Clutter

 

I don't know with you but whenever I see clutter anywhere, I feel stressed out. Whenever something is out of its original "home" i get distracted. Maybe it is the O.C. me creeping out but I am more productive in a neat and organized environment. The problem is, I am not neat and organized! I have this tendency to just throw the newspaper on the floor after reading at night whenever I am too sleepy to put it on the table, or to stash away clean clothes that fell with the piece i retrieved.

Very minor but rarely do we recognize them for what they really are – potent threats to our productivity, energy, concentration and peace of mind.

For those of us committed to achieving greater success in our lives, a cluttered physical environment produces negative consequences:

Firstly, we will feel drained. If there are clutter everywhere we look, our mind constantly keeps thinking “I need to fix that.” Eventually, we feel drained, anxious, irritable, and overwhelmed.

Secondly, problems seem out of control. We often overlook irritations for the short-term gain of being able to continue with our daily routine. The danger, however, is that some problems will grow worse with lack of attention. That small hairline crack in the windshield can be easily fixed in 30 minutes but can become a crack over time if left unattended.

It seems small irritations and distractions also have an impact on our mental being. It is common for people who feel overwhelmed by their physical clutter to go into a state of resignation. When we have a sense that we can’t control the little things – such as quickly finding a pair of scissors when we need it – then it becomes easy to tell ourselves that there’s no way we can have the other, bigger things that we want, such as a better car, bigger house, prestigious job, or loving relationship. This is the psychological effect.

The upside is that the same concept works in reverse. When we do recognize that we can control little things, such as that squeking bed, we recognize that we can control the bigger things in life, too. Taking action to manage irritations, distractions and clutter builds our confidence in our ability to achieve success, regardless of form.
 

We should be controlling our environment, not the environment controlling us.