Post written by Marlon Ribunal.
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A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu
Let’s go back to square one – step zero. The best start you can have for establishing your GTD System is a clean slate. Any productivity system you’d decide to use begins with the very first component: Purging. It’s like getting rid of sins before you can renew your spirit.
Purging your stuff before you take up a new system is like that – spiritual renewal. You cannot carry over your old sins to the new system. Purging is perhaps a liberating experience. You cannot afford to have the load of your old baggage on top of your new baggage. Every productivity system must begin with a new outlook, new behavior, and new self.
It’s Okay To Be Sentimental
It’s difficult to let go of things that we built some sort of connection to. Old books, newspapers, magazines, technical manuals, notebooks, outdated printouts, post-its, and other physical capture materials – these are the things that we continually accumulate everywhere there is a space. It’s okay to be holding back things that we feel like keeping forever; but once they lose their value and it’s no longer practical to keep them, we should just let them go.
I accumulated racks of magazines through various subscriptions. I have favorite articles on each of them and that was the reason why I kept them for a while. The space that’s required to keep them may not be that big but it’s big enough to accommodate more important stuff. It was difficult to let them go in the trash when I made the decision, considering that I “invested” hundreds of dollars on them. What made me decide to trash those hundreds of magazines? The internet has all those information. That simple. I stopped printing articles that are readily available online. Old books were either donated or given away.
It’s Not Okay To Hoard Things
It’s one thing to want to keep things for what they are worth and another to keep them for keeping’s sake. It’s human tendency to acquire things and keep them. We put value on personal properties that is why we like owning them. We love our “toys” and we love the feeling of just having them in our possession. If your shelves and desks start to overflow with stuff, then you must rethink your definition of value. Productivity does not thrive in a cluttered desk.
Before acquiring things, we must not only consider the value that comes with owning them. We should also take into consideration how they affect the spaces that we have. If you live in a one-bedroom apartment, the number of stuff that you can accumulate is limited to whatever space you can allocate to them. The same principle applies to a small desk.
Think Space Before Thinking Value
It’s crunch time. Do you know where to find that critical note that you kept for the task at hand? If you’re looking beneath stacks of stuff on your desks and sifting through piles of papers, bills and what not just to find that one note, then chances are you have a problem: Clutter – that is a problem. Clutter is a big anti-productivity. The more time you spend on managing clutter, the lesser time you have for productive endeavor.
Anything that is no longer valuable or usable is a clutter. Things become irrelevant once they lose their value and keeping them could only pose unnecessary clutter. If they will serve some value in the foreseeable future then they must be kept where they don’t become a source of clutter.
Purge, Purge, Purge
Setting sentiments aside, we should assess how valuable a thing is by it’s actual value in terms of usability and benefits. Do you have digital files in your computer that have been sitting in your hard drive since forever? Do you need them because they hold value to you or do you actually benefit from keeping them? The rule of thumb on this is, if you’re in doubt, purge it!
There are many other reasons why we keep things and keep on acquiring stuff that we don’t even immediately need. But if they don’t actually add value to the things that we do, we must get rid of them. Getting rid of unneeded stuff and purging those extra baggage is a necessary move that we must undertake before we can embrace that renewed spirit of productivity.
I know this will probably sound crazy but I pretty much get rid of 90% of all my stuff every few years because I move; I just recently moved into a new apartment and I told myself – okay, I’m only bringing one car load of stuff – everything else is out! Over the years, I’ve found out what things I actually care about and hold value for – I have sentimental things but everything else has really been parsed down to those tools that let me do what I want to do instead of just bog down my mind.
Great starter for getting things done, definitely where to start.
@Murlu,
Thanks for the comment.
Yes, we should only have the things that matter. Sometimes, that’s easier said than done. But the most important thing is we should always assess what do we really need at certain point.
A great step Zero! purging and minimalizing really do increase efficiency. Working in an uncluttered space with just what you need is far more efficient than wallowing in clutter. Anyone who’s ever experienced real efficiency can say that with absolute authority. Glad to have you back after your break, and I look forward to the rest of the steps.
@Steve,
I can’t believe your comment went to spam. I’m glad I checked my blog’s spam comments this time before I purged the spams.
Well, thank you for the comment.
“Working in an uncluttered space with just what you need is far more efficient than wallowing in clutter.” – we, busy people, very well know this.
Yes, I’m back but I’m still having a hard time finding time for my blog (busy with my full time job, of course)
:-)
You have to get rid of the old to make room for the new. It’s the way things work. A cluttered work space will make for a very disorganized day. Having said that, WHILE I’m working my desk can look like a disaster but before my day begins and at the end, I start and end with a neat area. Great reminder!
@Martha,
“Get rid of the old to make room for the new” – that’s the key. You have to empty the glass to pour more water in it. Unless you get rid your old system of stuff from the old, you cannot make more progress.
Daily purge is a good ritual to practice. That’s a good idea for a new post :-)
Hi Marlon:
Very productive post here for those who really want to change their lives to be more productive.
Your blog post is so right about human nature and emotional hoarding. But I learned this a long time ago, One basic rule I leaned is if I saved something for use later and I did not use it in one year, it has to be given away, if it is expensive, then give it to a friend who may use it, or general use stuff, to salvation army. It it is books and magazines , they go to the library. But this is not the case with younger people generally, I noticed.
So, you need to tell this to people, so everyone uses these rules for better living.
Thanks for writing such an outstanding post.
Fran A
Fran,
Thank you for the very nice comment.
Sometimes we acquire things without second thought and on impulse. Before we know it, we have more stuff than we can handle. One good rule also is, if you don’t need it in x times, then wait for until you’re close to x.
Accumulating clutter is not just about physical stuff; it’s about managing behavior :-)
Hi Marlon,
Step Zero is really important especially when one is in blogging field. I remember when I joined University there was also a Zero Semester before First Semester. And you become regular student of university when you successfully passed the zero semester. Though it does not have any importance in your degree but to reach your degree you must passed the 0 semester. I think 0 Step is just like to 0 Semester.
@Nazim,
Thanks for your comment.
There is a required work to be done before anyone can venture into the new. This is called preparation. In productivity, if you want to adopt a system to manage what you do, the starting point is where you empty your current state – whatever that is.
That “semester zero” makes sense.