If you are someone who doesn’t write everything down on your to-do list or schedule, you can quantify the time gain by measuring the back-log of to-dos sitting on your desk or kitchen countertop. Your backlog of to-dos is where physical clutter meets time clutter. Anything that’s been sitting on your desk for months is probably stagnant in some way, otherwise why would you neglect it?

         Pick up each paper and slap on a post-it note indicating what action is required from this piece of paper and an honest estimate of how long it will take. Make two piles. Place the tasks that feel relevant, vital, and connected to your vision in one stack. Tasks that feel disconnected and distracting go in the other pile. At the end, take out your calculator and add up the hours you could open up by eliminating the tasks from the second pile.