Getting to Good Enough

It can be hard to step out of your comfort zone, and sometimes perfectionism keeps us squarely in it. In this episode, Janine and Shannon discuss a project that has Janine stepping way out of her comfort zone and how she's trying hard to not let perfectionism get in the way.

Discussion topics include:

• How Janine is stepping out of her comfort zone with the publication and marketing of her new Orderly Roots genealogy guide

• Shannon's attempts to help Janine reframe her thinking about sales

• How perfectionism fits into Janine's discomfort

• The difficulty in calling a writing project finished

• The physiological effect of the stress of going out of your comfort zone

• Figuring out what tasks merit spending more time

• Shannon's introduction of a stressor Janine hadn't even thought of. (Thanks, Shannon.)

• The podcast's upcoming third anniversary

Janine's enjoyment of being new in a field and her transition into acknowledging herself as an expert

• Shannon's insight that Janine's enjoyment of being new means she likes getting out of her comfort zone

• The joy of having a challenge that you don't know you can achieve, something Shannon and Janine both love

• How perfectionism can get in the way of rising to certain challenges

• How Shannon went from being an adamant non-runner to finishing the Boston Marathon four years later

• Shannon's husband Mike's rising to the challenge of knitting socks

See the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links to Janine's new sales pages.

Thinking about future you can help your present self get unstuck. In this episode Shannon and Janine discuss some strategies for letting go of perfectionism and taking action in ways that your future self will thank you for.

Discussion topics include:

• How decisions can become easier when we think about our future selves

• Embracing good enough now so your future self will thank you

• How Shannon let go of efficiency in favor of considering her future self by immediately processing any documents related to her mother's estate

• Janine's new YNAB-fueled bookkeeping routines that helped her future self at tax time

• Janine's filthy keyboard and how her future self would appreciate her cleaning it

• Our advice: Think about future you when you're paralyzed by perfectionism

• Scheduling a vacation to benefit your future self

• Booking services now, rather than waiting until the perfect time

• How thinking of your future self can shift your perspective enough to allow you take action

• Considering your elderly future self

• Helping your future self by making and freezing meals

• Helping your morning self by deciding in advance what to do first thing in the morning

• Janine's hand-lettered task list

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for pictures and links!

It's so easy to live in the past and the future without really being in the present. This week, Janine and Shannon discuss how to practice being present. Shannon shares tips and techniques for practicing mindfulness, while Janine (who has been wanting to cultivate mindfulness) soaks it all in.

Discussion topics include:

• An update on Shannon's car-buying journey (Spoiler Alert: they bought a car!)

• Janine's need to be more mindful

• Remembering to be present

• Shifting your attention toward being mindful by focusing on your breath or doing a body scan

• Practicing being present now, not in the future

• Inviting your unconscious mind to scan the sidewalk and be aware of what is coming up to avoid tripping during walks or runs

• Reminding yourself what you want to pay attention to (not what you DON'T want to pay attention to)

• Another mindfulness technique: matching your breathing with your steps when taking a walk

• Integrating mindfulness into things that are happening naturally

• Turning chores into an opportunity to practice mindfulness

• How practicing mindfulness isn't an all-or-nothing proposition

• Avoiding perfectionism in practicing being present

• Remembering that this takes continual practice

• The practice: check in with yourself, pay attention to your breath, be in your body and choose what you do next

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for an update from Janine on how she's practiced mindfulness since recording this episode.

Shannon and Janine love talking about task management. In the past we have both used Todoist, then we both used Trello. Now Shannon's back to Todoist for her task management while Janine remains fervently loyal to Trello. In this episode, we talk about how success with task management isn't about the system you use, but more about knowing what you need.

Discussion topics include:

• Our love for our task management systems

• Shannon's on-again-off-again-back-on-again relationship with Todoist for task management

• Todoist's gamification (streaks and Karma Points!)

• How task management systems fail when you stop paying attention to them

• How there's no such thing as a perfect task management system

• Shannon's description of her Todoist projects

• Todoist's new board view

• Shannon's Could, Should, Want, and Will lists

• Shannon's daily spotlight routine (focusing on a different project each day)

• The key to success: Figuring out what you need and what isn't working for you in your current system

• Recognizing that what we need in a task management system can change

• Shannon's "quick wins" tasks

• The only thing missing from Todoist in Shannon's view: confetti!

• How we all deserve confetti

• A side discussion on trophies

• Finding a "good enough" task management system

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for screen shots and links!

In this, our 150th episode (!), Janine and Shannon discuss how easy it is to blur the boundaries between work and home life, particularly when working from home. We talk about strategies to help create helpful work boundaries to make our work and home lives more distinct (and more enjoyable).

Discussion topics include:

• Our 150th episode!

• Janine's lament over the fact that she seems to be always working

• Shannon's working beach trip that could have been improved with better boundaries

• What she wished she'd done: Get clear up front--and have a clear list--about what work felt important to do while she was at the beach

• The value of time blocking for boundaries

• Janine's simplified version of her daily task management that she uses when traveling to be clear on what work she needs to do

• The blurred lines between work and personal life when working from home

• The difficulty in turning off work when technology makes it accessible 24/7

• Creating rituals to end the work day (and make starting the next day easier)

• How putting a stop to the work day can actually make you a more effective worker

• The challenge of having natural working rhythms that don't coincide with the family's

• Creating mental and physical boundaries that separate work and personal time

It can be challenging to make thoughtful choices--whether they're large or small decisions. In this episode, Shannon shares a process that she uses to make decisions and how it helped she and her husband decide whether or not to buy a new car. (Spoiler alert: They decided not to!) This simple process can be helpful in all sorts of situations.

