The Blasted Crossing

You might have noticed a distinct lack of posts lately, and that’s because I don’t believe in posting about something that I haven’t experienced myself, so whenever I get an idea for an article I try to get some experience relating to it if I don’t already have it, and that can take some time. I believe in providing 100% tried and tested advice, because this is what writing about personal development is all about; writing about that which you know can help improve a person. Expect an article soon™ !

“If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?” -Laurence J. Peter

In the last 2 articles,Steps to declutter your work area and Being Organized, I discussed the benefits of organization and then provided you steps with how you unclutter your workspace. Today I’ll give you a list of steps you can take to unclutter your mind. Your mind is the powerhouse of your body. For you to function properly as a human being you must have a properly functioning mind that can put its power into carrying out the tasks and objectives that you need to accomplish.

Uncluttering your mind is the process which removes any distractions that may be clouding your judgment and focus, and allows you to free up your mental resources to focus towards “getting shit done”^TM!

The first step that you’re going to take is: “Take a deep breath”. Arguably this is the most important tip, because it gives you the breathing room, the space you need and mental clarity you need for a few minutes where you can gather and focus your energies. Think of it like being tied up in rope. The more you try and push on the rope to try and break it and escape, the more effort you’re going to expend and the faster you’re going to get nowhere, but if you just calmed down and relaxed yourself, pulling yourself inwards, the rope can then easily be pushed down off you.

Alright, now that you have regained some energy, you can start moving forward.

Many times, when you’re feeling as if you have too much on your mind, guess what? You usually have too much on your mind! The great mystery is solved! Seriously, if you have a million and one things to do, you’re best off choosing one thing to get started on and forgetting about the other million things. You can’t do them all at once and thinking about them all at the same time doesn’t make them get finished any faster, so don’t think about them! DON’T!

To repeat, million and one things? Pick one, forget the rest, and just do it! If you’re worried about not worrying about them, well then you can worry about that later!

This is what is called “focus”. It’s like when you’re driving down… ooh look a cheese samich… the road and you’re… a squirrel! Trying to get someplace but you… … get the picture? That was painful to write, and I bet painful to read, just imagine what that does to you, your mind, and your productivity when you’re doing it all the time!

So, I’d like you to take the initiative and focus! Try not to get distracted. You only have so many hours in a day, wouldn’t you like one more hour to do the things you enjoy? If you do, then you need to focus on your work and get it done ASAP.

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I talked in a previous article, Being Organized, about organization and the benefits you will receive from doing so. So let’s continue on in this article and I’ll describe the steps to becoming more organized, all the way from start to finish.

If you’re reading this article then no doubt you have some issues with organization and clutter, so for the first step you’re going to go someplace where your mind can be free from the shackles of clutter, where you can actually gather most of your mental capacity. The reason you do this is simple enough, before beginning any task you should clear your mind so that you can focus all your mental energy on that one task. It doesn’t help you at all if you can barely focus on what you’re doing, you’re just not going to get anywhere like that.

Separate

The first thing you need to do when you get back to your messy, desolate land of clutter and confus… I mean work area; you should separate it into zones, so that you’re not tackling one huge job at once. Obviously the bigger the mess the more zones you’re going to have, but that’s alright because by the end you’re going to have a nice and tidy work area.

Your zones should be relatively small. For example, an averaged sized desk would have 2 zones, left and right. If you’re trying to organize an entire room then you’d split the room up into 4 parts, then split each part further depending how messy it was and what it actually contained.

Isolate

Next you would select the first zone you are going to begin working on. You don’t have to do anything special, just pick one out in your mind. Depending on how you see things, you may either choose to go with the easiest one first to ease yourself into this activity, or if you’re the kind of person that likes to tackle the hardest thing first and leave the best for last then by all means go for it!

Identify

Quickly look over the zone that you chose to start working on and mentally start categorizing where objects go. Your mind would have already begun working on this long before you chose what zone you were going to start working on.

Launch

Now we get into the nitty gritty business! Dig in! Start putting things into piles based on their common characteristics. You might put all office equipment together in a single pile, papers in another, books in yet another and so on. It’s up to you and how you see things. However, don’t get bogged down in details, if you don’t know where to put something, it might fit in more than one pile, then just choose one and keep moving. If you start to lose pace you’ll only lose motivation, so just keep working on it!

After you have the first zone done, you would move on to the second, using the piles that you already have created. At the end of this you should have a few neatly stacked(or towering and crumbling towers). At this point it’s simply taking the objects in those piles and putting them someplace appropriate. Papers would go on a shelf, so would books, pens and pencils in the drawer, and so on.

The biggest challenge to organizing is actually getting started. Once you’ve started then the rest is merely putting in the time to get it sorted, so you have to remember that once you start, keep going! If you stop then you’re pretty much back at square one. Go go go!

Hope this helps, let me know what you thought of it by leaving me a comment, and don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed! Orange button at the top! Show it some love!