Trauma-sensitive neuro-inclusive personal organizing to help you figure out how to meet your needs. Online - video, audio, text
09/08/2025
Hacks for beating my demand avoidance
(This is another one that isn't in my PDA Summit presentation because I've newly penned it)
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These are strategies I’ve come up with to bypass my own pathological brand of demand avoidance
They may, or may not be helpful for fellow PDA folk
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Keeping hush
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What it is:
Keeping my plans secret
Telling other people what I’m doing effectively means telling my demand avoidance, which will immediately veto me carrying on with the project
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When I use it:
After I’ve started a new project
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Examples:
– I don’t show people paintings I’m working on because, if I do, I lose all my inspiration and feel anxious instead
– If I’m writing a book, I delay telling publishers until I’ve almost finished writing it because, otherwise, my demand avoidance clamps down, making it nearly impossible to write anything more
06/08/2025
At this workshop on Monday, we will talk about pros and cons to Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud; how those storage running out alerts make use feel and then spend some time actually going through our cloud storage to address the overwhelm!
Expect mentions of scarcity mindset and capitalism, and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions you want to contribute!
Head's up!
One week from yesterday (Monday 8/11) from 6-7:15 pm ET, i will be hosting a free online workshop for reclaiming your cloud storage. Come to hear from Parts with Presley about productivity, process emotions, and do some digital decluttering live together!
[Image description: a woman stands in front of a sky with clouds, using her hands to block her face. In blue font, text reads "Get Your Stuff Out of the Clouds, free guided co-work space for digital decluttering, Monday 8/11 @ 6-7:15 pm ET." To the right is a QR code which takes you to the Zoom Registration page - https://shorturl.at/u4Fzh . Banner underneath reads "Hosted by Organizing with empathy]
06/08/2025
06/08/2025
Mirah Shand will be hosting a fundraiser for the Trans Asylum Support Network. She’ll be hosting a virtual space in August on Mondays from 5-5:20pm, and Thursdays 7-7:20am that she is calling Body Doubling Body Time.
Body Doubling Body Time (BDBT) is a space for you if you've been putting off doing your PT or OT exercises; if you want some loving accountability to do your weekly mobility routine; if you've wanted to start a breathwork practice but you're struggling to schedule it; if you want to take care of your body and want some more community support in doing that. Q***r and trans affirming!
Suggested donation for each Body Doubling Body Time is $5.
06/08/2025
05/08/2025
Head's up!
One week from yesterday (Monday 8/11) from 6-7:15 pm ET, i will be hosting a free online workshop for reclaiming your cloud storage. Come to hear from Parts with Presley about productivity, process emotions, and do some digital decluttering live together!
[Image description: a woman stands in front of a sky with clouds, using her hands to block her face. In blue font, text reads "Get Your Stuff Out of the Clouds, free guided co-work space for digital decluttering, Monday 8/11 @ 6-7:15 pm ET." To the right is a QR code which takes you to the Zoom Registration page - https://shorturl.at/u4Fzh . Banner underneath reads "Hosted by Organizing with empathy]
05/08/2025
Sometimes people ask me how I decide to learn a new skill, or what I do to make progress in handling my emotions since I wasn’t taught it growing up, or whatever.
In related news, I just got to 10 today in my “didn’t respond snappily to my kid when he was trying to pick a verbal fight with me” tracker in my phone and now I’m gonna buy myself a Vanilla Coke reward.
So sometimes it’s that. 😶
[Image description: a screenshot of the notes app on my phone. The “title” of the note is a crossed-swords emoji. There are 10 tick boxes, each with a single emoji, which is the emoji of the face that doesn’t have a mouth (e.g., is being silent). Nine of them are ticked off. The overall effect is basically that, in picture form, the note is titled “fight?” and I ticked off a box each time I stayed silent instead of engaging in the verbal fight I was being invited to. End description.]
04/08/2025
a trusted resource for organizing your social life
From A**l S*x 101 to Zine-Making, we’ve got you covered with over 50 sex-positive, q***r, trans, kinky & poly events in Greater Boston and online. Get our monthly roundup of events, plus job openings in the sexuality field & calls for submissions: https://mailchi.mp/pleasurepie/aug2025.
01/08/2025
01/08/2025
yes!!! i love this strategy
I keep a “waiting for” or “delegated” folder in my email and in my task manager app. It can also be a paper file too.
Sometimes you have things on your “to-do” lists that you can’t move forward on, because you are waiting for something or someone else to do their part of it.
There is maintenance to keeping this system up and that’s making sure that you simply review or look through those “waiting for” areas as often as needed so you don’t lose track of the task or project.
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Organizing with empathy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Hello there! I love feeling organized - for me it means feeling connected to my past and future, my community and values, my body. But I also struggle with it every day - the dread, anxiety, fear of getting started, especially when it feels like I have to do it all on my own, and don’t know where to start. That’s why I started Organizing with elly, a personal organizing and productivity service where together we figure out what you want your time, space, life to feel like, and how to get there. It’s a process, let me accompany you.
Projects I have helped clients with:
Clutter
Do you have stuff in your room/house getting in the way of your thinking, feeling, being? Clothes, arts n crafts, books, you name it, I can help you decide where it belongs to best meet your needs. Only you know the right amount of stuff for your space, and if you decide you want to give things away or sell them, I can help connect you to community nonprofits in need of items, or manage online postings for facebook, Craiglist or other sales groups.
Emails
Do you have 2,355 unread emails in your inbox and growing daily? Gmail storage at a critical low? Still getting emails from college listservs, or Bernie? Let’s figure out what your dream inbox looks like so together we can set up systems to prioritize your email, deal with backlog, and choose what you spend your time on. We can meet once, weekly, monthly, or at whatever interval works for you.
Papers
Do you have taxes, insurance letters, prison letters, mail, or more piling up in stacks around your room? Are you good at holding onto old photos and school papers, but tired of how much space they take up? Let me help you go through important papers and memorabilia which we are keeping for emotional reasons, and make it easier to manage.
Packing and Unpacking for Moves
Are you moving to or from somewhere in the Greater Boston Area? I like helping people pack and prepare for moves, as well as unpacking and designing space once you move in. Last summer I helped a friend get all her things ready to go the week before September 1st. Together we went through all the items in her apartment, decided what she wanted to give/sell/keep, managed online postings for give/sell items, and secured labels on packing boxes to be shipped, and I was there with her on move-out day for the landlord’s final inspection.
Are my services right for you? Here are some questions to consider:
Do you want someone who is patient, compassionate, calm and not a therapist to help you deal with the s**t you’ve been avoiding?
Do you want to make tangible changes to your life that remind you that you are in control, while also processing your feelings on an emotional level with a non-judgmental near-stranger?
Do you hear voices in your head every time you start to deal with an issue that go “No, not right now. You’re going to mess it up. Stop. Stop! Don’t do it until you really have the time and you can do it perfectly because otherwise you’re going to start and then get distracted and let yourself down and goals are such a disgusting positive idea anyway and I’m not someone who can do this---” and on and on further down the spiral?
Take a deep breath. I know it’s overwhelming, thanks for taking the time to process some of this. I would love to accompany you on this process!
