When something radically changes your life, you want to share it with others.
Years ago I read an intriguing article from a woman known as the Fly Lady. She had a message to anyone who had a messy house. Start with the kitchen sink. Clean that sink as you have never done before. Soak it in bleach, use elbow grease, and then polish it up to a sparkling shine.
When FlyLady promised that if you learned to organize the space around you, it would spill over into every area of your life, I was interested. Very interested. I looked around at my space. As a guy, my center of the universe was my desk. It was a total mess. Books, papers, and assorted clutter were stacked over a foot high. For months I tried to get a handle on it, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with half of it.
There were papers that I might need someday. There were magazines that I hadn’t read yet, not to mention the free offers that came by mail, and the coupon books with great deals. I was frozen with inaction.
One day my arm hit the large stack and the pile went everywhere. It made me mad and almost brought me to tears. It was right then that the FlyLady’s words came to me… start with your sink. Well this desk was my sink, and it was one stinking mess.
I looked up at my computer screen right then and the answer instantly came to me. Right in front of my face was the “recycle bin” icon in Windows. I thought to myself, “When I don’t know what to do with a file in windows, I put it in the recycle bin. That way I know it’s safe until I decide to delete it. I need a recycle bin for my desk.”
I got up, grabbed a trash can, a plastic inbox, and a cardboard filebox. I threw away the trash, put away the books, put the bills and things that required action in the inbox. Everything else that I didn’t know what to do with went in the file box. This became my “recycle bin” and I stored it under my desk for quick access.
Suddenly my desk top was clean. I got out the furniture polish and made that desk shine. I made a pact with myself that day to keep that desktop clutter free. When new items came in, they either went in the trash, the inbox, or in the recycle bin. Real important stuff was filed away.
Over the next few months I discovered that the FlyLady was right. Now that my desk was cleaned off, the rest of my life was coming together. I learned how to plan out my week, prioritize my day, and manage my time. I emptied the bottom half of the recycle bin once a month and knew that if I needed something out of it, it was just a few feet away.
This simple action really revolutionized my life. My work desk was next. I setup a recycle bin there. Within a few minutes of sorting, I could see the desktop. Within 30 minutes, my desk was sparkling new again.
The next week at work I put together a daily planner, that managed my to-do list, emails, phone calls, and meetings on one sheet of paper.
I can’t tell how important that first action was. It truly changed my life.
Earlier this year, I decided to record my experience and put it together as an eBook. I wanted as many people as possible to take control of their own work areas. When I first made it available, I was surprised at the feedback. Even seemingly organized people mentioned that they had trouble with their desks.
I offered the Get A Life eBook for free in the Kindle store for a few days at the beginning of April. Over 1200 people came by and picked up a copy. The reviews were great and people began telling their friends about it.
Offering the book for free was key to jumpstarting book sales overall.
This last week, I offered up my new book, Goals for Life: Set SMARTER Goals That Stick, on a free promotion. This book is based on my experiences with goal setting over the last 8 years here on the blog. Over 800 people took advantage of that special. Over 2,000 books went out for the month.
If you missed the rollouts, both of these book are available on Amazon for $2.99 and come with handy downloadable templates. If you want to get your desk under control and your week planned out, Get A Life is for you. If you want to set some powerful goals, pick up Goals for Life.
The good news is, I’m planning on releasing a new personal development based fiction book and a new non-fiction book over the next six weeks. To find out about free promotions and special deals, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list.
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Take a look at your workspace. If it needs attention why not download some low cost help today. Help get your life under control by getting clutter out of the way
