An Interesting Question....

The other day, I was at a professional women's networking meeting. Someone asked me what I do and I told them I was a professional organizer. They then asked me if I worked with "stuff" or with time management. My response was that I do both. After the conversation was over, though, I started thinking more about her question. It sort of seemed odd to me that someone would think that "stuff" and "time" were two distinct things.

Sure, there can be neat, organized people who may not manage their time very well. They run late, over-schedule themselves, and the like. When I go into a home or office and see clutter and piles of paper, or "stuff", I immediately start thinking of questions to ask them about how they spend their time.

The rationale here is that most clutter results from delayed decision-making. What should I do with this thing? Should I keep it? If so, where? A file cabinet? A drawer? In the house? Which room? When we don't have an immediate answer, the item sits there. And sits there.

Many attempts at organizing fail due to simply trying to temporarily clear out the stuff and the clutter, but not digging deeper and finding out where the time management system has failed to provide the bandwidth to deal with all these papers and items on an ongoing basis so that it becomes a routine part of our lives.