Before
During Lent 2016 my goal was to let go of paper clutter, starting with my desk. Many things interfered with the practical step of doing this (like being out of town a lot) so I sometimes substituted trying to listen better as part of my Lenten goal. Follow my Progress here:
- An Inconvenient Lent – Why it was so hard to get started and how I negotiated with myself.
- Cleaning My Desk 1 – Looking at the surface; sorting the important from the trivial.
Listen Up & Desk Cleaning 2 – Several different angles on learning to listen- Dancing & Desk Cleaning 3 – When something good interferes with my plan. How long to keep things?
- Travel & Desk Cleaning 4 – It’s hard to let go of memories or paper I think I might need some day, but sorting through it can be a spiritual experience – once I made the time to do it.
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After
Lenten Lessons & Guilt – Paper reduction. Strategies to avoid endless procrastination
- Cell Phone & Desk Cleaning 5 – Contrary to my upbringing when a phone was a permanent fixture, even though I’m not an early adopter, I had collected a number of cell phones over the past 20 years. Tips on what to do with them.
During Lent 2017 I expanded to include not only paper but books and files plus mental/emotional clutter – think politics.
- Procrastination Redeemed – 5 lessons learned from continuing last Lent’s effort to declutter my work space and how the first step revealed unintended additional steps but also unexpected finds.
- Going Beyond My Bubble – Why I took a decluttering detour & how it motivated me to talk to folks who voted differently than me
- Political Conversations – the interruption continues – or did it?
- Updating My Life #1 – Files – How to evaluate what work files are worth keeping
- Updating My Life #2 – Paper & Pruning Paper – Applying similar criteria to even more paper
- Updating My Life #3 – Books – The mystery of how getting rid of some books required a bigger bookcase.
- Letting Go of Health – Life interrupted: 9 lessons from a fall.
