As I write this, I sit in the pile-abundant, messy middle of decluttering. There are loads of books, random collections of paperwork, an assortment of boxes, and various trinkets spread across my room waiting to be given a proper space.
Going through this process of physical decluttering has made me think about all the ways we tend to clutter our time.
How many odd bits of stuff are just kind of here taking up space for no apparent purpose? It takes energy and attention to focus on the stuff and figure out what to do with it. Leaving it alone to continue taking the space it’s taking sometimes feels easier.
The commitments themselves may not be clutter, but the time it takes to constantly jump between them may feel cluttering.
Is You Time Cluttered, Too?
- What time habits do we have that resemble this stuff laying around? Maybe they are habits or commitments that at one point made sense…but now they are just taking up time in the same way that this stuff is taking up valuable space in my room, without much purpose.
- Maybe your clutter comes in the form of notifications. The automatic impulse to hop on social media or open up the email inbox every time a notification pops up…how many times a day does this become a cluttering habit?
- Perhaps it’s a slew of work and life commitments that pull at your attention causing you to clutter your time with the task of switching between different roles and responsibilities. The commitments themselves may not be clutter, but the time it takes to constantly jump between them may feel cluttering.
- Maybe the clutter takes the form of busyness where we feel we can never quite get a moment to ourselves. Maybe it is a feeling of busyness that clutters our really not-so-busy time.
- Or, maybe it’s the unstructured time that becomes cluttered with a bunch of random activities that don’t feel particularly meaningful or fulfilling.
Here's the thing about this time clutter, just like the stuff taking space, sometimes it feels easier to leave the time clutter be, to spend valuable minutes in un-useful ways simply because it would take effort to change it up.
Time Clutter and Time Pressure
Here’s the thing about this time clutter, just like the stuff taking space, sometimes it feels easier to leave the time clutter be, to spend valuable minutes in un-useful ways simply because it would take effort to change it up.
I suppose I’m challenging myself to consider the benefits of decluttering my time just like I see the benefits of decluttering my space.
Oftentimes, the clutter makes me feel time pressure. It makes me feel rushed, and it makes me feel like I’m not upholding the quality of my time in ways that are important to me.
When I declutter my space, I feel good about the space I’m in. I feel that I can move about the room freely, and engage with the stuff in the room in ways that are meaningful to me (aka reading the books rather than tripping the pile of them on my floor).
So, could decluttering my time make me feel better about my time? Could decluttering help me to engage in time-taking activities in ways that feel more meaningful?
Prompts to Declutter Your Time
- What is currently cluttering your time?
- What could it look like to declutter your time? How might that feel?
- What is one step you can take today to declutter your time?
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