These days we take in more information in one broadsheet newspaper than the average medieval peasant was exposed to in a lifetime. But there’s always a choice: you could decide to complain about information overload or you could use the ‘off’ button – a feature on every one of our time consuming gadgets! Here are some tips on how to deal with electronic and time clutter.
ELECTRONIC CLUTTER – BREAK FREE!
- Set aside a time allowance for emails/twitter/face book. Do your work first. Don’t jump.
- Delete! Instantly. Reply – now.
- Researching into it - isn’t doing it!
- Curb your information consumption. Go on a media fast. Accept the fact that you will never know everything.
TIME CLUTTER
Here’s a story. There was a lady who held up an empty glass jar. She filled it up with little rocks, asking: is that full now? The audience said yes. Then she put some tiny pebbles in between the stones, asking again: full? Finally, she got out some sand and filled the spaces between the pebbles. - The rocks stand for the really important things in our lives, those that matter most to us. The sand symbolises the daily chores and errands that our lives tend to get ‘filled’ with. If we start with the sand, there’s never any space left for the rocks! – Prioritise your day around what is important, pencil those things in first.
● Prioritisation
“Learning how to say no is the most exciting, liberating thing I’ve learned to do in my whole life. To not worry what I might be losing out on.” (Debra Messing)
Establish your priorities and organise your life around them. Set clear boundaries. Ask for what you want.
● Overcome procrastination
Psychological reasons can be either a fear of failure or an act of rebellion. Surprisingly a recent study found that the worst stress in life is from prolonged unfinished tasks. The nagging stress of constantly putting off a chore or having an unfinished job that hangs over your head day after day exhausts you and gnaws away at you.
List some of your nagging tasks. Make an appointment with yourself - in your diary - to sort them out. Show up. And then simply let go of the ones that weren’t important anyway.
● Abandon multi-tasking
Did you know that multi-tasking is actually bad for us? We tend to juggle and pride ourselves on this. However, you get more done if you focus on one thing at a time.
All jobs expand to fill their allotted time limit: don’t do something ‘until it’s finished’ – ‘time box’ it instead: break the task down into chunks and set your timer.
Write your to-do list as appointments in your diary - that way you have to allocate the time and you can see if you are being realistic in the amount of things you plan to do in the time available.
● Kick out the perfectionist & create a superstar support team!
We can’t do anything alone. We are all linked. To write this I needed the people who manufactured my PC, the teachers who taught me to read and write, the people who made my desk...
What support would you like and what creative ways can you think of receiving that support? Someone to celebrate with, someone whose brains you can pick?
Think of 3-5 people you’d like in your superstar support team, decide what you want from them - and ask! You’d be amazed how flattered they will be that you did! J
What many consider to be time management is really a combination of:
- Setting life priorities (what’s really important to you).
- Learning about your needs (what’s running you).
- Balancing your life (whatever balance means to you). Create me-time.
- Clearing out life’s clutter: getting complete with the past and uncluttering your living environments.
Nobody can manage time. But we can manage our own expectations of organising a busy life. You can choose whichever state of being will help you today – take your pick!
Today I will be....
Calm
Relaxed
Joyful
Kind to everyone I meet
Ready to laugh
In awe of the wonder of life
Unflappable
Open to adventure
You owe it to the gift of life to live your best life. – Happy clearing!