A Little Goes a Long Way

Over at Unclutterer, Jacki Hollywood Brown gives good, general advice on uncluttering that I found inspirational when I first encountered it. Her advice is given as a series of bullets, such as this one:

A detour does not mean you're losing! There will be setbacks. You may have a day where you're just too tired or ill to unclutter. Don't let it stop you -- just start again as soon as possible. [bold in original]

Although I value uncluttering advice, what was really interesting to me when I first encountered this post was the following question: Why do I find this inspirational?

Briefly introspecting, I see that the answer is twofold: First, the general approach, of breaking down a huge task into smaller, easy steps towards a goal, is applicable to almost any major project. Second, I had been thinking about (and feeling a little overwhelmed about) a few major projects of my own. Brown's article is so successful because she understands both the general approach and many aspects of the kind of project. Her example shows that if one understands the approach, and yet still feels overwhelmed, then part of the project is finding out how to break it down, and make it manageable.

It wasn't cleaning my house that was bothering me, but Brown helped me realize the source of my stress: I didn't truly understand how to break down the projects that were making me feel overwhelmed.

-- CAV