Decluttering – Page 2 – Physician In Numbers

Future Me, January 2022

I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018. I had just cut back my hours, and wanted to use my new free time wisely. Some of that time was to relax, but I also wanted to improve my fitness, make my home a more pleasant place to stay, and work on becoming a more well-rounded human being.

My last update was in August 2021, with a number of wins, and several misses.

I had plenty of non-hospital months since then, which should have meant that I could hit most of my goals; however, between parental hospitalizations and a death in the family, my time was definitely not my own.

With all that, how did I do with my goals over the past 5 months?

Low Clutter Gift Giving

It’s that time of year: Giving Tuesday, Hanukkah, Christmas, family birthdays. A girl’s mind turns to giving.

I’ve already written about giving to charity in various ways, including–most recently–via donor advised fund.

In this post I am thinking more about the gifts we give to family and friends.

This year, I was more interested in more ephemeral gifts: what with inflation, supply chain issues, and more discussion about decluttering, I thought it might be a good year to think about gifts that won’t linger in a closet for years.

Future Me, August 2021

I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018. I had just cut back my hours from full time to 90%, and wanted to use my new free time wisely. Some of that time was to relax, but I also wanted to improve my fitness, make my home a more pleasant place to stay, and work on becoming a more well-rounded human being.

My last update was in April 2021, with a number of wins, and several misses.

I’ve been busy and tired since; took a vacation; worked in the hospital in July; and asked for another pay cut to reduce my hours after they crept up again to 100%.

With all that, how did I do with my goals over the past 3-4 months?

Future Me, April 2021

My last update was in January 2021, with a number of wins, and several misses.

So how have I done with my new goals? Read on for the latest update, covering the first 3+ months of 2021.

A Year Of Decluttering

A few weeks ago, one of my patients who is also a doctor came in for a physical. As I was asking about drinking (drinking has gone up quite a bit during the pandemic), he said something I found quite interesting: At the end of this pandemic, people are either going to be a lot healthier [exercising more and eating better] or much unhealthier [substance use and exercising less]. He is totally right.

One year ago, I returned to the office after a meeting (one I attended remotely because of concerns about this new virus out of Wuhan) to a new hospital, one preparing for an onslaught of very ill people with a disease we might catch and die from. Stay at home orders had been issued. It was the real beginning of the pandemic for me.

I did a little more drinking last Spring, to be sure, but as I spent more time at home, I looked around and decided it was really time to deal with the messes I had been ignoring as I rushed to work each day.

Future Me, January 2021

My last update was in September 2020, with a number of wins, and several misses.

So how have I done with my new goals? Read on for the latest update, covering the last 4 months of 2020.

Finding Joy In What We Have

I will be writing in a few weeks about the outcome of the challenge Mr. PiN set himself to reduce spending.

However, I thought this Thanksgiving week was an excellent time to write about a lesson we learned (or were reminded of) during this time: how fun it is to find out that we already have what we need. And then to use it.

5 Lessons Learned From Emptying My Closet

A few weeks ago, I up-ended everything in my home office.

I had previously gotten the office under some semblance of control: the bookshelves were thinned, the floor was mostly cleared, I could position my chair for video appointments pretty much anywhere.

And then, I decided I had had enough of my super-stuffed closet. I said I wanted space to put away my ironing board when I wasn’t using it. Suddenly I was emptying out my super-stuffed closet and had to deal with whatever crap was in there. In the process, I turned my nearly tidy office into an unholy mess, which prompted some reflection.

Here are a few of the lessons I am taking away from this experience.

Future Me, September 2020

My last update was in June of this year, with a number of wins, and several misses versus abandonment of goals (that darned pandemic!).

Here is my 3 month update. I have been giving myself plenty of slack, as between COVID and worrying about the other big C, my brain has been very busy this summer.

Future Me, June 2020

My last update was in March of this year, with a few wins, and a bunch of misses. I set new goals, based on my predictions of what life might look like with a pandemic sweeping through.

I had planned to follow up at the end of May. I’m a little late, but rounding things up after 13 weeks of dealing with COVID-19.