In the past month or so, I received two emails and one letter from readers who wanted to learn more about me. Not “me the success coach”, or “me the personal development expert”, but me the person.

Each letter approached this topic differently. One reader (and a coaching client of mine) recalled that I had once taken my son Andy to the Super Bowl, and had a question related to an article I had written about that experience. The second letter, from a newsletter subscriber, asked about the work that I had done with Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins.

If there’s one goal people have in common, it’s to be happy. In our society, we think people can buy happiness. That’s why millions of dollars per year are spent on fad diets, trendy clothes, and expensive cars. That’s why we work long hours at the expense of hobbies and relationships—to earn enough money to buy our happiness.

We design our lives around making money, and then wonder why we aren’t happy when we have it. It’s because we are working too hard and not feeding our passions and interests. We design our lives around making sure the items on our to-do list get checked off, whether they contribute to our overall goals or not.

Memos. Junk mail, Post-it notes. Catalogs. Bills. Permission slips. Newspapers. Look around you. Do these things seem to be everywhere? Many of us are surrounded by overwhelming piles of clutter. You’re probably so used to it you don’t realize its negative impact.

Clutter is one of the biggest reasons you aren’t more productive. You may not realize it, but clutter takes up valuable time and energy.

I once had a client named Stephanie who was so adamant that clutter had no affect on her whatsoever, that she actually renamed it “controlled chaos.”