Do You Suffer From "Bright Shiny Object Syndrome?"

My clients are surprised, while we are working together, at my insistence that they do not leave the room to put something away in its proper place. They’ll jokingly ask if they can use the restroom.

But they know this guideline is important. Bright Shiny Object Syndrome (BSOS) is most widely used in business to describe “a continual state of distraction brought on by an ongoing belief that there is something new worth pursuing. It often comes at the expense of what’s already planned or underway" (productplan.com); its origin is in reference to the child who is always attracted to a shiny new toy.

In the professional organizing context, I think of BSOS as our tendency to get distracted and off-track instead of staying focused on what we’re doing. I apply it to my work with clients in this way: If you leave the room to put a coffee mug from the bedroom back into the kitchen, you might be distracted by the dishes in the sink or the mail that someone just brought inside, and you’ll take way too long to come back and start working again.

Staying where you are increases efficiency in the declu