Declutter Your Mind, Organise Your Life

We live in a world with many more choices than ever before… and it will continue to get more complex! So how do we manage it all? I’ll share a simple process that will help you streamline and prioritize the choices.

Throughout my years of coaching with clients, I’ve learned that an organized mind enables full engagement in a healthy-giving style of life – the foundation for positive attitude which helps build positive energy and self confidence.

The kind of organization we are talking about is not merely de-cluttering your office or your home or office, or having the tools to organize to-do list and projects.

We are talking about the mind’s ability to attain a clear sense of order – calm, wise, positive, clear perspective – and the skills it takes to get there, including health and well being.

Disorganization is an epidemic. I don’t know of anyone whose mind isn’t frenzied, distracted or divided by multi-tasking these days.

The National Institute of Aging concluded from a recent survey that symptoms of a disorganized mind, namely impulsivity, chronic negativity, high stress and multi-tasking are all correlated with higher weight issues. For example, it was found that adults in the top 10% rating for impulsivity weighted an average of 24 pounds more than those in the bottom 10% rating for impulsivity.

Whether or not you have an organized mind depends upon your ability to “drive” your attention and keep it focused when you are under pressure or face with challenging situations.

How do you achieve the innate ability to be organized?

Rule No. 1: Tame your frenzy mind

Before you can focus your attention, you need to take charge of your negative emotional frenzy (worry, anger, sadness, irritation). This frenzy impairs and overwhelms the main functional region of your brain, so you can’t “think straight.”

Too much negative stress damages your ability to focus, clutters your mind and harms your health. The great news is that the same things that improve your health and helps to improve your mind’s ability to manage negative frenzy. Sleep well, exercise, do a mindfulness practise or choose the slow lane from time to time, even for a few minutes. Find your own unique formula to tame your frenzy mind so that you can drive your attention to its best possible focus.

Rule No. 2: Focus and Focus

Identify one task and one task only at one time. The brain was not designed to focus on more than one thing at a time. Tell your brain what the intention or goal is for your focused session. Turn off your cell phone and e-mail, shut the door and set the timer for 20 to 30 minutes as a first step.

Rule No. 3: Apply the brakes

Distractions are inevitable. Rather than mindlessly succumb to a distraction whilst in the midst of an important task, stop, breathe and consider whether the distraction is urgent enough for you stop at what you are doing. If not, bring your attention back to the important task until it is time to have a brain break to recharge your brain’s batteries, or move to a new task.

Rule No. 4: Shift sets

When it’s time to move on to the next task, move all of your attention fully to the new task and give it an undivided attention. This is a brain skill called “set-shifting”, which allows you to leave behind one task and leap to the new one with a fresh and productive focus.

Set-shifting is also described as cognitive agility or flexibility. Often our most creative ideas come, seemingly out of the blue, when we’re taking a brain break or focusing completely on something else.

Rule No. 5: Rules of order

These rules of order will help you change not only your habits of attention, but the way you look at your life. Instead of being stressed, you’ll be calmly in control.

You’ll not only be organized but more productive, and therefore will have more time to do things that are healthy for your body and mind. You’ll feel good about yourself, with better self esteem and confidence. And you’ll be able to use your organized mind to further de-clutter your physical self while setting goals for other areas of your life.

My definition of Clutter:

Anything you own, possess, or do that does not enhance your life on a regular basis.

If you agree with my definition of clutter, then you acknowledge that clutter goes far beyond the physical environment! Clutter can be activities, or even people, in your present life… something to think about.

• Clutter costs us time, which is priceless, because it can never be replaced again. Office World News reported that the average executive wastes 150 hours per year looking for lost or misplaced documents.

• Clutter costs us energy. It makes our jobs harder. General survey stated that 80% of the clutter in most homes is a result of disorganization, not lack of space.

• Clutter costs us financially. Before looking for more storage space, clear out the items you no longer need or use. Recycle them or donate them to a good cause.

