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My Weird Take on Getting Organized · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago, I had the oil changed in my Nissan Frontier.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was having that done, one of the workers at the place where I had my oil changed showed me the engine air filter, and I gotta confess to you, it was pretty dirty.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And naturally, he asked if I wanted them to go ahead and swap it out.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, normally I would have said no, since I can easily order one of those from Amazon for a fraction of what they were going to charge me to put it in themselves.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And changing the engine air filter in almost any car takes all of about 60 seconds, if that.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the fact of the matter is that I was in a hurry that day and I just didn't want to mess with it later on, and so I went ahead and said yes.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been thinking a lot about filters lately.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in a season of life where I am filtering much harder than normal.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Put another way, I'm much more strict about where I invest my time and energy these days.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to today's topic, which is my weird take on how to get organized.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Quick story.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation recently with a friend who feels like she's chronically disorganized.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And since I imagine that a lot of other people feel that way, I wanted to share my thoughts on that here.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you perceive yourself as a very organized person, the principle that I'm going to share here is going to help you tighten up your systems and thinking.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's how this ties into the filter thing that I just mentioned.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this goes back to the simple principle that I'm going to share with you, which is disorganization does not come from a lack of discipline, but from a lack of a filter.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you feel disorganized, here's what you got to keep in mind.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: A filter is a mechanism for straining out what does not belong in a system or an environment.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: A filter lets the good stuff pass through while trapping what does not belong there.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can read all kinds of stuff about how to get more organized, but almost everything that I've ever seen, I feel like, misses the point entirely.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: People are disorganized because they don't know what they want.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's really what it comes down to.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're confused about what you want, for example, if you're confused about your goals, your lifestyle, your career, your family, and other areas, if you're confused about those things, then you'll let all kinds of unwanted and unnecessary things through that filter.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some quick examples.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I don't want to put time into thinking about my clothes.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I consider thinking about my clothes to be mostly a waste of time and energy.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I have a limited number of clothing items that I wear on a daily basis, and I also restrict myself to pretty much a limited number of colors.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that sounds extreme to a lot of people, but I kind of take the Steve Jobs approach to clothing, which is I just don't want to think about it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've got way better things, far more important things to think about than what am I going to wear on any given day.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I basically have like a week's worth of outfits that I just rotate, and that's kind of what I do.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's my value, it may not be yours.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Second example, I don't like to have chaos and clutter in my home or my work environment.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So over the past year, I've been getting rid of lots and lots of unwanted items with, and I would say with extreme prejudice.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm almost on a mission these days to clear out the clutter in my life on every level.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been getting rid of a lot of stuff.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Example number three in terms of filtering is I don't have meetings with people that I don't want to talk to.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I filter pretty hard when people ask for my time or request a meeting of some kind.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: My time is the most valuable resource that I have.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, I don't want the distractions that come from working from home.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I pay to rent an office in a co-working space.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, I know exactly what I'm trying to build in my life and in my business.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't do things that don't align with what I want.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I limit my travel pretty hard because to me, travel feels like basically a schedule interruption and chaos.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really dislike airports and anything that represents chaos or unpredictability.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you may think that my views on this sound extreme and it's not what you want for your life, but I know it's what I want for my life.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so therefore, that is a filter.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, number six, I self-publish my own books because the traditional publishing system involves long time spans, a lot of gatekeepers, and a loss of control on many levels.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And those are all things that I don't want.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, I want control, I want speed, I don't want to have to answer to gatekeepers.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, with my client books, that's a whole different ball of wax.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Traditional publishing with some of my clients can be a great solution because many of them want that.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But for my own stuff, I generally don't want traditional publishing.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So what I've just done there is I've listed for you six different filters that I have in my own life, and those represent my values.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And because I very clearly know what I want for my life and my business, it's very easy for me to filter out things that I don't want.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially, I've just explained a lot of things that I don't want in life.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And because I've set my life up in a certain way, I don't have to deal with many of the things that someone who doesn't have those filters would have to deal with on a regular basis.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So as you can see, my main values are basically having control over my life as much as possible, reducing clutter and chaos, and choosing simplicity and predictability.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, those are my values.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yours are probably different, which is entirely a good thing because it's your life, it's your career, it's your business, and you should run it the way that you want to run it.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: However, because I am extremely clear on what I want, and I'm also clear in how I want to show up for people, it's very easy to make decisions about almost everything.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not clear on what you want, that's when you start getting influenced by all kinds of voices saying, you should pursue this, or you should pursue that, or you should do this, or you should do that.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I functioned that way for a long time.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, I spun my wheels and I did not make a lot of traction.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, sure, there are lots of books and resources out there on how you can get organized, but the root issue, as I see it, with disorganization is not being clear on what you want in life.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you get extremely clear, everything really starts to fall into place, including getting organized in every part of your life.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my take on disorganization and how to avoid it.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a weird take, I know, but I appreciate you listening as always.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, some of my favorite emails and podcasts begin as reader questions, just like today's did.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you would ever be comfortable with me answering your question in a future email or podcast, just shoot me an email.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that by sending an email to Kent at KentSanders.net, and I would love to hear from you.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for listening.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.