What are the rules and policies you live by? What if I told you that a well placed policy could reduce your mental clutter? Watch this video where I explain this concept and share some of my own policy examples. Following this strategy will make dealing with life’s little interruptions (and big ones) less stressful and more productive.
(Click here to watch on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded player. Or watch the video at http://bit.ly/tcdrule.)
Transcript:
Hi. I’m Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today we’re going to talk about how to say no and get rid of mental clutter in your life.
So, there are different kinds of clutter. You can certainly purchase clutter; you can acquire clutter by having someone just give things to you; and you can also allow clutter into your life, and this usually in the form of mental clutter – time and information clutter – that happens through inefficiencies. It happens through interruptions and through requests that people may give you. And one of the best ways to handle this mental clutter is to have policies for yourself. Now, these are just simply decisions that have been declared in advance to cover situations that will arise later. So, companies and schools and government agencies all have policies, and you can have policies too. It’s very handy. So, think about all these decisions that you could make in advance.
For example, I have a friend named Dana who was the winner of our Good Housekeeping contest a couple of years ago, and she taught me such a great policy. It’s called The Original Caller Policy. So, I’m sure you’ve been talking on a mobile phone and the call has gotten dropped and then you have a battle back and forth who is calling the other person back, and you miss each other, and you get each other’s voice mail, because it’s unclear who is supposed to call back. The Original Caller Policy has made that decision in advance, and that is that the person who made the call originally is the one to call back if you get cut off. So, imagine arranging that in advance with all of the people you talk to frequently, all the inefficiencies and mental clutter and time you will save with that.
So other polices are things about maybe telemarketers. So, I have a policy that I never, ever, ever buy anything from a telemarketer, because I fundamentally don’t like that mode of selling – and I’m sorry if you do that for a living or something – but I really don’t like the intrusion in my home, and if I want something I’m going to go outward and go buy that and go do that a different way. So, that’s just my policy, and it makes it easy for me to say no when they call.
Another thing you can do with policies is around your children. There are tons of thing you need to agree on with them. Screen time is always a big one. How much time to play video games and watch T.V. Homework, what’s going to be the rules around homework, and snack time. In your home in general, you can have policies about using trays for snacks, or you can have a policy that you want to take your shoes off when you come in the door. A lot of people do that. You might want to have policies around finances, such as pending limits that you agree on with your spouse. There are so many different ways that you can apply policies in your life to make those decisions in advance and make that easier to say no and get rid of that time and information clutter. So, call them policies, call them house rules, but definitely call upon them in sticky situations.
If you would like to talk through some of these policies with a team of organizing experts to help you figure out what you should do, you can do that for about the price of a pizza and you actually have 14 days for free with our Quick Start Program to get in there and find out what we do every day. We’ve helped people in 18 countries around the world, and we can help you too. You can go to https://www.clutterdiet.com/learnmore to find out more.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.
You may have been searching for tips for people who do to much or how to simplify a busy life.
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