How do you handle clutter? - 2

How do you ensure an item in your house does not get lost? It is important to follow the principles of organizing. Let me introduce you to an important principle of organizing

The principle of inherent potential of an article/item to get lost:

Every article/item has an inherent nature to be high or low in its potential to get lost.

Hence our care for ensuring the article/item to be easily accessible increases as the potential of the article/item to get lost increases. This may appear as common sense but you may be surprised how many people violate this basic principle.

Here is another principle for you.

The principle of inherent current/future value of an article/item

Every article/item has an inherent value-current or future which may range from low to high.

Please refer to the previous post "How do you handle clutter? - 1" for further details on value.

If you want to ensure that your house is clutter free and also you are able to get the articles/items immediately when you want them, you will have to consider these two principles and work with them.

Look at the figure to understand how to apply these principles.

When you get an article, you need to immediately determine its value. Which category does it belong?

1. Expensive


2. Daily usage value


3. Nostalgic value


4. Contextual value


5. No value

If it is of no value then throw it out immediately. If the article is of value to you then you need to assess whether it has a high potential to get lost and hence the care for making it accessible is high.

Low care, Low value -You will come across articles of Low care, Low value - these are junk to be thrown away. Example: A rusted bicycle in your garage - Low care because it is there and it is unlikely to get lost. Low value because it is useless now and you have no emotional ties with it.

Low care, High value - these articles are precious to you however you need not put in too much effort to make it accessible as it is already accessible to you. Example: Painting on the wall-low care as it will not get lost and high value because it is expensive and it was gifted to you by your father.

High care, Low value - This is an article that has high potential to get lost, hence you need to take a lot of care to make it accessible. however, this article is of low value to you personally. Example - your friend requests you to safe guard her jewellery while she is traveling to China.

High care, High value - All the stuff that are highly valuable to you and has a high potential to be misplaced. Example - your certificates, your camera, your watches, your documents and important papers, ---

Evaluating the articles/items that pass through your hand and taking appropriate care to make it accessible is an important action that needs to be taken to live a stress free and productive life.

Do share your experience in using these principles by commenting on this post.

How do you handle clutter? - 1

Handling clutter is an important skill to master. Clutter comes in the way of everything you do; Time, energy, money, and opportunity can get lost in a clutter.

I have created a process flow to handle clutter. The diagram is self explanatory, once you understand the definitions of the various terms used.

Definitions:

Clutter: Anything that can get deposited all over your house.

Loose items: These are items that can be moved from one place to another-Example: Paper, pens, books, magazines, jewellery, watches, photographs, wires, stationary items, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo bottles, nail cutter---. These items can, easily, get lost.

Fixed items: These are relatively fixed items in your house-Example: Tables, Chairs, Sofa, Beds, Paintings on the wall, TV, Refrigerator, ---. These items cannot get lost but still may cause clutter.

Value: An item is said to be valuable if it belongs to the following categories:

1. Expensive items: These are your watches, jewellery, chinaware, diamonds, Nikon D 80 Digital SLR camera, Camcorder, ---. They cost money and are precious to you.



2. Daily usage items: These are items you cannot do without, day in day out. You need to have them near to be functional-Toothbrush, toothpaste, pens, laptops, shirts, trousers, ties, watches, ---



3. Nostalgic items: These are items that are very precious to you, as they evoke pleasant memories of the past. You want to preserve them carefully-Your father's letters, the sweater your mother knitted for you, photographs, the greeting cards, your wife gave you over the years, your daughter's little gifts to you, since her childhood---.



4. Contextual items: These are items that you need on a daily basis or at least on an immediate basis depending on the changing situations you encounter-Winter clothes, snow boots, your certificates, party wear, ---. You don't need these on a daily basis but you would like to have them, instantly, if you suddenly need them when the context and situation dictates that you need them.

Now you are ready to study the process flow and understand it.

