Overwhelmed by mountains of stuff? Start with a stone!

Do you feel overwhelmed when you walk into certain rooms of your home? How about when you enter your office? What is your feeling when you look at your calendar? My guess is that for many of you the first word you think of is "overwhelmed" followed by frustration. The frustration may be because you aren't sure how to decrease your stuff or tasks. Your irritation might be directed at someone else. You might just throw up your hands and close the door.

Unfortunately,wishing the overwhelm away won't make it so! William Faulkner said, "The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." The same is true of stuff. Put a hula-hoop over one area and just deal with those items. Decide whether each one is something to keep in that room, keep in another room, or delete in some fashion. Alternatively you can put on a song and go through items for the length of that song. Setting a timer for 5 minutes might be the "stone" you start with.

Don't forget your time-related clutter! Look at your tasks and see if there is anything that you delegate to someone or drop all together. If you have some bigger projects, maybe there is one piece that could be completed by someone else. What about tasks that could be one more efficiently thus trimming some time from your overall schedule.

I know these ideas may not sound easy. But I can assure you that nothing will change until you start moving a few stones. Remember stones are small and you don't need to move all of them at one time!

If you need some additional assistance, you might find one of the following downloadable audios helpful: Stop Letting Stuff Overwhelm You or Tackle the "No Time" Trap.