I'll admit it. Clutter is my nemesis. I always start out with good intentions, and I can even do a thorough job of cleaning up my environment when I must. All too soon, however, I find myself drowning in a sea of "stuff" or working my way through the thousands of emails that cross my path. Envious of others who are not so organizationally challenged, I resolve to be just like them; but that's easier said than done.
So what gets in my way? Well, I'm usually multi-tasking and often do things at hyper-speed, so it's easy to fail to pay attention to the things I'm doing from moment to moment. I also tend to become overfocused on the task at hand and don't want to start something unless I can finish it.
Through the years, I've found certain techniques that work better than others when facing my "clutter" demons. You might find these helpful as well.
- Choose one type of clutter per month to focus on. If you decide to tackle the drawers in your home and/or office, intend to organize one drawer per day while leaving weekends free. By the end of the month, you will have streamlined 20 of them without feeling a bit overwhelmed.
- Commit to throwing out five pieces of paper per day. This can include envelopes, receipts, kleenex, etc.
- Pay attention to what you are doing - while you are doing it. This is key!
- Deal with your emails as you read them - file them, forward them, respond to them, or delete them.
- Vow to use up all your shampoo/shower gel/soap, etc. before buying more. This is one I need to follow since, left to my own devices, I tend to have a number of partially-used bottles filling up my bathroom cabinets.
- Once a week set a timer for fifteen minutes, play your favorite music, and pick up as much clutter as you can during this time period. When the timer goes off, stop and give yourself some much needed relaxation!
Copyright © 2008 by Holly Cox, L.C.P.C., C.D.C.®
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