The Internet is a wealth of knowledge, amusement, invitations, marketing, "top ten" lists, and other things. Your life is also full of work, not to mention family, friends, and some events. Your mind is delirious because of the abundance of these data.
All of these things are just mental chaos, and if you are busy, physical chaos may also accumulate, and the two are complementary. In other words, there is more mental chaos and more physical chaos. According to Princeton University researchers, mess significantly increases stress because it impairs your ability to concentrate and process information.
Effective steps to eliminate clutter and improve focus
Take the following steps to clear the clutter, and you will reap the benefits of your work, and your productivity will eventually improve:
1. Clean thoroughly
Thorough cleaning is not just any regular cleaning process; it is a complete and comprehensive cleaning that reduces clutter and makes you feel refreshed, regardless of the season. Here are some thorough cleaning tips:
- Set realistic expectations: If you expect to be able to clean everything with one quick swab, you'll get tired quickly, so split the cleaning into several sections and reward yourself for achieving each goal.
- Invite your friends: Whether they help you clean or not, having someone to talk to reduces the effort and monotony of cleaning.
- Tidy up your wardrobe: Reconsider the clothes you need and those you don't need because they don't fit your personality these days.
- Rearrange the house: Putting furniture in the wrong place is a source of chaos, so try to find a new arrangement that gives you extra space.
Store what you don't need or give it away. Your home is where you start and end your day, so tidying up your home is necessary to organize your life and improve your productivity.
2. Do good deeds
If you lack motivation, it can be challenging to make an effort to eliminate clutter. You can tell yourself, “I have to be more productive,” but will this motivate you? Try to think of helping others as part of getting rid of clutter. Here are some tips for doing so:
- Donate used greeting cards: For example, some charities have a card recycling program that helps abused, neglected, and homeless children, as well as young people and poor families.
- Donate books: thrift stores and used bookstores take all kinds of books, while schools take children's books.
- Donate expired vouchers: If you have these that are no longer useful, military families can use them for up to six months after expiration.
Donating other things to thrift stores and homeless shelters is a great way to do good and get rid of clutter at the same time.
3. Allocate space for important purposes
Dedicate a drawer or cupboard to things you usually use, as well as a small filing cabinet for important papers, and arrange your documents well to make them easily accessible when needed, as the saying goes: “Out of sight, out of mind." If the things you may need later are not in sight now, you will focus on them only when you need them.
4. Arrange your workplace
Productivity suffers when a workspace is disorganized, and it goes for your email inbox and work desk. For your inbox, allocate a folder for pending messages that you can't read immediately but know you should read later. You may receive non-random messages, but they don't require an immediate response, so you need to create a folder for these messages.
As for your work office, at the beginning of each day, you have to get rid of the things you do not need, classify and organize the papers you need, and allocate actual folders for pending messages, similar to the aforementioned electronic folder.
Perhaps eventually you are tired and eager to return home, so you have to clean and arrange the office at the beginning of the day, not at the end of it. If you leave this duty until the end of the workday, you may think a lot about work after returning home, which we are trying to avoid.
5. Dispose of the scrap
While cleaning your home, you may have more junk than you can handle. You throw things aside and throw them in the garage, the attic, or anywhere else so you don't think about them, so getting rid of them may require a trip to the landfill. If you don't have time, there are companies specializing in junk disposal services that you can contact.
6. Prioritize
It's time to cut back on some of these commitments because your rush to attend every event, please your loved ones, and keep yourself entertained constantly often results in a chaotic life.
Just concentrate on the essentials, like visiting family and friends and attending meetings. Keep track of your priorities and divide them into three categories based on importance, with dates and deadlines for each. Focus on your relationships both inside and outside of work. As a result of your efforts to better yourself, your relationships will grow stronger.
7. Mindfulness and prudence
The best way to organize your thoughts is through mindfulness. The need to keep a record was mentioned previously so you can keep appointments and forget about them until the appointed time. However, while working, you must be vigilant, watch your thoughts, and observe your surroundings objectively.
You won't worry if you don't judge the thoughts and emotions you have about what is happening. Some thoughts and feelings will go away because you categorized them objectively. First, try to feel the texture and things' physical qualities, monitor your thoughts about them, classify them, decide what you can act on and what you should ignore, and then move on.
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