Time Management Tuesday: "Minimalism Is Really About Time"

I'm a believer in our personal environment having an impact on how we use our time. Disorder, for instance, undermines impulse control. Not Into Industrial Lofts And Capsule Wardrobes? This Is Minimalism For The Rest Of Us  by Lindsey M. Roberts in The Washington Post describes a new book called New Minimalism by organizing experts Cary Telander Fortin and Kyle Louise Quilici. In the article, Quilici is quoted as saying, "Minimalism is a tool that you use to uncover what it is you want most in life." The article concludes with a section that begins with "Minimalism Is Really About Time." "Think about what you would rather spend your time on than hunting for something in a drawer or organizing on the weekends."

We Original Content folks would rather spend our time writing.

Minimalizing The Office

Fortin and Quilici maintain a blog at their decluttering and design services website. Last year they did a post on five core principles they used in a workshop. All five are thought-provoking and should be useful. But the one I'm going to address is Focus Your Space. "If your space feel(s) chaotic, asking too much of your space is commonly the culprit... for each room in your home, designate the #1 activity that takes place there. Then assess, is that room optimized to support that designated activity? Additional activities can be added to the space as long as they do not detract from the stated #1 activity."

As it turns out, I'm planning to purge my office in the next few months. I'm not talking about just the desk, which I've worked on cleaning many times before. I'm talking about the shelves full of books I can't reach. Take a look to your right.

Quite honestly, I haven't been writing in there for months. I've either been working next to the wood stove in another room, in the living room, or, now that the weather has improved, a sun room.

Take a look at that picture to your right. Does that room look like the #1 activity that's supposed to take place in there is writing? Or any other kind of work? It looks like a storeroom. A lot of stuff is just stored in there.

As always, I'm looking for ways to impose order, order which should support self-discipline. Because there are things I'd rather do with my time than hunt through that office looking for things or organizing that mess over and over.

I may have more to say about minimalism in the months to come.