The Perfect Antidote To Procrastination
Procrastination is something that we all engage in to some degree one time or another. It’s a little like the water that fills a glass at the top of a fountain, constantly pouring and filling until it eventually covers everything below. You sit back and watch it effortlessly fill up your sink as you ignore what’s happening around you. But if you want to stop procrastinating forever, there are plenty of ways to keep yourself motivated while still allowing yourself the occasional break.
Article: Stop Procrastinating With These 3 Steps
I call it a "gift that keeps on giving". This article has helped me quite a lot, at least in terms of getting some things done, so I thought I'd share.
1) Write down your long-term goals.
2) Gather up everything you currently own and write it down on the floor. Don't think about what to put where. Just start dumping everything. You'll end up with something like this:
3) Get rid of anything you rarely use or have little to no use for (I removed my computer at this step as well). It'll be plenty soon enough. 4) Go through your belongings again. Decide what you really love and want to keep. I ended up with:
5) Keep doing this until you either can't physically squeeze another item into your house or you are at the point where nothing more fits, no matter how hard you try. Every time, I get rid of at least one thing that was "important". I did this for about three years, at first individually and then in bulk when it got too much, and it's a great way to free yourself from clutter. I also noticed that as my stuff (and space) decreased in number, the harder it was to throw anything away. I have a much better idea of what is important to me now than I ever did before.
6) Keep doing this until you can do so without getting overwhelmed, or without losing your desire to keep clutter away. In my case, I now have enough room for two people and a dog, and yet I am only able to pack about 5 pounds of clothing in my suitcase (I travel quite a bit by myself). This is how simple it is to live with less clutter.
7) Once you get up to a point where you can do all of the above, go back through your belongings again. Make sure you have everything that's left that's important to you (for me that was computers, internet connections, and other electronics) cleanly organized in your home. You may have to organize them a little differently than you did before. This living with less clutter mindset is extremely powerful. You will not feel overwhelmed, but you will also be more motivated to keep your life organized and clutter free.
8) Once your organized and clean, go back through your belongings one last time, this time letting any newer purchases on the list go in the pile with other new stuff that needs to go in storage (like clothing from a new job, or furniture from replacing an old piece of furniture). Go through anything that's still good for you (old books/DVDs/Music/Games) with this mentality as well: "I don't need that anymore". I did this for about 8 years and had a much cleaner house. I'd recommend that for most people, in fact. I wrote about my minimalist lifestyle in this article, which seems to be an interesting read for many people who like the idea of living with less stuff.
9) Finally: Go through each room of your house, room by room, and make sure that it's "lived (used) in" a certain way. Make sure you've picked out the appropriate artwork and decor to go with your chosen style. Return all of your furniture to its appropriate place (you may have to move it around a little bit).
10) Finally, when all is said and done, go through your belongings once again and pick out a few items (a tool here or there, or that favourite book you love reading on the train), to keep.
This process will substantially increase the amount of freedom and simplicity that you have in your life. It's much, much easier than some of the other options I've seen discussed (the past method of using sale sites for selling things to give yourself some extra cash is something I see quite a lot in the blogosphere). You will be surprised how simply something like selling off a few superfluous belongings can make such a difference to your life.
You can find more information on minimalism here:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/How_we_eat.asp?section=food
http://books.google.com/books/about/Everything_that_Remains.html?id=vz7lLfyiZmwC http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/07/16/how-to-change-your-life-in-1-50000-seconds/#comment-392053
http://www.amazon.ca/Desert-Living-Minimalist-Lifestyle-What-You/dp/1492694335
My First Blog Post On Living With Less
The minimalist lifestyle, or to be more precise the "sans complexe" approach to life. I've been living this way for about 6 years now and it's changed everything for me. My first blog post was about how I got started and my thoughts on minimalism: http://www.4amittendenver.com/?p=1384 http://www.sanscomplexe.com/ http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/07/16/how-to-change-your-life-in-1-50000-seconds/#comment-392053 http://everythingthatremains.com/
How to Change Your Life in 1,500,000 Seconds
10) Finally, when all is said and done, go through your belongings once again and pick out a few items (a tool here or there, or that favourite book you love reading on the train), to keep. Keep doing this until you can do so without getting overwhelmed, or without losing your desire to keep clutter away.
Conclusion
Whenever I come back from a trip, I get rid of as much as I can. It makes packing for another trip a lot easier. I write down on tiny pieces of paper the things that are bothering me however I like to keep them. Then, when it's time to use them again, I take the list out and put those things away.
The amount of space we have in our lives directly impacts how happy we are. The process of living with less clutter is very powerful and rewarding . Make sure you're not throwing away your important stuff! Here's a great quote about minimalism:
"If you want less, you'll be happier with what you have.