I am teaching a class today about useful Apps for Real Estate Agents. There are a lot of them. And we like shiny new things, so we add those apps to our nearly full phones because we just know we will use them. Do you ever go back and remove the stuff from your life that you added just to test it out? There are many things we add because we think it is good. And it probably is or would be good if we didn’t already have lots of “good” things in our lives. We need the few “best” that we will actually use and that will benefit us.
- Let’s look at a few areas of our lives that we easily clutter up that steal time, energy, focus or money from us.Too many apps on your phone or too much unnecessary software on your computer. These slow down your machines and take your concentration when you have to wade through them to find the ones you really use. Delete the ones you don’t use. You can always add them back if you need them again.
2. You sign up for that great new software at $25 a month and then you never use it. Get that out of your checking account. It is taking $300 a year. I am sure you can find a better use for $300 a year than software you don’t use.
3 Committee or time commitments for organizations you really aren’t that committed to. Or maybe you volunteered for a position you just aren’t good at. I have learned to stop volunteering for organizations or tasks that don’t fall into a short list of places or groups I am committed to already. When I have too many feelers out in too many places, my concentration suffers and therefore so does the organization I committed to help.
4. # 3 principles relate to people asking for your money. You need to have filters that tell you what you should and should not be giving to. If not, you just feel overwhelmed with the number of requests. With GoFundMe and Kickstarter making it simple to ask everyone for money, you have even more opportunities to feel guilty for not giving. You need filters that define the organizations or types of organizations and people you are going to give money too. Personally, I give money to Human Trafficking Groups and child sponsorships in organizations where I know the staff. Those are easy and I can be generous there. I can throw the rest of the requests away. Most of them are doing excellent work, but it isn’t my job to fund them all. Of course I can act on impulse and help someone out, but filters help me make quick decisions about most things.
This last one is tough and we can do a whole post on it. Relationships. There are some people that you need to spend more time with and some you need to spend less time with. You might need to move on from some relationships in order to make room for the new ones. Don’t let people who drain you control your life. Either spend less time with them or remove yourself from their lives altogether. Read the book Boundaries by Henry Cloud if you need more help with this.
Our lives in this age are very hectic. Don’t make it more hectic than it needs to be. Remove the clutter in your life and make room to laugh more. Laughter comes with freedom.