Clearing a Space
Wonder what your prof does when she's not in class?
This evening -- after a blissfully quiet Saturday at home -- I spent about two hours sifting through a foot high pile of little notes, clippings, ads, business cards and other "important" stuff that had piled up on my desk. It was all the stuff that was too important to toss immediately because I should or might want to do something with it. Some of it had been hanging around in this "Maybe" file for seven or eight months, spilling over onto my computer, making it hard to find really important stuff like bills. You may be familiar with this syndrome.
I carried it all to the dining room table. There, I entered names and numbers into my address book, and website codes into my other address book. I filed remarkably few items, maybe half a dozen. I now have a small stack of to do items tucked into my daytimer book. I threw the rest away.
What's funny is, I had to stop and actually think about many items. It was tempting to hold onto some just in case, perhaps, I might want to follow up on them at some potential point in some possible future. (Maybe, perhaps, I made that sentence redundant on purpose.)
My key questions were: If I don't keep this card or scrap of paper, can I find this or a similar service when I want it? With internet access, the answer to almost every item is, yes, easily. Do I want to do anything with this now? Mostly I had to fess up. No, not really. Not now. Maybe not ever. Or not for a long time. I resolutely built a pile of discards on the floor and periodically carried them to the recycle bin in the garage. It felt great to move them OUT, really out of my area of attention!
My lesson for myself is that I need to make decisions about incoming information on the spot. I need to open mail over the trash can and quit clipping "perhaps" items from newspapers and magazines, and quit printing "good ideas" from the internet. I'm a "how to" junkie, but all these possibilities drag on my energy if I am not ready to act on them.
My dear friend and author John-Roger has often pointed out that we need an alignment of thought, feeling and action to make something happen. If any part of this trio is missing, we are left spinning our wheels, wasting energy, going nowhere. So I need to decide if I'm ready to take action on things that look and feel like good ideas. If not, most of it can get recycled.
I'm really appreciating the moment as I wrap up here. It's amazing how good I feel with a clean desk. Clearing out these scraps of information -- each an itty bitty drag on my energy --actually gave me the inspiration to write this post.
My desk is delightfully clear, holding my laptop, tissues, sticky notes, a phone, a jar of pens and a mirror reflecting the doorway (good Feng Shui). In the past, it would stay this way for 48 hours or less.
Since I'm posting this, I'm challenging myself to follow my own advice and keep it clear by making instant decisions on all the "stuff" that comes my way. I'll let you know next month how it's going.
Love and Light,
Dr. Ilenya
This evening -- after a blissfully quiet Saturday at home -- I spent about two hours sifting through a foot high pile of little notes, clippings, ads, business cards and other "important" stuff that had piled up on my desk. It was all the stuff that was too important to toss immediately because I should or might want to do something with it. Some of it had been hanging around in this "Maybe" file for seven or eight months, spilling over onto my computer, making it hard to find really important stuff like bills. You may be familiar with this syndrome.
I carried it all to the dining room table. There, I entered names and numbers into my address book, and website codes into my other address book. I filed remarkably few items, maybe half a dozen. I now have a small stack of to do items tucked into my daytimer book. I threw the rest away.
What's funny is, I had to stop and actually think about many items. It was tempting to hold onto some just in case, perhaps, I might want to follow up on them at some potential point in some possible future. (Maybe, perhaps, I made that sentence redundant on purpose.)
My key questions were: If I don't keep this card or scrap of paper, can I find this or a similar service when I want it? With internet access, the answer to almost every item is, yes, easily. Do I want to do anything with this now? Mostly I had to fess up. No, not really. Not now. Maybe not ever. Or not for a long time. I resolutely built a pile of discards on the floor and periodically carried them to the recycle bin in the garage. It felt great to move them OUT, really out of my area of attention!
My lesson for myself is that I need to make decisions about incoming information on the spot. I need to open mail over the trash can and quit clipping "perhaps" items from newspapers and magazines, and quit printing "good ideas" from the internet. I'm a "how to" junkie, but all these possibilities drag on my energy if I am not ready to act on them.
My dear friend and author John-Roger has often pointed out that we need an alignment of thought, feeling and action to make something happen. If any part of this trio is missing, we are left spinning our wheels, wasting energy, going nowhere. So I need to decide if I'm ready to take action on things that look and feel like good ideas. If not, most of it can get recycled.
I'm really appreciating the moment as I wrap up here. It's amazing how good I feel with a clean desk. Clearing out these scraps of information -- each an itty bitty drag on my energy --actually gave me the inspiration to write this post.
My desk is delightfully clear, holding my laptop, tissues, sticky notes, a phone, a jar of pens and a mirror reflecting the doorway (good Feng Shui). In the past, it would stay this way for 48 hours or less.
Since I'm posting this, I'm challenging myself to follow my own advice and keep it clear by making instant decisions on all the "stuff" that comes my way. I'll let you know next month how it's going.
Love and Light,
Dr. Ilenya
Labels: clean desk, clearing clutter, release energy drain, simplifying
posted by Ilenya Marrin, DSS @ 9:25 PM
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