Clearing the Clutter: A Key To Clearer Thinking And Better Work
This printable personal coaching session is designed to share with you some action steps you can take that will keep you from wasting time and emotional energy because of working in a cluttered, visually-stressful environment.
The realities associated with the atrocities of terrorism have probably left you, like myself, with feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. Uncertainties about what lies in store for us has caused varying degrees of disarray in our lives. However, you can do something about the disarray in your work area.
Before focusing on some action steps you can take to clear the clutter in your office and your life, I want to share with you a quote that brings a proper perspective to the issue of neatness. "Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind." Francois de Salignac Fenelon.
Looking around my office in the early years of my management career, I felt very uncomfortable, a little stressed, and very frustrated by the disarray and clutter around me as I was completing some work. In clear view were parts of different projects here and there on my desk, console and even on the floor under the consoles! Unread magazines and newspaper clippings were beginning to cascade out of my over-flowing in-basket. A pile of correspondence and “to do’s” caught my eye on both sides of my computer desk.
I thought to myself, “Working in this clutter is a dumb way to try to successfully and most easily do my work!” Fortunately, I received some sage advice regarding the impact of clutter on personal productivity. I took that advice and made a personal commitment to do something about clearing the clutter around my work area. My first action step was find and review a couple of articles on the subject and to quickly review a couple of books on the topic of organizing home and office space. There was really nothing new in the reading, but it “dusted off” for me some valuable anti clutter principles... principles I had known about but that had been gathering "cobwebs and dust" in the far regions of my mind.
Here are some of the practical and proven tips I've discovered for making a successful effort towards “Clearing the Clutter” in your life and work.
Focus On Feeling Better - One way people can nurture their emotions is to take control over their immediate environment. We can feel more secure when we gain and maintain control over the environments we live in at home and work. By reducing clutter and getting organized, we can create a more orderly world for ourselves.
Distinguish The Important Vs. The Urgent - The first step toward creating order and clearing the clutter in your home and work environments is to ask yourself, “What’s really important to me in terms of controlling my own space?” When we can’t control what’s going on around us, we can do all we can to clear the clutter to better control the most productive arrangement of the space, the things and the tools around us at home and work. Reacting to the “tyranny of the urgent” tends to contribute to a trail of clutter in our lives. A byproduct of clearing the clutter is that in discarding or giving away unnecessary things we find that the stuff in our lives isn’t really so important anymore. What we really desire is more discretionary time to invest in relationships with family members and friends and time for ourselves to relax, study, and pray. Avoiding the “tyranny of the urgent” and clearing the clutter are critical steps toward buying yourself additional discretionary time!
Get Started Now by setting a specific time for your “clearing the clutter” campaign. Don’t wait until you have found an “ideal” way of organizing things. Don’t try to cram in your clearing of clutter in between other tasks or you will just get more frustrated. Commit an hour a day to go after a specific area such as your desk, bedroom closet, kitchen counter, or work bench and you will be on your way to enjoying the optimum organization of your personal space.
Honor Your Unique Working Style - We are all different and things should be organized in ways that allow our natural work styles to function best. An example is a totally clear desk does not work for me. I like to have the materials for current coaching and consulting clients in vertical files or notebooks where I can see them. When I think of something beneficial to a client I can go right to their file or notebook and drop a note or article related to them in their file.
Custom Organize Your Space And Desktop - My files are kept in four main locations: desk top; a hanging day and month drop file in my desk; console of hanging files next to my desk; and, archives in shelves and file cabinets in a nearby storage area. My desk top files are labeled, color coded and arranged along the back edge of my desk facing a wall. They are next to my in basket. My hanging console files are quickly available to me on the left and right hand side of my desk, which form a U shape with my desk top. My computer is on the wall behind me on a console that goes wall to wall, with printers and a copier easily accessed on each end of the console. By turning my chair around from my desk I can move easily over to my computer as needed.
One of the clutter industry’s gurus, Julie Morgenstern authored a book called Organizing from the Inside Out. Her space maintenance theory is Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize and Equalize. Here is how to apply her strategy. Begin by sorting the clutter into several piles.
Things to file - Insurance policies, warranties, contracts, etc.
Things that require action – Correspondence, bills, proposals, etc.
Things for other people – Thank you notes, greeting cards, articles, etc.
Things that are pending – Invitations, tickets, and other items needing future attention.
Things to purge by throwing or giving them away – Needless things should be the largest pile!
The decision to purge can be difficult or even avoided. It is a major problem for many of us because clutter is the result of postponed decisions or procrastination. Avoid purging and the “stuff” in your home and work environment will come around again and again to clutter your mind and your environment. As a life-long “keeper” and “clutter” person, I speak with authority. I urge you to grit your teeth and purge what you don’t really need!
Select Proper Equipment - The key to a clutter-free lifestyle is to have a place to assign and put everything important. This calls for selecting and using the right file holders, tool holders, containers, book shelves, cabinets, computer programs and electronic equipment to support the efficiency and pleasure of your work and leisure at home and your professional responsibilities at work.
Equalize Your Daily Cluttering - Take the last 15 minutes of your workday to equalize the inevitable cluttering moves you make during the day by organizing for the next day and cleaning up your desk and office clutter. Do the same thing at the end of your day at home. Make it a powerful, positive and productive habit and you will experience the joy of living in relatively clutter-free environments at home and work!
Empowering After Thoughts
“Acquired knowledge is potential power. Only acquired knowledge diligently applied is empowering.”
Millard MacAdam
I
urge you to invest some time in reflectively thinking about what you have read
and learned from this Tactical Tip.
On a pad of paper, or in your personal growth journal, write to these three questions.