Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday. Each week we’ll share some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition to your blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!
This week’s directive is to “spark an idea about purging,” which in my case is kind of like asking a toddler to spark an idea about patience and self-discipline. But hey – it’s “Spark an Idea Thursday,” so I’ll give it the old college try.
The thing is, I could really benefit from some purging:
- I have a basement filled with plastic tubs, each of which contains an incredible assortment of papers, mementos, and miscellaneous items from various stages of my life. Why? Because I find it impossible to throw stuff like that out. Instead of throwing stuff out, I buy more plastic tubs so I can keep all of my crap totally organized. Ridiculous, right?
- I have a “to do” list for this week that could never be completed in a single week. Why? Because I find it impossible to admit that I’m not going to get to everything. Up until 5:55 pm on Friday, I hold out hope that I will somehow miraculously finish everything on the list. At approximately 5:56, I give up and transfer the tasks I didn’t complete to the following week’s list (and repeat this process weekly).
- I have about 10 different ideas for books I want to write. If you follow this blog you know that I really want to get a book published, but the first step is to pick one single idea – which means giving up (at least temporarily) on the other nine. You have no idea how difficult this is for me.
I know that if I could just get better at this whole “purging” thing, I would be more focused.
My life would be less cluttered. I would probably be more productive and achieve more of my goals. So why is it so hard?
As you can probably tell, I don’t have any brilliant ideas about purging, except to underscore its importance. Have any of you struggled with this issue the way I do? Have you figured out any solutions that you’d be willing to share?
I’m all ears.
Traci Feit Love is a freelance writer, editor & communications consultant for businesses that need smart, impressive content. To learn more or to sign up for her free e-course, “How to Get More High-Paying Clients,” visit her website at http://tracifeitlove.com.
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Christina Lemmey is the mother of two school-aged girls, a wife, and the owner of 
I will generally do “all of the above” in that space between Xmas and New Years.
Traci:
Take heart! You already know what you want to do, which is the first step.
If you don’t already, I would recommend reading Leo Babuato on zenhabits.net and writetodone.com. He’s brilliant, and always worth reading.
Re: purging the basement. Make an appointment with yourself for an hour to do this. Start with your oldest box. If you haven’t looked at it/needed it in two years, pitch it. Repeat weekly.
Re: writing the books. There is a power in commitment. Start there. Commit to writing, every day. Writing one page a day should take just 15 or 20 minutes. By the end of the year you’ll have the book finished. More good stuff on that from Scott Ginsberg here: http://hellomynameisscott.blogspot.com/2009/08/10-ways-to-out-write-competition.html
You can do it! Trust yourself.
Mark
@Allena – seems like a good idea. In my case, the space between Xmas and New Years is when I visit family and take some time off. But maybe I could set aside a different time of year to get all that extra stuff off of my list. Thanks for your suggestion!
@Mark – thanks so much for your encouragement and suggestions! I will definitely check out the resources you recommended and see if I can start on the basement project one hour at a time. One hour is definitely less overwhelming than thinking about “the basement project” as a whole. As far as the book, I have set a deadline of 9/16 for selecting one book idea to work on, so I feel like I’m headed in the right direction
Traci, we had a major move about 20 months ago so we were forced to purge our stuff. Let’s see: 7 big boxes of toys, 800 books, more boxes of old clothes….
Since then, I’ve resolved to have a garage sale at least every 2 years and never to accumulate so much STUFF again. Well, that’s my idea we’ll see how I do with implementation.
I found what worked for me was making 3 piles: keep, dispose (give away or sell) and undecided. And I told myself, if I don’t absolutely love something (whether a book or a piece of clothing) then it goes in the for-disposal pile.