New year’s intention setting (or why I couldn’t walk into my office)
The office before…
The office after…
You know that feeling where you’re overwhelmed by so much of your own stuff you can barely think straight? Well, clutter tends to work in two interwoven ways: the physical clutter we live with overwhelms our minds each time we look at it. And the mental clutter we live through (fractured focus, overthinking, sensory overload, myriad pulls on our attention) makes the idea of tackling the physical clutter - beyond us. Both mental and physical clutter - work together to keep us stuck.
Can we break the cycle? Yes. And of course I’m going to say this. 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. But because I believe 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 live - to ourselves. Maybe this is where I can share with you about the office.
Over Christmas I knew I wanted to tackle a space I'd been ignoring for years. My office. Or what was used to be my office. It had become a space I couldn’t walk into for the piles of stuff that filled the room right up to the doorway. Since my ADHD diagnosis 15 years ago, I've been on quite the journey to figure out how to manage my (sometimes) brilliant (invariably) errant mind. I've read time management books, attended support groups, had ADHD coaching, tested hacks and strategies, joined online productivity platforms, meditated my way to clarity - you name it, I've probably tried it. And as a result, I’ve come a long way. Life no longer feels like it’s in a permanent state of crisis; I've gone from utter chaos in every single aspect of my life - to experiencing the some of the profoundest changes in how I live and work.
But of course it doesn’t mean I’ve mastered all (no, no). And there are parts of my life (I call them my ADHD compartmentalisation zones) which bear all the hallmarks of my historically chaotic self (albeit ring-fenced so they don’t directly impact on daily life).
My office has been one of those ring-fenced zones. Over years, it became more and more unusable. For a while I used it for work, then increasingly for storage, then for dumping things I didn’t know where else to put, and gradually - it became a non-space, with a desk and a floor I couldn’t see any longer. So I organised my life around not having an office - working at the kitchen table, or in the sitting room, or from cafes. None of which made sense given I had a perfectly usable office space (if only I could access it).
At the start of 2025 I set an intention - to make the office useable by the end of the year. Starting in earnest back in September (yep, it took me 9 months to get started) it became apparent the clear out wasn’t going to happen in a day, or a weekend. But I started, kept going, made small dents, which in time became bigger dents. Then, over Christmas, I let rip, using a couple of days to completely go for it.
And, I got there. I cleared the office space. And I’m literally writing this from a clear desk, in a clear room, surrounded by containers, drawers, and files - that are labelled clearly, and where everything has a place.
What did I do? Well, I spent a lot of time getting rid of things (I filled two large sacks for the data shredders). I got ruthless with archiving. I moved things to other parts of the house where they belonged. I religiously used the OHIO rule - Only Handle It Once - a handy trick where you DON’T put an item down until you’ve decided what you’re going to do with it. And most of all - I created systems. Delicious, glorious…systems! Mainly spaces, boxes, and containers - for things that had no home. Poly-pockets and plastic files - all in one place. The creative writing I’d done over years - all in one place. Or simply - creating a container where things I regularly use (but can never find) (so constantly buy again) are all in one place (scissors, sellotape, hammer, nails, lint roller, polythene bags, stanley knife, masking tape etc)…
I now sit in a space that feels conducive to how I want to work, organise, and be creative. I managed to push through because of everything I’d learned over the years - the hacks, the strategies, the tricks, noticing precisely when I’m getting distracted, pushing through with tasks that were getting sticky, giving myself breaks when needed.
So…it’s the new year (just saying)…and if you feel like getting intentional about your surroundings, this is a good moment. Because when we start clearing our physical spaces, our mind gets clearer, and when our mind gets clearer, we release time for what we’re yearning…to do more of…
Happy new year xx