Ep.134 Declutter Your Life: 3 Must-Do Spring Cleaning Strategies

Feel like your life could use a little spring cleaning? Now it's the perfect time to hit the reset button on your life and business. Let’s discuss three essential strategies to declutter your mind, goals, and daily habits." It will make your life feel lighter and brighter.

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Transcript:

Feel like your life could use a little spring cleaning? Now it's the perfect time to hit the reset button on your life and business. Let’s talk about three essential strategies to declutter your mind, your goals, and your daily habits. It will make your life feel lighter and brighter.

Hello, and welcome to my podcast, Become Empowered. My name is Sabine Kvenberg, founder of Impact Communication Coaching. In this podcast, we talk about how to become empowered in our personal and business lives. I feature interviews with successful individuals from various industries who discuss their professional and personal journeys, how they overcame adversities, and the strategies they used to achieve their goals. We must become the person we are meant to be to live the life we are destined to live. The content will inspire you to reach your aspirations and become the best version of yourself.

Thanks for tuning in and supporting this podcast. And don’t forget to follow our show so you won’t miss when we release a new episode. As always, we would appreciate it if you could give us a 5-star rating and leave a review. Now, without any further ado, let’s dive into the show.

Spring cleaning for Q2 success. Are you ready for some Q2 strategies to win the game? Because at the end, it is a game that we play. And if we also approach it in that playful way, not taking ourselves too serious all the time and say, hey, let's have fun. Because too often, that is the first thing. We don't put the fun in there and then it becomes painful.

and hard. Most importantly, don't get lost in a maze of to-do lists. Can anybody relate to that? I certainly have to raise my hand. And if I show you right now, the sticky notes that I have in my hand from a meeting that I had earlier, then it's like, oh, I'm going back down that old road.

But I also will give you some solutions to that problem. So stay tuned right here with me. Okay. Maybe you can get lost in a maze of piles of paper. Well, maybe your office is not looking like that. Okay. I sure hope so. But I wanted to give you that visual to see how does it make you feel? Right. It's like, Ooh.

It's overwhelming. And don't get lost in a maze of demands from others. Ooh, that is a big one. And that demand can come from many different areas. It can come from your coworkers, from your boss, from your clients, from your family, from your friends. So many demands on you. And that sometimes can get us

lost in the maze. Ooh clutter, that is a big one. And then the other is the many yeses we give. If we say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to so many things, we also say no to the others. Now with that said, do we always have a straight line to the target? No, we don't. We do have

Sabine Kvenberg (03:56.709) once in a while, a few detours, as you can see there, but we will reach our target at not getting lost in the maze and end up at dead ends. So when your brain is cluttered with excessive thoughts, worries, or a lack of organization, it can lead to

difficulties in focus, decision making and overall cognitive function, potentially increasing stress and anxiety. And let me tell you, I have been there. And sometimes we have to declutter our life. So are you ready to do some spring cleaning?

Before we go, and before I share with you all the things that I developed and discovered and implemented, let me share with you a story. The other day I was listening to a podcast and one of my favorite podcasts, Jenna Kutcher, I followed her for many, many years.

And I just love her personality and what she does. And she's always very hands on. She's just one of those girls, coaches that shares what's on her sleeve. And she talked about spring cleaning and decluttering. And I thought to myself, that was a great, great, great reminder. And I was so thankful because

the longest time I had clutters on my desk, in my bins. because there's always something, there's so many things that I have to do, right? There are so many things that I have to accomplish. There are so many things that I thought, all right, I'll do it later. And what's happening?

Sabine Kvenberg (06:23.888) those papers and those piles just accumulated. And what happens is it really gets heavy on your shoulders. It was just weighing down on my shoulders. But most importantly, what you saw, our brain can only comprehend so much. And when there are things, when there are piles sitting,

And when there's things from even way, way, way back, it all is stored in our brain. And eventually like the subconscious mind, yeah, you have to do this. Yeah. Later. you have to do this. Yes. Later. So what I started doing besides getting rid of those piles and finally filed that way, I saw all the binders from

all the years, me developing my business. And I thought to myself, I, maybe I look at it later. Maybe it comes very handy. Maybe. But I also have to let you know that things changed. What worked 10 years ago doesn't work today. So you have to adjust and adapt.

But what's still there are the binders that took up space in my office and space in my little brain because it still was there in the background, right? Thinking, should I look at it? Right? So here I was this weekend and I did some spring cleaning in my office. One of the things

was a pile, a pile of business cards. And some of them were nicely organized. that was from this event. that was from last year. that was from two years ago. That was the podfest from three years ago. That was, my God, that was an event I attended 10 years ago. Do you think

Sabine Kvenberg (08:47.189) These people still exist. They still have the websites. And here was my thinking. Why did I kept them, keep them? Why have I not thrown them away? Because I thought, yeah, there will be some time to enter them into my email list, right? We all have that thinking, but I've never done it. But here's another way. And

Like I said, things have changed. How emails worked 10 years ago, they don't work like this today. You may have a huge list, but it doesn't do you any good if they don't open your email. And if you put them in now, they don't even remember you. And who is that? And then I have to, I have to look at myself. I don't like to be put in

to email lists. And this is one of the solutions actually that I'm going to share with you later on about cleaning up your email list. But I don't like that. And then I delete or sometimes I even if it comes, keeps on going, I report them spam. And when you report them spam, it's not good for your list. So what I've learned now is be present with the ones that you have. So here's what I did.

