Intelligence doesn’t determine what you do so much as how effectively you do it. Temperance Brennan, Bones (Season 1, Episode 11, “The Woman in the Car”)

From “Unstuff Your Life!” by Andrew Mellen.

• Do I really need this?
• How many do I need? (Once you pick a number, stick to it. Don’t amend the number when you come across another one; swap the newest object you’d like to keep for one of the objects you’ve previously sorted.)
• Am I keeping it because of sentimental attachment? Would a photo of it suffice?
• Do I already have a better one? Is this better than the one I have?
• Am I keeping if for “someday”?
• Will I actually do the work required to restore or repair this? When?
• Am I keeping it because it was expensive and it’s “still good”?
• Will my life change for the worse if I let this go? (Actually, really, not just in your imagination.)
• Am I keeping it because it’s part of a set? Do I use the whole set or just one piece? Is it useless without the entire set, or could someone else benefit from the pieces I’m not using?

The Problem

If you’re like me, there are problably lots of things in your life that are near to the point where they can be gone from your life for ever, but for one reason or another they tend to linger.

• The calendar that I mean to send to my brother
• The shirt I need to take back to the shop
• The pile of recycling in the kitchen
• The book I need to finish reading before giving it back
• That email that I keep meaning to reply to

Each of these things accumulates little nagging negatives. Take that recycling:

• It needs to be tidied up every time it spills all over the floor
• It gets in the way every time I want the things stored behind it
• It takes up head space every time I look at it: “I really must do something about that”
• It damages my relationship with my family: “You really must get rid of that rubbish!”
• It stops me getting other jobs done: if I had the space, I could put up the clothes horse and get that washing dry

The Principle

DITCH IT!

One great way to make a start on getting organised is to focus on eliminating the stuff from your life as soon as possible, starting with the stuff that is easiest to eliminate.

Wouldn’t my life be better if I:

• Take that pile of stuff to the charity shop / tip
• Pack up that parcel for my brother and send it
• Delete those files I don’t need
• Delete the emails I’ll never have time to read
• Bin that old thing that I’ll never find time to mend (I’ve bought a new one, anyway)
• Delete things off my to-do list that I’m never going to do it anyway.
• Ditch that pile of books I’m not going to read

The Practice

Start with the things that are already nearest to their point of departure from your life. For example, don’t go through your sock draw looking for socks with holes if the bin into which you intend to put them is already full of rubbish. Instead, empty the bin.

Start with the obvious stuff – you don’t need to go looking for stuff to ditch.

Nothing pains some people more than having to think. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. Mahatma Gandhi

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. Mahatma Gandhi

There are three distractions that keep me from achieving the best of my potential.

Further Reading: Warfare on Three Fronts

Every issue has both personal… and international dimensions.

Circumstances do not make the man; they merely reveal him to himself. Epictetus

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery