Chaos Control, Part I: Defrag Your Environment
This is a multi-part guide, split into 3 distinct parts. This post covers the introduction and Part I.
I was always the disorganized kid.
All my homework and papers more or less shoved into my backpack, and the instant I got home from school... Backpack hits the floor and in my mind, none of it exists until I wake up the next day for school. Or if I had a paper due, I'd probably have the 'oh shit' moment the night before and cram to get it done.
Even as an adult I would often not take the time to plan things out, prepare, or reflect on how to do things better after doing them. (This is why I created 'The Art of Planning' and 'The Art of Reflecting' lessons in my program.)
Related to those concepts, I spent far too little time on organization. Up until very recently, I viewed organization more or less as a waste of time, because any time spent organizing, planning, or reflecting is time spent not 'doing stuff'.
Didn't matter if it was 'serious' things or 'trivial' things; keeping track of sales metrics at each step of the process at my old job, or keeping consult, client and programming notes neatly organized. Or trivial things like writing down and organizing notes and plans for updates to make on my Warcraft 3 mod.
If I had notes or files or data, it was scattered and disorganized. Notes in google docs, a file sitting on the desktop probably with a random name so I had no idea what it actually was, notes in my phone, sending an email to myself, thinking 'oh I'll just remember it'.
I just wanted to work on the next idea, or get back into action. I didn't see the importance of the full cycle of plan → act → reflect → repeat. I just wanted to act, act, act. Do, do, do. I think we all tend to fall into that trap.
It's true that the 'act' step is when actual things happen. You can't just make a plan, and then not actually do anything - that's fun and tempting to do, isn't it though? Planning is fun. Executing is hard.
You can't reflect if you haven't actually done anything.
Not much point in organizing your environment, your thoughts or your life if you're just going to watch paint dry all day.
I mistook that to mean action is the only thing that matters, and the rest are useless.
Then I finally got it through my thick skull: planning, reflecting and organizing increase the quality or effectiveness of your actions.
They can increase your quantity or speed of actions/output, too.
If you know where your shit is, whether it's:
Physical - like 'where are my keys?', or 'where's that paper again?'
Mental/Digital, i.e. searching for a particular file on your computer
and you have a plan in place:
A step-by-step writing process as opposed to staring at a blank page,
A workout program in place before going to the gym,
A saved gear loadout in a video game, rather than having to search through all of your items to find what you need from scratch every time
Then you'll waste less time and mental energy on these steps.
It also forces you to stop and think; sometimes, we keep ourselves busy with actions that we simply do not need to do at all - but we can never learn that if we are stuck in busy action mode.
Stop trying to run the machine 24/7. Make it run better so that it doesn't have to run 24/7.
There's too much going on in our lives to not get our lives and minds organized.
We can't properly manage all the things we need, want, could and 'should' do by flying by the seat of our pants every day.
After work, chores, errands and other pressing responsibilities, the last thing we want to do is sit down and think about 'big' stuff. Important stuff. All those 'you know I should really do/plan X' thoughts that pass through you during the day. It requires real brainpower, and oftentimes we don't have much of that brainpower left when the time comes.
The purpose of this guide as a whole is twofold:
Increase our mental brainpower/willpower capacity so that we have some gas in the tank when the time comes to put it to use
Decrease the amount of brainpower/willpower needed in tackling these things to begin with
We're hitting it from both ends. It's just like improving your pull up performance while losing weight - train to get stronger so that your muscles can generate more force, and get leaner so that they don't have to generate as much force to begin with, making each rep easier to complete (or getting that much closer to your first pull up).
It's Defrag Time
I can't think of a better term to visualize this than defragmentation. Anybody remember 'defragging' their hard drive on the computer? This is mostly done automatically nowadays, but this is essentially what it means:
Reorganizing data by moving scattered pieces of files into contiguous blocks to improve system performance, speed up file access, and reduce wear on the drive.
Your brain works in exactly the same way. If you have scattered notes and files all over the place, a messy/disorganized physical environment, and a 'fly by the seat of your pants' or 'wing it' attitude to running your life, your brain is literally fragmented. It has to work so much harder than it would if these situations were improved.
You're spending much of this precious resource of brainpower/willpower on finding the information you need, rather than using it.
Don't underestimate the effect your physical environment has, either - any little thing you see can turn into a reminder of something you can, want, or ought to do, and even if you don't think it's pulling at your attention... It is.
