Which do you need more? Inner or outer calm?

I’ve written on the blog before about how, for me, outer order leads to inner calm.

To quickly give you a few examples, I feel like I can relax when my house is ordered and everything is in its place.

I feel like I can settle down and do good work when my desk is in order and there’s not a lot of stuff laying around.

I heard something on one of my favourite podcasts, Personality Hacker, a few months ago that I want to run by you.

I’m an ESTJ on Myers-Briggs. That J means I like order, structure, things in their place.

What they said was that for Js, outer order equals inner calm. That means a J’s environment must be sorted and orderly for their brains to feel calm.

Completely true for me.

And for Ps, their thinking needs to be orderly and sorted for them to feel calm.

They don’t need their environment to be completely orderly to feel calm.

Wow – such a different take on the process.

Does this resonate for you?

Not?

Nevertheless, most people do say that they feel better if their environment is orderly.

Where do you need to create some order in your home? Is it in your bedroom, living area, kitchen, kids’ room?

Which small steps can you take over the next week to create more order in your life?

Outer order, inner calm?

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On Gretchen Rubin’s the happiness project blog, she talks quite often about a concept called outer order, inner calm.

I think there’s a lot of truth to the statement.

I’ve seen it in my own life and in the lives of my clients. This is often how I’ve observed it showing up:

– I’m more inspired to cook or bake if the kitchen is sparkling clean
– When my photos are in order, I want to play more with my photography. And on the other hand, if I’m behind on photo organising, I often feel reluctant to take pics because I know it’s just adding work to my load.
– When my desk is neat and tidy, or at least organised, because we all know that isn’t the same thing, I feel like my mind is more organised to be productive and tackle my Eat the Frog tasks
– When my house is organised and in order, I’m more able to relax with a book
– My creative clients have told me that when they take some time to sort out their environment, they feel more creative

How have you observed it in your own life?

I’m not for a minute suggesting that you’re not productive, effective or creative if your environment isn’t tidy and organised; I’m just saying that I’ve seen this in a lot of people and in my own life. I think it’s because the majority of people (I think it’s 65%) are visual learners.

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So if you’re very visual, here are a few tips to maximise your effectiveness:

1. Reduce the flow of paper into your life and definitely have a system to contain it.
2. Have a place for everything and don’t just put things down; put them away (it takes a few seconds longer but is so worth it)
3. Build in a 5-minute desk tidy at the end of your daily work routine
4. Declutter regularly and as much as you can manage (or even more)
5. Stop bringing things/ stuff into your home (my one friend has a no gift policy for birthdays but they gladly accept cards – I’m stealing that idea :))

Your coaching challenge

Which of the five points above do you most need to implement? Number them from 1 – 5.

Try working on them with the most important one first.

*** Some quick inspiration ***

This weekend I went to pack away the toilet rolls in the kids’ bathroom and there wasn’t much space in the vanity. I pulled everything out, organised it and donated about 8 – 10 bottles/ jars of bath salts, bath fizzies and bath oils. I haven’t had a bath since before I was pregnant with the twins and since my two bath together, we don’t use product since Connor has irritable skin. Out it all went and it felt fabulous.

Best of all, it only took me about 10 minutes and I could relax again 🙂

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Here’s to your inner calm.

PS Gretchen Rubin is also on Instagram and she posts some really beautiful images. She’s definitely a visual learner 🙂

PPS I always forget to take before pics with these impromptu organising projects – sorry!

Featured resource this week

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I’m undergoing a ginormous reorganising of my products. I used to run a Virtual Organising Seminar many years ago and have decided to add this component into the Organise your Office bundle.

Take a look, see what you think – I got fantastic feedback on this segment in the past, mainly because it inspires people to action – and get your copy.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

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