It is very useful to apply this process flow and classify your items; You can, then, begin to organize them.

Those that you require daily need to be stored in an area that is near, easily accessible and is constantly known to you. Each item need to have a specific home to "stay put" in.

Those that you do not need on a regular, daily basis need to have a remote, accessible, known, home to be in.

The junk, of course, need to be thrown away.

The horror of clutter unfolds when all these value category items get mixed and spread all over your house along with the junk that get intermingled to create the confusion and distress.

Stay tuned for further posts on the principles of organizing to live a clutter free life.

What is the root cause of your disorganization?

We are disorganized as a family. Our house is full of clutter. All of us attributed this disorganized state of our home to some deep seated disorder in our personalities; Perhaps we inherited some faulty "disorganizing DNA" from our ancestors.

Our belief grew over the period of years until few months back when we decided to sit down and examine this "we are disorganized" belief. After several discussions and analysis we came to a conclusion that the major cause for our disorganization is lack of storage devices.

Please find below the reasons for us being disorganized.

1. Our strong held belief that we are disorganized


2. Plenty of ever increasing number of loose items such as books, clothes, paper and other stuff we shop and accumulate


3. Very poor storage devices in our house for these loose items


4. Our indecision to buy storage equipments

This led us to a vicious cycle as depicted in the picture.

Last week, we bought three book racks. We decided to focus on books as they are the major ones that are causing all the clutter in our house. The book racks had a near magical effect on our clutter. A large part of it vanished as our books got neatly organized in our book racks.

Our house now looks less cluttered. We also bought an extra storage Almira for our clothes which further reduced our clutter.

We still have to work on other areas such as papers, DVDs etc. which we have decided to tackle in the coming weeks.

The learning from this experience was profound for me. Many a times we conclude that we have a personality defect like disorganization and use that as an excuse to do nothing. What I realized is that invariably the major part of the problem could lie outside us rather than inside us.

It is important to elicit both internal and external causes of the problem. It is far easier to tackle the external cause of the problem (example:buying a book rack) rather than trying to change an internal personality trait that may not be the primary root cause of the problem.

The questions you need to ask yourself constantly are:

1. Have I identified the internal and the external causes of the problem?


2. Have I tackled the external causes first?


3. What is the effect of tackling the external causes?


4. Is there any internal cause to tackle or was my belief that there is such an internal cause wrong?

Try this approach and do give me a feedback through your comments.

Have you tried doing things for fun which you have never done before?

Many of us get stuck in a routine, even for activities that give us joy. We may continue to go for movies, read the same kind of books, visit the same friends, go to the same mall for shopping---
Unless we consciously take stock and break out of the routine, we will miss out on various other ways to enjoy.

Here are the steps you need to take to break out of your routine and have fun in new ways:

1. Take a blank sheet of paper
2. Suspend judgement for about 5 minutes (you are going to think creatively for the next 5 minutes).
3. Generate ideas to have fun. Write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge. The crazier your ideas are, the better they are. Sometimes you may be writing the ones you are already doing; No problem, just acknowledge and continue. Write non-stop for 5 minutes.
4. You can, now, begin to judge those ideas. Cross out anything that is harmful, illegal, immoral, and impossible.
5. Now you have a list of things to do that are clean fun
6. Segregate the ideas that you can attempt immediately. Save the rest for the future (Example-you may want to visit Paris but you have to first save money for such a trip)
7. Select an idea that appeals to you most and is feasible for you to do this coming weekend or alternatively, select the idea that least appeals to you ( you may be pleasantly surprised at the outcome)
8. Develop an action plan to do it
9. Do it
10. Enjoy

Do share your experience in the comments, because you are going to have the time of your life!

Do you raise your bar periodically?

How about taking everything you do to the next level? How about doing this periodically?

Many of us never raise the bar. We have this habit of quickly being satisfied with our level of achievement in the various things we do. We will either continue to maintain it at the current level of excellence or mediocrity or become complacent enough to let our level slide down.

