On my morning walks, I notice the same items of refuse strewn along the side of the road.  There’s the Afrin bottle that some sinus sufferer discarded.  Empty beer cans from some long-ago party.  The occasional roadkill bird or squirrel.  The stuff never seems to move.  I wonder why the homeowners don’t clean up this junk; doesn’t it bother them that this junk has taken up residence outside of their residences?  They have failed to “police the area.”

This got me thinking, between puffs on my cigar in the frigid morning air, about the other things that we should clean up in our lives but never get around to.  I can’t help it, it’s just my OCD rearing its ugly head, forcing me to organize.  At work, it could be that pile of reports on the edge of your desk.  Like the Afrin bottle, they probably had some value at one point, but have outlived their usefulness.  Or that elliptical trainer in your basement, the one that serves as a clothesline for your laundry.  In this instance, policing the area might include posting this unused gym equipment on Craigslist.

Of course, you don’t have to limit this to physical things.  How about unused gym memberships?  Good intentions that went for naught.  Or subscriptions to magazines that you don’t have any interest in reading.  Anybody out there have a Netflix subscription?  When was the last time you rented a movie?  Police this area by canceling those memberships that are underutilized.

Then I thought about my relationships.  My life-long friends, they’ll never be cast to the curb.  But of my casual acquaintances, I’m sure that I could think of a few that aren’t doing it for me anymore, notably the Conspiracy Guy at work.  Who needs the negative vibe that he gives off?  It’s tougher to police this area, especially when feelings could get hurt.  I’ll have to be delicate.  Or sneaky.

So, unlike my neighbors who don’t clean up their front yards, I’m going to “police the area” of my life, starting with things, and moving on to relationships.  I’m sure that all of this junk piling up is affecting my productivity.  Time to run lean and mean.

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