Happy From 9 to 5

Brazil’s flag says (in Portuguese) “Order and Progress”.

A few years ago I worked with a person that I couldn’t stand. And she couldn’t stand me. However, I learnt a very important lesson from her: to organize my desk (or my space) from time to time. My colleague called it “order and progress” time, quoting the words in Brazil’s flag.

She was quite messy in all her tasks, papers were stacked in piles with no order, and every time someone asked for a document, it took her a long while to get it. But every time her desk became really unmaneageable even to her, she stop her work, took the afternoon or morming off so to speak, and decluttered her desk. She went paper by paper, filing, throwing away or giving it to someone else. By the end of her “order” time, her desk was perfect. Maybe there were some papers still around but they were to be used immediately. You could actually see the color of the desk

Now, quick: can you see the surface of your desk right now?

How’s your desk anyway? Super orderly or messy? What about your files? Now think of home. How’s your closet? Where are your shoes? What about handbags?

During the week, I stay away from home way too many hours. When I come at night, I leave everything where I can. You will not see dirty clothes around but my house is not magazine perfect the whole week. By Friday night, it’s a mess so I take Friday evenings to make order and progress, make the house look presentable.

To begin with, it makes me feel better about myself. During the week I’m home awake for maybe 2 or 3 hours maximum a day and I’m too busy to see the clutter. I stay home most Friday nights to rest so that’s my special time to declutter my space.

What I have found is that when my house is magazine perfect-looking, I feel like a million bucks, my endorphins level rise (a lot more than with gym) and most importantly: my thoughts become sharper. I can strategize better when my space is in order. I can think of ways to optimize everything when there is no clutter around me.

My request this week is that you take some minutes to declutter one surface. Start with a flat surface. Give yourself 15 minutes (come on! you CAN do 15 minutes!) and give that surface an extreme makeover. Then check how you feel when you lok at the rest of your space and when you look at that surface. Any changes? Feeling sharper?

If you do feel sharper, profit! Do what you do best an use your sharper perception to guide you.

Feelin “zen” could end up beng easier than you think so, why not giving it a try?