We need to challenge ourselves by shifting and raising the bar of achievement on preselect areas in our lives.

Here are the steps to do exactly that:

1. Identify areas in your life you want to focus upon. Strive for balance by choosing from several areas-Physical, Health, Financial, Professional,---
2. Determine your next level goals in the areas you have chosen
3. Develop an action plan to achieve them
4. Periodically review and monitor progress

Once you have achieved the next level in one area choose another area to work upon.

Try it and share your experience by posting a comment.

Do you care enough for people that you take care to remember them?

I have this tendency to forget names. I rarely do forget faces. This is very dysfunctional and I am taking steps to counter it.
How do you ensure that you remember people and their faces? I think we need to go even beyond that.
Here are the steps:

1. Consciously study the face so that you remember it next time
2. Repeatedly connect the name to the face. You could use mnemonics if you want to
3. Enquire and remember what they do in life
4. Remember the conversation you are having with them
5. Take their visiting card and study it to connect to the person you are talking to

Let's say you meet him after three months and your conversation goes like this:

You: "Hi! Bob, How are you today?"

Bob: "Fine."

You: "How is your work going on in ---?"

Bob: "Oh! we made great progress ---. This is what we achieved ---."

You : "Great Bob!. Last time you had discussed with me about your trip to Hawaii. How was your trip---?"

Bob: "Wow! that was fun ---"

Just imagine the impact you will have on people if you remember to the above detail. They will look at you differently.

While it is important to record the data of people in your Palm or which ever PDA or low tech device you use, it is more important to register and record them in your mind.

Stay tuned for future posts on how to accomplish this.

Think about it. How much do you remember about people you meet.?

Think about the last person you met for the first time.

How much do you remember about her?

Do you know what to talk about yourself?--2

Here is an exercise for you:

1. Refer to the post - Do you know what to talk about yourself?---1
2. Craft a message about yourself
3. Practice introducing yourself while talking into an audio recorder
4. Listen to yourself. How do you sound? What are the gaps in the content? Did you forget to mention an important fact about yourself? Did you forget to talk about an important achievement?
5. Fill the gaps and practice again while recording your talk
6. Finalize the version of your talk
7. Practice! Practice! Practice!

When you do this exercise two things will happen immediately:

1. You will develop confidence in presenting yourself
2. You may discover gaps in your achievement which if you could have achieved would have given a powerful impact and face lift to your image; Such an achievement will elicit a 'WOW!' response from your listener.

The good news is that you can work towards that achievement. The missing achievement can become a goal you will strive for and very soon you will be able to add it to your self-introduction.

This exercise can change the course of your life!

Try it and do share your experience in the comments.

Do you know what to talk about yourself?---1

Let's say you have to introduce yourself to others. They are important people and you will need their support in future. How do you go about talking about yourself? Do you just start off? What you say will have tremendous bearing on how they will perceive you.

It is important to be able to talk about yourself in a manner that is impressive and do all the talking in just 3 minutes.
Here are some important points you need to cover:

1. Your background
2. Your achievement
3. How you can be of benefit to the person you are talking to?

Your introduction should result in the other person realizing that you are an important person who can contribute in achieving his goals.

It is important to craft your message with a lot of thought. Your message should be crisp, to the point, and must strike a chord in the heart of the listener.

Stay tuned for further posts on how to craft the message about yourself.

Think about it! How do you talk about yourself?

Who is calling the shots in your life?

I have seen many people abdicate calling the shots in their lives. It is important to take stock. I believe no one has the right to call your shots. Many people allow their bosses, subordinates, peers and their customers to call the shots.

If it is anyone other than you who is calling the shots in your life, then it is important to change that situation.

Do you recognize the phenomenon of the "deception of simplicity"?

The phenomenon of the "deception of simplicity" is one of the most dangerous phenomenon you ever can encounter. Let me explain:

Many things appear very simple to deal with until you begin to actually start doing them.

