Chaos Theory

Is it your habit or style to keep tidy, orderly surroundings? Or, does chaos and clutter rule your life? I swing between the two, depending on my level of busyness. And my energy swings right along with the chaos or orderliness.

One question to ponder is whether the chaos makes life busy, or if the busyness of life create the chaos? This could be a chicken and egg question, so let’s explore the ideas.

The question of whether chaos makes life busy comes from the notion that when we manage our time we do the important things in our day and life. A managed day and life isn’t chaotic. You’re productive, focused, alert, and energetic when you create a plan and work that plan. You introduce and maintain order in your life when you manage your time. When you accomplish what you set out to do you remove the stress and burden of unfinished projects that come when those projects hang over your head.

An unmanaged day and life is chaotic. You have grasshopper-like attention and activity when you don’t design your day and stick with the design. On those days of no plan, you are less productive, unfocused, distracted, and drained. Order eludes you when you let outside forces rule your actions, rather than when you rule your activity. Not only do you not finish the work you want and need to finish, you have lots of projects started but not enough finished. You also miss the mark on connecting with people you need to connect with, and you fail to make all the phone calls you needed to initiate or return. When that happens you feel the weight of the world, or at least of those projects, and that leads to stress and dis-ease.

Part of the problem with an unscheduled day is that you say “yes” to too many invitations and thus take on too many tasks. The chaos spins bigger and faster, and starts impacting more and more of your life.

Can’t you just feel the stress build and the energy drain as I talk about having too much to do, tight deadlines, and everything moving faster and faster?! Having a lot to do and tight deadlines don’t per se introduce chaos into your life. It’s when you don’t manage your time and have lots to do and tight deadlines that life gets chaotic.

When my life gets out of control, when I don’t manage my time, I can actually see the effects. It’s ugly.

When my life is spinning out of control, my piles begin and then grow. I set the mail on my side desk, to tend to “later”. The scan pile grows as I delay scanning documents I want to keep before recycling the paper. Clothes pile high on various surfaces as I wait to iron, fold, hang, and put them away. The dishes pile up in the sink and then overflow onto the counter. The refrigerator gets emptier since I delay grocery shopping. Birthday cards and correspondence wait for my attention, sometimes beyond the birthday date. I’ve even gone so far as to drive on fumes because I was too busy to stop for gas!

When the evidence of my out-of-control life is abundantly obvious I’ve noticed I feel drained, unmotivated, and unproductive. It’s as if those piles of stuff suck my energy and focus. I don’t like feeling that way. I can’t imagine you do either.

Clearing the clutter is always the road back to control and sanity for me. When the clutter is gone my energy returns, my focus is back, and my productivity high. That feels really good.

It’s when I manage my day that I not only accomplish all I set out to do, but also the piles don’t begin, much less grow. When I’m in control my energy stays high, helping me accomplish all I need to do. Managed time and high energy seem to go hand in hand.

There’s another aspect of chaos that doesn’t necessarily relate to busyness. Stuff. Piles of stuff.

Sure, sometimes the piles of stuff come about because you are too busy to put things away, but those piles can also come from being a collector, or hoarder. My art closet is a reflection of that concept. The collections of goods for future projects overwhelmed my closet after awhile. Between sewing, mixed media, and glass painting I had massive stores of fabric, paper, baubles, glass, glues, and paints. All that consumed space and slowly took over the room. When my art closet became too full to hold more, so bad that I couldn’t even walk through it, I knew I’d gone too far.

When the major decluttering was done, the purging finished, I felt better. A car load of art supplies to the recycle center and secondhand shop was the crowning glory of my organizational project. It surprised me at how good I felt at having a clean art closet again. Pressure was lifted, and my productivity rose. All from cleaning out my art closet!

Then I participated in 5 Things in 5 Days. The goal was to give away five things every day for five days. I went overboard! One day I’d go through my jewelry and get rid of everything I hadn’t worn in years, and didn’t have an attachment to. Another day I’d tackle my serving pieces, or clothes, or towels. Often I selected more than five items. I participated in this for seven days. And, the biggest surprise, was my husband caught the bug and also cleared out things. Another car load went to the secondhand store. Oh, the house almost sang with the new-found energy of getting rid of unnecessary stuff!

As the house went through the decluttering I felt more productive at work too. That was interesting to experience. Odd even. That’s when I started connecting clutter to chaos. That’s when my chaos theory was born.

There are lots of things that rob us of energy. Chaos and clutter are some of the most insidious energy thieves in your life. Look around your life. Where can you declutter? Where can you de-chaos? Where can you manage your time? You answer those questions, and take action, and you have gained control of one energy thief.