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Mental Clutter - STUFFology101 graphic

We NEED Your HELP – Please Read and Comment

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During the Fall Season of 2020, co-author Eric and I agreed to redirect our time and effort to write an article every other week. Between the two of us, we figured you would have an article a week to read and digest. We wrote articles that would be timely enough for you to apply to your life.

STUFFology-101-Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter book coverWe thought our investment of time would ripple beyond our immediate circle. We wanted our message to gain traction and reach people beyond our first and second connections. We hoped our words would help more people clear physical, mental, temporal… clutter from their lives.

As we continue spending more time at home, COVID and its variants alter our life plans.

We anticipated delivering coaching sessions via ZOOM while producing follow-on materials to our bestselling title, STUFFology101: Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter.

Progress Report

It has been 14 months since we made and implemented our joint commitment. We are grateful for our dedicated fans who respond and share. Yet, I’ve been asking myself, lately—What impact am I having for the time I invest in writing these articles?

I’m growing older and antsy about time well spent.

We should all seek to manage our limited time more productively—for things that are having an impact. Time is the only thing that passes and cannot be recovered. I want to feel this part of my life’s purpose touching our devoted fans and then rippling far beyond. When more people are engaged and responsive, the energy created is contagious and fuels us to produce more.

Here is Where I Need Your HELP

As we set our sights on 2022, I ask for YOUR ADVICE regarding the following:

  1. What impact are we having?
    Your words will help us if you are specific and share the URL(s) of one (or two) of the articles you found impactful and how.
  2. Shall we continue?
  3. What shall we do differently that will enable us to create wider ripples?
    We’re all in this together and can gain insights from one another.

Be brave. (We have been brave carving out time to post for 14 months.)
Post your comment below, or… if you rather write to us, please email EricRiddle@STUFFology101.com.

I will write a follow-up post on January 10.

Understand Your Clutter

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Clutter builds up over time. We use the acronym S.T.U.F.F. to help deal with that clutter. Today I’ll discus the ‘U’ in S.T.U.F.F., which is UNDERSTAND.

One definition I like for our acronym in STUFFology 101: Get Your Mind out of the Clutter is “to know how (something) works or happens.” In other words, how did I accumulate all this clutter?

Using myself as an example, I have generational clutter in my garage. Sometimes temporarily, sometimes not. Small amounts of my deceased parents’ stuff, small amounts of my kids’ stuff, and variable amounts of my own stuff are in my garage.

While I have made progress, there remain setbacks. The Holiday Season in the United States causes our family to rearrange portions of the house for Thanksgiving guests, Christmas decorations, and so on. Random stuff invariably ends up in my garage until after the New Year.

Since I understand this process, I am not frustrated. I know when we pack away the Holiday Season, we will declutter garage items before returning them inside the house. I am thankful for the clutter in this case. Why?
Because it reminds me of a poem I read by Mary Stuber:

Thank God For Dirty Dishes

Thank God for dirty dishes;
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
We’re eating very well
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn’t want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence,
God’s been very good to us.

I understand the clutter because it reminds me that we have home, health, and happiness to share with family and friends. That is, I know how the Holiday Season works for our family.

Clearing the clutter in the New Year is a process not an event.

Tomorrow is Too Late to Deal with Procrastination

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Now that February 2021 is here have your New Year’s resolutions fallen by the wayside?

Has procrastination reared its ugly head?

Perhaps your goal of simplifying your life in 2021 has instead filled with continuing clutter. You are ‘too busy’ with work, family, and life to declutter.

Being Busy Does Not Equal Being Productive

 

In STUFFology 101: Get Your mind Out of the Clutter

STUFFology 101 Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter book by Brenda Avadian MA Eric Riddle we discuss how procrastination leads to Mental and/or Temporal Clutter. We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month, and a year. How do you spend your time each day? Are you busy? Or are you productive?

Since February is a new month, take a moment to look at your resolutions or goals for this year. Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

While it is true that tomorrow is another day, putting things off usually only makes them worse. Painter Pablo Picasso offered perhaps an extreme perspective when he said, “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” Wow.

Everyday things may not be as intense as life or death, but procrastination can still lead to unwanted stress.

Action Kills Procrastination

 

Big or small, action builds momentum. As Nike says, “Just Do It.”

 

ICYMI: Define Your Clutter in 2021

Harald Krueger Parody of STUFFology 101 Cluttergories

Throw it Out or Keep it All?

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Harald Krueger Parody of STUFFology 101 CluttergoriesRetired psychiatrist and fellow Toastmaster, Harald Krueger leaves us on tenterhooks with his parody of STUFFology 101.

He says, “Throw it out. Throw it all out!”

But does he really mean it?

See for yourself as he rips through each of the cluttergories – physical, mental, digital, temporal, and sensual.

It’s just too funny to resist. He even breaks into song!

This video of Harald’s presentation was taken with a smartphone during a Thursday evening High Desert Toastmasters club meeting at Robertson’s Honda in Palmdale.

I hope he feels better now that he got this off his chest.

I think he wants to keep it all!

We’ll definitely find out when we invite him to speak at our next community event.

Thank YOU, Harald!

If the video does not play below, click on this link: http://youtu.be/SynvPpov5v4

Most THINGS don’t Matter Unexpected Gifts Do

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Life Lesson: Most THINGS don’t Matter Unexpected Gifts Do

Oftentimes, we are caught up with THINGS.

We collect things. We clean, organize, and display them. We feel a loss when things go missing.

Yet, if we let go of some of these things or even better, don’t bring them into our homes, we’ll receive unexpected gifts that may surprise us.

Brenda Avadian in Mexico Drinking la Leche fresca de CocoWhile on a trip to Mexico, my husband and I lived high on the hog, we also lived along the middle of the hog, and under the hog. Okay, I’m stretching the cliché a little.

We returned home appreciating that we had a shelter even though it was a fixer-upper. We questioned if we should proceed with remodeling.

Even now, in our information-rich world, the more things we acquire, we run the risk of creating physical clutter, which soon grows into toxic mental clutter that takes time away from what matters in our lives.

Ever ask a person a question and not get a straight answer?

C’mon, what is it? Yes or No?

It’s hard to decide with a clutter-filled mind.

Instead, when we declutter the various cluttergories in our lives, we feel lighter, more focused, and are more decisive.

At around 7 minutes in the video, you’re invited to do an exercise. Click on link for an overview of the STUFFology 101 Cluttergories. Print a copy and then write your notes (from the video) on the reverse.

And the hog?

We finally ate the hog, but carnitas are not part of this story except for an unexpected gift.

I crossed one item off my Bucket List—a goal I’d had since I read stories in the 5th or 6th grade recounting family gatherings in Mexico.

What was it?

Watch the end of the video for my unexpected gift.

Yours will be different, and that’s what makes these gifts unexpected.

ENJOY.

If the embedded video does not display below, click on http://youtu.be/ViA9Xdsvz2g