.....       I attended a seminar this week where the speaker told the story about one of his clients who was a financial planner. The speaker specialised in sales and marketing and said that on the first day when he met with his new client Harry, he was shown into his office.

    The office looked like a demolition site. There were files and paperwork piled up on Harry's desk, floor and filing cabinets. In fact the speaker said he had to remove another mountain of files from the visitor's seat before he could sit down. He then went on to say that he told Harry that there was no way they could even consider doing further work until Harry tidied up and got organised.

    A messy environment gives the impression that you are out of control, even if you believe you've got a handle on things. Did you know that The Wall Street Journal did a survey of white collar workers and found that the average white collar worker wastes 6 weeks a year looking for things? If you run your own business that's a huge waste of time and money.

    The challenge for most people who are surrounded by clutter is that they are overwhelmed and don't know where to start first. In the first week of my new group telecoaching program The Productivity Accelerator we will cover this subject in great depth so that you are clear on what action steps you need to take to destroy the clutter in your life.

    You'll save time because you will be able to easily locate what you want , you'll save money by not purchasing more of what you already have but can't find. By cleaning out the clutter you'll be able to stay where you are and avoid moving to bigger premises to store your clutter. Your chances of losing or mislaying important information also drops dramatically. You'll be able to focus much better on what you really need to be doing, you'll be less stressed and feel more confident. You'll also portray an image of professionalism and trust to your clients and prospects.

    You see whether you like it or not, people will judge you on your clutter.

    A friend of mine used to have a business with 5 salespeople on the road so their car was their office. Every week he would check their cars to see how tidy they were. 99% of the time he would find that there was a direct link to the tidiness of their cars to the amount of sales they made. If the car was a mess he knew their sales would be down.

The Final Word

   Don't let another day go by where you are drowning in clutter.  Take action today to rid yourself of the mess so you can make way for more success.