If you really want to light a fire under your butt and really crack down on your decluttering – no matter how much stuff you have or how much you want to purge – here’s a great trick.
Take a picture
Before you do anything, take a picture of your room or space that you are trying to declutter. Make sure that you take the picture before you move a single thing! This is your picture to show your progress. Your before picture! Save it somewhere handy so that you can use it later.
Set a deadline
Give yourself a deadline. This is not a deadline of how much time it will take you to declutter the space, just a time of day when you likely won’t be productive afterward. I like to think of my deadline as when the kids need to be picked up from school; for me, that’s 3pm. Use any time that makes the most sense to you. If you are more productive in the evening, your deadline might be 8pm. Whatever time you pick, STICK WITH IT.
Text a friend
Here’s the real catch! As soon as the clock turns to your deadline time, stop what you are doing and simply stand back and take a picture from the same angle as your before pic! Don’t move anything after that time. Just take the pic! Send your friend the pictures of your room or space, both the before and after. AND, be proud that you got some decluttering done!!
Remember, this is not about working hard on it all day long. It simply means that as you go about your day, you focus on that space when you can. Let’s say you are decluttering a drawer. You take your before pic and send it to your friend. I like to send the before pic right away in the morning so that it keeps me focused throughout the day. Add in the message something about your deadline. I like to add, “expect an update at 3pm!” You go about your day, and any time you have a couple minutes, look at the drawer or pull a few things out, or toss stuff in the garbage, etc. You can use time while waiting for your coffee to brew, or while you wait for something in the microwave, or while you are on a work call! Get creative with how you spend your time. At 3pm, no matter how much you got done, take and send a new picture!
Knowing that you need to send an updated picture will make you try a little bit harder than you would for just yourself. It’s that little tiny bit of accountability that will make a difference in how much you can accomplish during your productive time of the day.
So, if you need a bit of a kick in the pants, let your friend know to expect a text at the time that you set! If you really want to get a lot done, do it every day for a week. Tell your friend to call or message if they don’t get that text at the right time!
Enjoy a bit of pressure, and have fun showing off how much you accomplish!
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