o Do you feel overwhelmed by all the “stuff” in your life? Magazines and newspapers you never finished reading, clothes you never wear, emails you didn’t respond to, or photos you meant to share with friends or colleagues?
o Are you embarrassed to invite people to your home or office because they will see the way you live or work? Do you rush when someone comes to hide the evidence?
o Is the clutter putting pressure on a relationship that is important to you? Do you argue with your spouse about what to keep, or do you spend time reassuring your colleagues that you know what everything is?
o Do you waste time looking for things you really need: documents you’ve already created, or the keys or receipt you had in your hand five minutes ago?
o Is your home or office too crowded? Does clutter take up valuable space and leave you feeling overwhelmed? If you answered “Yes” to two or more of these questions, you are caught in the clutter trap: a state of cumulative clutter that diminishes your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or financial health. There are more than a few people reading this article right now who are distressed by the clutter in their lives. There are more than a few whose relationships are strained by arguments about clutter. There are not a few who would panic at a letter from the IRS announcing an audit. “But wait,” you may be saying.
or “Isn’t clutter the inevitable condition of living in a complex world with never enough time, never enough space. Always too much to be responsible for?”
o Or maybe you’re saying, “I’m creative, and creative people are messy by nature.”
or Or “I have more important things to do than worry about clutter.”
Here is the truth! Clutter is NOT inevitable. It is NOT synonymous with creativity. It is NOT a precondition for life on earth at this time. You came to earth without clutter and you will certainly leave without clutter. The question is how do you live in between!
Let’s put it another way: To find out if you’re organized, ask yourself three questions:
1. Does it work?
2. Do you like it?
3. Does it work for others?
Most people answer “Yes” to the first question, hesitate to the second, and will admit that the answer to the third is “No,” but rationalize that it doesn’t really make any difference. But does it? What will be the results if something happens to you or one of the people in your organization? In reality, clutter and the resulting inability to find the right information at the right time can, and often do, have a negative impact on everyone who lives or works in that environment.
Our mission is to help individuals, families, and organizations create and maintain a productive environment so they can do their jobs and enjoy their lives. What is a “Productive Environment”? Think of it this way: it’s an environment where everything supports who you are or who you want to be. The more clutter, the less likely it is that you or the people around you will be able to find what they need effortlessly. We have developed a program called The Productivity QuickStart(TM) that guarantees a ten percent increase in productivity, based on the premise that your ability to accomplish any task or goal is directly related to your ability to find the right thing in the moment. appropriate.
For the past 25 years, we’ve distilled a five-step process you can use to create and maintain a productive environment that we call The Productive Environment Solution(TM):
1. Design your vision.
2. Eliminate your excuses.
3. Commit your time.
4. Select your tools.
5. Keep up your success.
Notice the common word in those five steps? “Their!” The key to escaping the clutter trap and creating a productive environment is all about discovering and implementing what works for YOU, not what worked for your mom or what your colleague thinks you should do. In other words, “organizing is an art!” Design your vision
Have you ever noticed how much you seem to be unaware of your everyday surroundings? Look around your office and you’ll likely “see” a lot of things that have become invisible to you every day because you’ve trained yourself not to look at them.
Disorder is postponed decisions®. The first step in creating a productive environment is deciding what you need to foster your highest and best experience. It is impossible to even define our own disorder if we do not have a clear image of who we are or what it is about.
A photographer had continuous dreams of living in a white tower with glass windows, while her real home was buried in the clutter of over 30 years. When we focused on her love of the arts, letting go of unsightly clutter became less painful and even liberating.
remove your excuses
Eliminate any temptation to blame circumstances or the people around you for the condition of your environment. “I don’t have enough space” often turns out to be inaccurate after one of our office cleaning days. Choose to work with what you have.
A book agent discussing the idea of a book on the subject of clutter commented, “Some of us are just lazy.” Only if you want to be. Creating a pleasant and productive environment requires a process. If you honor the process, you will succeed. While it’s impossible to force another person to remove clutter, we’ve never met anyone who couldn’t get rid of theirs.
commit your time
Recognize that the time you invest in creating and maintaining a productive environment will pay off every day in your personal and professional life.
An association executive recalls coming to work every day for five years berating himself because there was no room in his office to hold a meeting. Finally, in desperation, he hired an organization consultant to help him. Within six hours, the boxes he had paid to move to three different offices were replaced by a small conference table.
“How long is this going to take and how much is it going to cost?” is the first question potential customers ask. The answer: “The longer you wait, the longer it will take and the more it will cost you.”
Select your tools
Find the perfect team that matches your style of operation and organize it efficiently and aesthetically. Barbara’s father often told her that “half of any job is having the right tool.” Of course, he actually meant “use the right tools.” Many people, for example, don’t invest the time or get the training to use the organization tools that already exist on every computer.
One client had Post-it® notes posted all over her office to remind her of places to go and things to do. She swore that she could never use a calendar. “I just hate those ruled lines and the idea that every hour of every day has to be so structured.” We found a unique calendar with a red leather cover and plenty of open space on the pages. Three weeks later she called to say she didn’t know how she had managed without him. “He doesn’t control me, I control him!” She’ll never switch to a Palm Pilot, but she’s finally found the tool she’d love. What you love, you will use. What you wear streamlines your life and your work.
keep your success
A major excuse for not getting organized is “It never lasts anyway!” Here is good news. Once you accomplish the first four steps, maintaining your success is not difficult.
Remember those three questions earlier in this article? Works? You like? Does it work for everyone? This ever-changing world requires asking those questions frequently. If the answer is “No,” it doesn’t mean that what you did in the past was wrong. The situation has just changed. This five-step process is most powerful when it becomes a way of life.
Do you have difficulty getting rid of clutter? How much of your clutter is there because “It might come in handy someday!” Several years ago, a colleague made a statement that significantly influenced our current work: “Sometimes excessive responsibility turns into irresponsibility.” How much could that unused furniture or equipment benefit a nearby school or community service group? What about that cane on your broken ankle eight years ago? What about that flute that no one has played for thirty years? It’s so much easier to let something go when you know someone else will benefit.
How often do we hear “But my real problem is other people’s messes! How can I change them?” One customer complained, “At work, people give me things I have to keep. I have no choice, and at home, other people’s things drive me crazy.”
The shortest path to frustration and failure is to try to change other people. Your most powerful path to sustained success is to start with yourself and let those around you be affected by observing your increased calm, focus, and productivity. If all your past tactics have failed, maybe it’s time to try a new approach. Tell yourself a new story about the amazing level of power and control you have over one person in the universe: you. Say to yourself “I don’t let anything take away my freedom to create the results I want in my life.” In other words, change what you can (you). Accept what you can’t change (everyone else) and don’t waste energy fighting for the difference. Over the years, we have discovered an interesting phenomenon. Emotional loss, such as the death of someone close, the loss of a dream, or the frequent loss of physical belongings, can often affect a person’s desire to hold on to physical things. A woman who had been fighting with her husband over her clutter for years got dramatic results when she told him, “You know, I never really understood how much you want to keep all this stuff. Let’s figure out how we can keep it.” She arrived a few days later to find the garage full of boxes that he was donating to a local thrift store.
Very few people are truly impervious to their surroundings. Most of us just pretend we are. We make promises to take care of the mess later. Meanwhile, we walk around as incomplete, diminished versions of the resourceful and generous people we could be. The world needs the best you have to give and if your best is covered in clutter, we all lose. It’s a great campaign. We are all in this together. Good luck.