Based on this phenomenon we decide a timeline to complete the task which is way out of the base. Hence, the maximum damage it can cause is total failure at its high end effect and at its low end effect, it could cause all kinds irritation and mess.

How does this phenomenon of the deception of simplicity wayward us?
It does so through the following steps which we need to be aware
There is a task in front of you

1. The deception makes you think it is simple
2. You determine that it will take only about 15 minutes or what ever time in your mind that represents short and simple, to complete it
3. You procrastinate till the last day (task has a deadline)
4. You allocate 15 minutes in the evening to complete it
5. You start the task and suddenly realize to your horror that it needs all kinds of inputs which will require at least a week's preparation
6. You miss the deadline and will have to face all the consequences that go along with such missing of the deadline

The only way to avoid the deception is to face the reality. Study the task clearly to its full detail and stay clear of the deception.

Give yourself sufficient time to complete the task with a stamp of your excellence.

When was the last time you got caught in the deception of simplicity?

How do you handle suggestions from others?

There are different ways we handle suggestions. If we look at the figure above e can see 4 quadrants which depict the following:

1. Quadrant 1-Low Thinking and low acceptance- here you outright reject a suggestion with little thinking


2. Quadrant 2 - Low Thinking and high acceptance-here you outright accept a suggestion with little thinking


3. Quadrant 3-High thinking and low acceptance-here you thoughtfully reject an idea


4. Quadrant 4-High thinking and high acceptance-here you thoughtfully accept an idea

Both quadrant 1 & quadrant 2 are dangerous. You may either miss good suggestions or accept some suggestion with little thinking and land yourself in trouble. Quadrant 3 & quadrant 4 are good provided you weigh the pros and cons of the suggestion and take action. Quadrant 3 is good as long as you don't reject an idea because of ego or arrogance.

It is important for you to examine the way you handle suggestions; The way you handle suggestions could spell out success or failure to you.

Most of us take the way we handle suggestions granted; Sometimes the price we pay may be very high.

Which quadrant do you usually fall when you are given a suggestion?

Do you use the power word "NO"?

In life people place all kind of demands on us. Some of them we comply because we want to comply but a large number of them we just yield in because we said "yes" without thinking through or we did not have the heart or the courage to say "no".

The word "NO" is one of the most useful words we can ever have.

Here are some advantages of using the word "NO":

• You will save a lot of time
• You will save a lot of effort
• You will build relationship and make it stronger because you are honest in the first instance
• You will have power on your side in a negotiation scenario
• You will save yourself from bad habits-Saying no to cigarettes is a good way to avoid the bad habit in the first place
• You will have the power to change your habits. I said no to sodas (Coke, Fanta---) and completely stopped them since Jan 1st.
• Saying "NO" enhances the power of your "YES"
• People around you will take you seriously
• A habit of saying "NO" will force you to think because you don't want to take your "NO" or "YES" lightly

I have listed only some of the advantages. I am sure there are a lot more.

What is important is to think through before we say "YES" and use "NO" whenever it is appropriate.

When was the last time you used the "Power of NO"?

Do you slacken your vigilance with respect to newly acquired good habits?

Sometimes we slacken our vigilance and let our hair down, so to speak, with respect to dysfunctional habits. We think that if we indulge in one bad habit just for once we can quickly get back to our new healthy & productive ways by refocusing and redoing the new habits that have just got installed.

Days pass by and we suddenly realize that not only do we have to deal with the dysfunctional habit we chose to do for sometime, but also we have related set dysfunctional habits to deal with.

We need to be very careful not go back to the old dysfunctional habits.

If we have careless then we will have to put in herculean effort again to get back to our good habits.

Do you set your expectations clear to others, especially in business transactions?

