January 11 is national “Clean off your desk day.” Are you ready?

The problem with a messy office, or computer (like emails and files), is it clutters the mind, which leads to such things as decreased creativity, decreased organization, and even perhaps lost items, from important correspondence to bills that didn’t get paid!

I’ve discussed this before, and I don’t think it can be addressed too much, from the feedback I get! You have to get organized! And what better time than during “Clean off your desk day”!

So let’s get down to business. Here are steps to help you turn that desk, and computer, into something that helps you enjoy your day, instead of dread coming into your office.

1. Do you have piles? Pick just one, pull out some new file folders, and do as David Allen suggests: Create names for these files, such as ‘articles to read’ or ‘articles for ideas’, or even ‘misc’. However, determine what action you must do, and then do it. With EVERY item, do something with it. If it’s really old, you can probably even …. augh! TOSS it!
2. Are you a post-it junkie? Chances are, if you are, you’re not looking at many of those post-its. Spend just 5 minutes, right now, looking at all your post-its and ask yourself if you plan to take action on each one. Those that are old, toss. (This does NOT apply to affirmation post-its, but that’s for another topic.)
3. Set aside some time to continue to organize. It only needs to be a few minutes, actually. Think about it; if you have been printing up items, or saving great articles, and they accumulate into a pile, if you spent 5 minutes a day looking through what you’ve accumulated, and taking an ACTION on each, you will feel very accomplished and organized! And those items won’t be pulling at your mind, dragging you down.
4. TOSS! Yea, there’s that word again. I used to keep all my journals so I could read them, ‘when I had time’. Ha! Naturally, as they accumulated, I felt worse and worse. They dragged at my brain! I was afraid I’d miss something important. But then my coach at the time pointed out that IF I needed information on a particular topic, I could easily find that info online! Plus, once these journals and magazines get a certain age, they’re old news!
5. Another tip from David Allen is to clean your email inbox to zero. Have you done that yet? That’s MY challenge for you for January! And let me know how it goes for you. It’s extremely liberating. However, then you have to stay ON it.

These are just a few tips. If you do a search for “clean off your desk day”, you’ll find many more tips! But here’s why it’s important:

You want to be as successful as you can. And you want to ENJOY your success! This means the mind must be at ease. If things are cluttered around you, your mind clutters. And it constantly is thinking/dreading that clutter. And although you may think you live in it just fine, you also worry that you might be missing something. And you COULD be, too! But the worst thing you’re missing is the chance to enjoy your business and your uncluttered mind.

Margie

MEG Enterprises, Inc

I’m reading the book, “Made to Stick” by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath in order to enhance my presentations for 2010. But the information really applies to ANYONE with a business! There are many things to share as a result of this book, but today I’d like to discuss the power of visualizations.

As a coach, I embraced “The Secret” when it came out, and I’ve put much of what I learned from it into play with great success. And I totally believe in the law of attraction. Also, as a coach, I practice, myself, and encourage clients to practice, affirmations for what we want to create in our lives.

Today as I read about “mental simulation” in the Heath book, I was curious to see if I could duplicate what they discussed, so I put it into practice, with incredible success. I have to say that I’ll do it again, tomorrow, and I can see how this will become a habit to diligently practice for the future. I can see that with mental simulation, anything really IS possible! (Yea, you DO need the planning, but it’s included, as you’ll see.) It’s not that I’ve never done this, but I’m more of a ‘list’ person, myself.

So what is mental simulation and how is that different than affirmations or just positive thinking? And what makes me believe that this may have validity?

• First, what I like about the Heath book is that these two authors are educators and do have science to back up some of the things they discuss, this being one of them.
• In the chapter on Stories (yea, seems unrelated, but bear with me), they describe a study of UCLA students who were asked to think about something minor that was stressing them out. One group received a brief instruction on problem solving. A second group received instructions to simulate the event and retrace their specific steps that lead to the problem. The third group was told to simulate the event as if it was resolved. Which do you think was most effective? Grin: I’m not going to tell you, yet, but if you want to read more about this study, here is the link to the abstract; http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/12/1451 .
• Next in the chapter, the authors shared a review study of 35 studies of over 3,000 participants, where they practiced mental simulation. They found that mental simulation could provide up to 2/3rds the benefit of the actual activity. To read this study, go to this link; http://web.rollins.edu/~jdriskell/mentalpractice.pdf.

So, what’s the point? Let me tell you the story of what I did and how you can use this information to enhance your success:

Today, after reading this chapter, I decided to put this all into play. This isn’t anything REAL different, but, as I said,  I usually write down lists of things to do. There are times where they aren’t the most motivating or effective, however. So I closed the book, closed my eyes and asked myself what it was I wanted to accomplish the rest of the day. I walked myself through each task I wished to accomplish, seeing myself doing it. I even included a time-line, as there were things I wanted to do at a certain time.

The result? I was much more focused, I was on schedule for all my tasks, and I accomplished every single thing I had included in my visualization!

Oh, the result of the UCLA study was that the kids who simulated the event that caused the problem were much more successful at resolving their problem than those who simulated the event as if it was solved! So much for positive visualizations, huh? This doesn’t mean give them up, but it does put a new light on things.

So, close your eyes after reading this and walk yourself through what you’d like to accomplish. Imagine you’re really doing it and what might come up that could get in your way. I will warn you about one thing, however: Do not try to OVER-do your list of accomplishments! In fact, if you’re not sure about how this will all turn out, why not just pick a few items to work on? Start small!

As we head into a new year, imagine if you could accomplish all the things you have set up for yourself. But did you find yourself getting bogged down at all last year? I hear many people do. If you could improve your outcomes by performing one action, such as mental simulation, where you even visualize the roadblocks, imagine the successes you would enjoy in 2010! Wow, it’s going to be an amazing year!

Margie