DECLUTTERING YOUR LIFE IN 13 WEEKS (10 MINUTES AT A TIME): WEEKS 11 & 12

We’re back with more tips to help you declutter your life. This week, we’re going to talk about sleep, stress, and how to focus on what you really want to do.

Week 11: Sleep, sleep, sleep.

One of the best ways you can get a handle on your stress level and therefore simplify your life is by getting enough sleep. Spend ten minutes this week working on your sleeping environment, and ten minutes at night getting yourself ready to sleep, and you’ll feel a lot better at the end of the week.

First, go into your room and look at your bed. Is it messy, smelly, dirty, or cluttered? Are there clothes all over your bed? Do you have so much stuff you’re reduced to two square feet of sleeping space? Clean it up, clear it off, and give yourself a nice big space to stretch out on.

Then take a look at your blankets, pillows, and pajamas. Are they comfortable? Are you warm enough when you sleep, or too warm? (I’m from northern Michigan, and most comfortable sleeping in a cold room with lots of blankets...but I didn’t realize that until I was in my twenties!) If you’d rather be cold at night, ask your parents to help you close the vent in your room. If you’re not warm enough, try adding a layer to your pajamas to warm you up, or get another blanket. If you look at your room and suddenly realize your pillow is right next to the wall your little brother kicks all night, it might be time to move your bed to the other side of the room.

Now think about what you do before you go to sleep. Do you talk on the phone, play video games, or watch TV till you drop off? If so, it could be affecting your sleep. If you’re way too hooked on electronics, try imposing electronic twilight on yourself this week. Just turn everything off thirty minutes before you want to go to sleep. Spend that last half-hour reading, praying, journaling, or just relaxing.

Another thing you might try is telling yourself a wake-up time before you go to sleep at night. This one is borderline spooky when it works, but it doesn’t always, so don’t use it instead of your alarm. Just tell yourself a few times before you go to sleep that you’re going to wake up at 6 and be ready to go. There’s a very good chance you’ll find yourself wide awake at 5:58, feeling just a little freaked out that your brain managed to time that one so well. (I’d like to be all scientific here and tell you how that works, but the truth is, I don’t know. All I can say is that it’s something my dad told me when I was a kid, I’ve been doing it for years and it mostly seems to work.)

One last thing (and this IS scientific): Be sure to give yourself enough time for sleep. Only babies need more sleep than teenagers, and if you ignore this fact you can cause yourself a lot of trouble.

Week 12: Make a list of your goals.

The last time we made a list, it was to help you figure out what you need to do and when. This time, I’d like you to jot down some goals you want to work toward.

One of the things that almost every grownup will tell you about being an adult is that life kind of gets in the way of you doing what you want. In other words, you’d like to learn kickboxing, but your work schedule conflicts with the class time. Or you’ve always wanted to try your hand at photography, but you find yourself getting caught up with day to day life so much that you never get around to using your camera. Having a list of goals can help you stay focused on what you want and what you feel God is calling you to do.

Also, it seems a little weird but writing down your goals is kind of like saying I’m really going to do this. It can be scary, but this first little step can make all the difference in whether you actually do something.

Some people are naturally goal-oriented...and then there’s the rest of us. If you’re not good at setting goals, just remember that nobody is grading you on this. Try to make your goals attainable, measurable, clear, and real. Here’s what I mean.

Say your goal is “get into college.” That’s a good goal, but it’s not very specific, and after 18 months of striving you probably won’t feel any closer to it. So how can we form your goal in a way that actually helps you achieve it?

1. Make it attainable. Break your goal into steps that can be accomplished one by one until you arrive at your final goal: Talk to parents, talk to guidance counselor, attend college night at school, investigate colleges online, make at least a 3.0 in each semester till graduation, keep up extracurriculars, send in application by deadline. See what just happened? Instead of a vague goal, you now have a pathway that will get you there.

2. Make it measurable. Sending your application in by the deadline and making certain grades each semester are goals that have to be accomplished in a certain, measurable way, and help you stay on track.

3. Make it clear. Don’t just say “make good grades,” but don’t be too specific, either. Be clear enough so that you know exactly what to do, but not so clear that you won’t be happy if anything goes awry. The best goals are also a little flexible.

4. Make it real. This isn’t the place to shoot the moon and list completely unattainable things you’d love to do someday if you were rich, famous, and universally liked. You can make another list for those things if you want.

This week, take 10 minutes to write out some general goals you have in life. Go back to this list whenever you feel you have another piece of the puzzle, like a specific person to talk to, or another step you can take. Revisit and revise your list as often as you need to, and celebrate a little when you’ve accomplished one of your steps or goals.

Have you grasped that I want to make a list-maker out of you? Come back next week for one final chat about clutter and organization!