We've talked about the "why" of organization. We've covered the very first step: get up one-half hour before the rest of the family, shower and dress. Now we're going to talk about the reason it took me about six years to make this system really work, and it all started in home ec!

Remember home ec? That was the class I took as a seventh-grader to teach me to make chocolate milk and cinnamon toast--when I was already cooking family dinners twice a week, baking pies, and making jelly at my grandmother's elbow.

Good ole' home ec had a sewing component, too, and my teacher, Mrs. McClincy (bless her soul--I've saved a bundle over the years using the skills she taught me!) was a regular bear about construction pressing. Even decades later, her voice rings through my head when I bend over that Bernina: "Press as you sew!"

Mrs. McClincy must have been born organized. Born organized people (and those Sidetrackers who were blessed with a Mrs. McClincy) do press as they sew--and they follow directions in every other aspect of life, too.

We Sidetrackers? "Why should I iron that seam? It's not going to show!" we tell ourselves--and then we wonder why our garments never look quite right when we are finished! Like sewing, like life--if you take short-cuts, you'd better expect to be short-changed.

This goes single, double, triple in our quest for organization. I know exactly what newcomers to the S.H.E.™ system do--because I did it and did it and did it for years!

Sidetracked Home ExecutivesFirst, you race through the book. It's such fun! It's so encouraging. Then, you race down to the stationery store and stock up on a rainbow of 3-by-5 cards, a nice file, and maybe you even add a pack of colored pens, too. "I'll be super organized, even color-coded!" you beam as you stagger to the car with your loot. "This is fun!"

You may even write out some nifty little cards (why bother to make boring old Activity lists?) and set up your cardfile. But just like that unpressed garment, your new Home Executive system is going to droop on you, right away. Why? Because you didn't do the hard stuff. You didn't press as you sew!

What hard stuff? Changing attitudes. Changing habits. Drafting a Basic Week Plan, and modifying it and modifying it and modifying it until you have a plan that works. Giving up excuses. Saying "No!" Doing the cards!

In the days to come, we will begin the nitty-gritty: Activity Lists to 3-by-5 cards to habits to goals. Decide, this time, that you will succeed. And how will you succeed? You will not skip the hard stuff, the stuff that doesn't show. This time, you will press as you sew. . . to get organized!