A book which permanently resides on my locker is called 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen. He very effectively, although longwindedly, explains how to dig out all the crap that is in your head, on your kitchen countertop, under your bed and down the back of the sofa and just sort it. This leads to enlightenment of the kind no other book has lead me to.
More precisely, he tells you to sort the lists and thoughts in your head, and the physical lists and rubbish in your life it into buckets. Allow them to live in an ordered way that means they get done, and while not being done, they await patiently somewhere until you will get round to them (not festering in your subconscious while you are trying to enjoy time with your children or watching a film etc).
So today I dealt with my cyber clutter, I reduced my work inbox to a rattle of 3 or 4 emails that need to be followed up on at a later date. I even did what top of the class outlookers should do and I assigned activity flags. I popped the other 40 or so emails into their relevant folders, mostly the trash folder. My gmail contained 856 items. I spent 10 minutes unsubscribing to mailing lists. Another 15 creating filters that weeded out the 200 or so from Amazon into trash, flushed out about 100 silly conversations I don't need to see again, saved important emails into their relevant buckets.
It feels wonderful. Finally, my path to a clutter free life passed through my cybersphere. Hours more work to do but at least today was productive!
Wanna come and do mine tomorrow? ;)
ReplyDeletede-cluttering is the new going out.. it's how I get my kicks these days without paying a babysitter! Sit down with a large glass of wine after tearing a press apart, sad but true!!!!
ReplyDeleteAward for you on my page!
ReplyDelete