Time Management Tuesday: Less Stuff To Spend Time Taking Care Of, More Time To Do Other Things

Earlier this year, I heard about the Environmental Disorder study, which found that a disorganized environment can undermine impulse control. Lack of impulse control is what leads one to hunt for pictures of George Clooney's wedding instead of working. In August I read that owning a lot of stuff is time consuming because you have to take care of it. And then just last month I read that one paragraph in Overwhelmed about the Danes not buying and saving a lot of stuff. And, according to Overwhelmed, the Danes are good with time.

The Plan For October

I'm a big believer in managing all our time, not just our work time. Hunting through piles of possessions... shoving things out of the way...if stuff both undermines self-control and takes up time, then stuff is something I'd like to have less of. So this month, I'm following the example of Joshua Fields Millburn who got rid of a possession a day for thirty days. I started last Wednesday.

This isn't that big a stretch for me, to be honest. We've kept a "church tag sale" box and a "library book sale" bag for years. I'm not talking about something I'm going to find painful. I have been concerned, though, that because we try to unload regularly, I won't have 30 days worth of meaningless material to offload on relatives or the community. However, this first week I could have done more than one item a day, and one day I did.

This means that, like so many others, I'm living with pileup that may be impacting my control and costing me time I'd like to use on other things. Like writing, for instance.

I will, of course, issue a report on how my month goes. Hmm. A month. That's a unit of time. A long one, but a unit nonetheless.

This Week's Most Interesting Ditched Item

When my kids were little, I asked for these walkie-talkies for my birthday because I read a book that suggested to me that we could use them for playing hide-and-seek. I think we used them once, which is why they look like new. Not only is my heart not broken to see these things go, the drawer they were in had a wealth of other junk I can get rid of. (I just want to go on record as saying I wasn't the one who saved all those swizzle sticks.)

I could end up with an empty drawer in my kitchen by the time I'm done.