How setting limits helps us be more organized and productive
We live in a world with few limits. There’s unlimited information on the internet. There is no limit to the number of projects we can start. There are few limits to the amount we can purchase. No one wants to hear about the limits we put on ourselves or others put on us. It’s against our nature to accept limits at times. However, setting limits can make life more organized and productive.
Why limit ourselves?
Is it possible that we need a relief from all the options? Studies show that when faced with an overwhelming number of options, we have an overwhelming amount of decisions. Each day we make up to 35,000 decisions in a day, ranging from what to eat for breakfast to whether to continue a relationship to where to invest for marketing your business. With all these decisions, we tire through the day with decision making. Can we really make all the good decisions when faced with so many decisions? That’s where limits come in. Maybe what we need to focus on is our priorities for the sake of good decision making. Save your best decision making for what’s most important to you.
What should we limit?
There are empowering positive limits for our space, our time and our relationships. Think of your home as a container filled with items. There is a finite limit to what you can easily access with storage in your home. The same applies to our time. There’s just 24hours /7days a week and that’ s all the time we have. Here’s some ideas to get you started on limits.
For clothes and closets:
- Purchase 50 hangers and that’s the limit of blouses you own.
- Wear only dresses to work so that you have ready to go, ready to wear clothes each day.
- Go with only a capsule wardrobe of color. That’s where all your clothes coordinate and can be work interchangeably in your closet.
- All your clothes must fit in one or two closets.
For offices and work:
- Set Monday or Friday as an administrative day for paperwork, calendaring and other small tasks
- Set a “closing time” at the end of the day for writing tomorrow’s plan
- Use one drawer only for personal items.
- Keep only one photo of your family on your desk.
For productivity:
- Rule of Three when you choose to limit choices to 3.
- Set a time to “close down” at the end of the day and make a note of the most important task for tomorrow.
- Write down 3 Most Important Tasks for the day. These are the tasks that must be done well today.
- Use the first hour of the day for your most important task.
If you find life and work too complicated, setting limits helps us keep things simple. By simplifying you are making it easier to be organized and productive.
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