It is very important to set our expectations clear while we are transacting business with others. We may have a lot of expectations in our minds and we will evaluate the relationship based on these expectations; Sometimes these expectations are unspoken.
Examples:

1. You need to paint the walls of the apartment before you give your apartment for lease to us
2. You need to fix and repair the apartment before we move in

Many a times we take these expectations as a given and expect the other party to fulfill them without any protest.

We may be in for a surprise.

It is better to be tough in our negotiation stand before a deal is done rather than later. The more clarity both the parties have on what is expected of each other, the more the chance of developing trust and respect.

Tough negotiation is the foundation to building trust.

What is your experience?

Do you tell white lies?

What are white lies? These are lies people tell each other to smoothen the social machinery.
Examples:

1. I tried to call you yesterday but your number was not getting through. Belated Happy Birthday. (She could have said that she forgot and apologized for it)
2. We will hit our targets this month.(He could have said that he will fall short and could have shown his boss the plan to bridge the gap)
3. Wow! Your new dress is beautiful(She could have told her the truth that the new dress doesn't look good on her)
4. I will definitely come to your party.(She could have apologized and said that she cannot go for the party as she will be out of town.

These are just a few examples. I think millions of white lies would have been uttered all over the world even before you finish reading this post.

We need to be assertive and tell the truth, while being sensitive to others feelings. The line between white lies and harmful lies is really thin.

If you tell white lies it will be easier for you to tell the real harmful lies because you will get a lot of practice day in day out.

Telling the truth is the best approach.

What do you think?

Do you wear a mask? Does the mask you wear paint an illusion of yourself even to you?

Recently I went for a series of meetings with other leaders. As usual in such meetings, some of the leaders were excellent, professional, and more than anything else, very sincere. Their words matched their body language; Many of the leaders present there, I knew them personally.

There were also leaders whose words did not match their body language nor did their behaviour.

I have seen this happen time and again. People portray a false image of themselves to the world outside;especially leaders, they wear a mask of professional leadership and spew out well rehearsed jargons about being proactive, being open to criticism, being collaborative, being kind and showing false concern for their subordinates.

The problem of wearing a mask and putting on a make up on it produces only transient effect; In the heat of the moment, the masks and the make up melt down rapidly and the leaders are exposed as they are.

It is possible to fool people for sometime, but not forever. A leader may think that his people are getting caught in the web of his illusion and he may actually succeed for a while, but not for too long.

Circumstances and events will destroy that illusion and suddenly everything about the leader will become crystal clear to everyone.

What is more dangerous is that the leader himself getting illusioned by his mask and make up. He may come to believe that he is truly all that he portrays to the world and much more, while he is the stark opposite of the play act.

To speak metaphorically, it is a situation where the actor who acts out the role of the Great Emperor Akbar thinking that he is Akbar himself.

Do you wear masks? Are you spinning an illusion around you? Are you getting illusioned by your own play act?
These are hard questions to ask yourself. It takes courage to unmask yourself and see yourself as you are.

You need courage to strip the mask you are wearing and the compassion to look at yourself as you are; For this is the first step to change the inner forces that are making you an "ugly" person.

If you want to be a true leader be one; It takes a lot of inner work to accomplish that.

Which are the areas in your life where you need to do in depth study?

One cannot know everything about everything. However, there are certain things in our lives that we need to know in depth. Let me give you a sample list to illustrate my point.

List:

1. Matters related to your profession-professional knowledge, trends in your profession --
2. Matters related to the company you work for-policies, competitors, markets, industry trends---
3. Matters related to the various laws of your country - tax laws
4. Matters related to your hobbies
5. Matters related to your education
6. Matters related to your physical fitness
7. Matters related to your child's education

The list can go on.

If you draw up a list you may have very different elements depending on your life's context. You may also find similar elements to the above list, as some of the elements are universal.

Your need to have in depth knowledge in each of these areas will depend on the various situations in your life and the various roles you play. These lists may change as you live your life.

