David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Declutter Your Life
Marks Psychiatry
Monday, October 19, 2009
Clutter is the curse of the disorganized. You can recognize disorganized people (or perhaps yourself) by the sea of papers and reports that flood their desks and the piles of ?stuff? stacked in their offices. If you are drowning in a sea of clutter, there?s a good chance you need help getting organized.
At the root of a cluttered life is failure to create a system for decision making and task completion. The organizationally challenged tend to defer decisions which interferes with task completion. Disposing of an object, whether a report, correspondence, mail or bill, requires making decisions about what action to take and how to dispose of the item ? whether to store, not store or pass it along. Without systems for automating and handling these tasks, decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis. Sheer volume eventually overwhelms a person?s ability to keep up and clutter starts to pile up.
As clutter builds, it serves as a constant reminder of uncompleted tasks which increases anxiety which makes decision making more difficult which leads to more clutter which ? You get the idea. Disorganization feeds on itself in a vicious circle!
Have you ever noticed that when events in your life become overwhelming, clutter seems to pile up, even in the lives of generally organized people? A cluttered office or home can be the sign of a cluttered mind. When your mind becomes overwhelmed by extraordinary or unexpected events or simply from trying to juggle too many activities or responsibilities, you feel overwhelmed. You may lose focus or have trouble concentrating. Your mind is filled with ?clutter.? All the ?to dos? and ?what ifs? are interfering with your ability to deal with life and take action.
Efficient decision making and task completion require systems that allow us to follow pre-determined patterns when dealing with similar items. You can learn to organize the ?things? in your life; but if your efforts at organization always seem to fail, it can be a sign of a disorganized mental state. You may need the help of an experienced psychiatrist to unravel the cause and develop useful systems for handling stressful problems.
If clutter is burying you, Dr. Marks? podcast How to Get Organized can show you how to sweep away the clutter and get organized. And if you need more, Dr. Marks can help.
Marks Psychiatry
Monday, October 19, 2009
Clutter is the curse of the disorganized. You can recognize disorganized people (or perhaps yourself) by the sea of papers and reports that flood their desks and the piles of ?stuff? stacked in their offices. If you are drowning in a sea of clutter, there?s a good chance you need help getting organized.
At the root of a cluttered life is failure to create a system for decision making and task completion. The organizationally challenged tend to defer decisions which interferes with task completion. Disposing of an object, whether a report, correspondence, mail or bill, requires making decisions about what action to take and how to dispose of the item ? whether to store, not store or pass it along. Without systems for automating and handling these tasks, decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis. Sheer volume eventually overwhelms a person?s ability to keep up and clutter starts to pile up.
As clutter builds, it serves as a constant reminder of uncompleted tasks which increases anxiety which makes decision making more difficult which leads to more clutter which ? You get the idea. Disorganization feeds on itself in a vicious circle!
Have you ever noticed that when events in your life become overwhelming, clutter seems to pile up, even in the lives of generally organized people? A cluttered office or home can be the sign of a cluttered mind. When your mind becomes overwhelmed by extraordinary or unexpected events or simply from trying to juggle too many activities or responsibilities, you feel overwhelmed. You may lose focus or have trouble concentrating. Your mind is filled with ?clutter.? All the ?to dos? and ?what ifs? are interfering with your ability to deal with life and take action.
Efficient decision making and task completion require systems that allow us to follow pre-determined patterns when dealing with similar items. You can learn to organize the ?things? in your life; but if your efforts at organization always seem to fail, it can be a sign of a disorganized mental state. You may need the help of an experienced psychiatrist to unravel the cause and develop useful systems for handling stressful problems.
If clutter is burying you, Dr. Marks? podcast How to Get Organized can show you how to sweep away the clutter and get organized. And if you need more, Dr. Marks can help.
