Taking Small Steps

I'm a big fan of the small steps approach. Like many people, when I find something overwhelming, I put off doing it. When I finally get to the task, it's usually a lot easier than I made it. Sometimes, the key to getting to the task faster is to baby step my way in.

A little over a week ago, when I decided to approach the junk drawer in my dining room slowly, I set a goal for removing and finding homes for five items each day. It seemed reasonable.

Actually, if I'm to be honest, it sounded a little pathetic.

Five items? At that rate, it would take weeks.

Cocky, I dug into the drawer, sure that getting started was the hard part and I'd exceed my five-item goal without breaking a sweat.

I promptly discovered that a goal of five items was just about right.

As it turns out, what was in the drawer wasn't entirely junk; it was a collection of homeless items ranging from the sentimental to the financial. In other words, a lot of it was stuff I have to keep. And find new, logical homes for.

Cleaning out a junk drawer sounds easy enough. If the items in the drawer are really just junk, they're easily disposed of. What I had on my hands, however, was a catchall drawer, which is little more than a collection of I need to see it piles stashed out of sight.

Ugh. What was I thinking?

As the week went on, the job got easier and on many days I did, indeed, clear out far more than five items. By the middle of last week, the job was done and I'd moved on to other challenging spots, taking my five things rule with me.

If time doesn't permit us to tackle a big spot all at once, or a decluttering job is too daunting, taking small steps can be just what we need. Five things is better than no things and slowly, but surely, we can begin to see progress, which is often just what we need to dig in more deeply.

Five things each day, one thing each time we pass by or any other small step can also lead us to the develop the habit of picking up as we go. On several occasions, I've heard comedian Jerry Seinfeld's "don't break the chain" advice. As the story goes, Seinfeld advised young comics to put a big, red X on the calendar for each day that they wrote. As they got into the habit of writing daily, the calendar would begin to fill with those Xs. Their goal then became not breaking the chain and, the way to do that was to write every day.

Similarly, a chain of days where we pick up and find homes for five things in a pile can lead us to find homes for a lot of things (and clear a lot of space) if we stick to it.

So, as it turns out, that perfectionistic little voice in my brain that scolds me about starting too small needs a mute button.

And I have the empty drawer to prove it.

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