Declutter So We Can Focus

For awhile now, I have been meaning to clean up my PC. It’s a mess. Half of the desktop is filled with icons I never use. The hard drive is way more full than it needs to be. I’ve kept the shortcuts down, but I just need more room and better organization. I’m actually not too bad of keeping it organized, but I am sure the bloat on the HD is actually responsible for some of the performance issues I have had as of late. So, I’m finally sitting down and going through and remedying that situation.

It comes to me that I have run into the same problem in life. I need to declutter some things a bit. Right now, I have a LOT going on. I’m dealing with my youngest’s health issues, just moved back near friends and family but still trying to get back on my feet, dealing with two major professional projects that are always teetering on the verge of disaster which could lead to serious loss, have new projects in the wings and launch stages, have regular work to deal with, and so on and so forth.

Now, I am not complaining. I’m more having a Homer Simpson “DOH!” moment. Yesterday, I allowed myself to get drawn into an argument with someone online. They didn’t take well to having the tables turned on them and being treated as the way they treated others. Still, I could’ve avoided it. But, I didn’t. Why? I deal with enough BS, allowing it to perpetuate itself in my presence is kind of silly. Last night, and then again tonight, I had to turn down two potentially lucrative projects. Now, I’m not made of money, but I simply don’t have any more bandwidth. I was invited to a family reunion this weekend, but I’ll staying home this weekend to put out some unwanted fires while lighting some (hopefully) very good ones.

This all revolved around a few things. I am my own boss these days. I should be making my own hours. I shouldn’t have to split my days up into different shifts, sleeping at odd hours between those shifts for short periods of time in order to get things done. I work with computers all day. I shouldn’t be dealing with system lag in my own living room. I need to spot the frauds who tell me they can do something only to fail to deliver earlier on and steer clear of them. I need to organize my days better and take more charge of how the precious thing we call time is spent.

At the same time, however, I believe this is something a good number of us need to do. We need to be able to focus on what is important, good, and positive. We need to be constructive with our endeavors. We need to be able to move forward in an efficient and effective manner. We can’t get caught up in the rest. We also need to be mindful of these things throughout our everyday dealings.

As we speak, I have uninstalled some 25 programs and am probably not even half way done. I still have more files to move over to an external drive and some other tweaks to make. It’ll take hours to get this done. I could’ve spent those hours doing something else much more constructive or at least fun. But, because I wasn’t paying attention along the way, I got caught up and distracted, I have to spend time now trying to go back and clean up a mess that should’ve never been created. I think we can all look at our lives and find at least one area where this is true. If so, knowing that it’s there is the first step in dealing with it.