What I got rid of today.

Stumbled across THIS today.

Money quote: “”We all have at least one, but, in many cases, multiple items that we hold onto — even though we no longer use them — because the items still have sentimental value,” said Karen Winterich, the Frank and Mary Smeal Research Fellow and associate professor of marketing, Penn State. “These items have some type of meaning that says, ‘this is who I am’ and/or ‘this is who I was,’ so we just don’t want to let this stuff go.”

We want to remember, to treasure, to hold on.

I think, in hindsight, that this is one of the reasons my RID Project was successful. Giving away over 400 items in 400 days was impactful, rewarding, and actually quite addictive.

I think this could be a great use of blogs, social media, and other technologies — to document, to memorize.

In short, to hold things in memory rather than in physical form.

Great points made in this simple blog post I found online…

“Clutter is expensive:

1. An average of ten dollars per square foot to store items in your house
2. Almost ten percent of American households rent storage units, spending more than $1,000.00 annually in rent
3. A quarter of people with two-car garages can’t even get their cars in there because they are storing their junk instead
4. Twenty-three percent of us pay bills late and incur fees because we have lost the statements
5. The average American spends one year of his or her life looking for lost or misplaced items.”

Full post here.

I love this quote…”People like myself live in the their memory’s clutter for years upon years and become numb to the drag it adds to their life. It slows you down, cramps you up. It makes it hard to move and hard to work. It means you’re stuck where you are because transplanting yourself to a better environment would just be much too much hassle.

It means your brain is trying to track all of the objects floating through your life but, unable to do so, it just wastes energy on empty brain loops as it tries to mentally collect and connect all the various pieces.”

Click here for the full post.

Seems old habits die hard?

Books…oh, books. I guess if there’s one category I give myself permission to overdo it in, it’s reading.

Time to get serious again…

So, lately I’ve been thinking about my use of social media – and the fact that it doesn’t seem like it’s holding up its end of the bargain on the “social” front.

I’ve steadily watched my use of Facebook decline – it doesn’t seem like it’s really worth the trouble lately. And…I suspect I’m not the only one? It seems my friends are posting less and less all the time.

I must admit, watching people go through a little bit of a “digital RID” and getting a little more connected in real life would be a welcome development.

What do you think? Are you reducing the “social” media use you’re using? I’d love to know…

Through social networks or otherwise.

😉

A treatise about too much stuff. The points this person makes mirror my project….almost exactly.

Money Quote:

“My success and the things it bought quickly changed from novel to normal. Soon I was numb to it all. The new Nokia phone didn’t excite me or satisfy me. It didn’t take long before I started to wonder why my theoretically upgraded life didn’t feel any better and why I felt more anxious than before.

My life was unnecessarily complicated. There were lawns to mow, gutters to clear, floors to vacuum, roommates to manage (it seemed nuts to have such a big, empty house), a car to insure, wash, refuel, repair and register and tech to set up and keep working. To top it all off, I had to keep Seven busy. And really, a personal shopper? Who had I become? My house and my things were my new employers for a job I had never applied for.”

Want more? Read the full article here.

A GREAT collection of images of what 200 calories look like – in different foods. Available online.

Find more here.

You know, in the middle of the RID project, I found myself wondering…why can’t I just BORROW some of these items from my friends/neighbors rather than owning them?

Well, of course the reason is…who knows who owns what, and would be willing to lend stuff?

Enter a great new entity I saw yesterday….Yerdle.

Right now, it’s limited to a couple of major cities…but I fully expect to see them succeed…and take off.

Please support them…this is the kind of effort that will make a BIG difference.

Key Quotes:

“Even the greatest minds fear missing out. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman who assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, contributed substantial advances to quantum mechanics and particle physics, discovered the cause of the Challenger Shuttle disaster and popularized science as a witty and successful author, faced this fear when confronted with a menu.,,

How many different dishes should he order from a menu before settling upon a favorite? Feynman used probability theory to solve the problem….

The number of dishes to try = √2(Meals remaining at restaurant+1) – 1

Fear of missing out is a paralyzing force. It even drives geniuses to mathematics for consolation. Having calculated the number of dishes to try, Feynman could rest, his mind at ease knowing that in all likelihood, he was eating the best plate on the menu.

With the panoply of options before us as founders, investors, managers and employees, the fear of missing out on key meetings, conferences, marketing initiatives, employment candidates, investment opportunities is rampant. There is always one more meeting to attend, one more person to meet, one more option to consider…

We want the freedom of trusting our decisions and intuition. I think it comes down to accepting that, as is written on Facebook’s walls, done is better than perfect. It’s more important to keep moving forward with a good decision than to slowly optimize for the best decision every time.”

Link to article here.

The connection to the RID project is obvious, I think. It’s not about making the PERFECT decision every time. It’s about following your intuition. What’s gone is gone. What you choose to keep, stays. And somewhere…in a place in your mind you’ll probably never understand…is the reason for that.

Happy Wednesday, all.

And I’m planning on launching it March 4.

Stay tuned. I’m excited to share it with you all.

For now…I’ll give you the website address…

ThePrioritiesProject.wordpress.com.

See you in March for the launch.