On May 20, I wrote about removing clutter from your mind.  Today, I am writing about removing clutter from your environment.

During the weekend, I started organizing my book shelves.  It was a mammoth task because I have a lot of books and they were lying in three different places in no particular order.  Once I got into it, there was no turning back.

It took me several hours but it was worth it.  It was therapeutic and I was able to organize all the books in one place in different categories.

Email has become second nature to most of us.  This can be a great tool or a real time killer!  I have found the following system to help me manage my email time.

I strive to open my Email account three times a day as follows:

First Time

Before I open the email, I have decided three to five emails I need to send out and one or two email replies I am expecting.  I make sure that I complete these tasks before I look at anything else!  How do I do that?

Most people go about their day with too much clutter in their mind.  This creates scattered energy.

If only they spent a few minutes reviewing and reflecting on their personal and professional goals each morning before starting their day; and each evening as they close the day, this ritual would remove a lot of unnecessary stuff that bothers them every day.

We had our Power of Giving team meeting on Monday.

I spent some time collecting feedback from all team members, made sure the food was ordered and that the photocopies of the summary of last meeting as well the agenda were copied.  I  mostly delegated all the work but had to make sure it was done.

I also read up on the notes from previous meetings as well as wrote on the white board different options of the Mission statement.

The outcome of this extra work led to a pretty efficient meeting!