• Clutter costs us peace of mind. It’s hard to relax when we are surrounded by piles of magazines we’ve been meaning to read or articles to extract. Evaluate the number of subscriptions (magazines, journals, newspapers) you have subscribed to your home address or office. Ask if you can realistically read them all? If not, reduce your own guilt and cancel them! You can purchase specific issues of interest from the newsstand or go to the public library.

Too much time is wasted every day on searching for things. Find a system that works for you and your lifestyle and apply it. Use it religiously and you’ll find new time slots you never thought you had!

A Few Good Tips

Use a Calendar:

A calendar helps you keep track of upcoming events and items to remember. Another thing a calendar does is let you cross off the days. This gives you a sense of accomplishment knowing that everything for that day has been done and that you are ready to move on to the next day’s tasks.

Use a planner:

Have a weekly planning session with yourself to prepare for the next week. It may be helpful to create a master schedule plan which designates specific days of the week/times of the day or evening for specific types of activities.

As you create the master schedule plan, keep in mind all the hours of the day; meaning, knowing when you are at your best at thinking creatively, where you can schedule your ‘high brain activities’ for that time and when you are at your best for doing “low brain activities’. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Make lists:

Try to do this at least once a week in a kind of “brain dump”- put everything that you have thought about or others that have been taking up your mental or physical energy. Be sure to set timeline for each of your task. Have a time slot for each item on the list helps you know that there is no need to rush to finish things. Get moving as a list is a list unless you implement the actionable items.

Do one thing at a time:

Divide a sheet of paper into four sections. For my paper, the top left section is my actual to do list for today. The top right section is my running grocery list, or list of things I must purchase. The bottom left is for notes such as calls I made, who I spoke to, appointment dates. The bottom right is whatever I need to move to another day.

Colour coding and divide material into red, yellow, blue and green plastic file folders is a huge help.

• Space. Go through any old unneeded files to free up space for your filing system.

• Always keep your room and/or office space clean and tidy. Imagine working in a clean, organized work environment where you can find things easily – and have clear space to get what you need done. I’ve found that knowing where everything is, and keeping my home and work space free from clutter helps me concentrate better and become more productive. If it is your house, pick a single point of focus, example, one location or one room first, and don’t try to start organize your whole house at once.

• Get boxes or garbage bags. Don’t just sort the piles into more piles. Physically take the clutter you are going to donate (or otherwise remove) and place it in garbage bags. I recommend starting with three bags: trash, donations and recycle (can be reused). Trash is items you don’t need and can’t be reused, donations are items that are still in working order but that you no longer use. Recycle is items that can be reused.

• Begin with a goal in mind. What do you want to accomplish? Firstly determine what it is you want in life.

• Three (3) most important tasks. Writing down and making mental note of your top three (3) tasks to get done for the day. Everything else seems to fall into place if you do that. Physically take the clutter you are going to donate (or otherwise remove) and place it in garbage bags. I recommend starting with three bags: trash, donation and recycle.

• You control your life. Whatever electronics or paper you use, make them work for YOU not the other way around.

• Delegate. Learn to trust people with critical tasks in all areas of your life. When you learn to effectively delegate tasks you actually find that it is easier to keep the stuff you cannot delegate better organized.

• Be consistent and follow through. You need to discipline yourself to follow through with the things listed on your to-do list. Stop procrastinating and get doing.

Remember to write down, execute and tidy up on the way. These are my organization bible. I’ve been living that way for more than 10 years and I can say that I’m an organized person.

A Quick summary to achieve dramatic results?

I guarantee that if you do these three (3) things, you will break free of past limitations and experience dramatic results in your life:

• Create a list of daily or weekly rituals that will support you in attaining the milestones you want to accomplish over the next twelve months. Commit to forming new habits with these rituals.
• Carve out 80 minutes a day to focus on your most important projects or focus for the day.
• Work with an accountability partner who will support you as you form new habits.

Conclusion:

Having all of these systems and processes in place will enhance your ability to be more organized and productive. You gain peace of mind knowing you are in control of your time, your life and that you will be able to find what you need when you need it – You are the CEO of a Decluttered Mind and an Organized Life.