Just do it.

Tip #4:  Now or never. As the oldest of five kids, my job was ironing. Everything was cotton. Everything needed to be ironed. The clothes for a family of seven were sprinkled with water from a soda bottle with a little sprinkler head cork stopper, rolled up to stay moist and put in an over-sized plastic bag.  I put off this chore and put it off some more until it took me days instead of hours because by the time I got around to ironing, several more loads of wash had dried and been added to the sprinkled bag.  Ugh!  If I had kept up with it a little each day I wouldn't have had a huge bag (which was put into the freezer to keep the clothes from getting mildew), waiting for me. What a process. Now filing and errands and clutter clearing and to do lists can be much the same. It keeps stacking up, waiting for us to make a decision, file it, handle it, put it in its home.  And the bigger the pile, the worse it seems, and the more we procrastinate. We never seem to have enough time to get caught up because it just keeps coming in. 

Postponed decisions create clutter. What makes more sense?  You can spend three minutes NOW to complete the form, open the mail, file the policy, make the call, put the broken lamp in the donation pile (or trash), run the errand, write a thank you note, and add the information to your calendar. Or you can postpone the decision, add the form to the pile, add the mail to the pile, add the broken lamp to the pile, add the errand to your already long to-do list, and add the post-it notes that say write a thank you note or add this appointment to your calendar to the pile and NEVER find enough time because the stack will now take hours instead of minutes to navigate and complete.  

Just do it.  Now is the time to make up your mind to just do it and never put off something for later (onto the pile) that you can accomplish in less than five minutes.  Just drop off the bag at the donation site. Just put the books in the car to take to the library. Just write the thank you note and get it in the mail. Just make the phone call. Just decide the lamp has lived its useful life and is ready for donation or dump. I use my 3 is a Magic Number (see March 14 Feng Shui Friday) principle and if it will take me less than three minutes, I just do it.  If I can get three things done before dinner, I just do it now.  If I can decide to put three items in the donation bag, I just do it now. If I can answer three emails before my next appointment, I just do it now.  Then I smile at having accomplished at least three important things this morning, this afternoon, today.  And never have to worry about it again. That's three more things that no longer clutter my day, my home, my desk, my life. Then I wait for the new to arrive: time, energy, happiness, freedom, rewards.  

This week pick at least three days and find three things you can get done before noon on each day.  Just do it now and tackle the three hardest decisions, or the three toughest phone calls, or the three to-do things that you keep moving to the bottom of the list.  Lift your energy!  It's spring. Just do it. Then enjoy the rewards--the space you have created--and sit in the sun with a glass of wine and a good book, take a walk with your dog, take a nap.  Just do it!