Environment is physical; you see it all the time. You feel it. You live in it. You're reminded of it constantly because it's tangible. I also think it gives the most outsized, instantly noticeable return on your effort for the same reason.
You can see the progress made. It's instant, too. For the upcoming Mind stuff, you could notice immediate benefits but it might not be as obvious or pronounced. Or, you just don't really notice it unless you're actually looking at this new organization.
But cleaning up your bedroom, living room or office? A designated spot for specific activities? Giving everything a home, so you know where everything's at without having to think about it? You can see and feel that instantly.
A calm, organized mind and a calm, organized environment are closely linked. They both affect one another. A chaotic, disorganized environment is often a reflection of our mind and how we tackle life in general. Trust me… I would know.
I think any order of these could work, since making headway on any of them will make the others easier - but, I do believe this order works best:
Environment → Mind → Life.
As stated earlier, this guide is being split into 3 parts:
I. Defrag Your Environment II. Defrag Your Mind III. Defrag Your Life
We're going to cover Part I below. Parts II and III are covered in the following posts in this series.
I. Defrag Your Environment
Why
Using the strategy I lay out below, Environment is by far the least time consuming of the three, and sets you up to properly tackle the remaining parts.
How
I. Claim your 'Defrag Space'
You don't need to get your entire living space spotless and Marie Kondo'd. Not right this second. Start by dedicating a space as your 'Defrag' space.
This is your dedicated area where you'll work on the tasks in Parts II and III.
Make a physically visible statement of 'I am organized' by starting with this space.
It might be a desk, a table, some small area where you can comfortably sit and write and/or work on a computer or laptop. It should be a small enough area that, even if your entire room/home is a mess, you can at least look at this spot and say 'yeah, I can manage to at least get that cleaned up'. This is your command center for getting to all the other stuff I know you want to get to, but feel overwhelmed by it all. This is how we get out from under all of that stuff.
II. Clean your Defrag Space
This is pretty straightforward and just needs doing. Clean up any mess and move stuff that doesn't need to be there. Spray, wipe, dust, vacuum. Even clean your computer - wipe the keyboard clean, as well as the monitor (screen cleaning spray if you have it).
III. Organize your Defrag Space
Checklist:
Designated laptop/desktop monitor + keyboard space, cleaned and cleared of anything else
Desk organizer (minimalist version = small, sturdy cardboard box), at minimum one box as a catch-all for small miscellaneous things, so they aren't just scattered around on the desk
Pen/pencil holder if needed
Plan on writing/journaling here? Keep a notebook/journal here but stowed away
Bonus (optional): get a small hourglass to keep on the desk. You can get plastic ones of various time intervals for a few bucks off Amazon. You can also get a fancier one that fits a particular theme or aesthetic on a site like Etsy. This is the closest thing I've found to a 'hack' for helping me get started on something that I'm having a hard time sitting down and focusing on. Commit to at least thinking about whatever it is you're trying to work on for the duration of the hourglass. This gets you started.
Just worry about your designated Defrag Space for now - get that small area situated first before moving on to the surrounding area or the rest of your living space.
No papers, bills, etc in sight in this area - not yet.
If keeping them in or near this area, they should be out of sight - in a drawer perhaps, or just keep them elsewhere for now. Even just seeing all this 'stuff' can pull at your attention, and we need our attention for sections 2 and 3.
⚡Lightning-quick win: If you have a mess of papers sitting on a table or overflowing somewhere, get one (or more) magazine paper holders and stack them neatly inside. Don't worry about going over the top with organizing these into 'types' of papers etc yet. That's for later. But, simply cleaning this up and keeping all the papers stacked in a designated place will clean up the environment quite a bit, and you'll feel a sense of calm and relief in your mind right away.
If you wish to do more than just your 'Defrag Space', you can now move on to the rest of the room that your Defrag Space is in. Again, it doesn't need to be done to absolute perfection, just get it good enough for now. Give yourself one week at the most, and just this one room. Then we'll be ready to move on to the next section: Mind.
Remember, each of these 3 areas (Environment, Mind, Life) synergize with each other; making headway on one will make the others easier. That's why we don't want to get 'stuck' just focusing on one for too long. The end goal is to work on/maintain all in concert. It's incredibly difficult to do this at ground zero; much easier to do when it doesn't require such an intense amount of effort or overcoming of inertia.
That's all for this part of the guide. It's the simplest section of the three and is the most tangible on what needs doing; clean a physical space, then organize that physical space. That's it. This will set you up for the more complex, abstract sections of Mind and Life.
Thanks for reading.
-Shane
