Last week I suggested that de-cluttering might be the best way to reduce stress and make best use of your time. I gave you three tips:

• Pick a focus. If you try and tidy everything, you’ll fail. But if you pick a small area and stay focused, you’ll stand a much better chance of getting the delightful satisfaction that comes from completion.
• Enjoy the magic moments. As you turn your mind to clutter, you’ll see it everywhere, and easily lose focus. But when you notice you’ve lost focus, that’s a magic moment! Enjoy the fact that you’ve remembered your intention and woken up to your experience – and come back to your chosen focus.
• Start with a tiny step. Pick one thing you’re going to tidy. Something you feel ready to do. Maybe just a single piece of paper or a single email. That’ll get you going, and make it easier to continue.

Did that inspire you to declutter – even a little? If you’ve got started, here are 3 more tips to help you de-cluttering even more effectively:

Tough decisions. We all know we don’t need so much stuff – but it’s hard to know what to get rid of. So you might like to ask yourself questions like:

• how does this help me with my aims in life?
• when will I use it?
• who else might find it more useful than me?
• who might use it sooner than me?

Get organised. The worst thing is having a tidy room turn back to clutter return the very next day. How can you make sure this doesn’t happen? The key is organisation. Make sure everything has a place – if you put everything away in it’s place, it’s more likely to stay tidy. (And if you can’t make enough places, that’s a clear sign that you’ve got too much stuff!)

Organise for action. This is a trick that’ll help you make better use of your time. Organise things according to when you’ll use them. For example, I have one client who has started keeping his background reading next to his travel bag. That means that when he’s dashing for the train or plane, he can just grab the top few papers and books. So now his travel time is much more enjoyable and productive.