sight the better. Try it. [ PUNI article, "Top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in biasing competition in the human brain": http://www.princeton.edu/~napl/pdf/BeckKastner2008.pdf ] In Part II in this series on Hoarding, Sally and I will discuss how compulsive hoarding is defined and classified.

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” ~Anthony Robbins Tony Robbins should know a thing about being thankful. When he speaks to audiences, he tells frequently of his humble beginnings, the gratitude he had in those who helped him survive then thrive, and the self-beneficial results of his giving back to his community and others. During this Thanksgiving holiday week, now's the time to think about how your productivity is enhanced by being grateful. Don't believe me? Dr. Robert Emmons, psychology researcher, at UC Davis, has studied gratitude and well-being, and it shows that productivity toward goals increases with exhibiting more gratitude in your life. As the studies summary of findings states on the research department's website [ http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Labs/emmons/PWT/index.cfm?Section=4 ], those "who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals." And, "daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) ... resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy."  So, how might you use gratitude practically in your own productive life? Lisa Peake on her blog at PeakeProductivity.com offers a great suggestion: "write down a few things you are grateful for each evening. Start with this evening and see where it goes from there. You may be surprised at how much you have to be thankful for." Jason Womack, author of Your Best Just Got Better [ http://amzn.to/1crZDmn ], has a practice of mailing a daily thank-you card…this brings tangible rewards in responses of offers to collaborate, keeping you top of the mind with your audience, and the brain's release of dopamine (those are the good brain chemicals that make you feel great) that you get from making someone's day brighter. While I opt to sending out thank-you emails more often than printed cards to mail, the technique is still quite powerful for me. And, with all this talk of gratitude let me take this time to say, thank you for listening to ProdPod! I am grateful everyday for the thousands of listeners a month who encourage me with compliments and stories of how ProdPod's advice has helped them, recommend new topics, and suggest improvements to the podcast. You all help me make this possible. I hope you've enjoyed this ProdPod episode, Happy Thanksgiving and here's to your productivity success…in two minutes or less!

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” ~Anthony Robbins Tony Robbins should know a thing about being thankful. When he speaks to audiences, he tells frequently of his humble beginnings, the gratitude he had in those who helped him survive then thrive, and the self-beneficial results of his giving back to his community and others. During this Thanksgiving holiday week, now's the time to think about how your productivity is enhanced by being grateful. Don't believe me? Dr. Robert Emmons, psychology researcher, at UC Davis, has studied gratitude and well-being, and it shows that productivity toward goals increases with exhibiting more gratitude in your life.As the studies summary of findings states on the research department's website[http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Labs/emmons/PWT/index.cfm?Section=4], those "who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals." And, "daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) ... resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy." So, how might you use gratitude practically in your own productive life? Lisa Peake on her blog at PeakeProductivity.com offers a great suggestion: "write down a few things you are grateful for each evening. Start with this evening and see where it goes from there. You may be surprised at how much you have to be thankful for." Jason Womack, author of Your Best Just Got Better [http://amzn.to/1crZDmn], has apractice of mailing a daily thank-you card…this brings tangible rewards in responses of offers to collaborate, keeping you top of the mind with your audience, and the brain's release of dopamine (those are the good brain chemicals that make you feel great) that you get from making someone's day brighter. While I opt to sending out thank-you emails more often than printed cards to mail, the technique is still quite powerful for me. And, with all this talk of gratitude let me take this time to say, thank you for listening to ProdPod! I am grateful everyday for the thousands of listeners a month who encourage me with compliments and stories of how ProdPod's advice has helped them, recommend new topics, and suggest improvements to the podcast. You all help me make this possible. I hope you've enjoyed this ProdPod episode, Happy Thanksgiving and here's to your productivity success…in two minutes or less!

