Most of us are concerned about the protection of our data and some of us go to great lengths to keep it safe. All kinds of storage options are being explored and backups are being made at regular intervals to ensure we are not left high and dry when disaster strikes. And disaster might strike at any time with computer failures, network interruptions or – worse yet – hacker attacks or ransomware on the horizon at any given time.

However, this is not the only kind of data protection we need to worry about: have you ever given any thought to how you deal with and secure your customers’ information?

I have mentioned on several occasions that decluttering is not something you can do as a one-off quick results activity, as this may only lead to some short-term results. Most of the time, these apparent results will not be permanent because the basic mind set that has created the clutter in the first place has not been addressed. That is one reason why clutter often creeps back – usually at a very quick pace.

Is there a better way to achieve lasting results that can be maintained long-term without too much hassle? Yes: you need to adjust your mind set to recognising clutter early on, and to keep on top of that clutter by taking appropriate action if and when it becomes necessary. What are those actions, you might ask? Well, here are some of them…

Let’s face it: not all we do in our own business is easy, either because we feel we don’t know exactly how to do things, or we simple don’t enjoy doing them. Some of us have trouble making customer calls, some don’t like confrontation, some hate paperwork with a vengeance, or are annoyed to call user support to help us with an issue. Any manner of things could be hard to do, and those things usually dangle at the very end of our to-do list, only to appear at the very last moment we can still manage to get them done.

Clutter comes in many shapes and sizes, and while most decluttering activities focus on the physical element – think: hoarders, shopaholics, collectors, etc. – the main attraction really is in the mind. This becomes painfully obvious from the point of view of someone who helps others declutter their homes and work spaces, but I also very much realise that this is not necessarily the case for my customers. At least not from the very start. Most of them insist that the problem is one of storage, of ‘simply sorting things properly’, but when I mention that a more systematic change is necessary to achieve their goal, things tend to get a little dicey…

Another pitfall of being self-employed is that we tend to work in larger chunks and procrastinate doing certain things until it is worth dropping everything else and digging into that one task for a longer period. In fact, I believe that everything worth doing should be done right away and there are few things that should be left for later (I’ll write about a couple of those further down).

Similar to taking care of incoming correspondence right away and thereby saving lots of time and effort, repetitive reading and decision-making, other repetitive tasks are often left for later. Many of those are administrative in nature, but not all of them are.

A lot of items to be found in a living space may seem like luxuries in the grand scheme of things, but what would a home be without them but an empty shell? Most items have a specific reasons for being there, but those reasons can be very diverse: some have a practical use (like kitchen stuff, furniture, clothes, etc.) and others are there for an emotional reason (memorabilia, art, presents, pictures, etc.). These are the two extremes but very few items are only one or the other: most items we come across actually fulfil needs both practical and emotional, and there is a whole spectrum between the two extremes.

One of these important grey zones is occupied by items that serve for decoration.

Being productive all day long is a hard task to fulfil, and while it can be useful on occasion to keep going because the flow takes us away with it and we are making good progress, it is normally a better idea to take regular breaks in between larger chunks of work.

There are multiple theories on how to schedule breaks, most prominently the one that proposes to do 50 minutes of work followed by 10 minute breaks, and to repeat this system over the day. I quite like this arrangement, as it allows for longish periods of work, and regular breaks that give us a chance to make a cup of tea, place a private phone call, check social media, etc. and then return to “work mode”.

Don't you sometimes wonder what would happen if something were to happen to you?

You may never have given much thought to the fact that we have to keep a huge amount of information ready and available at short notice. Of course you know where things are and how to find them when you need them. But do you really?

And what if you had an accident or worse? While YOU might be able to dig that information up in an emergency, could anybody else?

Make sure your office, your desk, your space – your work area –  is clearly separate from your living area. That means the rest of the house as well as from the people in your home who do not work at your office. In order to be and stay efficient at all times, it is important to stay on topic.

Working from home while taking care of home matters is disruptive on both fronts: you will be distracted by home affairs and your mind is taken away from the flow of thoughts related to work, and you won’t be able to give your home affairs the required attention either. There are – of course – ways around this, see Tip #4: Schedule breaks into your daily routine.