Transcript
David Campbell: You see, tidying doesn’t spark joy for me whatsoever, but if there’s one thing decluttering expert Marie Kondo has taught us is that despite popular belief, tidying your house can spark joy.
Sonia Krugar: It can.
David Campbell: Well, once it’s done, I don’t like doing it, but once it’s done.
Sonia Krugar: Well, now experts are saying that before we declutter our homes, we should first declutter our minds and spark joy for ourselves. Author Jo Burgess joins us now from Brisbane with more. Good Morning Jo.
Jo Burgess: Good morning.
Sonia Krugar: Our modern lives are bursting with to-do lists, but you say to get them done, we need to first declutter our minds. What does that mean?
Jo Burgess: Well, absolutely. I don’t need to explain to you guys how crazy it is to juggle a modern family life between juggling things, for work, the kids, trying to find some me time. It is crazy busy. It makes us feel stressed at times and often overwhelmed. And the source of the overwhelm comes from all of that incoming brain-clutter that we receive on a daily basis as we’re trying to juggle ‘the things’, and our brains really love order and structure and a bit of space if we want them to work effectively. So having a system to manage all that incoming brain-clutter really, really helps.
David Campbell: I have a ton of spare room in mine. It’s like an add a cup in here. But you say there are five steps to this KonMari decluttering of our minds. Let’s go to the first one.
Jo Burgess: OK. So, the first one is probably the most important one and this is if you want to remove some of those extra things from your schedule. Rather than defaulting to saying “yes” when there’s a request for your time or energy that you say, “let me get back to you on that”, which gives you just a bit of time to analyse the impact on your life.
Sonia Krugar: I like the fact that you’ve got do fewer after school activities in there too, because a lot of people I think would beat themselves up about the fact that they’re not doing as much as they possibly can. You know?
Jo Burgess: Absolutely. We overcommit left, right and centre, we feel obligated to please everybody and do it all. And so we try, but it’s, it’s just impossible.
Sonia Krugar: It doesn’t help. Steps two and three will help us to decide what we should and shouldn’t commit to. So what should we be taking into consideration?
Jo Burgess: Okay, well, just as Marie Kondo picks up a piece of clothing and asks if it sparks joy. You need to do that about the things that you put into your life as well. Think about when there’s a request made for you. Bake a cake for a fete or (you know), sign a child up for an activity. How does it feel, not necessarily in the moment that it’s presented to you, but how will it feel on the day? Will it be stressful? Does it spark joy, or not? And then the second part to that is how does it align with your priorities? So if it’s important for you to spend quality time with your family, pursue your dreams or your career, or look after yourself. I’m a bit more ‘me time’. How does that thing relate? So the two in combination need to be thought about when you’re deciding on whether to put something into your schedule. And I’m not saying here, you know, I mean, I know making kids lunches doesn’t necessarily spark joy, but feeding your children healthy food is one of the priorities. So it’s more around the non essential items that you need to apply this.
David Campbell: No, but the canteen sparks joy for me at the school. Jo, we’re out of time, but we’ll catch up with you a little bit later on.
Sonia Krugar: Thank you Jo.
Jo Burgess: Okay. Thank you.
