The blog

Do you have days when it feels as if you have too much around you, going on in gen­er­al as well as on your desk, in a very pal­pa­ble way? 

Do you have so much phys­i­cal­ly in front of you as well as ahead of you that you trem­ble at the thought of get­ting start­ed with some­thing because there is just so much and it is so messy?

Then it is time to clean up and down-size.

If you do, what­ev­er you have to do will appear eas­i­er, since it now does not con­sist of ​“so many” and ​“so much”. 

You will see it all clear­er, since only what is required is present before you — you no longer need to see past all the things which are not need­ed (since they have been removed).

Do this

Ask your­self:

1. Of what sort of things do I have more than one of, where I could throw away all but one? Throw it out.
2. What doc­u­ments are so old that I will nev­er need them again? Delete, dis­pose of them or shred them to pieces.
3. What meet­ings could I refrain from attend­ing in the next few weeks? Can­cel them.
4. What books do I have in my book­case, which I will not read again or will not read at all? Donate to charity.
5. What to-do-items do not actu­al­ly gen­er­ate much val­ue, but rather con­sist of things I decid­ed to do quite a while back (since it seemed rea­son­able and rel­e­vant at the time), but which I could now might as well dis­re­gard? Remove.
6. What prod­ucts or ser­vices in my com­pa­ny serve more as bal­last than as a motor pro­pelling the busi­ness for­ward? Say thank you and good­bye, and begin to phase them out.
7. What good-to-have-in-case-of-things can I almost cer­tain­ly rid myself of with­out it hav­ing any actu­al con­se­quences? Toss them in the bin.
8. What images on my bul­letin board above the desk could I remove, see­ing that they no longer are as inspir­ing and fun as when I put them up in the first place? Dis­pose of them, cut out new ones that now inspires you more and paste them on the board instead.
9. Think of at least one more ques­tion that can help you spot what besides for what you have already cleaned up, you could dis­pose of or down-size. For exam­ple, ​“What cords or wires do I have in spite of that the gad­get they belonged to is long gone/​lost/​bro­ken?” or ​“Will I real­ly browse through all the brochures from last year’s exhi­bi­tion, which is in the bag behind the door?”

Sim­pler and clearer

But then why some­thing as triv­ial as clean­ing up? Well, you will expe­ri­ence a greater sense of sim­plic­i­ty and clar­i­ty as the mate­r­i­al you have is what you actu­al­ly need with­out it being obscured by things that have no val­ue to you anymore.

If you are like me, you will also feel as if the bur­den eased, since you lo longer have a ​“back­pack” of obso­lete things, and you will then also feel freer due to get­ting rid of unnec­es­sary meet­ings and tasks, so that you have more time left over to work on what real­ly pro­pels you and your busi­ness forward.

How do you do it?

What is you way of mak­ing sure you have just about enough of what you need, nei­ther more nor less? Leave a com­ment to let me and oth­ers know.