STYLE Savvy: The Rocky Road to a Solution

Lisa Hess considers how searching too hard for a solution to a problem makes the solution feel too far out of reach.

I love a good organizing dilemma but sometimes, the harder I search for a solution, the farther out of reach it feels. In some cases, I can almost feel the possibilities retreating. My deep closet, for example, remains unchanged as I ponder its possibilities. 

Other times, a clear solution pops into my head out of nowhere. Last week, I finally created a dedicated "teaching ideas" notebook — after almost 12 years of teaching at the college level. Why? Because I'm tired of a million little slips of paper with ideas and class plans jotted on them, scattered across various surfaces. When the solution arrived, it was so incredibly obvious I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner. But, until I reached the proper level of motivation (or, in this case, annoyance), I kept living with a system that wasn't working. 

It's Gonna Take Some Time 

Then, there are the solutions that seem like a good idea at the time. During the Super Bowl, I had one eye on the game and one eye on a stack of papers that needed sorting. As I came close to finishing my sorting task, I was left with a pile of miscellaneous information I wanted to keep but that didn't fit neatly anywhere. Since we have quite a collection of blank notebooks, I corralled all the bits and pieces into a catch-all notebook — a sort of miscellaneous collection of information that I hoped would become the first place I looked when I was looking for that piece of paper that had been in the way for far too long. On that Sunday evening, it seemed like a genius solution. 

I think I've looked at it once since then.  

While that doesn't represent a failure (if I didn't need to access the information it contained, there'd be no reason to open the notebook), I'm not entirely convinced it’s the perfect solution either.  

Patience with the Process 

Like organizing itself, finding solutions can be a process. There are times when I need to sit with the dilemma for a while before arriving at a solution. Even then, the idea that shows up might not be exactly what I'm looking for but, rather, a starting point that will lead me to the just-right solution. 

And sometimes, inspiration arrives while I'm pondering a dilemma. Today, I got a package. The box was just the right size to store one of the piles in my deep closet. I immediately pressed it into service and labeled it. 

Step one. 

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Copyright 2025 Lisa Hess
Images: Canva