more picky

Clearing a backlog is a matter of raising your standards. Get rid of the projects that are a waste of time. Still too many? Start getting rid of the ones that are neither essential nor amazing. Go on from there.

standing

The leaves depend on the branch as much as the branch depends on the leaves.

fantasy vs. real

Write a fantasy to-do list. Load it up with anything anyone might want you to accomplish and anything that would feel good to say you had done. Then set that list aside and write a real to-do list, one that contains slightly less than you can do in one day.

horse races

In every season there are people who are prepared and people who bet on something different.

bubbling over

Your dreams are larger than your boxes.

analyze to impress

If it feels important to impress anyone, get specific about it. Who do you want to impress? When is it important to make an impression? What kind of impression do you want to make? What reaction are you hoping for? What are the various ways you might create that impression and get that reaction? Among the alternatives, which comes most easily and naturally to you?

knowing the moment

There is a time to be efficient and a time to be wasteful.

suds

If something is very dirty, consider whether the effort of cleaning it is greater than the value it may have after it is clean.

cutting edge

It is easier to cut with one sharp saw than with a ton of grit and determination.

place-holders

Having fewer things than you ideally would want does not mean you should keep everything you have.

earnings

Money earns interest; stuff, dust.

on hand

A tool box might hold 50 tools; a hand can hold only one.

scaling factor

Don’t keep two big things to do something that is more easily done by one small thing.

antishopping

We grumble at how long clutter clearing takes, but there is no inherent reason why clutter clearing should go faster than shopping. Both involve similar decisions and similar physical movements.

screenplay

It is easier to live in a fantasy than to try to live in a contradiction.

space interrupted

So often when there is a room full of stuff, the room is more valuable than all of the stuff.

gremlins

There is no simplicity or peace of mind in replacing material possessions with rules that must be memorized and slavishly followed.

broadcast

Tell everyone about your results only when it makes the work easier.

committed

Sometimes finishing a project is less work than cleaning up the materials you were planning to use.

better one

Sometimes the only thing wrong with a possession is that you have something else that is a better version of the same thing.