September is Self-Improvement Month – a great time to declutter your life of things that are weighing you down and holding you back from being the best you can be.
I have a friend who’s been wanting to declutter her home for a long time, but simply was not “getting around” to doing it. She and a friend both decided that they’d do this together, so they became accountability partners. Each time my friend gets rid of something in her home, she sends a text message to her friend to report what she’s let go of, and the friend does the same. Both have turned this into a fun game, eager to report to the other that they got rid of yet another item!
What’s cluttering up your life?
“Clutter: anything you own, possess, or do that does not enhance your life on a regular basis.” -Kathy Paauw
Based on my definition of clutter, it goes far beyond your physical environment. Clutter can be activities, thoughts, or even relationships that do not enhance your life. For now, let’s focus on the clutter in your physical environment.
The ability to identify environmental clutter and get rid of it is one of the most significant barriers to getting organized and being productive. Some people have difficulty throwing away or giving away things. As you make decisions about what to keep and what to let go of, here are some great questions to ask yourself:
- What’s the worst thing that could happen if I got rid of this?
- If I got rid of this now and discovered I needed it later, could I fairly easily replace it?
- By the time I might need this, will it be obsolete?
- If my home/office burned down, would I miss this item enough that I would actively try to replace it?
- Does this item have tax or legal implications?
- How will it enhance my life to keep this?
These questions can help you decide what’s weighing you down and holding you back from moving your life forward in powerful ways, so you can finally let go and lighten your load. The peace-of-mind awaiting you on the other side is incredible!
Find an Accountability Partner
Working with accountability partner is one of the best ways to improve your self-discipline and stay on track with decluttering your space. When you select your partner, be sure you choose someone who can suspend judgment if you don’t do something you said you would do. Otherwise, if you’re constantly feeling judged when you’re less than perfect, you’ll probably not report honestly. Click here to access more tips on ways to select and manage an accountability partnership.
What Does Clutter Cost You?
Today’s professionals feel overwhelmed with the volume of paper and electronic information that arrive at a frenetic pace daily.
Perhaps you don’t know where to put something or you’re afraid if you put it away you won’t remember where to find it when you need it. If it requires action, you may fear forgetting to follow up…out of sight, out of mind! Unfortunately, sticking it in a pile will not help you remember to take action when the time comes to do that important follow-up.
Clutter not only costs you time and money, but it also takes its toll on your health, relationships, and much more. Here are some of the less tangible costs of disorganization:
- You’re FRUSTRATED by the sheer amount of clutter and piles of “postponed decisions” accumulating on every horizontal surface.
- You’re AFRAID to throw anything away because you just might need it
- You’re EMBARRASSED to ask others to reproduce something for you, because you often cannot find what you need when you need it.
- You feel DISAPPOINTED when you think of all the opportunities that have slipped through the cracks because you don’t have the right systems in place to manage it all.
- You’re ANGRY about wasting valuable time and moneyre-creating and buying things you already have but cannot find.
- You feel OVERWHELMED with the concept of organizing your office, so you decide to save the challenge for another day when you’ll have more time, money and motivation.
Getting organized is not just about managing your physical space. It also involves clarifying your priorities and values and organizing your thoughts and your time around those.
Recently I had a coaching call with a highly intelligent client who holds multiple degrees. She was embarrassed to say that she had never learned how to manage her time. Until I taught her a simple weekly planning process, she had never used a calendar to schedule anything other than professional appointments with others. Learning how to organize her time around her priorities has been life-changing!
It’s Time to Clear the Clutter!
Clutter can touch every area of your life–from your health to your closets to your relationships. It can make you feel stressed and leave you less free time to enjoy your life.
Most people hold on to clutter because they assign their possessions some kind of emotional significance. For example, a broken toy wagon might still be in your storage shed because it was the last thing your favorite aunt gave you years ago, before she passed away. You still associate your aunt’s love with the wagon, making it difficult to let go of it.
You’ll feel better emotionally when you let go of things that no longer serve you to hold onto and thoughtfully reorganize what’s left. You’ll be able to find what you need when you need it. This will also save you money, as you’ll no longer need to replace things you already have but cannot find.
Decluttering your life provides a kind of freedom that is hard to describe…freedom from the energetic pull of visual clutter that hijacks your attention when you walk into a room. It also is freeing to know that someday when you depart this earth, you will not be leaving behind a mound of clutter for loved ones to deal with.
If decluttering feels like a task that’s too big for you to take on, give yourself fifteen minutes a day to focus on decluttering one small area at a time. When you break a task down, you’ll find that it’s easier to do.
If you’d like professional help, I work virtually, so geographic location is not an issue. You’ll be amazed what a little support can do to get you unstuck and moving forward.
For additional tips on how to get started, check out my guide: Organize Your Home: A Road Map to Getting Your Home in Order in Just 30 Days!
Create & Follow a SYSTEM!
Having the right SYSTEM in place will save you space, time, energy and money, but only if you form new habits around using the system you’ve set up.
Sorting and filing seems like a lower priority than creating a new product or serving your clients. But what kind of message do you send others when they see that mess? Prospective clients may ask themselves, “If he can’t manage his own office, how will he manage my project?”
According to the results of a 2010 study by office products company Brother International, the annual cost of time spent looking for misplaced items in corporate America was $177 billion. That represents an average of 76 hours a year of wasted time — nearly two work weeks a year. According to the same study, disorganization not only represents costs in wasted time, but it also costs individual workers money, since nearly one-third of those surveyed failed to get reimbursed by their employer for a business-related out-of-pocket-expense because they misplaced or lost receipts.
Getting and staying organized is not easy, especially at the pace we move these days. If it was easy, there wouldn’t be so many highly successful, intelligent, creative people who struggle with it. Unfortunately, unless you were born organized or had a good role model that taught you these skills, you may never have learned even the most basic organizing skills.
Imagine knowing what to do with every single piece of paper or information that comes into your busy life, so you no longer feel a need to create piles of delayed decisions. Imagine remembering important follow-up at the right time.
Since 2003, I’ve taught my free Buried in Paper webinar to thousands of professionals who want to stop the paper pile-up once and for all, so they can find what they need when they need it, and remember important follow-up.
Click here to see what bestselling author Jack Canfield has to say about my system, which I helped him set up several years ago.
Are you ready to put a SYSTEM in place and form new habits that will help you enjoy a more purpose-driven and productive life?
No matter what you’d like to change or achieve, the secrets to success are the same…
…Get clear. As specifically as possible, decide what you want. The clearer you are about what you want to do, be and have in your life, the more likely you are to achieve it.
…Get perspective. Most people don’t tell anyone what they want or what they are struggling with, and because of that they don’t reap the benefit of receiving someone else’s perspective. Share your challenges with someone you trust who can provide valuable input.
…Get support. Very few people (if any) achieve anything great alone. Sports stars and Olympic athletes have performance coaches. Famous singers and actors have voice and acting coaches. Business professionals have business coaches.
If you want to speed up your success rate, let’s schedule a no-cost strategy session. I’ll help you get clear, get perspective, and get support.
Additional Resources
- Blog: How to Declutter Any Space
- Blog: Clutter Burped
- Blog: 101 Ways to Save Money
- Blog: RAM Dump
- Free Webinar: Buried in Paper
- Free Webinar: Find Anything in 5 Seconds or Less
- Free Calculator: Cost of Disorganization Calculator
