November 30th, 2008 | by Jack Reichert

Doesn’t sound too hard right? Clear the table! But sometimes it’s not ALWAYS so easy.

Have you ever let things slide, just a little bit, and found that clutter was covering EVERY surface of your house? Or maybe you set out to clean things up and made a total mess in the process.

This technique, that I am about to share with you, is useful for cleaning up just about everything. You don’t have to use it only for your table. You can adapt it for just about every overwhelming mess.

Step 1: Look for something that you know you can do, that doesn’t seem TOO daunting. Then do it! For instance. If you are cleaning the table, clear off all of the garbage. Is that too big a task? No problem, just clear off the napkins! Forget about EVERYTHING ELSE on the table and ONLY clear off the napkins. Do it now.

Step 2: Reassess the situation. Doesn’t seem quite as bad anymore, right?

Step 3: Okay, do it again. Choose something else, make sure that it’s doable, and do it.

Step 4: Just keep repeating step one. You’ll see your mess gradually shape up. I think that it will surprise you how quickly you start feeling better.

How it works: I bet you that you are asking yourself how this can be so simple, and if you haven’t actually tried it yet you’re saying: “That’s too easy! It can’t be THAT easy!” Well, it’s not.

This is what we call compartmentalizing. It’s the survival skill that we humans have developed, over thousands of years, for being able to deal with problems. As humans we categorize everything. We learn that a chair is a chair, even though chairs differ so much in style, because we compartmentalize. This can be a less than healthy trait as well. Racism stems out of this human nature, placing all people from one race into a box because of what one person from that race did to you once.

But let’s use it for the powers of good. Compartmentalize your problems, deal with them one at a time, and you’ll find that they’re a lot easier to deal with.

Image Credit: laihiu

Tags: clutter, Compartmentalize, garbage, human nature, organization, reassess, survival skill

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 11:47 pm and is filed under Build Yourself. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.