- Emma Loggins, editor at FanBolt Entertainment

For more information, see the post on Mercurial Scribe .

My ever-growing portfolio and resume are up for your viewing pleasure, to be updated weekly with new projects as applicable! Please read them over and contact me with questions.

Enjoy!

Being the movie fanatic I am, I’m thrilled to be working with someone who shares my ardent enthusiasm of pop culture. Thanks Emma, the founder and editor at FanBolt, for this fun opportunity and the great exposure!

It was for this reason I stopped doing New Year’s Resolutions back when I was a teenager. It didn’t work. It wasn’t personal. And I HATE failing which, inevitably, I always did.

Screw breaking up, it’s changing that’s so hard to do!

But why?

I thought long and hard about this. It is a considerably important idea to me right now. As we pack everything we own to move yet again, I realize the bad habits we’ve accumulated, say like leaving a few empty glasses on the coffee table until they multiply and their great-great-grandchildren have developed some kind of funky fungal growth that smells like a poopy diaper. Or the fact I had tons of free time last year and yet I wrote and queried not nearly as much as I would have liked.

But why is the act of changing these bad habits - something so simple as putting the empty glass in the dishwasher and scheduling my time better - so difficult?

Reason #1: Homeostasis

This is a biological term referring to an organism’s internal stability. Merriam-Webster.com defines it as “a relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism…” In other words, it’s an organism’s ability to stay relatively the same without changing. Your brain is hardwired to do what you have been trained to do, thanks to that ever wonderful cranial hormone known as dopamine. And without dopamine? Well, you wouldn’t want to eat, have sex, wouldn’t have an attention span or a very good memory or various other good and rewarding habits that keep you and the human race going. Which leads us to Reason #2…

Reason #2: The Habit Serves a Purpose

Dopamine is a main factor in this reason. This chemical is the very reason behavioral conditioning like that of Pavlov’s dog is possible. The perfect example of this is sex. You copulate with a partner and directly after your body reaches orgasm, thus achieving your biological imperative and permitting the possibility of pregnancy, your brain absolutely floods your system with dopamine as a reward, like a Scooby snack for a well-performed trick.

Now let’s step back a bit and apply this to a less sexual, more typical-bad-habit situation. This habit you have and are trying to break - say, smoking. It’s serving a purpose and that’s why your brain keeps rewarding the behavior. Let’s say you smoke to relieve stress. Each time you puff and you feel a little more relaxed, your brain releases some dopamine telling you that relieving stress is good, rewarding you so that you’ll do it again. Wash, rinse, repeat and you’ve developed a nasty cigarette habit.

Now, all we reasonably intelligent and informed people know that tobacco, in all its puffing and chewing forms, is bad for you. As an intelligent and informed individual, you try to break that bad habit cold turkey… from 2 packs a day. And you fail. Again.

Reason #3: Unrealistic Expectations Coupled with Perfectionism

You can also refer to this reason as the “I’ll quit my 2 pack a day habit cold turkey and I’ll get it down pat the first time” factor. If quitting cold turkey was so easy to do, wouldn’t you have done it already without so much as flinching? I thought so. And in what world has anyone run the perfect two hour marathon the first time they ever slipped on a pair of Asics runners? Never?

PRECISELY. So why in the world would you expect that kind of insanity from yourself?

Yet people do this all the time. To stick with the smoking scenario, I had a friend Danny who was so proud of herself after she hit two weeks without cigarettes. The next day, I found her behind the restaurant we both worked at with a whole pack in her hands!

“What are you doing?!”

She looked at me sheepishly. “I broke down and had a cigarette last night after a fight with my boyfriend. I figured I screwed up so I might as well go get me a pack from the liquor store.”

Though she eventually did quit smoking, Danny had to learn that one mess up - one cigarette or that one extra large slice of chocolate cake - does not mean the end to all of your habit-breaking efforts. Just because a baby falls after taking a few steps doesn’t mean she gives up on walking altogether!

