Home Office Clutter Equals Delayed Decisions and Delayed Prosperity and Success
Why is it seemingly easier to simply throw 'stuff' into a closet and quickly close the door than go through it and see what you actually may need from it? So many of us just pass by the 'culprit' room and over-stuffed closets ignoring them in anyway we can. What we do not realize at times and this is so important, is that we also are ignoring our chances of success not only in our personal lives, but how we interact with others. A cluttered home office will not bring us the desired success we demand. But we can change all that in no time flat with just a little diligence! Really we can and easily too!
Now I am not perfect by any means - believe you me, in fact, I must regularly attack my piles of paper, file away what actually needs to be saved and remember to dust. Not all of us are 'Marthas', that's a fact, for sure - and yes thank God we are not! But we can certainly be reminded that with just a little action, a little at a time, a lot of good can come our way in terms of good luck, prosperity and success in the way we organize our cluttered rooms and home offices.
Did you know that this clutter blocks you from progress?... and why do we continue to block ourselves with such crap = hey wait a minute - am I calling your stuff crap? Well, look at that room and see how are you treating the things you may have spent money on, if not a lot of money on? We hold on to stuff since we are trying to hold on to the past and actually are at times afraid of letting go of the past. Sometimes we may think - oh I will use this in the future, or worse, I am really going to finish this project one day, or my Sister will need these when she has kids, whatever your concept is for keeping this stuff it is not helping you to succeed.
Now what I say may seem odd to some, especially for someone who doesn't seem to live in the past, but by keeping the clutter that no longer serves us, we are holding onto our past, and that includes bad Qi, or chi. You want Chi to move freely around your home office and home surroundings so that good energy can always assist you in attracting the good luck you want out of life.
Unused space in your home is wasting your money. - What do I mean by this? It's rather a simple idea, if you are not using space that you are paying rent or a mortgage on, well then, it's money down the drain. No one wants to waste money, not when it is so hard to come by, just as it is hard to come by extra space.
Unload your past to make room for your future! It seems too hard to let go of things we are attached to, but frankly, if we only hold on to the past - what sort of future are we creating for ourselves? None! Yes, the answer is none! And who doesn't want any future? I can't think of one person. Even those people who may be depressed - they surely wish they could help themselves get up and out of their holes...these simple tricks of the trade will help you immensely and very importantly get you motivated to keep going.
All that extra stuff keeps you unfocused - your home office area simply shouldn't be a place you hide away from - but in fact be productive in. It should be everything you have always dreamed of and more, it should assist you in every way to be creative and super productive to allow your home business dreams become a reality.
How to Start to de-clutter your home office: (20 minutes max)
- First of all, Grab a pen and a pad of paper. Go into your home office room or area.
- Stand still in the center of the room (if you can avoid the toppling boxes of clutter).
- Take a good look around, a really good look.
- Write down numbers 1-20 down on every other line of the paper pad.
- Next to each number, write down every little detail that is wrong with this area and what needs to be done.
- Some could be, not enough storage space, need to organize papers, separate projects, throw out garbage, get a new computer, go through old emails, etc.
- One another sheet of paper, write down numbers 1-5. Fill this list with things you would love to have happen in this room or area for you. These should be goal and result oriented.
- Some examples could be: to have an home office that I am productive in and helps me succeed, know where everything is in this office since it's super organized, and create a home office I love to work in.
To start the planning process of how to de-clutter your home: (five minutes max)
Sit down at a table or desk and look at your list. While reviewing your list, take a good look of the 'to do's' and think hard on how long each task would take. Write down that time it would take to accomplish this task next to it's perspective 'to do' item. You may know which task is more important than other tasks and that it should be completed first, but sometimes it seems way too daunting or in fact way too overwhelming to be done in one afternoon.
Take the larger more daunting tasks, and simply break them down into smaller details that will take 20 minutes or less to do. Be as specific as you can so that breaking down this larger 'to do' item is more approachable and easily doable.