Steps for Setting Up Your Personal Advisory Board: 1. Perform a strategic analysis of your situation, including a business and personal SWOT Analysis.2. Set clear, written goals and objectives for your PAB: Vision and 6-month missionstatements.3. Make a list of potential board advisers. Be broad in your list; think of all yourrelationship categories (academic, personal, professional, extracurricular and more)and make note of individuals you believe have skills that complete weaknesses orprovide connections to opportunities from your SWOT analyses. This is an ongoing listand should be continually updated and reviewed for potential board advisers at leastsemi-annually.4. From your list of potential board advisers, select six individuals. You should decideon the group that (a) best fits your needs for the coming six months that you'veplanned through your mission statement, (b) has the best chance of collaboratingwell, and (c) have no apparent reasons for not being able to serve on the board forthe next set of terms.5. Create a list of possible substitutes (usually up to three), in case some of yourpotential board advisers are unable or unwilling to be a part of your PAB. Begracious, positive and compassionate with anyone who does not or cannot be on yourPAB. Be sure to ask them if they'd like to be considered for future PABs; that way, ifthey say “no,” you can remove them completely from your list of potential boardadvisers so you don't bother them again in the future.6. Reach out to each potential board adviser, introduce them to the concept of the PABand yours and their responsibilities (see the outline below), and ask them if they'd beinterested in joining the PAB.7. Once you have six yeses, you are ready to schedule your first PAB meeting.

Steps for Setting Up Your Personal Advisory Board:1. Perform a strategic analysis of your situation, including a business and personalSWOT Analysis.2. Set clear, written goals and objectives for your PAB: Vision and 6-month missionstatements.3. Make a list of potential board advisers. Be broad in your list; think of all yourrelationship categories (academic, personal, professional, extracurricular and more)and make note of individuals you believe have skills that complete weaknesses orprovide connections to opportunities from your SWOT analyses. This is an ongoing listand should be continually updated and reviewed for potential board advisers at leastsemi-annually.4. From your list of potential board advisers, select six individuals. You should decideon the group that (a) best fits your needs for the coming six months that you'veplanned through your mission statement, (b) has the best chance of collaboratingwell, and (c) have no apparent reasons for not being able to serve on the board forthe next set of terms.5. Create a list of possible substitutes (usually up to three), in case some of yourpotential board advisers are unable or unwilling to be a part of your PAB. Begracious, positive and compassionate with anyone who does not or cannot be on yourPAB. Be sure to ask them if they'd like to be considered for future PABs; that way, ifthey say “no,” you can remove them completely from your list of potential boardadvisers so you don't bother them again in the future.6. Reach out to each potential board adviser, introduce them to the concept of the PABand yours and their responsibilities (see the outline below), and ask them if they'd beinterested in joining the PAB.7. Once you have six yeses, you are ready to schedule your first PAB meeting.

Decide on a communication platform with which everyone can be comfortable and explain how you will communicate to them en masse (via email, text, Google Drive sharing, or otherwise). Try to keep your communications effective by being consistently substantive, positive and as few as needed (but no fewer).Try to schedule the meetings and circulate the agenda with any preparatory materials to be reviewed as soon as practicable to your TAs. Remember, they have personal and professional lives in addition to your PAB, so make it as easy for them as possible to help you. You can try a tool like Doodle.com to schedule your meetings. It's important for everyone to be empowering you, not just pointing out your faults. If anyone has something negative to say, ask them to re-cast the statement in the form of a question. If it does have to be stated, guide board advisers to use constructive criticism only (that is, no complaining or whining; have a solution ready to propose to the problem they are observing). If a board adviser has a problem with another and would like to address it but is not sure how, please encourage them to bring it to your attention confidentially so that it can be determined the best way toward a productive outcome. Public, positive discussions and praise are wholeheartedly welcomed and encouraged. Praise publicly, and often!

Decide on a communication platform with which everyone can be comfortable and explain how you will communicate to them en masse (via email, text, Google Drive sharing, or otherwise). Try to keep your communications effective by being consistently substantive, positive and as few as needed (but no fewer).Try to schedule the meetings and circulate the agenda with any preparatory materials to be reviewed as soon as practicable to your TAs. Remember, they have personal and professional lives in addition to your PAB, so make it as easy for them as possible to help you. You can try a tool like Doodle.com to schedule your meetings.It's important for everyone to be empowering you, not just pointing out your faults. If anyone has something negative to say, ask them to re-cast the statement in the form of a question. If it does have to be stated, guide board advisers to use constructive criticism only (that is, no complaining or whining; have a solution ready to propose to the problem they are observing). If a board adviser has a problem with another and would like to address it but is not sure how, please encourage them to bring it to your attention confidentially so that it can be determined the best way toward a productive outcome. Public, positive discussions and praise are wholeheartedly welcomed and encouraged. Praise publicly, and often!

