I recently came to the conclusion that to be successful, you have to be well-structured and clear. Isn’t that the case? Structure has favored the person in school and in their career. The top student is the most organized. The top executive is the one who systematically plays by all the corporate rules. To a point.
photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik
I believe it is as much a possibility to model after a simple skill like this – but take someone who has never had any structure and expect them to fit into it… and you have a madhouse!
I think we can start simply. Look at the stuff that’s happening around you. If you find yourself disorganized, start categorizing. It takes a little bit of effort, as I found, to be able to do this! A lot of the stuff that I have just didn’t fit in. Actually, I didn’t really know what to do with them.
If your stuff is out of place and you don’t know what to do with them, there’s a tendency to… just leave them there!
That’s the start of clutter. What you have to do is then create a series of Swish Patterns in order to create a shift in the way you respond to your misplaced stuff. That way, you will be more likely to respond in a manner OTHER than just leaving things lying around.
Another thing that I observed is this: since clutter actually is the accumulation of things that don’t belong, you should see the changes when you activate those neurological shifts. See the result in a week or two.
Summary of steps:
Step 1: have a clear idea of what should belong and what shouldn’t
Step 2: decide that you either have a place for it or you don’t.
If you have a place for it, make the mental connection and place it where it belongs.
If you don’t have a place for it, create one called “trash bin”.
Step 3: reduce your tolerance for clutter.
If what you see as clutter has a high tolerance level (say 8/10 or higher), take the same image and change the image so that it becomes a 2/10 or so. Now, your brain is primed to expect a lower level of tolerance and kick start the process of clearing.
Step 4: future pace and check ecology, especially if you end up clearing other people’s clutter, which they may not like. 