Believe me, highly successful people are not disorganized! We are always so busy, with family time, two jobs even for some of us, how the heck can we even have ten minutes for ourselves to clean up the home office? Try to remember the above notes that this clutter is actually blocking you from progress and getting ahead. And know that everyday you take ten minutes to attack the clutter is 20 minutes more towards you becoming even more successful.
Now, before you go to bed tonight, look again at your list and choose one item you would like to tackle tomorrow for 20 minutes of time. Yes only 20 minutes. When you go to sleep, envision yourself easily tackling this task within the 20 minute interval you have set aside. And get yourself some rest and sleep.
Next Day Task One - (20 minutes max)
Grab a couple of garbage bags - you are going to need them, label one for tossing, one for donating, and one last one for items that should not be in this room. Turn on all the lights you can on in this room, or even bring a few lights in to help you see what you need to see. Put on uplifting music, do not answer the phone during these 20 minutes, set a kitchen timer and begin.
In really bad rooms, I might just simply stay in one 3 square foot area and that's it or concentrate on one wall only. Concentrating on a small area and not the large area as a 'whole' will allow your brain to stay concentrated at the task at hand while allowing yourself to see immediate progress, something even us adults need to help keep us encouraged. This system of attacking a cluttered room really works well as you see immediate results. Trust me on this one - I have used this approach to cleaning my house too!
As you grab items, I want you to do one simple thing, touch something once, and make a decision immediately as to which designated bag it goes in. If it belongs someplace else in your home and not in this area or room, put it outside the room right now, if it is to stay in the room, designate where it is supposed to be. Remember to stay in the area you are working on. It's super easy to be distracted as you look through things, but keeping yourself to the one area will ensure the highest success of de-cluttering this area quickly within the 20 minute interval you have given yourself.
If you are having issues with letting something go, ask yourself this: Have you used this item within the past 8 months? Will you need it again in the next 4 months? If so, it's ok to keep for now. If you have not used the item for 8 months, think to yourself, can someone else need or use this more than I, if so to the donate bag it goes, no not in the closet, straight to the donate bag. Maybe you need a bag for things you could sell? If you are not planning to have a tag sale within two weeks or put it up on Ebay right away, it's better to donate and get the tax deduction right now.
Extra points to remember about what to decide to keep and not to keep:
- Keep only that for which you have proper storage space for.
- Keep only that which will immediately help you in your future.
- Keep only those papers that must be kept such as tax papers, and no papers of piled information that can easily be found on the internet when you need it.
- Do not keep items you are not using right now and haven't been actively using the past 3 months.
- If it is broken, not useful and beautiful - out it goes, and that means right now!
- When it comes to 'so-called' cherished items, the babies blanket, mounds of photos. Think to yourself how these could be better stored so that you actually look through them, then have them stored improperly where they can get damaged.
After your twenty minutes are up, you may feel motivated to continue for a little bit longer, but I would only work another 20 minutes max. The whole point, is to do this a little at a time. The real trick to keeping within the 20 minute task for several days for two weeks, is that you will see immediate improvement within only one day. This will help to keep you motivated.
Now when this first task has completed, and the night is coming to a close and you are in bed, look at your list, check off the items you have completed, pat yourself on your back and choose another item to do on the next day. Do the envisioning process once more and know with each task completed, you are well on the way to achieving the success you demand and dream of and know it is possible!
With a little effort a few times a week as described above, literally you will find your home office has cleaned itself with little effort. You will feel like a success, your home office and areas will represent that, and as a major added benefit, you will present yourself to others as a confident successful person which can only help immediately bring that right opportunities to you faster. So get to it! Success awaits you!
Leah Quinn is a writer specializing on food, health, self-improvement and entertainment and is a multi-media artist living in New York. Feel free to stop by her main site http://leahquinn.com, or her food site to learn many more healthy and interesting recipes at http://dinner-and-jam.blogspot.com and to find links to her many other sites and blogs such as http://divaliscious.blogspot.com.
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