I recently helped a friend clean her house just before a move. It motivated me to tackle my office area. Previously, a few stacks of books and papers weren’t that bothersome. They were close at hand, which was important at the time. But now I really want to reduce the visual clutter, so I’ve moved all the books off of my desktop and back into the book shelf. Books I don’t need are in the donate pile, which are going out this week.

I’m not sure what caused the shift, but I’m grateful for it. I’ve had a hard time getting up the energy and motivation to clear the junk. And I think leaving it there actually drains me more. It’s a vicious cycle.

Taking things a little at a time is the key. Small chunks. It started by just taking all the books and getting them off of my desk. Then, it was the magazines. Recycle the old copies, see which ones still need to be read, and which ones I might keep.

Next comes the paper. I do have a small pile of receipts that need to be scanned and logged. Some will just get filed rather than scanned. Then it’s the bits of paper with notes from calls or ideas or just general scribbles. Figure out what needs to be kept (and in what format) and what can be tossed.

I got some wall files which help keep things off of my desktop, but they can easily collect clutter, too. So next I will file away the paid bills from there.

It’s just a step by step process. It’s so easy to look at the entire job and get overwhelmed. But I’m not going to do that this time. I’ll look at one type of thing, like books or magazines or receipts, or one section. Once that’s done, I can move on to the next one.

Will it get done in one day? No. Maybe not even a week. But it will get completed without making me crazy. Slow and steady, folks. Do you feel the urge to spring clean? What are you trying to tackle right now?

image: lumaxart under CC: attribution/share-alike

Post from: My Organized Biz