So it is when we don’t declutter our desks, files, and computers. Information is useless if it isn’t available. We make more mistakes because we can’t find something in the clutter, than we will make by decluttering.
That important file may be hidden in a 12-inch stack of file folders, but if we really needed it, we would no more be able to find it than if we
had shredded it.

Once, I was the landscaper for a cemetery in New Orleans. I wanted to plant some posies in the middle of it. Big John, the good old boy who ran the operation said, “Bubba, you can’t do that. Them purty little flowers will grow over the dead line. We’ll just have to dig ‘cm up.” The “dead line” was the delineation of where the landscaping (preplanning) ended and the graves (the object of the business) started.
Change “deadlines” to “finish lines.” Why attach a negative concept to the very things we want to get done? Everyone loves to cross the finish line. When I ran marathons, I wouldn’t have been so enthused about punishing my body, if I was reaching for a deadline. The more we make work into a game, the more we enjoy it. The more we enjoy it, the less likely we are to clutter it up.

Now that we’ve gotten some clarity on what we have to do and what we want to do, we can start to make some decisions. Chances are, we’ve been rolling along, letting life happen to us, instead of taking charge of our lives. We hate to make decisions. We’re afraid that when we commit to something that we’ll be wrong and pay some sort of dire consequences. As psychiatrists tell us, we are vague about exactly what the consequences will be. What we don’t take into account is that we are already paying far more serious consequences by inaction. We exhibit disorganized behaviors that sabotage our efforts to live fulfilled lives, professionally and personally. Before we can begin to make decisions, we need to take an inventory and decide what we want to decide.
Our daily decisions are not part of some psychic permanent record. Santa Claus or God is not keeping score, tallying whether we’ve been wrong or right. People change their minds all the time. Before we can change our minds, we have to make them up. No decision is irrevocable. No decision is perfect. We act as if our world would collapse if we took a stand and made a mistake. It won’t and we will. Chances are, we will make far more right decisions than wrong ones. We already have. But, in our beautiful, negative, self-limiting ways, we have chosen to remember the wrong ones.

Right now, it is important to see the Big Picture. We are often more clear about our daily goals at work than we are at home. Once we’ve visualized the Big Picture clearly in our heads, we can make a daily plan for home. Business has specific goals (customer service, make a profit for the stockholders, public service, etc.). We get bogged down in the minutia in our home lives. Let’s approach it from another angle.

The most important thing on our “Doing” or “To-Do” list is to take care of those things that will validate the way we do business. Business, like cluttering, isn’t about things; it’s about people.

“To-Do” lists work great—for some people. Organized people rely heavily on them. For some disorganized people, a To-Do list is the only tool they know. Putting a To-Do list in the hands of the chronically disorganized is like giving a computer to a Neanderthal. We dutifully make them, secretly believing that whatever we put on the list will magically get done by the end of the day. For us, they are more like letters to Santa.

Aside from the fact that a clutterer loses his “To-Do” list in his clutter, the name implies “ought as to.” Our natural rebelliousness flares up. “Nobody’s gonna tell me what I ought to do.” In Texas, when we say we’re “fixing to do” something, it means we’ve advanced beyond thinking about it, but aren’t ready to take action. It’s an intermediate step, something that should appeal to clutterers. “Fixing to do” something keeps us from committing to getting it done. Some people feel the same way about “To-Do” lists.
Replace your “To-Do” list with a “Doing” list. We are actively doing those things that need to be done. This little bit of semantics can change our attitude. Sure, it’s just a couple of words, but words are what make us. We engage in self-talk all the time. Psychiatrists tell us that by changing our negative self-talk to positive self-talk, we can make a first step to changing negative behaviors (we still have to take action, but that comes later). They suggest changing “I can’t” phrases to “I can” phrases. A “Doing” list is a set of actions we are taking, right now. And right now is the only time we really have.