Before we moved to New York, some friends shared their strategy for successfully living in NYC’s small apartments: every time they brought something new in, something old had to go.
Sharing an apartment smaller than the one I rented as a college senior has forced us to be ruthless in casting off anything unnecessary.
This has been liberating. We’re such an acquisitive society — buy! buy! BUY! — but our finite space doesn’t let us. It forces careful consideration of everything down to the number of toilet paper rolls we can stash in the closet.
This blog post below draws the parallel between physical clutter and time clutter. Although time is finite, we often fritter it away and wonder why we don’t have time for what matters most.

waste: to allow to be used inefficiently or become dissipated (from Merriam-Webster.com) A couple of weeks ago, some friends of mine were preparing for their annual garage sale and asked me whether I had anything I would like to include in it. Garage sales are fantastic because they force you to take inventory of everything you own and identify which possessions you need and which you could live without. After the process is finished, you can off … Read More

via Snapurly
On a related note, the Best Life Design blog recently featured a post that compared time management to eating well, asking “Are You Meeting a Balanced Diet?”

Like cotton candy makes you feel like you’re at a carnival, like chocolate chip cookies make you feel like someone loves you, like mashed potatoes and gravy make you feel like the holidays have come around again and all is well with the world – hanging out with friends can make us feel carefree, lighthearted , even popular and successful.
And like a meal plan – when you have those treats in your diet you need to include substance, fiber, vitamins and protein. You need the salad and the side of broccoli, the bowl of hearty soup and a few slices of turkey. If your goal is to have a successful career you also have to balance time spent in superficial chatter and laughter with time spent with people who challenge you and teach you, who egg you on to become more than even you believe you can be and who give you substantial help to make it happen.

Whether the analogy is sending bags to Goodwill or eating your broccoli, what are you doing to make best use of your time?