 Cast your mind back to a time you entered someone’s office and thought: “Oh my goodness, how can they operate in this mess?”
The bad news is, if you’ve never thought that, perhaps it’s your office that makes people cringe???
How did it make you feel? I’m guessing you felt almost immediately overwhelmed, gained an instant impression of the person and thought to yourself: “I’m just not sure I want to do business with this person if this is how they operate.”
It may sound harsh, but the truth of the matter is if you’re disorganised and surrounded by clutter and mess, you can’t possibly be operating at maximum efficiency! Some people say, ‘but this is how I operate and I know where everything is.’ Nice excuse, but I’m not buying it!
 A good friend of mine once said, as I rapidly drew breath on entering her work space, “It’s not clutter, its all good stuff.” to which I replied, “Yes, good stuff that you haven’t used or needed for years.” But worse than that, when it’s stored as clutter there’s little chance that you will ever find it even if you are looking for it.
Clutter and mess isn’t just terrible to look at, it actually has been closely linked to numerous un-resourceful emotional states like frustration, melancholy and even depression. Keeping things in order gives us a sense of control over our lives, however fickle that may be, it resembles in some way what the rest of our lives look like. Begin tackling one, relatively small area of your house or office today.
Start by creating three distinct piles, one to keep definitely, one to give away and one to keep for a week to see if you do truly use it or need it. Depending on your space, there’s a good chance you will need a big rubbish bin there too. As you start to work through the clutter use this test:
 Have I used or appreciated this in the last six months?
If not, am I going to take the time and effort to use or appreciate this in the next six months?
 If the answer to both is no, clearly it goes to charity or in the bin, if there is a resounding yes in both, then it stays in the definitely keep pile, if either is a no, you can keep it for a week. The ‘keep for a week’ pile MUST be reviewed in a week. Some things you will decide can definitely go, and others will stay, giving yourself a week allows the decision to really settle with you either way. Enjoy shifting your clutter and the peace of mind that comes with having a well-organised and tidy living area or work space.
I know the whole tidying up concept really grates against some people, please, for me, just try it. Tidy and organize one room, or one part of your office. If you walk into the, now tidy and organized room, and feel in control, on top of things and motivated to make things happen, then the experiment was a success! Use the one room as a precedent and go about the rest of your space organising, tidying and cleaning. You will be amazed at how refreshing it is to need a particular folder, or a calculator battery and to know exactly where it is!
When you feel in control over your space and your affairs, you will gain a new clarity of thought and peace of mind, the feeling of being in control will gradually spread to the other areas of your life! Tidy up your office and notice how the rest of your life begins to fall into place! The only way to prove me wrong is to try it! I’d love to hear how you go with your experiment, so please shoot me an email and let me know!
If you’re really ready to clean up your life and simply need a little assistance to get started, please email me at Jodie@advancedcoachingsolutions.com.au for a 1 hour free introductory life coaching session and we can work on it together.
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