Object Permanence

When my niece and nephew were babies, they would, as babies often do, throw things on the floor. The older members of my family would leave the plastics forks or whatever on the floor. Not only that, if we were at a restaurant, and a waiter came by to helpfully pick up a wayward fork, their parents would ask that the waiter leave the object on the floor. The reason they did this was so that the children could learn the concept of “object permanence,” the idea that if you leave something somewhere, it will stay there. This is a concept that, as adults, we learn and take for granted.

Or do we?

Other than my own babyhood learnings, my first lesson in object permanence came in college. My first year. After some squabbles with my roommate, I ended up with a room all to myself. I came back from a weekend at home to find....my room was messy.

This a bigger adjustment than you might think. When I was growing up, my mother made sure we always neatened up the house before we left on any long trip. Not only that, we had a housekeeper who came by twice a week to clean the house. So, when I came back from anything, I got used to the idea that my room would be clean and my bed would be made. Well, it didn't take more than one trip for that concept of object permanence to sink in, and I got in the habit of cleaning my dorm room before I left for home.

When you live on your own, object permanence can take a depressing turn. When you leave something somewhere, it stays there. Now that fact is well-established, but there is something depressing about how you can keep meaning to put that vacuum cleaner back in the closet, but not get to it, for no reason, other than laziness; leave a magazine on the floor of the bathroom, and there it stays. And the bathroom itself? Yeah, that's only going to get dirtier and dirtier until you clean it. But, the good news, is, once you clean it, it looks so much nicer. It doesn't clean itself, but at least you can know that the fifteen minutes you spent cleaning it was well worth it. Right now, my garage is full of things I tried to sell at a garage sale, but didn't. Now, I can either sell them on eBay or...who knows? The same could be said for some sweatshirts, I never wear.

You need to get in the habit of thinking about turnover. Merlin Mann, in his productivity speeches, talks about the concept of “inbox zero,” and having fewer distractions, fewer things you “need to get around to doing” filling up your head. I think the same thing could be said for real life. Get in the habit of cleaning up after yourself. Spend a few minutes every day or so just neatening up. Balance your checkbook. Think of your physical and mental space like a computer. A modern computer with the Internet, a trash, and a large, but not infinite hard drive capacity. It's easy to let those emails, podcasts, and web pages slowly creep up space in your hard drive. You've got enough space, you don't need to deal with it, right? Well, in the computer world, the more stuff you have on your hard drive, the slower your computer runs, and you really notice it once you fill about 90% of your hard drive. Now, there's no such exact figure in life, but let's just say that you have things you need to do, and you'll have more things that you have to do every day. So do them. Then cross them off your list. That's the quivalent of clearing your chache or your trash. And every once in a while, do a deep clean. For your computer, and your life, set aside some time to just do everything to catch up. You may have to put off some personal time, maybe some TV time, or whatever, but when it's all done, you'll be glad you did.

In terms of turnover, I think it helps to have a regular schedule. In the same way that I have a sticker on my car telling me to change my oil every 3,000 miles, I got in the habit of paying all my bills on the first of every month. I don't think about interest rates, late fees, whatever. I get a bill, I put it in the pile. The first of the month comes around, and I sit down, move my money around, and pay those bills. Maybe I'll pay them on a time-delay if I don't have the money yet, but I expect to. I check a few days later to make sure I have as much as I think I have. It's easy to think you've done something you actually forgot, or pushed the wrong button by accident and not realized it. But that's just a safeguard. The real key is the habit.

It isn't a bad idea to have “maintenance reminder” for your own life. Make sure on the first of every month, or the first weekend, or whenever is good for you as long as you do it, clean out the junk. Make a list: laundry, vacuum, clean bathroom, pay bills, etc. Your mind will work better when you stop telling yourself “I gotta get around to doing that” and you actually do it.