For those who need visual aids

A concise visual depiction of the dilemma can be found here.

Gone: 59 CDs

After my wife rescued three discs from the stash I was planning on getting rid of, I bagged the rest and took them down to my favourite used record establishment, Encore Recordings, where I was able to unload exactly zero (0) items. They were a little less picky at the Ann Arbor District Library (thank you, Becky), where they took my word for it that the bags contained CDs and instructed me to drop the bags in one of two blue bins.
***
My wife just handed me a page from her Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (and it's all small stuff) page-a-day calendar (I won't even mention what year it was from!) with a passage written on it that she thought was applicable to this project:

Having fewer things means less (sic) things to take care of, insure, think about, worry about, and keep clean.

Yeah, that's about it, isn't it?

Fear not the inbox

Surprisingly, my e-mail inbox hasn't posed much of an overwhelming prospect for me. Currently, there are two messages in my inbox waiting for me to follow up on. That's all. But I know many struggle against the overflowing tide of 'gotta-get-to-it' messages that serve as menacing reminders of disorganization and discouragement everytime the inbox is opened. For you, I give you yet another gem from 43 Folders: The fresh start. It is by no means a cure-all, but it might just help you to get in a better tackling position.

Although, as one friend has told me, you need to be careful of the batch delete once you start wading through those pesky inbox fillers.

I'd be more organized, if I weren't so disorganized

43 Folders seeks to get me back on track in organizing and simplifying my life, but will I actually put it into practice? Maybe it would help if I actually read David Allen's book.

If you're not sure you want to click the link to the article (second link, first sentence, above), you should. It has the following phrase in it:

So, be courageous, loosen your brain'’s sphincter, and let 'er rip.

Chapter 1: CDs

 

I haven't actually gotten rid of these yet. I just identified them as taking up space. I've pulled 62 discs from my shelves, and I'd like to get rid of them. But I don't know how. Does any body know how to get rid of 62 cds?

The inbox will wait for me

43 Folders quoted and expanded upon Gina Trapani's advice to not check your e-mail first-thing in the morning. This is good advice! I find that e-mail has the ability to steal my time and derail me more than just about any distraction I face on a daily basis. I would add to this that it's probably best for me to not check e-mail as a last thing before going to bed.

Can I read you now?

Apparently, the comment moderation settings were such that your comments did not show up and I had no idea that you made them. If you left me a comment and it seems I never received it, please feel free to try again.

My apologies.

If it's cheap, do I still not need it?

There is something to be said for the satisfaction of getting something you need for cheap. Furnishing your first apartment with hand-me-downs and deep discount items is smart and rewarding. We furnished our first several apartments this way.

But at some point, I probably have enough furnishings. Sure, that bentwood rocker looks nice, but we don't need another chair. A blender that works 'like new!' at $1.25 is a steal, but we have a blender. So, why am I drawn like Mr. Bill to a golf cleat to signs like the one in the picture to the above-left? How does this help me in simplifying my life? It seems so prudent -- recycling someone's old stuff by re-using it myself, and paying much lower than market value. But how does that help me to reduce?

Maybe it will help me to remember what Strong Bad has to say about this: A garage sale is just a garbage sale with a 'b' missing.

43 Folders -- On Distraction

Overload and distraction. Two faces of the same beast I'm battling, and a big part of what keeps my life from being as simple as I wish it were. Here is a nice, concise exploration of useful and useless distraction.

In a not-altogether-unrelated note, I accidentally left my cell phone at home today, and it's been kinda nice.

Prologue

From a usability standpoint, this blog is horrible. White on black is hard to read and worse to print. So don't print anything.

I picked white on black for aesthetic reasons. It seemed to fit the idea best of all the blog templates Blogger provided. I may have to design one of my own.

The aforementioned idea came from my pastor, who's getting rid of things. Seven per week. Not sure I'm going to be getting rid of things, per se, and I'm sure it won't be exactly seven per week.

But when there is so much clutter in my house and the reason that I'm hanging on to certain things is less sentimental and more a lack of time to spend on getting rid of them; when I check my e-mail on my cell phone at red lights; when my workday productivity suffers because I stayed up the night before wasting time on the computer or on other things that could wait and I couldn't even remember what it was that kept me up past midnight; when I'm too tired to spend time with or emotional energy on my family; when I feel a need to fill up every quiet space in my day with noise, it's time to prioritize my physical and spiritual time and life. And that means some things must go. Some of those things may even be material.

There are several of us who have been inspired by this project of my pastor's. Most of them plan on following her lead and getting rid of seven things in a week by donating, giving away, throwing away, etc. I hope to be doing some of that. I'm not at a point right now where I can commit to a number, or even know what sorts of things I'll be getting rid of. I suspect some of those things will be time commitments -- even time commitments to good things -- that are stealing my resources away from the most important things in my life. I hope to be able to get to the point where others are -- where I can concentrate mostly on getting rid of material stuff. Heaven knows I've got more than I need of that. Right now, I have some wading to do.