I habitually get rid of stuff. My mantra, attributed to William Morris, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” I assess what’s hanging in my closet and around the house regularly and, if it isn’t useful or doesn’t give me joy, I add it to the Goodwill pile.

Once I dropped off a Louis Vuitton bucket bag because I didn’t like the pattern. I was eighteen, a budget fashionista, and had not yet grown an appreciation for luxury handbags.  Did I know it was expensive? Yes, though not how much. Regardless, I didn’t like it, knew I wasn’t going to use it, so that was that. It was better belonging to someone else, than collecting dust in my closet.

It’s easy to go through this process at home, but what about at work? Can this same mantra be applied to our professional lives? Yes! How about, “Do nothing at work that you do not know to be useful or believe contributes to your continued growth and success (or your employer’s.)”

For some reason, we hold onto processes, tasks, partnerships, clients, and even jobs when they are no longer useful, and don’t really offer us any value. We hold on because we’ve told ourselves we should value them, maybe because of what we once believed, or because of the time and money we’ve invested. We’re afraid that if we let go, we might have regrets. What it really comes down to is our reluctance to change.

Think about it. What do you do that just doesn’t make sense anymore, for you or for your employer?

• Is it the newsletter that no one is reading?
• Is it the meeting that is no longer needed?
• Is it the same content that doesn’t result in any interest?
• Is it the client who never seems happy with your service and who you don’t enjoy working with?
• Is it the same old process that is no longer efficient, yet you haven’t committed to finding a new way?
• Is it the job that offers no new opportunities for growth?

On a regular basis, assess what you do, who you do it for, and why. If it’s not useful and doesn’t contribute to your continued growth and success, let it go! If you’re not in a position to let it go, make the case for why it should be offloaded. The reality is, once we no longer see the value in something, it rarely gets taken back out of the “get-rid-of-pile.” The other reality is, once we let that client, that process, that task, or that job go someone with a different perspective may be delighted to scoop it up and run with it! A win-win for all!