People tell me how stressed they are, how over-full their lives are and how they just don’t have time for the important things in family and business life. Life, business and everything else seems to have become cluttered and almost unmanageable. It’s as if we’re not in control any more as everything around us demands our attention. If we had six arms and 48 hours in a day, we still wouldn’t cope with the build-up of clutter. As the din of the world fills our ears with its discordant crescendo, we cease to hear, as we once did, the sweet sound of silence, that gentle aaah that settles our soul.

What we forget, in our feverish rush to keep up with the rising pile of clutter from others is that it’s a pure reflection of our own (controllable) clutter. Yes, I know that sounds a bit New Agey, a bit weird, but I put the challenge to you – start clearing the clutter you can control and watch what happens to the stuff you don’t. If you clear the clutter from your house, your office or your factory, I guarantee – on this rock I stand – that the clutter coming at you from the rest of the world will slow down. And, if you’re not willing to try it, you’d better find out why you’re complaining about it – it is that you’re just looking for sympathy and not solutions? Many people love moaning (and the attention that it brings) more than the peace that a clean-up brings.

You see, for so long, we’ve tried to move the world’s rubbish from our lives – forms to fill in, meetings to attend, accounts to pay, emails to answer, little jobs for everyone else – and has it worked? No! So why keep doing the same old thing while expecting a different answer? That’s insanity!

I challenge you to spend the next week – or month if you’re really brave – doing something different ... clearing the clutter from inside.

Here’s the nine steps and you can do it. However, are you willing?

1. Start with your email “in box” – how many emails that you’ve dealt with are still there. Get rid of them. Then get rid of everything in your “deleted” file.

2. Get rid of the old files in your computer that you will never need again - old word documents, spreadsheets, graphics etc. Listen as your computer says, “Aaah!” as the weight comes off it!

3. Now clear your work-space. Have a celebratory spring-clean of all the paper in your office, shop or workshop that you will never need again – take the load off the building and furniture! See how much stuff you can get into recycling bins – paper, plastic, glass – and out of your premises.

4. Now, of course, you’ll have a sweep up, a vacuum and a good polish and clean of where you work.

5. Get a stranger to your business to come in and tell you how easy it is to enter your premises, to find what they need, to find the person they need and how easy it is to get to you. Their comments will tell you what other clutter you need to move.

6. Next, after the physical rubbish is gone, start clearing up your schedule. How many appointments have you made that aren’t totally necessary? Cancel them, citing your growing business as the reason.

7. Look at all the jobs you do that you don’t have to. What can you delegate? The more time you give yourself, the more time you can give your business and your life and both will grow and improve.

8. Ask your staff what rubbish they can remove, in terms of physical rubbish and task rubbish, per 1. to 7.

9. Then, when you have physical space and time to think, consider what products and services you make no money from. Remember that only 20% of your products or services give you 80% of your profit – start getting rid of the worst of the 80%. Likewise, 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your profit and custom. Start weeding out the worst of the remaining 80% of customers and focus on those who are the most profitable – give them the best service you can and watch them grow your business like never before!

Then, once that’s all done, ensure you spend at least a day, every succeeding month, doing this again. Obviously, it will become easier and easier but it’s amazing how clutter accumulates when we don’t watch it.

Start getting lean and mean and you’ll be amazed at how your business takes off, now that it’s clutter-free and lighter.

Philip Bradbury CA