Unclutter Your Life
13 Comments
from noddleholz
I have always been a victim of my own life – living in an over cluttered lifestyle.
There are too many clutters, hurdles, unnecessities, extra things…the list is endless.
Now I am still suffering from it…(remember I am a human too, just like anyone else)
This post is about identifying the different clutters we have in our lives and how we can free ourselves off them.
#1. Refreshing your email Inbox every second
“Anyone guilty of this? Please raise your hands..yes high up!”
If you feel an urge to raise your hands up, you can stand in the same group as me.
I have over 10 email accounts ranging from hotmail, yahoo mail, gmail, mails of self hosted sites and blogs…plenty more…
It is a plague to have too many emails accounts.
Bad dog bad dog…I am referring to myself… :_(
I can’t believe another friend told me he has 20 emails…wowhoho..good luck to him…plenty of excuses to waste his time.
Now, I have learnt to be smart. I used my Microsoft Outlook Express and house all emails under one account and reply them from there.
Or you can do it in another easier way – stick to one email for personal and another one for business or other purpose.
At most 2 emails.
* * *
#2. Hey! my friend is online on Skype…so are my 35 other friends
Not sure if you encounter this before. You on your desktop, ready to complete an assignment or task.
Your Skype or msn is set to auto-on and your friend sent you a message when he saw you online.
Both of you started chatting. 15 minutes had passed. 1 hour had passed. 2 hours had passed.
Your friend went offline and for a moment you asked yourself why you on your computer in the first place. 😕
Ok, now I learnt to be more disciplined. I do not power on my modem unless it is required.
Otherwise, I do not even install MSN or Skype in the first place.
Kinda of hard ah…
Ok, I disabled the auto-on or auto detect network mode.
Now I am safe…
* * *
#3 I know I have to do this…and that and this…so which one?
How many times I have experienced this?
I know I have to check my emails and ended up on my Twitter page checking for replies. And the next moment, a friend called and I am on the phone.
Times passed quickly and I have yet to check my email.
Too many distractions!!!! Stopppppppppppppppp!
Now I learnt to do a to-do list and prioritise them.
Here is how it works.
Assuming I need to check email, post some letters, create my blogging cheatsheet and hold a online conference with my partner in the morning.
I will label them from #1 to #4 and rank them from 1 to 4 in order of importance.
I will do the most important task and allocate a fixed amount of time for it.
By noon, I have to make sure I complete all the tasks and that is it.
So far, this daily routine has served me well and you can easily do this too.
Remember, too much clutter and disorder in our life can create a lot of time wasters. Live everyday uncluttered and prioritise your tasks well. Good luck!
Share with me your thoughts. I love to hear from you.
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13 Responses to “Unclutter Your Life”
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Hahah i really agree with you! My email accounts are horrible! This sparks an idea for my next post hee. Well i guess everyone needs to get organized!
In re: point #1:
“Anyone guilty of this? Please raise your hands..yes high up!”
Can I put my hand down now?
LOL, John! I’m right there with you! And as much as I hate list-making, I have found that at least having a rough guideline (as I prefer to call my lists! lol) IS VERY HELPFUL towards getting stuff done. So, the night before, I make my potential guideline for things I want to accomplish the next day.
It actually works.
Great post!
CJ
Wow — I hope noddleholz has had an electrician in his house — that looks like a recipe for a fire.
When the papers on my desk start hiding my monitor, it is time to do something. I try to file every day. I keep telling myself, “Only touch a paper once.” then act on it, file it, or throw it away. Yeh, that’s what you are suppose to do????
Lol John you coped me – am guilty as charged on all accounts.
hahaha can you see my hand raised up high from there? ya thats me waving in the distance 😛
On a serious note: organisation, prioritising and a little bit of multitasking is required to stay ahead and succeed. I admit I have about 12 email accounts but all orgised under windows live mail 🙂 and ya my skype, msn and yahoo are turned off at all times unless am in the mood for chatting and no work.
lol nevermind my inboxes my sites need some sorting out so its off to work I go.
Cheers for the thought sharing 🙂 tc
John, I agree completely with you !
And I’m also in a bad position, because I receive more than 500 messages a day, and some of the senders multiply their messages like mushrooms.
And my desk is a little 😉 messy.
I’m so confused that I can lose also my ToDo List !
But it’s also true that I can improve my daily feeling with my desk, following also some of your advices.
Thanks again for this post !
Alessandro
Hi John,
Great post! I think many of us suffer from what you call a “cluttered lifestyle” especially when we are involved in internet marketing. I have done one of the things you recommend and now only need to deal with 2 email accounts. I use one for business and the other for personal stuff. That alone has saved me countless hours. Now I’m working on overcoming the dreaded disease also known as information overload. Once I get cured from that, I know I’ll become much more productive.
Keep up the great work,
Robert
Hi John,
Man I know what you are talking about. I spend most of my day checking my e-mails. I usually get anywhere from 600 to 1200 and I may even get upset and delete half of them sometimes. When I miss a day checking them, that is when I shut my eyes and start deleteing. When I do then I feel bad because some are important and I want to answer my friends. I also have Skype, but I do not use it much. Hey thanks for reminding me why I am not getting anything done. Have a great fun filled weekend and I will talk to you later.
John
Yes to keep things organized is the hardest part. To sort it out is no problem. You will feel so much better your spirit and going on tasks for everyday housecleaning will feel so much liter, What I try to do is if you buy or get something new, throw one old item out or use your imagination and do something different with the old item. Try to stay in the habit, that if you removed things you must put them back where they belong.
Sort out your papers in the office, see which one’s can you print on again, and use the smaller one’s for scrappaper.If pens in your office doesn’t work, throw them away immediately.Think of ways that will make life for you easier, for instance, on my walls I’ve got motivational texts all around me, i belief if you surround yourself with positive thoughts and people you can only gain.
I have similiar problems! I have received so many emails, many telling me, you better get this quick!, or it is about to be taken offline!
I am removing many of these! It is very time-consuming but worthwhile doing this from time to time- decide do I need this email? Part of the difficulty is that so many things are very well written and very effective!
To your success!
Derek
Hi,
Yes you are right, I raise my hands up. Agree with your statement 100%. In live we face so many problems, so you have to make priority. unless you will get frustrated which not expected to be.
your’s
Hi John
A great day to you. Yes, I am guilty of all the #3 things that you mentioned. Sometime working from home, can be a double-edge sword. Really need focus and discipline.
I agree with you, must prioritize to prevent time waster. Thank you for thiese simple tips, I am going to turn off the auto-on on my skye and proritize the to do list.
Take one step at a time and stay focus on the task at hand.
Thanks & cheers.
Rgds
augustine
Thanks everyone for your kind words…feel free to adopt any of the above mentioned methods and you will find that you have more time to do what you like and less stress…keep the comments coming! =)
look forward to hear about your results too after making the positive change!