{"id":5426,"date":"2014-10-28T16:28:33","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T16:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=5426"},"modified":"2014-10-28T16:28:33","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T16:28:33","slug":"hear-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2014\/10\/28\/hear-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Hear Voices?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”<\/em><\/p>\n -William Morris<\/p>\n The Japanese personal organiser Marie Kondo recommends thinking of one’s possessions as animate, and treating them with according respect<\/a>. This Zen-inspired approach may seem like an anthropomorphic mind-game to some Westerners, but the truth is that the items around us, both physical and digital, do “cry out” in their way.<\/strong><\/p>\n I recall long ago strolling by my desk and swearing that I could see the cover of my notebook flapping up and down like a puppet mouth as it murmured, “Robert, hey, Robert–there might be something in here you need to do!” Likewise, I couldn’t pass my cluttered closet without a muffled scolding from the sock drawer. Certain emails subject lines in my overflowing inbox had the same effect–they would issue little admonitions and reprimands in a high, squeaky voice.<\/p>\n Worst of all, though, in this time of my life, was when all of the voices would suddenly go quiet. I knew there were millions of things I was forgetting, and that some of them would come back to haunt me soon. In this deeply uncomfortable silence, I would flit frantically from room to room, email to email, website to website–hoping to remind myself of the most important thing I had to do that day.<\/p>\n