Simple Steps to De-Clutter: Peace of Mind…via Peace of Place

Here’s the third in my trio of blog posts about clutter. In the first, I talked about why it’s so dang hard to get rid of; in the second I laid out the brain barriers clutter creates.

In this post, I share the indispensable keys to getting crap out of your way so you can focus more and think bigger.

But first, here’s a Mini-Productivity Hack I shared back in Episode 4 of Crusher™TV, in which I clear the decks of my desk before hunkering down on a tough task or project…

While I make sure my entire office is giving me Peace of Mind by providing Peace of Place, keeping my immediate workspace clutter-free is most critical. And here are the simple steps you can take to do the same….

First thing you want to do is…scan your working area and identify the things that give you energy. As one expert puts it, things that spark joy. These are the things that should remain in your line of sight – or immediately behind you as reminders. Might be a picture or a sculpture or just a handwritten note of a quote. These things are like battery jumper cables for your brain! So don’t take them lightly!

Next…

Take some photos of your work area and spend a few minutes just looking at them. By seeing your space from different perspectives OTHER than your everyday view from your chair, you can better spot the most cluttered areas.

With some clutter hot spots identified you’ll know best where to start discarding…

Cuz, a key to success is to discard first…and THEN organize or de-clutter. When you don’t do it in this order, you slow down the process and dramatically increase the odds of frustration and of giving up….

 Needless to say, in looking for things to discard or remove from sight….

Scan your work area and identify things that you don’t like to look at…that just give you a negative vibe. Cuz they weigh you down. Might be a stack of to-do’s…a stack of bills…an old piece of art. Get rid of them or take them out of your line of sight.

Then…

Look for anything that doesn’t do ANYTHING. If you haven’t used it in 6 months, and it doesn’t spark a joyful feeling when you look at it, it’s probably useless – trash it or donate it.

Last…

Put ONLY what you need for a given day’s work at arm’s length. Everything else goes in a drawer or on a shelf.

At the end of your de-clutterment, there’s a good chance there’ll be some items that you’re on the fence about. You feel some attachment…you think you might need it. Well, there’s a hack for that: Put them in a box, stick it in the corner and one week later, try to remember what’s in the box. Anything you don’t remember….it’s probably ok to flotsam that jetsam.

Think about the relative mental peace you have when you are visually confronted by nothing more than a blue sky, or the surface of a lake. Make your workspace more like that and see what your beautiful brain can do!

Peace, baby…yaaaaaaaaaaaa.

-Alan

P.S. The overall topic of de-cluttering and personal organization was the subject of Episode 14 on Crusher™TV. If you like this stuff, you might like Crusher™TV, where we crush productivity issues with simple-yet-powerful “brain hacks” every week. www.CrusherTV.com