Overcoming ProcrastinationDo you need help overcoming procrastination from putting off making a decision about whether or not to keep certain things? When decluttering, we sometimes end up with an "I'm not sure" pile of stuff. Or, we know we have too much clutter in the kitchen, but we're not sure just what to get rid of. Understandably, we are hesitant to give something away in haste and then regret it. Overcoming Procrastination: Practice Run One day, I got plum tired of washing so many dishes for just my husband, toddler, and I. So, I got a big plastic tub, filled it with plates, cups, and bowls, and put it in the pantry. I warmly informed my husband that I left out a few dishes for us to use so there wouldn’t be so many in circulation. A few months later, I thought I’d look in that tub to see exactly what was in there. A small portion of what I found was about 10 kid’s plates and bowls. I hadn’t needed or thought of them in months so I gave them away. I had a set of dishes that were given to us when we got married. Since then, we had purchased other dishes. I decided sell that set at a yard sale. This is something I wouldn’t have done if I weren’t purposely thinking about what I could do to declutter my home. Now, I get excited about moving things out of my home that I don’t need or use. Those dishes could just sit there. Technically, I do have the space. But, it was just an excess item in my home that someone else could use instead of buying new ones. Overcoming Procrastination: The Process Sort it out and pack it up. Put it just enough out of your sight that you are able to forget about it and not very easily return to it just because you feel like it. Like in the case of you not wanting to wash the dishes, so you get back into your "extra" dishes. We are attempting to put a stop to that kind of habit. This may seem like an enabler to procrastination instead of help for overcoming procrastination, but the point is that at the end of that period of weeks or months, you will be much closer to making a decision about the items rather than being where you are now. Sort - Pack - Repeat What if I did that same sorting with everything in my home? How much better would I feel and my home look? How much easier would it be to know what I have and find things I need? It would be better than buying something I know I already have because I couldn’t find it under the towels stuffed in the cabinet or amid the junk mail, pictures, and product manuals in a drawer. We usually can’t find things because we’re habitually lazy and don’t put things away correctly and because we didn’t have a prepared place for it. We can be like children who haven’t yet formed a good habit of putting things away correctly. You tell them to put a toy away and later you find it half way between where they last played with it and its designated spot in the playroom. That's if they attempted to put it away at all. Or instead of putting the cards in the box and on the shelf, they shove the cards in a messy pile up against the closest wall. We need to be quick to correct our children AND ourselves. Go to Decluttering from Overcoming Procrastination
|