Reason #4: Self-betrayal

How often in any habit-breaking process have you found yourself promising to go to the gym after work if you get to sleep in the extra 45 minutes now. And then you don’t. You made a promise to yourself and then you broke it. What happens when a friend or a partner does that to you?

You slowly start to lose your trust in them.

The same thing applies to lying to yourself, whether it be outright as in the situation above or in the unrealistic expectations you place on yourself. No matter what, when you fail yourself, it is only human nature to be harsh. But what if, instead of expecting perfection that cannot be achieved, you expected something more simple, more honest. Instead of no cigarettes ever from this moment on and if I do have a cigarette, it’s all over… how about you tier down. Say, for the next two weeks, you’ll only smoke 1/2 of what you normally do. And each two weeks, you cut down by 1/2. It is a lot to ask, but not unrealistic.

I will be on holiday from Wednesday, 19 December 2007 to 2 January 2008.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

In the meanwhile, use that vitamin C hiding in your medicine cabinet. This cold/flu season is a doozy!

Step 1: Implement a “paper-in” system

What you’ll need: 5 paper trays, label-maker of some sort, a trash can, a shredder and 10 minutes to create

First, the paper enters your home. It piles up on the desk, which seems to be the home’s paper catch-all. You want to head this off by using a simple in system.

• Inbox: unopened mail, flyers, notes, receipts - all this gets tossed into the inbox. At the end of the day, I empty in the inbox of all the papers and put them in their proper homes.
• Active: This tray is for the invitation you have to RSVP for, the copy of your insurance you are keeping handy since you’ve been playing phone tag with your agent, etc. This file is cleaned out once a week to ensure that clutter does not accumulate.
• Accounts payable: After I go through the mail (see “Inbox”), all the bills are put into this file. I use online bill-pay, so once a week I sort through my Accounts Payable and schedule my payments online. And since my bank will have my bill pay proof on my statement, I just toss the bill into the shredder.
• Accounts Receivable: Inevitably, stray checks come in through the mail be it rebate checks, birthday money from Grandma or a check (as opposed to an electronic payment) for an article I’ve written. Once a week, I take all these checks and run them down to the bank for deposit.
• File: As I’m going through the mail, I’m sure to find the new title page to our renter’s insurance or something similar that is important and needs to be filed. I place it in this tray and file all the paperwork once a week.
• Recycling bin: junk mail, bill payment stubs after I’ve paid the bill, etc. Do not underestimate the power of the “Round File”.

Step 2: The File System

What you’ll need: a banker’s box or filing cabinet, hanging folders, tabbed folders, label-maker of some sort and 1 hour to create

Since our household’s needs are pretty streamlined, I keep a large banker’s box I purchased at my favorite office supply store for our home files. The files are organized in this hierarchy:

• Domestic Affairs
  • Auto: This includes our pink slip, current auto insurance title page along with the past 2 years worth of insurance title pages & any repair invoices for the vehicle.
  • Current Lease: A copy of our current lease and all affiliated paperwork.
  • Renter’s Insurance: The title page of our current renter’s insurance as well as the past two years worth of title pages. I also keep copies of the receipts for our computers, large furniture or anything of value in here in the event we need to prove the value of items we owned in case of theft or damage.
• Money
  • Bank Statements: These are organized by institution & year. Example: WaMu 2007, ZYX Bank 2006. I only keep 3 years worth on hand.
  • Credit Card Statements: Since we no longer have any credit cards, this isn’t applicable to us. But when we did, I organized them by card and year, keeping only 3 years worth on hand.
  • Paycheck stubs: I keep them until I match them correctly against the W2 and then I shred them.
• Taxes
  • Filed by year. Within each year, I have three packets: a paper-clipped packet containing all the W2’s and various other proof of income, another paper-clipped packet of printed copies of all receipts for tax write-offs (originals are scanned into the computer and filed with warranties, if necessary) and then a stapled packet of the printed copies of my state and federal returns (we use TaxCut software for our taxes). ALWAYS KEEP YOUR TAX RECORDS. Better safe than sorry in an audit.
• Vital Records
  • Organized by person and includes their medical records, birth certificate, temporary copy of their driver’s license, social security card and life insurance policies.
• Warranties & Manuals
  • By type of item. I have 4 files labeled “appliances” (dishwasher, refrigerator, etc.), “electronics” (t.v., stereo, iPod), “furniture”, and “pc, peripherals & programs”. If I have a warranty, I staple the receipt to the inside cover of the owner’s manual for easy access.

