Do you have Clutter Syndrome?

Most people start their day on a positive note, with the hope that the day will be a productive one.  But, as the hours of the day pass, they realise that there is just not enough time. In an attempt to get everything done, not much actually gets done and the day ends on a pensive note.

Sounds familiar? If it does, maybe you too are a victim of the clutter syndrome?

What exactly is clutter?

The dictionary defines clutter as, “a disordered heap or mass of objects.”

The key phrases in the definition are “disordered” and “objects”.  The principle of entropy, in its most basic form, tells us that nature has a tendency to go from order to disorder. To maintain order, an external force has to be applied. In our lives we have to constantly apply this force to maintain order.  At times, however, we forget to do that and the result is clutter.

Further, the modern life has brought in its wake a lot of conveniences.  Life today is easier, and more fun, than it was about 50 years ago.  The credit for making life convenient and entertaining goes – to a great extent – to the gadgets and appliances that have become an integral part of our lives today.  These gadgets and appliances don’t just make our lives easier, but provide us with easy ways to waste our time. The Internet, for example, is a useful source of information, but it is also a way to waste our entire day without actually getting any work done.

So, even if we are able to maintain some order in your lives, but can’t keep a check on the number of objects we have amassed, we are still in trouble.

How to De-clutter?

Going by the above definition of clutter, the answer is simple:

1. Keep some time for bringing order into your life, especially your work life. You can even apply management principles like 5S in your life to make more organized. As they say, fifteen minutes spent in organizing can save you hours.

2. Minimize the number of things you do, and also reduce the number of things that you own. This is another way to say that you should set your priorities right. What is on the top of your priority list should get your maximum attention, and the things at the bottom should be eliminated.

Following the above two – simple steps – should help you in  getting rid of clutter from your life, or at least make the clutter manageable. There is, however, another aspect to clutter that cannot be ignored. Our discussion on clutter til now has focused on physical clutter. There is another kind of clutter – mental clutter – which affects us more than physical clutter.

In the following passage from “A Study in Scarlet”  Watson describes how Sherlock Holmes views the human mind. The passage can help us in understanding mental clutter better.

“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

The mental clutter, therefore, is a result of an approach where a person tries to do more than his abilities. The above paragraph, though a piece of fiction, is quite true. Even though we are told that our minds are capable of great things, the walls of our brain are not made of “elastic” and we need to focus on things that important. Though, we should try to stretch the limits, we should make sure that in our efforts to stretch our limits, we don’t break them.

What is your take on clutter?