I took all the business cards. I had a trash can here and I put them all in here.

Sabine Kvenberg (09:58.443) Wow, that was liberating. And here's what I did with my old binders. I had an empty bin and I put them all in there. Now, why did I do this? Because right now I'm writing a book and I thought to myself, well, maybe I need to go back and have some references. However, I know they are not important anymore to take up space in my office.

So I put them all in and put that bin nicely organized in a closet that I'm not using. So it's out of sight, but I still know if I need it, it's there. And I did the same thing with like, I had envelopes. I'm not using envelopes anymore. So I had like two stacks of envelopes. I kept a few, the others.

I put in plastic bins or bags go to goodwill. Some may still use it, right? Maybe they have a business and they put flyers in there. Great. So I do something good. So that in and of itself, I cannot tell you how liberating it was.

Sabine Kvenberg (11:24.145) I felt so much lighter. And that is the power of spring cleaning. And here are three strategies to get more done. Declutter, delete, delegate. And starting out with declutter. I just want you to look at the picture. What do you feel?

when you see these pictures. What do feel? I mean, we all feel something different, but it's something like heavy or ugly or just not good, right? Now, on the contrary, how do you feel when you see this picture? For me, it's like breathing. It's kind of, that looks good.

It gives you a good feeling because now I know, I know where things are. It's just so much nicer. Now, how about that with your office, right? It's just, it's bugging you down. And my, my office didn't look like that. So, but just to give you that, that picture of, of heaviness and overwhelm, or how about that? It gives you space.

And this is with everything. We have to create space for us to be creative, space for us to get things done. And that is the power of spring cleaning. Now you may have everything decluttered, right? You got rid of the piles of paper. You got everything

packed away. Let's look at the elephant in the room, shall we? How can we avoid future clutter? And that is even more important than everything that we have done this far. You may have cleaned up your office and I have to raise my hand. Who hasn't been there?

Sabine Kvenberg (13:18.091) you got everything straightened out. You got everything clean. But a few weeks later, it just looks the same. That was me. That was me. And the reason being is we don't have a system. So step number one, we have to get organized and it can look many different ways. One

have a filing system. It can be a physical system. It can be both a physical system and also a digital system. But especially when papers come in to your office, a mail, a letter, we still get mail, right? Or something that you picked up, something that you want to look later, or some important stuff. Maybe you still have.

physical bank statements, you know, everybody is different. It has to be packed away, right? So make sure you take the time and get it organized.

or in your drawers. Hey, don't we all have those drawers that, okay, I don't know what to do with this little thing. Let's put it in there. We all have the junk drawers, right? But eventually it's overflowing. And yes, I'm raising my hands. I had it all so nicely organized. But at one point or another, it's like, oh, let me put this in real quick.

And then there's so many other things on top of those nicely organized things. And again, what I shared with you earlier is our brains cannot handle the clutter. It's all there, but in the back of my mind or in the back of our minds, the back of your mind is, yeah, what did I do with that connector? What did I do with that?

Sabine Kvenberg (15:06.123) thumb drive that had very important stuff on it, right? Now make sure that you have a designated area where you put all your thumb drives. So you don't have to think about that. That frees up that space in your brain that now is free for creative thinking. And most importantly, planning. We got to plan ahead. And when you do those things, when you get organized,

That is the first step to be more productive, to get more done. Step number two, adopt a new end of day habit. For me, that was a very important step. And that one thing that I did is I want to have a clear desk. Even if I

maybe don't have time to put everything or file everything away. At least my desk is clear and I have a designated bin where I put things to take care of the next day. But I have an end of the day habit and that could be a clean desk. It could be a couple other things. You, you are you.

You know, I am me. That was me before. And when you get up the next day and you see that you don't even want to get into your office. And maybe it's not you. I'm not saying that you may have that. Ah, beautiful office, right? But what feels better? The before the after, right? The after, of course.

It again gives me that breathing. It just lifts something off my shoulders and makes me want to come into my office and start my day because now I can start my day being creative. So these are the strategies to get more done. And we talked about the decluttering process. So, so, so important. Now let's look at delete. What do we need?

Sabine Kvenberg (17:20.503) delete. Number one, that's a big one, emails. As I mentioned earlier, nowadays we got so many emails and that is almost a burden. For the more mature audience, can you think back at the time where the World Wide Web just started and AOL came online

with dial in using the it took forever. And then finally you have, you've got mail. Whoa. Wow. You've got mail. that was exciting. You couldn't wait to open up your emails, right? somebody sent me a digital mail. that was the most exciting things of your day, right?