A Personal Advisory Board is a group of persons who know you, your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, and who you feel comfortable sharing your goals and unique vision, and individuals who are committed to your success.  There are several advantages that people (as well as companies) with advisory boards have over theircolleagues. A PAB offers you:• An unbiased outside perspective.• Increased accountability and discipline.• Enhanced self-management effectiveness.• Help in avoiding costly mistakes.• Rounding out skills and expertise lacking in your skill-set and experience.• A sounding board for evaluating new professional and business ideas and opportunities.• Enhanced community and public relations.• Strategic planning assistance and input.• Brings together centers of influence for networking introductions. The best way I can describe who should be on your Professional Advisory Board is stating who shouldn't be on your board. No current professional vendor, employer, client, potential client, competitor, direct supervisor/manager, staff/employee, romantic partner/spouse, or other relationships with whom there could be a conflict-of-interest should be allowed to sit on your PAB. Likewise, term limits are also a good way to not only keep everyone's commitment well-defined but also a way to rotate people out so that fresh ideas and personalities can intermingle. Although the reason for these individuals to sit on your PAB should be charitable by design, you might want to think about how you are going to thank board advisers at the end of their terms, or if/when they need to leave the PAB prior to their term's end. A small sign of appreciation for their dedication to your success will reap compounded benefits for you in the future. These are a few guidelines for making this a successful network of personal and professional contacts that are assisting you to move forward in your life and work. Please feel free to add to these guidelines for yourself and selectively publish appropriate guidelines to your board advisers. In the next two episodes, we'll discuss some guidelines for running an effective Personal Advisory Board. 

A Personal Advisory Board is a group of persons who know you, your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, and who you feel comfortable sharing your goals and unique vision, and individuals who are committed to your success. There are several advantages that people (as well as companies) with advisory boards have over theircolleagues. A PAB offers you:• An unbiased outside perspective.• Increased accountability and discipline.• Enhanced self-management effectiveness.• Help in avoiding costly mistakes.• Rounding out skills and expertise lacking in your skill-set and experience.• A sounding board for evaluating new professional and business ideas and opportunities.• Enhanced community and public relations.• Strategic planning assistance and input.• Brings together centers of influence for networking introductions.The best way I can describe who should be on your Professional Advisory Board is stating who shouldn't be on your board. No current professional vendor, employer, client, potential client, competitor, direct supervisor/manager, staff/employee, romantic partner/spouse, or other relationships with whom there could be a conflict-of-interest should be allowed to sit on your PAB. Likewise, term limits are also a good way to not only keep everyone's commitment well-defined but also a way to rotate people out so that fresh ideas and personalities can intermingle.Although the reason for these individuals to sit on your PAB should be charitable by design, you might want to think about how you are going to thank board advisers at the end of their terms, or if/when they need to leave the PAB prior to their term's end. A small sign of appreciation for their dedication to your success will reap compounded benefits for you in the future.These are a few guidelines for making this a successful network of personal and professional contacts that are assisting you to move forward in your life and work. Please feel free to add to these guidelines for yourself and selectively publish appropriate guidelines to your board advisers.In the next two episodes, we'll discuss some guidelines for running an effective Personal Advisory Board. 

