I’ve been seeing a lot of posts recently about people trying to pare their “stuff” down to just 100 things. I first saw it over on Stuck in Stuff, and then again on Zen Habits (which also talked about The Rucksack Life, a blog I hadn’t yet heard of).

I’ve been considering paring down my “stuff” (I have way too much of it) to 100 things. My husband and I are on vacation for the next 11 days, and I’m considering getting a small dumpster to start getting rid of things. I have boxes in my attic that have moved with us twice now and never been unpacked (and we’ve lived in our current house for almost four years). I’m going to make three piles - dumpster, charity/friends, and storage for anything we’re not keeping in the house.

We’re planning on putting our house on the market sometime in the next 6-10 months (probably in the spring), and I know that I need to clean out all of our clutter to improve our chances of selling. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get rid of 75% of our stuff, put another 15% in storage (mostly personal, sentimental things), and keep only about 10% of our stuff in the house while selling. A huge benefit to this will be that moving is going to be that much easier and that much less stressful if we only have to move 1/4 of what we currently have into a new place. FYI: I plan on using Martha Stewart’s technique for moving, which should also make moving much less stressful (I absolutely love Martha!).

One thing that might surprise a lot of you is that we’re not really planning on downsizing when we move, and in fact will probably (hopefully) be getting into a significantly larger place. I have my eye on a beautiful historic home about 20 minutes from where I currently live that’s probably around 4,000 square feet (just a guess, it could be bigger). I’m thinking that while all that space is going to be great for entertaining, if I don’t make my life a bit more minimalistic, it’s just going to end up incredibly cluttered and hard to keep clean!

So, back on topic, I’m thinking about trying to get down to only 100 things during this vacation. But, it’s a bit complicated. Do I count my Moleskines as one thing or a bunch of things (I currently carry four with me and have three more at home that I use)? What about the legal pads I use for my creative writing (I just started a novel earlier this week and have written 14 pages so far!)? And my pens (I carry 7 in my bag and have a bunch of others around the house)? I’m definitely thinking that my books should only count as one thing, otherwise I’d easily exceed my 100 things by 200 or more things! Should I count furniture? Bedding? Is a set of sheets one thing or four (flat sheet, fitted sheet and two pillow cases)? I use two pillows and so does my husband, is that four things, two things, or one thing? Do each of my dogs count (I have two) and my cat? Or are they considered family members? And if they’re family, do each of them get 100 things? If they do, can I use that to cheat and say that all of the furniture counts as their things instead of mine (after all, they’re on the furniture at least as much as I am)? Do vehicles count? Tools?

It’s a lot to think about. I guess before I actually start getting rid of stuff I have to decide what’s going to be included. I’ll keep this updated, and would appreciate anyone’s opinions about what should or shouldn’t be included.

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I hate adding recurring daily tasks to my daily to-do list. I like to keep my to-do list kinda short, and try to only put things on that are really necessary for that day. But, at the same time, I’d like to be able to track how often I’m actually getting all those recurring tasks done.

I have a number of things that I try to do every day: exercise, post on this and my other blog, write for other blogs that I contribute to, and eat something healthy (eventually that goal is going to convert to eat nothing unhealthy).

Well, I came across a site called Joe’s Goals the other day (I can’t remember where I saw it, but I believe that it might have been in the comments of another blog, if anyone else came across it, let me know so I can add some attribution). It’s a simple to use habit tracking app that lets you track both positive and negative goals. I think it might be just what I’ve been looking for.

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Some days when I get in to the office, I take one look at my to-do list and shudder. Sometimes there may be 10-20 things that I need to get done in a day. While there are many out there who say that you should simply whittle your list down to the three most important things to do in any given day, sometimes that’s just not a possibility (especially when you have a boss that insists you get the ten things done already on your to-do list as well as an additional five that pop up during the day).

So what do you do if you can’t eliminate all but three items? Simple. You have to prioritize. Then you have to throw those priorities out the window.

Sounds a little backwards, doesn’t it? Well, the strategy that works best for me is to pick the three most important things I need to get done during the day. I mark them on my to-do list (I usually put a dot next to them). I then start on one of the tasks. After a few minutes I generally decide to move on to something else instead (structured procrastination). I keep doing this until I get everything on my list done. I’m also not afraid to move something up to the next day if I don’t complete it. I also sometimes delegate (but unfortunately that’s not usually an option for me since I’m really the only person in my “department”).

Some other techniques that I use:

I’m a “burst” worker, not a “busy” worker. I might sit and do virtually nothing for a half hour or more, and then get an hour’s worth of work done in the next half hour. This is how I stay sane at work. I have a lot of varied job duties, and this method allows me to change roles without feeling like I’m going to go crazy.

I keep a Moleskine notebook for my to-do list. I also use it as my “inbox”. I started my to-do lists in the front of the book, working my way back. My “inbox” and ideas I started on the last page and am working my way forward. This way I won’t end up wasting pages in the middle of the book if my “inbox” fills up quicker than my to-do’s or vice versa.

Use Firefox. One thing that I generally have to do for both work and my blogging and business activities is keep up with the blogosphere. I use a mix of iGoogle (with different tabs for different topics) and Firefox. In the morning when I get to work, I open a new tab with each blog post that I want to read. Then I go through all of them and as I read each one I close it out. I also at this time bookmark anything that I want to blog about later, or email things to coworkers and my bosses that might be of interest.

So, while narrowing down your to-do list to only 3 things can work wonderfully, sometimes it’s just not feasible. When that’s the case, you have to create other strategies for dealing with tasks.

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