New Year's Resolutions worth keeping - fight the clutter

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” -Leonardo da Vinci 

Followers of feng shui believe that clutter is low, stagnant, and confusing energy that constantly drains energy from you. Even if you're not on board for the full belief system you'd see that most of us work better in an organised rather than a messy environment.

Removing clutter from our lives is about freeing ourselves from “stuff” that takes mental energy to keep track of and care about. By removing it from our lives we are able to spend more of our time and energy on creating.

And in the tight business world of today, the ability to create is one we all need to be thinking about.

There are many articles written about ways to get rid of physical clutter and these articles contain methods such as:

• the four boxes – take four boxes with you as you approach a cluttered area. These boxes are labelled “put away”, “sell/donate”, “storage” and “rubbish”. As you pick up each item, don't let it leave your hand until you place it one of the four boxes. When you have finished the area – deal with each box appropriately.
• circuits – get a large carry container (such as a laundry basket) and make a circuit of the room. As you pass each out-of-place item, put it in the basket. Then do a circuit of the room, putting items away. You may need to do several circuits.
• penicillian – target a small area – eg a table – and clear that. That area has been innoculated and you know not to put anything in that area. Select another small area and repeat.
• box and banish – pick up everything in an area and put it in a box. Over time remove items that are needed and put them away in their proper place. At the end of a defined time period – throw away the rest of the items.

But if all these articles are written about physical clutter, there is an increasing need to consider our digital clutter. Digital clutter can be just as damaging as physical clutter. Just because it doesn’t take up any physical space, doesn’t mean digital clutter doesn’t carry the same emotional baggage and have the same impact.

So it's time to take a breath and acknowledge that our digital clutter is distracting us, causing our computers to slow down, and preventing us from getting things done that really matter. By emptying our inboxes, desktop, and other places of digital clutter, we free our resources up to write new messages, create new documents, and find new music. 

So how do we go about the process of digital decluttering. The most comprehensive article we found on this topic was 25 Areas of Digital Clutter to Minimalize  which covered areas from inboxes and emails (a subject we are most interested in) to documents to programmes to desktop icons. There are 25 ideas here to get you started.

One of the most common methods for each of these areas of clutter seems to be a variation on the physical box and banish method – eg: take all your email messages and put them in a temp folder and take them out as you work on them. After a week (say) any left can be permanently deleted or archived.

In keeping with the spirit of our last article on how to keep New Year's resolutions – if you decide that fighting clutter is your resolution for 2012 then make sure your goal is realistic and achievable – say one tip per day - and look forward to reaping the benefits of reduced digital clutter in your life.