Every year spring faithfully arrives.  It brings with it rain and rising temperatures, spring training for professional baseball, NCAA basketball March madness, and kids getting off of school.  And best of all, we get to say goodbye to winter. 

Also, the new season brings with it talk about spring cleaning.  I never really understood that concept.  This year, however, I think that's exactly what I did.  It was more spring sorting than cleaning.  I'm not sure why, but I got inspiration to finally sort and organize my side of our walk-in clothes closet...two or three years too late.  To say my closet was over-flowing, unruly, crammed, messy, and driving my wife crazy would be a huge understatement.

I attacked this sorting task like I do with most things in life...with a get-it-done-yesterday urgency.  In no time at all, I removed 80% of the clutter in my closet.  That's correct, 80% of my clothes and shoes were deemed to be taking up needless space and crowding out the clothes I actually liked and could still wear.  Think about that, at any given time, I really only wore about 20% of my available clothes.  The vast majority of my clothes were nothing but unnecessary clutter in my closet and life. 

In the end, I took six gigantic plastic bags of nice clothes and shoes to Goodwill so others could enjoy them instead of them collecting dust in my closet.  These seldom-worn clothes, accumulating over many, many years, just no longer fit my tastes, basic fashion trends (if ever), or unfortunately, my waist.  While perfectly nice clothes, I was no longer wearing them.  I must admit, it felt great to do this long-overdue purging process.  It simplified my life.  I felt mental relief, freedom and a sense of accomplishment.  As a bonus, I could better see the clothes I actually liked to wear...some were permanently buried beneath the clutter.  By removing the massive amounts of clutter, I also got rid of the chaos, complexity, and confusion every time I entered my closet.  Picking out clothes that I actually like and can fit into takes seconds now instead of minutes.

As a business coach, I could not resist the metaphor.  How many owners have massive amounts of clutter in their business closets?  You know what I mean by business clutter.  It's the low-value, urgent, unimportant tasks (the trivial many) we routinely and reactively handle each and every day.  Like an overflowing and disorganized closet of stuff, business clutter consumes our days, clouds out our clarity, wastes our time, clogs our creativity, reduces the flow of meaningful work, and ends up drowning out our productivity.  As a business coach for nearly 20 years, I know this much with certainty...every owner has clutter in their business and personal lives and most of it revolves around doing the wrong type of work each and every day.  Because they are too busy being busy, they do not take the time to think and differentiate between meaningful and meaningless work. 

Again, we all have clutter in our lives, some more than others.  What's the clutter in your closet?  For some examples, clutter could be you doing administrative or hourly type of tasks, checking and responding to email throughout the day, reading the newspaper, chatting with co-workers, repeatedly checking your Blackberry, handling paperwork, surfing the web, answering the cell phone no matter what, doing other people's jobs, messing in the factory, roaming the office, solving the problems others created, doing mindless trips or chores, putting out fires, etc.  Most owners simply do the wrong type of work.  Many of these activities are just habitual and tension-relieving and not goal-achieving.

Just like most of my clothes were not necessary, most of your daily tasks are not necessary.  Realize that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your talents and activities.  Therefore, wake-up to the fact that 80% of your daily activities are really not that important.  Sorry, but you probably already know this deep down to be true.  Stop wasting your time doing the wrong kind of work.  Think of the time you could free up for more important, strategic opportunities to grow your business and profits as well as spend more time with your family.  Commit to clean out the clutter from your business. 

Here are some quick business coaching tips.  Spend 15 minutes and write down all the clutter in your professional and personal life.  What is wasting your time and talents?  What work should you NOT be doing?  What is steering you away from critical priorities?  What diversions are robbing you and your company of greater productivity?  What should you outsource?  Where do you need to hire help?  Look honestly at the list.  Accept the truth and acknowledge the clutter.  Commit to eliminate or delegate the 80% of your activities (clutter) that produce minimal results for your business or career.

Instead of creating a "to-do" list each and every day, start creating a "not-to-do list."  Start giving up tasks that are not worthy of your time and that you probably don't enjoy doing...either delete those tasks all together or delegate them to others.  Choose instead to focus on the meaningful 20% of your talents and activities that drive the vast majority of your results and success.  The "vital few" tasks are those that produce money, save money, or keep your customers happy. 

Work smarter, not harder!  Do those tasks you are naturally good at doing and enjoy doing.  Give up the rest.   Commit to clean up and give up the "clutter" in your professional and personal life.

Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System