Are You Giving Away Your Power to Paper Clutter?

Ahhhhhh...paper clutter!

Have you ever noticed how much power we give the written word?

Whether the words are on the kind of paper you can touch, or on a document on your computer, we seem to believe they carry more weight than the spoken word. Or the words we think.

Right?

At least, that's one reason we tend to keep so much of the stuff in writing.

And in many cases, it's true...which is why passports, legal documents, birth certificates and so on are important to keep. And why certain books have stood the test of time.

But how about all the other 'words' we keep?

How about the notes we scrawled at a seminar we went to six years ago that we've never looked at since?

Or the hundreds of articles we have collected to go through someday, when we're ready to finally write that book?

How about the piles of paper clutter on our desk that have been there for months, filling us with dread every time we walk into our office (and we don't even remember what's in the pile)?

We give the written word an enormous amount of power.

Want to see how much power you have given to the written word, even the most casual of written words?

Try this simple experiment:

Look at your filing cabinet, or a stack of paper on your desk, or your email files.

Now imagine that someone came into your office and grabbed half of the stuff in your filing cabinet, half the pile on your desk, or half of your email files and shredded or deleted them right in front of you, and you couldn't stop them. You had no say in what they grabbed...you couldn't even see what got shredded.

Now notice the feelings that come up for you.

Are you feeling panic?

Or is it more like fear?

Maybe even anger? Or rage?

How about despair?

Do you feel yourself wanting to go and touch your piles right now to make sure they're safe?

(Someone out there right now is saying "relief...now I don't have to go through that half of my stuff myself.")

These feelings, based in the thoughts underlying the feelings, are at the heart of why it can be so tough to streamline papers and files. Look at the power we give a simple a pile of papers!

Like I have said before, it's not about your stuff.

It's about the mindset, beliefs, thoughts, and emotions you carry around about your stuff (which is why learning quick organizing tips like 'handle papers only once' or 'have a great filing system - that's what you need' will only take you about 20% of the way in keeping your paper clutter at bay).

The other 80% is about what's going on inside of you about your stuff.

So the next time you tackle your papers (and it's a great time of year for a good paper clear-out!), check in with yourself about the thoughts and feelings that come up as you think about tossing things out.

Write them down. Journal about them.

And then when you've learned what there is to learn, toss out those papers!

---