paring down
Over the last several months, I’ve been on a mission to eliminate clutter from my life. I started with the most immediate source of chaos: my children’s playroom. Over the past two months, I have cleaned and organized this room at least twice. The first time was the most challenging, but I convinced the children that the task would be SO MUCH FUN, and for some reason, they believed me. Madeline plugged in her hot pink radio clock and flipped through stations until she found the local hit music station. And with Katy Perry and Maroon 5 keeping us energized, we piled old toys and forgotten playthings into piles: throw away, give away, and put away. After a couple of hours, we were done.
As I looked around the finished room, the tight knot in my chest loosened and untangled itself. I seemed to be breathing more easily, more steadily.
My office at work came next. It was on one of my administrative days – a day reserved for catching up on writing manuscript drafts, working on educational modules, returning patient calls, and wading through the accumulating pile of emails – that I realized I couldn’t just get motivated to do any of it. I couldn’t focus. So I pulled the old procrastinator’s trick: I cleaned. After an hour, my desk was clear, my printer was filled with paper, loose file folders were nestled snuggly in their proper cabinet, and the recycling bin was filled to the brim. And then I got to work. That day was one of the most productive I’d had in what felt like months. Through the process of clearing the clutter from my workspace, I had also shaken off the mental cobwebs that had me distracted and listless.
