New year’s intention setting (or why I couldn’t walk into my office)
The office before…
The office after…
You know that feeling when you’re overwhelmed by so much stuff in your environment you can barely think straight? Overwhelm tends to accumulate, and gets to us in several ways. There’s the physical clutter we livewith that’s overwhelming us. And there’s the mental clutter we livethrough which makes the idea of tackling the physical stuff - feel beyond us. Both mental and physical clutter work together to keep us stuck.
Can we break the cycle? Yes. Of course I’m going to say that. Not just because I have an idea where to start. Or because I’ve dealt with every last bit of clutter in my own life (I’ve not). But because I think the alternative - a permanent drain on the things we yearn to create space for - is an unbearable thought. Not using our lives as we wish is one of the top 5 Regrets of the Dying written about by palliative care nurse and author Bronnie Ware in what became her international best seller on the subject. So how do we challenge the drain of clutter on our lives (mental + physical) and start releasing more of our lives - to ourselves. Maybe this is where I can share with you about theoffice.
Over Christmas I knew I wanted to tackle a space I'd been ignoring for years. My office. Or what used to be my office. Which had become a space I couldn’t even walk into on account of the mess. Since my ADHD diagnosis 15 years ago, I've been on a journey to figure out how to manage how my brain works. I've read time management books, attended support groups, had ADHD coaching, tested hacks and strategies, joined online productivity platforms - you name it, I've tried it. And as a result I’ve come a long way - from utter chaos in every single aspect of my life - to experiencing some of the profoundest changes in how I live and work.
But I’ve not mastered it all! And there are parts of my life (I call them my ‘ADHD compartmentalisation zones’) which bear the hallmarks of my historically chaotic self (except I’ve learned to ring-fence them so they don’t impinge on daily life).
My office was that ring-fenced zone, it had become a non-space with desk and floor I couldn’t even see any longer. So I organised my life around not having an office - working at the kitchen table, the sitting room, from cafes…
At the start of 2025 I set an intention - to make the office useable by the end of the year. Beginning in earnest in September (yep, it took me 9 months to get going), I began, kept going, then had time over Christmas to really let rip, using a couple of days to finish the job.
And…I’m now writing this from a clear desk, in a clear room, surrounded by containers, drawers, and files that are labelled, and where everything has a place.
What happened? I got rid of decades old paperwork (two large sacks to the data shredder). Got ruthless with archiving. Moved things to other parts of the house where they belonged. Religiously used the OHIO rule - Only Handle It Once - a trick where you don’t put an item down until you’ve decided what you’re doing with it. And most of all - I created systems. Spaces, boxes, containers - clear destinations for things that previously had no home.
And now I sit in a room that feels spacious and a thrill to work, think, and create in. And it’s the new year. So if you feel like getting intentional about your surroundings, this is a good moment. Because when we start clearing our physical spaces, our minds get clearer, and when our minds get clearer, we release time for what we’re yearning to do more of…
Happy new year xx