Discussion topics include:

• The two important questions that are basis of this process: (1) What problem are you trying to solve as you make a choice? and (2) What are you hoping to gain?

• How Shannon and her husband disagreed about whether or not to buy a car because they were coming at it with different goals

• How once they figured out what they were trying to achieve, the question became much more clear

• The adorable car that Mike decided to wait for: The 2024 electric Volkswagen Microbus

• Pressing pause on spending until you can make a thoughtful decision

• How this process can apply to any decision, not just financial ones

• Separating complicated decisions into smaller components

• Applying the process to decluttering projects, like Shannon's bar/cookbook nook that she just decluttered

• Another application of this process: deciding whether to take a course

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links!

As the teachers of a class on decluttering, Janine and Shannon know that living with less leads to more ease. This week, they discuss how the pandemic has affected people's decluttering efforts and not letting perfectionism get in the way.

Discussion topics include:

• Happy birthday to Shannon! (Her second pandemic birthday.)

• The pandemic's strange effect of making some people want to hang on to more tangible items because they've lost so many intangible things during the last year

• The great feeling of a lean closet

• Janine's excitement over getting some new accessories to wear with her 100-day dress and the second wool dress she's getting from Wool&

• How Shannon's once-lean closet has crept into feeling crowded again

• Shannon's renewed desire to live with less stuff in her closet (and goal to work on that before this episode airs)

• Janine's encouragement to Shannon to declutter her closet live during the April Declutter Happy Hour

• The decluttering benefits that Shannon and Janine experienced during the March Declutter Happy Hour

• Shannon's reframing of decluttering: Rather than thinking of it as letting go, she's thinking of it as giving herself something

• Benefitting others by letting go of stuff that no longer serves you

• Letting go of perfectionism around how to donate the items you're ready to release

• The ease of living that goes along with letting go of excess

• Janine's goal of getting her taxes to the accountant by the time this episode airs

• Shannon's re-embracing of Todoist for her task management (which we promise to cover in a future episode)

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for updates and links!

Now that more and more of the U.S. population is getting vaccinated, it feels like the light is shining at the end of the tunnel. In this episode, recorded shortly after Janine got her first vaccination, Shannon and Janine talk about planning for how we want our lives to be once things feel more "normal."

Discussion topics include:

• Janine's elation over unexpectedly getting her first COVID vaccination

• How the light seems to be shining at the end of pandemic tunnel

• The impact of COVID vaccinations on a personal level (it made Shannon cry!)

• How the vaccination made Janine ponder what might happen with her business now

• How being vaccinated might alter our behavior in public

• The good behavior changes brought on by the pandemic and how we hope some of them stick when it's over

• How the pandemic has somewhat paradoxically allowed us to spend more time with friends

• Our dislike of large Zoom calls (except for Janine's birthday scavenger hunt over Zoom)

• An aside about Shannon's gigantic hands on Zoom

• Taking stock of what has been nice about the pandemic and what the pandemic has taught you never to do again

• Some of the shifts and behavior changes brought by the pandemic

• Recognizing that it's not like a switch will get flipped and the pandemic will be over

• The value of knowing what is important to you as you fashion your post-pandemic lifestyle

Back in January 2019, Janine and Shannon had a long conversation about decluttering our wardrobes, with lots of advice on the how's and why's of the process. We're re-running it this week, as we anticipate our next session of Declutter Happy Hour, coming again in the month of April. If you enjoy this episode, please consider joining us for four live-on-Zoom sessions of the April Declutter Happy Hour! (Register at http://bit.ly/declutterhh.)

Most people we meet have more clothes than they wear. When closets are crammed with unworn and unloved clothes, getting dressed (and putting away laundry) is difficult. In this episode, Shannon and Janine talk about curating your closet so it's a pleasure to use and contains only clothes you love. This is a long episode--we just had so much to say!

Discussion topics include:

• How most people we meet have some sort of struggle with their clothes

• The domino effect of a crowded closet

• The benefits of having a one in/one out policy in your closet

• The joy and convenience of an uncrowded closet

• Project 333, the minimalist clothing challenge

• How Janine really likes wearing the same thing all the time

• How Shannon had a uniform that she didn't love--until she went to Stasia's Style School

• Janine and Shannon’s recent (painless) closet clean outs

• Organizing clothes by color

• Folding shirts like Marie Kondo (which Janine has been doing for many years)

• How frequent travel can help you pare down your wardrobe

• Shannon’s patented DIY closet-clearing method

• Why all this matters and how perfectionism plays a part

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for loads of links!

Commitments don't have to be all-or-nothing propositions. In fact, if you allow yourself to make imperfect commitments, it can be easier to commit yourself. This week, Shannon and Janine discuss the power of imperfect commitments (like our commitment to this podcast).

Discussion topics include:

• How committing to something can be easier if you allow yourself to make an imperfect commitment

• A study that says that people who believe in soulmates struggle more in their relationships

• Imperfect commitments are about creating space to be imperfect, experiment and take risks

• The paradox of how accepting that something is going to be imperfect can give you more satisfaction

• A flashback to Shannon's marathoning days and the difference between training to see if she could do it versus training to meet her Boston marathon qualifying time (Hint: the first one was more fun!)

• How making an imperfect commitment makes knitting a lot more fun for Janine

• Imperfect commitment + yoga = an enjoyable, beneficial practice

• Exploring the least you can do that still counts

• If you make what you have to do to meet your commit ridiculously easy, then you can trust yourself more and feel comfortable making more of these small commitments.

• The tendency to feel like volunteer commitments are all or nothing when making a small imperfect commitment may allow you to actually do more

• Surprise! Shannon jinxed us and this episode isn't Episode 144

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links.