Many cultures around the world have something that chimes with our idea of spring cleaning, but there are different origins of spring cleaning based on either religious rites, confirmation of the beginning of a new year, or simply because there is more light and the chance to open a window without freezing to death. To some degree it might even be a physiological reaction to waking up physically and adjusting to the fact that temperatures go up and the days are brighter.

Spring is, therefore, often a time of clearing out things and getting ready for a new season of sunshine and life outside of the constraints of our four walls. Of course, ‘spring cleaning’ is not limited to spring: these days the term is used in diverse circumstances, meaning a thorough effort to take care of things, from sorting out the taxes to scrubbing everything in the house.

I have been planning a regular meeting of decluttering apprentices for a while now, and with a little help from meetup.com, it has become a reality! From 9 February onwards, I will run a bi-weekly meeting for anyone interested in getting their life, home or office decluttered, but never managed to get it going properly.

No business meeting or corporate publication is complete without a set of charts displaying data about the subject at hand. Charts can be very useful tools, but they can also be a death trap if they muddle the subject or display the data in a way that is either confusing or gives rise to doubts about manipulation.

Similar to the interpretation of statistics, data collections can be easily made to show whatever we want the audience to see: omitting data that does not suit us, showing the information in a way that favours certain content, and so on. There is truth in the well-known Winston Churchill quote: “I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself”. I’m certainly not condoning falsehood in the way you create charts, so if you want to make a point and support all your data with a relevant chart, here are some tips that could help you with this.

Valentine’s Day is one of those ‘holidays’ that we have come to accept as something of an event in our annual merry-go-round of festivities. Its hype is similar to modern day Halloween, but I suppose the romantic nature of the event has not been quite as conducive to loud and ever-present parties as Halloween has become. Over the last 5 decades or so, Valentine’s Day has turned into an advertising event that started out with efforts to sell Valentine’s Cards, and these days has turned into a full-on advertising blast, with the goal of selling as many things remotely related to the subject of ‘love’ as one can imagine.

“Death by PowerPoint is a phenomenon caused by the poor use of presentation software. Key contributors to death by PowerPoint include confusing graphics, slides with too much text and presenters whose idea of a good presentation is to read 40 slides out loud.”

Sadly, this describes the majority of presentations I’ve had to endure in my professional life. How is this possible? I believe that we have become entranced by the technology at our disposal. The slide show itself has become the centre of attention. That is not necessarily a problem, but if the talk is too weak to draw the attention back to the speaker, or if the presentation is badly thought out, the point of talking (i.e., getting information from the speaker to the audience) is missed completely. Shouldn’t we be asking “How do I best get my point across without too much distraction?” rather than “How can I spice up my presentation?”

I have recently been made aware of a book titled “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits Of Disorder” by Eric Abrahamson, a book that stresses the advantages of being messy and not cleaning up all the time. Suffice it to say, I was intrigued to read the news item associated with the link I was sent.

Well, I came across the old chestnut that a messy desk is a sure-fire sign of a creative mind, and that there is nothing wrong with it because everyone who is creative will obviously find whatever they need quickly enough. The argument is that you save a lot of time by NOT spending half your time filing things away and pulling them out again when you need them. (Sorry for the slightly sarcastic tone, here. I have heard that one far too often when still in employ in a law firm…). Plus, the latest papers will always be on top of the pile, thereby giving enough to go on when a bit of paperwork needs to be located.

Several people have asked me about how I like to roll when it comes to getting a decluttering session started, and how I get a feel for things that need doing and are achievable with a particular customer.

Ask no more, here how I like to start off something that usually develops into a much more complex exercise. Of course, there are some basic settings I require to even get started, and those could be physical (the space must be manageable) or mental (the person I work with must be ready for change).

Creating new templates and documents at the beginning of the year is a brilliant way to get business started fresh and without too many remnants from the previous year. However, you are not completely done yet!

A fresh start into the new year’s administration should involve clearing out some of the old materials to make room for the new documents and papers that are about to come in. While filing is all about taking things from the work area to the reference storage area (binders, shelves, bookcases, or hanging files), there is only so much space available for those things.

Christmas has come a long way from the celebration of the birth of baby Jesus to the light show extravaganza, gift procurement and giving opportunity and general manic preparation period we experience in most towns today. While there is still room for introspection and joy, it is mainly the time of giving and receiving, at least if we fall into the trappings of television and advertisements.

This being said, for most of us, Christmas is also a time of plenty: plenty of social events and contacts with friends and family in general. And all those occasions are accompanied by plenty of food, plenty of gifts, a general presence of ‘plenty’.

The Christmas period is always a good time to take a good look at the achievements of the year that is about to end. It’s a time for reflection and if you are anything like me, sitting in the dark and talking with friends and colleagues often brings up the most interesting ideas – I rarely walk away from a chat without having taken notes of things that popped into my mind earlier.

Taking a look back is a good thing, as it lends itself to compare our current position with the one a year ago. That can be a revelation in all kinds of ways: be it good or bad, it will most certainly be an eye-opener. “Have I really achieved all that in the last 12 months?”, “This certainly took a long time to get done!” or “I’ve completely lost sight of this one…” are probably some of the most common realisations at this point.