The late Dr. Stephen R. Covey wrote in his 1989 best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People [ http://amzn.to/15mtOXK ], Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality. One of the great insights of the past twenty years is our appreciation of interdependence, the support network required of every knowledge worker to survive and thrive. As a term I first heard while reading works of Mahatma Gandhi and then Dr. Covey, it has developed into my deep understanding that the compound, mutual benefit of giving to, getting from and connecting others is a maturity we all must embrace in order to succeed. You need to be able to leverage this wisdom of the crowd in your social network. A Professional Board of Advisers (or, as I commonly will refer to it, Personal Advisory Board), is similar to that of a corporation's board of directors, in that it is a small team that you assemble of your personal and professional contacts with expertise in areas that you need assistance. Corporations and large organizations all have boards, most of them are not surprisingly required to by law, but some also have advisory boards used to help CEOs and other executives make good and better decisions. You might actually sit on one such board yourself. The reasoning behind having an advisory board is pretty simple yet brilliant. Companies are made of people and people need support and accountability. I approach this same concept when managing my personal and professional life; my interdependent world is the sum total of the people I've included in my life. In many ways, everyone has used at least a partial Personal Advisory Board in the past, when they have held family meetings, asked friends for relationship advice, sought out a mentor relationship, or gathered anyone together to help with a specific situation. My thought is to have a Personal Advisory Board that gives you the ability to reach your potential through a consistent framework.    In the next few episodes we'll discuss what comprises your Personal Advisory Board, and how to run an effective Personal Advisory Board.

The late Dr. Stephen R. Covey wrote in his 1989 best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People [ http://amzn.to/15mtOXK ],Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality.One of the great insights of the past twenty years is our appreciation of interdependence, the support network required of every knowledge worker to survive and thrive. As a term I first heard while reading works of Mahatma Gandhi and then Dr. Covey, it has developed into my deep understanding that the compound, mutual benefit of giving to, getting from and connecting others is a maturity we all must embrace in order to succeed. You need to be able to leverage this wisdom of the crowd in your social network. A Professional Board of Advisers (or, as I commonly will refer to it, Personal Advisory Board), is similar to that of a corporation's board of directors, in that it is a small team that you assemble of your personal and professional contacts with expertise in areas that you need assistance. Corporations and large organizations all have boards, most of them are not surprisingly required to by law, but some also have advisory boards used to help CEOs and other executives make good and better decisions. You might actually sit on one such board yourself. The reasoning behind having an advisory board is pretty simple yet brilliant. Companies are made of people and people need support and accountability. I approach this same concept when managing my personal and professional life; my interdependent world is the sum total of the people I've included in my life. In many ways, everyone has used at least a partial Personal Advisory Board in the past, when they have held family meetings, asked friends for relationship advice, sought out a mentor relationship, or gathered anyone together to help with a specific situation. My thought is to have a Personal Advisory Board that gives you the ability to reach your potential through a consistent framework.  In the next few episodes we'll discuss what comprises your Personal Advisory Board, and how to run an effective Personal Advisory Board.

Veteran social psychology researcher and professor at Florida State University, Roy F. Baumeister, with journalist John Tierney, joined forces to write Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength [ http://amzn.to/1eTrs7h ]. This is supposed to be a definitive guide on self-control, which many consider the heart of personal productivity. If you can control your self, then performance improvement potential is a sky's the limit proposition, right? Well, here are the most salient points that I lifted from Dr. Baumeister and Mr. Tierney's book, so you can make your own decision on the matter. Willpower (or, self-control) undergoes something Professor Baumeister calls ego depletion, or the loss of self-control. Willpower is divided into four broad categories: control of thoughts, control of emotions, impulse control, and performance control. All willpower depletes from one reservoir for all tasks and is a finite source. And don't be overly confident in your willpower, as studies show it actually contributes to ego depletion. Front-load tasks that require high amounts of willpower. Things that replete and conserve willpower: sleep, foods with low glycemic indices, and making realistic goals. What matters with self-control is the exertion, not the outcome. If you struggle with temptation and then give in, you’re still depleted because you struggled. Also note that giving in does not replenish the willpower you have already expended. The key is to concentrate on changing a habitual behavior. Building self-control in one area seemed to improve all areas of life.Successful people use their willpower as a first line of defense to better arrange (that is, plan for) life's challenging situations so they default into predetermined paths toward success. Correction: In the episode, I mention incorrectly the subtitle as "Unlocking the Greatest Human Strength." It's on my Someday/Maybe list to go back and correct this episode!