Now those days are long gone. And now it's like, how can I declutter? How can I delete? There are actually services out there that help you get unsubscribed from emails that put you in their list automatically. Because there are tons of organizations out there that sell your

information, including your emails. So I'm using now a organization. I'll share it with you.

And they help me get off lists and being deleted on those lists. But there are still things that we have to do because there's still people that we communicate with that sent us emails and we have to delete them. Otherwise you end up with thousands upon thousands. And again,

Sabine Kvenberg (19:11.665) That's one of the things that I did when I started my decluttering process, my spring cleaning. I went in and very briefly looked at the most important ones. And then, you know, what I had to do, it was painful, but I had to click the delete all. 925. Now, could there be an important email in there? Possibly.

But you know how liberating it is if you only have 50? Very much so. Okay, what else can we delete? Delete some of your yeses and say no, because for every yes you give or every yes means you have to say no to something else. Right. And we think, my gosh.

What if this person that I just said yes to, maybe one day becomes famous? Or that could be an opportunity. Or, well, I want to network with this group and I want to say yes to, yeah, I'm helping you. Yes, I say yes to, of course I'm there for you. That would take away time.

for what you really want to do. Now, I'm not saying eliminate all, but you have to discern which project you say yes to and which project you say no to. That is also a very important part of the spring cleaning. And then you have to let go of stuff you don't need any longer. Like I shared with you earlier,

the business cards that I collected over the years that I have never followed up with the contacts that I have never followed up with that are never entered into my email list. And that probably half of them don't exist anymore. And even though I thought, well, maybe no, forget about it. Get rid of them. Even your closet, how many dresses or pants or

Sabine Kvenberg (21:46.731) jackets are still hanging in your closet that you haven't worn for several years. You may think, well, maybe one day I can fit into it anymore. Or well, maybe in 10 years or maybe in 20 years, I have a reunion with my class and I could show off in that dress. Forget about it. Right? Now, if it's a sentimental piece from

a loved one that is no longer there, I do have a dress from my mother and I probably will keep that. But that's okay. That's a sentimental reason. But there's so many things that I'm not wearing. And when you get rid of it, you make space for new things, for new dresses, right? Or in your office, make space for new things to come into your life and your business. And then the last thing,

delegate. So how can we delegate things? Well, there many different ways. Ask for help. One way can be get a virtual assistant. And you know, you can start out in very many different various ways. I used to have a virtual assistant who just did a couple posts for me.

in my social media. That is one way. Now I have a beautiful, wonderful, wonderful virtual assistant, Sabrina, who's helping me with many other tasks besides doing and helping me with my social media, but also being here in my community as we grow and is also doing other things for me. So that might be a way.

for you to get help. But if you are not there yet, it's okay. You can exchange services. So maybe someone is good doing social media and you are not, but someone is not good with the finances or someone is not good with online, whatever you do. So you can say, Hey, how about I will do this for you and you do that for me.

Sabine Kvenberg (24:16.71) All right. Everybody has something that they are good at, but not so much with the other. So that's a possibility. And that's when you work with your colleagues. That's when you work with someone that you met in your networking group and you just exchange you, you bother, so to speak. So you don't have to pay anybody and they have to don't have to pay you.

Or simply ask your family or friends, hey, and I know some of you have a family member who is good doing the online stuff. Ask them. They're happy to help you. Right. But that is important. At one point, if you want to grow, if you want to keep your sanity, ask for help. So

Those are the strategies to get more done. Declutter, delete, delegate.

And these are the results you're going to get. Instead of ending up the end of the day with thousands of sticky notes and being totally exhausted, you have extra time to just chill. Right? Now, you know me. Action creates change. Only if we take action.

So here we go. Number one, set a date and put it on your calendar.

Sabine Kvenberg (26:41.576) And I wrote, let's do it now. So I want each one of you to take out your calendar, either your physical calendar or your digital calendar, and look for a date that you will do your spring cleaning, applying all the things that

we talked about that you've learned. Okay? Let's do it now.

Second, make a commitment to always end the day with a clear desk or delete your email junk, right? Whatever it is for you. These are just examples, right? Wherever you are, right? If you run a physical business, I have done that too for many years.

What could that be for you? Right. Always make sure to have a balanced, I don't think we have cash registered anymore, but you know, whatever you need to do at the end of the day that everything is accounted for. Right. And even if it's okay, make sure that at the end of the day, all the service get their tip, get their cash, whatever it is, we all have different things.

But if you are working from home, can only tell you having a clear desk coming in in the morning makes a big difference. And number three, post your progress in our Become Empowered group under WINS and celebration. Okay. So post your progress in our Become Empowered group under WINS.

Sabine Kvenberg (28:48.248) and celebration.