? Do you feel overwhelmed by all the “stuff” in your life? Magazines and journals you’ve never finished reading, clothes you never wear, e-mail you haven’t responded to, or photographs you intended to share with friends or colleagues? ? Are you embarrassed to invite people to your home or office because they will see the way you live or work? Do you rush around when someone’s coming to hide the evidence?
? Is clutter putting a strain on a relationship that’s important to you? Do you argue with your spouse about what to keep, or spend time reassuring your colleagues that you know what everything is?
? Do you waste time looking for things you really need ? documents you already created, or the keys or receipt you had in your hand five minutes ago?
? Is your home or office just too crowded? Does clutter take valuable space and leave you feeling overwhelmed? If you answered “Yes” to any two or more of these questions, you are caught in The Clutter Trap ? a state of cumulative disorder which diminishes your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or financial health. There are more than a few people reading this article right now who are feeling distressed by the clutter in their lives. There are more than a few whose relationships are drained by arguments about clutter. There are more than a few who would panic at a letter from the IRS announcing an audit. “But wait,” you may be saying.
? “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?”
? Or maybe you’re saying, “I’m creative, and creative people are just naturally messy.”
? Or “I’ve got more important things to do than worry about clutter.”
Here’s the truth! Clutter is NOT inevitable. It is NOT synonymous with creativity. It is NOT a precondition to life on earth in this time. You arrived on earth without clutter and you will certainly leave without clutter. The question is how you live in between!
Let’s put it another way: To know if you are organized, ask 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 on the second, and will admit the answer to the third is "No," ? but rationalize by saying it doesn’t really make any difference. But does it? What will be the results if something happens to you, or to 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 does, have a negative impact on everyone who lives or work in that environment.
Our mission is to assist individuals, families, and organizations to create and sustain a productive environment so they can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives. What is a "Productive Environment?" Think of this way: It’s an environment in which everything supports who you are or who you want to be. The more clutter, the less likely you, or the people around you, will be able to find what they need effortlessly. We’ve developed a program called The Productivity QuickStart? which guarantees a ten percent increase in productivity, based on the premise that your ability to accomplish any task or goal is directly related to ability to find the right thing at the right time.
During the past 25 years, we’ve distilled a five-step process you can use to create and sustain a productive environment which we call The Productive Environment Solution?:
1. Design your vision.
2. Eliminate your excuses.
3. Commit your time.
4. Select your tools.
5. Maintain your success.
Notice the common word in those five steps? "Your!" The key to escaping the clutter trap and creating a productive environment is linked to discovering and implementing what works for YOU ? not what worked for your mother, 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 not to notice about your everyday environment? Look around your office and you’re likely to "see" many things that have become invisible to you on a daily basis because you trained yourself not to look at them.
Clutter is postponed decisions
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