When I am working with clients, different questions and issues come up, but sometimes I find they have one thing in common: they find it hard to let go of some notion they have held for a long time.

“There once was a business owner who never finished his accounts and filing, although he was pretty organised and managed most of his business himself without any problems. The trouble was, though, that he felt that his job was ‘never quite finished’…”

Social media have become such a huge part of life for just about everyone – in our private lives AND the business sphere – that it felt natural to do a series on the subject on my video channel and the blog.

Depending on your out-of-work proclivities, you may end up with a dozen or so applications or online services, all of which constantly produce content, messages and interesting details. And you’ll have to make sure not to fall out of the loop. And let’s face it: some of those web-based services have the most uncooperative messaging systems on the planet…

Once you find yourself entrenched in all those channels, it will turn into a social media obsession and obligation, and fast. How can you deal with this?

Social media have become such a huge part of life for just about everyone – in our private lives AND the business sphere – that it felt natural to do a series on the subject on my video channel and the blog.

Now that you have picked the social media of your choice and have started to post, pin, follow, tweet, etc., you have had your own personal lift-off and you’ll slowly get into the habit of creating content for your media of choice. Depending on your business (or, obviously, what you choose to show of your private life) you will have started thinking more about the type of content that is suitable and achievable. But it’s not enough to have content, it is time to look at the bigger picture!

Well, here’s a thing my friend Harvey told me about: there is this website called White House Black Shutters where a lovely lady called Ann Marie is telling us about the idea of spending 40 days of lent with a decluttering spree that will ideally lead to one bag of things taken out each day.

I know, I’m one day late for this to start on the first day of lent, but there is still time to catch up. Although I am not religiously inclined that way, I believe this 40 day activity to be a very good idea. For any time of the year.

I have recently heard something that did not come as a complete surprise, but has been slipping under my radar for a while now: the fact that many people keep their children’s stuff and never really let go of it. I understand that there is no reason to dump it all as soon as the child has grown out of something or does not play with a particular toy anymore, but why don’t we ever revisit what’s been packed away “just in case”?

Let’s talk cards! I’m not thinking of playing cards, but the debit and credit cards we all have in our wallets. If you are lucky, you have only one of each, but most people have chosen to use multiple cards for various reasons. Maybe you use different currencies, you separate accounts between business and private life, or you may have a card for job-related expenses, or you have accumulated shop-specific cards that serve as credit cards in a crunch.

Be this as it is, it is interesting to occasionally give these cards a once-over and consider if they actually serve a good enough purpose.

While there may be good reasons for buying things in bulk, that way of dealing with your shopping and budget also brings a number of clutter issues with it. I fully understand the economics of bulk buying, and for many of us the simple fact that things are cheaper in bulk make a huge difference.

Yes, of course things are cheaper in bulk, but if you cannot find them and then buy another load of stuff that comes in bulk you are no better off than when you started!

I have recently come across this article about a book published in 2012, based on a study conducted by a joined group of anthropologists and archaeologists, looking into the daily lives of 32 American families. The results were remarkable, if somewhat expected. The stunning picture book shows what we all suspected for a long time: things have gone wrong at some point in the past!

I have to admit that I have yet to read the full study. I’m not sure I really want one of those large, depressing volumes sitting on my bookshelf or – worse yet – displayed on my lounge table, but for research’s sake I might just go along and do it. In the meantime, I have given the article and its subject matter a bit of thought and have come up with a couple of thoughts. Maybe read the article first and then return here for my commentary on the subject!