Declutter to Make Time

I know that in my life, clutter can lead to increased stress, losing things, and feeling of chaos. The best way to alleviate these issues are to declutter your life. I read a great article on this earlier this week and I want to share some of the better points.  The full article can be found here, and some of these methods are variations of David Allen's Getting Things Done.

Start 

The hardest part is getting started.
If you can get started everything else just gets down to how it is organized. Here are a few tips:

1. Take just 10 minutes today to sort though a pile, or declutter a shelf or table or countertop.
2. Put everything into one pile, and start with the first thing you pick up (no putting things back in the pile).
3. Ask yourself: do you really need this? Do you use it regularly? Do you love it? If the answer to any of these is no, then recycle, donate, or give it to someone who might want it. Put it in a box for these purposes.
4. Put things back that you need/use/love, with space between things. This is their “home” and you should always put them back there.
5. Stop after 10 minutes, continue tomorrow for another 10 minutes, and so on, one small spot in your home at a time.
6. This can be increased to larger amounts of time, but I recommend no more than 1 hour per week. This is enough time to get things done, but not some much that you try to avoid it after a month.
7. Keep decluttering in small bits. Pick an area to focus on each week.

Theses steps are the same steps I used to go through my entire house from top to bottom it has been over a year, but it has been only one hour a week.

Decluttering Your Calendar & Digital Life

Physical decluttering is only one type of decluttering. You can also simplify your day, and your online/computer life as well. Here are a few simple tips:

• Decluttering your day is about reducing commitments, and saying no to the non-essential things. So first make a list of your commitments.
• Make a list of what’s most important to you (4-5 things) and declutter the rest. Say no to people with a phone call or email, and get out of existing commitments.
• Be very ruthless about saying no to new commitments — and seeing requests as potential commitments. Guard your time.
• Declutter your digital life one step at a time, just like your physical life. Email newsletters, blogs, social networks, online reading and watching, forums, etc. — are they essential? Can you declutter them?

I hope this helps you become a little bit better with your time. To your success.