Step 3: Maintenance

What you’ll need: 5-10 minutes a day, 30-90 minutes once a week

At the end of my day, I sort through my inbox and put the paperwork where it needs to be to get dealt with. Honestly, it takes about 5 minutes to do while I catch up with my mother on how her work day was. Add a screaming child plus dinner on the stove and you may end up spending more like 10 minutes to get this done.

I’ve personally dedicated Mondays to all the clerical duties of my freelance work and home. Each Monday afternoon, I reserve a 90-minute block of time to deal with my “paper-in” system. I deal with anything in my “active” file so it can be put to rest. I go through the “accounts payable” slot and schedule the bills. I file all paperwork left in the “file” tray. I then gather all the “accounts receivable”, head off to the bank and deposit the checks. By the time I get home, I’ve probably spent a total of 60 minutes (on average) dealing with everything but it’s done. Now I get to start my work week with a clean, accomplished and organized state of mind AND desk, not to mention a spare 30 minute coffee break.

Starbucks, anyone?

Ultimately, though I save myself TONS of time looking for lost receipts or important files gone MIA because all of my paperwork is organized and easily found. Now, if only I could find my glasses…

—–

Next week, I’ll cover my Ultimate Paper System - at Work.

If you have any questions or tips you’d like to add, please leave them in a comment!

Hi Marie,

When we meet with the graphic designers on Friday, is it for the second-to-final draft or final-to-print draft? When I spoke with Josie she didn’t make this clear to me.

Also I was wondering what you were doing for lunch afterwards. I have a new project coming up I’d love to talk to you about - a brochure for XYZ Industries due to print in February. Think you’ll have time?

- Laura

In my reply, I will simply cut and paste Laura’s original email and insert my responses afterwards, like so:

Hi Laura,

When we meet with the graphic designers on Friday, is it for the second-to-final draft or final-to-print draft? When I spoke with Josie she didn’t make this clear to me.

It’s both actually. We’ll make whatever changes need to be made on their computers and then print the final-to-print for a visual review before sending it to the printers.

Also I was wondering what you were doing for lunch afterwards.

Lunch? Josie set the meeting for 11 am so I figured we would order in and work through lunch since we’re going through two reviews in one afternoon.

I have a new project coming up I’d love to talk to you about - a brochure for XYZ Industries due to print in February. Think you’ll have time?

Wow, I’d love to work with you again! How about we meet up for breakfast on Monday to figure out the details – I don’t think we’ll have time on Friday to talk about this. After reviewing my schedule, I should be able to work this project in depending on its scope.

Looking forward to Friday,
- Marie

IMPORTANT: While using this adjustment, make sure to differentiate between the original text and your reply by italicizing, indenting or using the quote feature on the original text if your email program doesn’t automatically use the block reply line.

The great thing about this email hack is that it keeps the tone of the email conversational and to the point, since we know there are people out there who like to ramble off-topic. Also, this eliminates the "okay syndrome" (that vague reply that leaves you wondering what exactly the other person is saying "okay" to).

Use this liberally to eliminate confusion in those email volleys we all inevitably end up in.

Please note the following changes:

• A whole new layout - cleaner and brighter for your viewing pleasure!
• Freelancing FAQ is newly renovated
• About Me has been updated
• You can use the “Need to Chat Now?” widget in the sidebar to contact me immediately by instant messenger
• New upcoming regular articles here on MarieHolzer.com including
  • Productivity & Organization Tips on Tuesdays
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Enjoy!