One of the biggest problems we deal with today as we strive to improve daily productivity and reduce stress is the clutter that surrounds us. Clutter comes in various guises but all of it wreaks havoc with the best time management plans.
Why is that? Because clutter is distracting, we constantly lose focus. Our mind jumps from one idea or task to another. Stacks of papers hide the one report we need. A deadline is buried somewhere in our email inbox, and we have forgotten about it.
You can experience clutter in all parts of your life:
It all affects you, nags at you to do something about it, and so creates guilt, which in turn leads to that stress build-up.
There are seven basic strategies you can use when you are working to limit the clutter in your life:
- Break the task into manageable pieces.
- Make sure everything has a home.
- Store like items with like items.
- Store things where you will use them.
- Contain it.
- Get rid of excess.
- Create systems.
Use these strategies to bring order to every area as you strive to maintain good balance between your work and personal life. Some of our time management training sessions explore the use of these in more depth so that you can quickly make the changes you want to happen.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Mark // Oct 11, 2007 at 8:38 pm
how do you help an 8-yr old girl better manage her time for homework?
2 Denise // Oct 14, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Mark:
With regard to your question on working with an 8-year old, here is one suggestion:
If she has a lot of scheduled activities after school during the week, on Sunday night sit down with her to review the week’s plans. You are probably looking for about 45 minutes of homework and study time. Write that into her plan for the week. If something is not scheduled, it is not likely to happen. The time does not have to be the same every day, but by doing this you can still have fun activities. This block of time should be a consistent part of each day, just as bathtime and bedtime have routines.
8 years old is not too early to learn about balancing time. Of course, you modeling good time management is a plus in teaching her.
3 jen_chan, writer SureFireWealth.com // Oct 23, 2007 at 3:53 am
I think one of the biggest challenges for organizing clutter is the actual action. The part where you actually have to get up and start clearing away all the unnecessary items. Just the sight of clutter can easily drain the energy out of most people and the decision to clean up gets put off for another day.
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