21 Mar How Feng Shui Helped Me Save Time at Work

A common complaint I hear from my corporate Feng Shui clients is they “never have enough time.”

There are never enough hours in the day or minutes in the hour.

They’d love to do more, engage more, listen more, help more—but there’s not enough time.

Too many meetings, too many emails, too many responsibilities.

I’ve seen their offices; I know the conditions under which they’re working; quite honestly, I’ve seen the mess.

One of the infrastructures of Feng Shui is that your work environment is a mirror for the condition of your life.  In other words, if your life is in chaos—-your workspace will be as well.

Of course the argument could be the other way around:  that if your workspace is in chaos, your life will take that on as well.

Either way—Feng Shui recognizes the correlation between your work place and life.

More specifically, over-stacked horizontal surfaces (desk tops, shelves, tops of file cabinets, even chair seats) correlates to cramped vision, purpose, and creativity.

The more crowded your desk top, the more you may have lost your vision or your sense of purpose.

Feng Shui supports the idea that changing the office with make a corresponding difference in your work life.

Ironically, when I heard myself repeatedly say that I don’t have enough time, I looked around and, sure enough, my office was in total upheaval.

When the “yeah, but” phrases surfaced—-yeah, but I’ve been busy.  Yeah, but I’ve been gone.  Yeah, but I’ve not been feeling well—-I knew I needed to be my own client and make some changes in my office.

I also realized that I was correspondingly stuck in making a shift in my business to reflect a new direction and a new brand.  Why?  Because I had no time to make the necessary decisions.

I became my own client.  Because I am a Feng Shui teacher, author, consultant, I knew how to find my way out of this dilemma.

I allotted a very small amount of time each day (see my blog on the specifics of this process) and began to clear space.

Each day I addressed another small area, another piece of paper, another file, another trinket.

Do I need this? Do I care about this?  Is there another place for this?

Likewise, each day I also focused on the new vision I had for my business, linking the changes in my physical workspace with the changes in my business focus.

As more and more space was opening up physically, ideas and people were also presenting themselves.  I was finding the time to create the changes I wanted.

From a practical standpoint, all this clearing meant, of course, that I could find things when I needed them so I no longer spent time looking for the scissors or that special article or a phone number.

I also stumbled on an article or two that provided me some resources for this very journey of re-branding, saving me time right there.

The clearer my desk, the clearer my thoughts.  The more open my desk the more that time opened up.

I was able to make decisions more quickly, not distracted by the clutter, both mental and physical.

I am now moving forward with gusto into my new direction.  I look around my office and see that I have plenty of open space.

And guess what? . . . . I also have plenty of time.