Start Small Go Big
How can SMALL and BIG be used together for organizing? When we think of these opposites, can we use these together in getting organized? Well here’s how!
Organizing and productivity are overwhelming. The most frequent question is how do I get started? Whether your view is a cluttered desk or home, it’s not clear where, when or how to get started. And what about the next steps? Is that starting with the small of units, like organizing your paper clips or the shoes in your closet? Or do you go big with the big stuff? Here’s answers to these 2 important questions.
Start small
I love the question, how do I eat an elephant? Its the analogy I use most often in presentations. Of course the answer is one bite at a time! It’s in getting start in a small way that gets you started at all. It doesn’t matter if you take a nibble at the trunk or the foot, starting with a nibble gets you started. Your nibble in your home could be the junk drawer in your kitchen, the floor of a closet, the shelf in a linen closet or the papers in your kitchen. Nibbling can be an amount of time, like only 15 minutes. A nibble can be a number, like picking up 3 items to donate. Your office nibbling can be your inbox, a bookcase, or a file drawer. Decide what small looks and feels like to you then set a date on your calendar to commit.
Go big
Look around at your home or office. What’s the big stuff in your way? We organizers call it macro organizing. Start with the big stuff when you keep on organizing. It’s not the time to launch into complex sort ing of your stuff. It’s also not the time to go to that shoebox full of small random items. Work on the big stuff first. Big stuff open up space. That’s the space you see and feel. It’s the big stuff that helps you break through being stuck and you feel the openness of your space. Take a big picture with your papers too. What are the big categories you can sort? Broad categories make it easier to work through tedious papers.
Is this a new perspective for you? Have you thought you needed hours to organize and never started? Have you walked about from your papers after creating an overly complicated system? Here’s a new way to make organizing happen for you.
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Love the way you show how both of these terms can be helpful! Was helping a client unpack a room where all the extra bedding was. She had owned 3 homes, so she a lot of duplicates. I said we needed to tackle all this bedding because it was taking up the whole room! Clearing away duvets and comforters and extra pillows redeemed the room. In a way, it was small, because we only focused on bedding. But it was also the BIG stuff, so it hit both ideas. Great post!
Thanks @Seana! I love your example of how important both concepts can be!