May 2007 Anticrastination Tip Sheet

What's the opposite of Procrastination?
THE ANTICRASTINATION TIP SHEET
An Idea and Tip Sheet to Blast Away the
Procrastination Habit
From Rita Emmett
Author of THE PROCRASTINATOR'S HANDBOOK, and
THE CLUTTER-BUSTING HANDBOOK

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Quote for May

Waiting until everything is perfect before making a move is like
waiting to start a trip until all the traffic lights are green.
~ Karen Ireland

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Can A clutter book really help you? Here's what one reader says:

Dear Rita,
As a result of reading The Clutter-Busting Handbook, my wife and I de-cluttered our lives on the first & second levels of our home. We have three huge boxes for a garage sale and the church got the winter clothes donation. Our 32-gallon recycle bin overflowed two weeks in a row! AND we no longer use the kitchen counter for random paper storage or as a horizontal filing system. Now we use it for food preparation. (What a concept!) It's great we've already adopted the habit that when mail or deliveries arrive, they don't go to the kitchen or dining room as they did in the past. We won't so quickly lose bills or important papers to tumbling stacks of countertop clutter.
--- Rolf Lundmark, Medical Device Sales Representative

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YOU'VE BEEN ASKING FOR DVDs. We FINALLY have them for you.

Two exciting AND helpful new products:

DVD "Blast Away Procrastination"
DVD "Clutter Busting"

Both are $19.97 values, but, for the month of May they are just $15.97 each. They were recorded at Arlington Heights Library in Illinois for Cable television. Over and over, you can watch Rita Emmett teach strategies and tell stories that will help you break your procrastination habit or clear out your clutter. Go to www.RitaEmmett.com and order now.

They make great gifts.

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Message From Rita

Eight Great Steps to Vaporize Your Clutter

Do you have tons of spare, empty storage space in your home or office? Do you have stacks of money lying around that you don't need? If your answer is a resounding "NO", then why the heck do you:

  • keep stuff around that you don't use or need?
  • pay for magazines that you never use or read?
  • pay for bargains and "great deals" that you never use or need, yet the stuff you buy costs both money and valuable space?
  • actually pay for storage space to store stuff you never use or need?

OK, so let's get serious about clutter busting.

First, select one area you want to work on. Don't go telling me that your whole world is a jumble of clutter. I've been there. I was the world's greatest Pack Rat. My best friend wouldn't come into my house because my clutter made her nervous. Then I converted. If I can break the clutter habit, so can you.

Select just one area.

Second, select one small section of that area. Not the whole closet, just a shelf. Not your whole car, just the front seat. Not your whole office, just one section of the floor or desk or maybe the top of just one file cabinet. Not the whole room, just one small section.

Third, before you even touch one pile of clutter, decide on a person or organization that will love & cherish your stuff as much as you do. So when you are looking at something you haven't used in a year, instead of keeping it, you can say "I'll bet someone at the homeless shelter would love this" or "The Salvation Army certainly knows someone who could use this." And you can say good-bye to that item without breaking your heart or sobbing like a baby poodle.

Fourth, stop thinking of your wastebasket as an evil enemy who gobbles up all your important data. Start thinking of it as a sweet friend who needs to be nourished. FEED YOUR WASTEBASKET.

Fifth (optional) Because so much of clutter-busting involves making decisions, ask friends to come over & help you. They can encourage you to decide to pass good stuff on to people who need it, and to toss
out junk. Also, ask them if they'd be willing to deliver your stuff-that's-too-good-to-throw-out to Goodwill or your church or whatever group you've selected. They might say no but you never know --- they might even be willing to cart away and dispose of your junk. (so that you don't change your mind in the middle of the night and haul it all back into your home.)

Sixth, assign places for your stuff to go. Here's a fact of life: If you don't have a place for something, IT
BECOMES CLUTTER. That's a fact. What if you don't have room for it? Here's another fact of life: If you don't have enough room for all your stuff, you don't need more room, YOU NEED LESS STUFF

Seventh, if you need more help saying good-bye to your stuff, buy the clutter DVD or read The Clutter-Busting Handbook. If you especially need help with sentimental stuff or stuff you inherited when someone
passed away, read page 33, the story about when my mother died. You can find the book at bookstores, Amazon.com, our web site www.RitaEmmett.com or most libraries.

Eighth, work on clutter busting for only one hour at a time, then stop and reward yourself.

Imagine how you'll feel as you vaporize the clutter in little areas of your life.
Imagine how organized you'll feel seeing clear spaces appear.
Imagine how energized you'll feel not seeing all that fatiguing, exhausting stuff piled around you.
Imagine how smart you'll feel knowing WHERE to find your stuff.
Imagine how clean your place will feel.
Imagine how proud you'll feel instead of being embarrassed by all that mess.
Imagine how in-control you'll feel conquering your clutter.

What are you waiting for? Today is the best time to get started.

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