Functional Environments
When your various environments are functioning correctly they should be supporting you in being successful. A functional environment, when in place, helps make completing your actions and reaching your goals simpler. The environment, by just being there, provides the structure for success and because of this you need to put less energy into the tasks that you are attempting to accomplish.
Example of a functional environment
Marketing websites and marketing newsletters were two of the environments that I leaned on heavily during the summer. These sources of information provided me with a background in marketing I did not have, and with the support I required to move forward. By not having to come up with all of these ideas on my own, I saved energy.
These two environments supported me in being successful.
These two environments were functional.
Dysfunctional Environments
When environments are no longer supportive and no longer saving energy they have become dysfunctional. The problem is that we do not always immediately realize that our environments have become dysfunctional, and end up continuing with environments that are eating up energy and actually hindering success in some way.
Example of a dysfunctional environment
The marketing newsletters that I received over the summer are an excellent example of a dysfunctional environment that I did not identify immediately, and because of this, they ended up taking energy from me on a fairly consistent basis.
During the spring I read every marketing newsletter sent my way. I would eagerly scan through the information and pick out the pieces that I thought would work for what I am doing. I enjoyed reading the newsletters. However, during the summer I began moving the newsletters to my “Marketing” label in gmail without even reading them. I figured these newsletters were still a supportive environment; I would just need to read them later.
I was being delusional.
Flooded inbox
I finally realized my marketing newsletter environment had become dysfunctional after returning from a three-day camping trip with my family. I opened my gmail account to 45 email messages, of which 41 of them were marketing newsletters and four were from actual people that I correspond with.
I realized I would never have the time to properly read all of them, so started moving them over to my “Marketing” label once again. This required thought, which required energy, and none of this energy was moving me forward.
Wasted energy = dysfunctional environment.
Repairing Environments
Once you have identified a dysfunctional environment you will need to alter, eliminate, or replace this environment in order to stop losing energy.
I repaired my marketing environment through elimination. If I opened and read a newsletter it stayed on my list. If I moved it to my “Marketing” label without opening it, I removed myself from the subscription list.
Nice and simple: I don’t read it, I don’t get it anymore.
What is one simple action you could take right now to clean up one of your dysfunctional environments?
For more on environmental challenges check out this post on quitting environments that work.