What's Draining You?

Step 1: Identify what drains you. Pick out what needs to be cleaned up, organized, repaired, taken care of or thrown out once and for all. Take an inventory of your life and see where the most pressing energy drains are.

Step 2: Make a top 10 list. Once you've identified your energy drains, choose ten specific, manageable tasks that you'll focus on during the next month. For example, if your office looks like a disaster area, don't list "clean and organize my office" as item number one; that's too overwhelming. Instead, break the task it into smaller steps so your list looks something like this:

No. 1: Clear my desk
No. 2: Organize my files
No. 3: Clean up the piles on the floor
No. 4: Organize bookcase
No. 5: Dust and vacuum

Step 3: Find a partner. Eliminating energy drains can be a lot more fun and a lot less overwhelming when you have a partner to support you. Think of this process as a game and invite someone to join you.

Step 4: Make room. Once you've identified your energy drains and found a partner to support your success, you'll need to make room in your schedule to get to work. In order to focus on this process for the next 30 days, you might need to cancel a few social engagements, schedule a babysitter or ask your spouse or children for their help.

Step 5: Get to work. Now you're ready to begin eliminating your energy drains. Remember the following tips:

• Schedule time to handle each item. Break the work into small steps and plan your week. For example, if you've decided to organize your files, you might plan to clean out your old paperwork on Monday, create new folders on Tuesday, and put the new files away on Wednesday.

• Give yourself permission to work for a specific period of time and then take a break. Use a timer to remind yourself to stop so you don't get tired or overwhelmed.

• Build in a reward. Once you've finished a task, do something enjoyable to reward yourself and to keep yourself motivated.

• Ask for help. If you feel stuck, overwhelmed or fed up, call your partner or visit our discussion board for support. If there's an item that can be handled by someone else, delegate the task and make it easy on yourself. Suffering is optional!