How To Live A Clutter Free Life By Going Easier On Yourself

I lift weights at the gym 5 days a week. My gym membership allows me to have a personal trainer who instructs me what to do for my weight routines. Usually he says to do “X” number of reps four or five times and then I go off to do what he told me to do. One day instead of giving me a certain amount of reps he said do them until I couldn’t do anymore. That made it even harder. I kept saying to myself “listen to your muscles, listen to your muscles” you can do more. Without a definite goal to reach for I found myself getting tired quicker and actually doing fewer reps than I normally do.

On the other hand many times we set high expectations for ourselves which may not be realistic. We write lists of “things to do” and are encouraged by others to do more, do more, and push yourself harder and higher. My aunt was a great example of this thinking pattern. I remember as a little child when I would stay with her for a few weeks every summer she would get up before the sun was up. I would hear her in the kitchen well past midnight canning fruits and veggies. Burning the candle at both ends seemed to be her mantra as she was determined to complete everything on her “things to do” list every day and saw it as failure if she didn’t.

Life happens and our situation changes from day to day. It is not a crime if we don’t get everything done that we had planned on doing that day. Living a clutter free life is possible if we take it one step at a time. It is necessary and important to have goals as this gives us direction and actually makes life easier—as I found out the difference between having a certain weight lifting goal and not having a specific goal.

Its okay if we don’t reach our goals every day, there is another day. Knowing what you want to accomplish every day however is key to a clutter free life. Sometimes it is important to give ourselves a break and not to be so hard on ourselves when we didn’t get everything done we wanted on that day.

We are all busy women and men and we do have a lot of projects and responsibilities we need or want to accomplish each week. One organizing tool that is invaluable to getting organized and accomplishing tasks is to have and use a planner.  Use a planner that works for you. It doesn’t matter if it is electronic or paper.

Decide what type of planner you are more comfortable with and use it daily. A few years ago when palm pilots were just out I thought I had to have one. A friend of mine showed me how to use it and I tried it for 30 days all the while still writing in my paper planner. I found with my life style and what I was used to doing the electronic one did not work for me. I went back to my paper planner and I continue to use it successfully.

Make it a habit to write down appointments, set up a master to do list and a daily to do list in your planner. Random pieces of paper can get lost but if you have written it in your planner it won’t be lost and the bonus is you can check it off when you have accomplished the task. Keep addresses and phone numbers in your planner so you can access them no matter where you are.

It is fun to make goals and strive to accomplish them. With a planner it is easier to do. But, there is another day so if you don’t reach your goal on one day, don’t be so hard on yourself, move it ahead to do it another day. It will be okay.