It is important to draw up this list and identify the areas in your life that currently needs in depth study. It is also important to monitor and check this list periodically as many new elements may be added.

Draw up this list immediately! You may be surprised that there are many important elements you need to have in depth knowledge, but have scant knowledge about them.

Your ignorance may be causing you lots of trouble right now or may be building up a potential for trouble for you in the future.

What is the worth of a man? What characteristics do you have in mind while you decide the worth?

Different people have different yardsticks to measure the worth of a man. I am listing some of the common parameters below:

1. Good grooming
2. Good manners
3. Wealth
4. Educational qualifications
5. Social position
6. Power or capacity to wield power
7. Friends
8. City dweller
9. Country they are coming from

It is very important to be aware of the parameters you have in your mind. These criteria might have been developed by yourself or you might have been programmed to use these criteria during your upbringing.

The only criteria for measuring the worth of a person is what is stated below:

He or she is a human being

We quickly judge people by all kinds of invisible yardsticks. The measurement we come up with may interfere with the way we treat them.

We may loose a chance to befriend a true, good person, just because they do not meet the preset criteria in our minds.

The danger is that all this happens, for many of us, unconsciously.

What yardsticks do you use?

Do you make the decision timeline work for you?

Every decision has a decision timeline. There are points on in this timeline that will determine whether we are successful or not.
Please refer to the figure while you read this. Here we have taken as a given that the decision is right and the quality of the decision is good

1. Pre-optimal point-this is a point when we take the decision and act too early. This is ok for some type of decisions, but may be disfunctional for others. Moreover, this decision and the subsequent action may eat into other decisions that should have been taken instead of this decision at the pre-optimal point.


2. Optimal point-This is the right point for that specific decision when taken and acted upon will give us sufficient time and put timliness in our favour. Decisions taken at the optimal point on the decision timeline will enhance the chances of our success


3. Sub-optimal point- This is that point in the decision timeline that will give us less time to act and the quality of our action will be slipshod. We will increase the chance of our failure or perform much below our potential if we continue to act on this point.


4. Failure point-This is that point on the decision timeline where we have missed the bus and we will fail.

Different types of decision will have different decision timelines. For every decision we take, we need to determine the optimal decision point and take the decision and act accordingly. This will help us to take our good quality decisions to success.

Example: You are a student. You want to compete and score high in the GMAT test. The test is one year away. Your optimal decision point for various components of the GMAT test will be different.

For example, you may need to take a decision to start practicing numerical ability tests 6 months prior to the test, as your skills are lower in this area, while other areas may need less number of months.

Numerical Ability test:

Pre-optimal point- 2 years (too early and your practice may not be consistent and the pattern of the test may change)

Optimal point - 6 months

Sub-optimal point - 2 months

Failure point - 1 month

This concept is so simple but it is so violated by a large number of people.

How do you handle the decision timelines for various decisions in your life?

This is a very important question to ponder over.

Do write your comments after using this concept.

What you need to keep in mind before you make a presentation to a client?

I am a consultant. I make lots of presentations to clients all across the world.

Please find below tthe checklist I have prepared to make my presentation effective:

1. Have a detailed talk with the people who invite you for the presentation. You need to find out the purpose and the primary objective of why you are being invited


2. Find out whether the need for your presentation was made by the client himself or it is an intermediary's need


3. Find out the context in which the presentation will be made


4. Find out what is the current situation if a project is going on


5. Find out who are the participants and why they have been invited


6. Check whether you need to meet the CEO seperately before making the presentation


7. Check the quality of the relationship the person who invited you has with the client


8. Try to elicit the trigger words and the taboo words


9. Rehearse your talk


10. Prepare a presentation following all the principles of communication


11. Prepare the presentation afresh, and completly avoid copy and paste


12. Practice your presentation


13. List down the possible queries and develop answers for them


14. Get the list of key people (decision makers) who will be present in the meeting


15. Plan your visit and be punctual.