FRIENDS – A NEW YEAR IS BEGINNING! Can you believe it? Every year, I’m just in awe of how fast time flies.
Every January, I find myself organizing and cleaning out every aspect of my life like next before. I find a new year to be a fresh start and a sort of challenge for myself to see what I can make better in the new year.
With that, I’m excited to begin a new challenge to get the year off to a fresh start. We’re going to be diving deep in this exciting four week challenge to get your business on the right feet & cleaned up for 2019.
Whether you’ve had a business for years or just began doesn’t matter. These weekly challenges are going to be simple & easy to implement, yet effective.
So, let’s get into week one! This week, we’ll be covering your personal space, both physically and digitally. It sounds simple to implement, but you’d be surprised the amount of things people tend to overlook or not consider cluttered. I can’t express the importance of implementing a no-mess mentality within your business and personal life. You can’t possibly gather your thoughts or be creative with too much going on, so let’s get started!
Step 1: Clean up your office
You’d be surprised what lingers in your desk drawers, your office closets, and even sitting atop your desk in plain site. Grab a trash bag and toss any unwanted junk that may have been sitting in your space for far too long.
Step 2: Organize important papers
I’m 100% paperless when it comes to invoicing, contracts, and proofing but I tend to hold onto old moodboard images, research & personal notes, and even branding sketches for months and months at a time, thinking I may use them for inspiration or social media photos at a later date. But then, I never even get to them. If you’re not paperless, I suggest sorting through your files and throwing out any papers you no longer need. Grab a file organizer (love this one from Pottery Barn) and organize by project or category.
For accounting purposes, companies like Quickbooks allow you to take a photo of your receipts so that you can toss them instead of letting them pile up in your purse and desk drawers. Document them, toss them, and move on!
Step 3: Update calendars
TOSS THE OLD CALENDARS. Unless you’re wanting to document some sort of exciting time (I have the calendar from my first year of business), you’re better off tossing them. Get a fresh calendar for the new year and start adding in all of your important dates.
Step 4: Clean your email
Inbox ZERO is a challenge I give myself daily. Go through all old email folders and delete anything you no longer need. Clean your inbox entirely, begin unsubscribing from all emails you constantly push to spam, and get rid of read emails immediately.
Each day, I try to respond (if necessary) to all emails and as soon as I do, they’re organized. Important client conversations are filed and everything else is moved directly to trash. I keep my inbox clean and organized. Hear my advice: unsubscribe from all emails that aren’t necessary.
Step 5: Trash things you don’t need
You’d be surprised what lingers in your desk drawers, your office closets, and even sitting atop your desk in plain site. Grab a trash bag and toss any unwanted junk that may have been sitting in your space for far too long.
Step 6: Clean up computer files
Take the time to organize and clean all of your computer files. With a desktop computer, a macbook, ipads, and our iphones, it is so important to keep everything in its place and uncluttered & organized for business. I utilize google drive for personal files, dropbox for client files, and an external hard drive for anything important I need to hang onto. At the end of the year, I zip each clients’ files into one zip before exporting and removing from my computer so everything is in one space.
I organize all of my files and remove anything unnecessary from my computer, including applications I no longer use and anything lingering on the desktop area.
Step 7: Remove any apps you aren’t using OR that take up too much time
Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Hulu, Netflix…whatever app you have on your phone, ipad, or computer that takes up way too much time, needs to be deleted. In 2017, I removed Facebook from my phone and it was the BEST decision ever. I don’t even notice its gone and when I go to find it, I’m reminded of why I removed it in the first place. Instead of spending time mindlessly scrolling through my empty Facebook feed, I’m filling it with more important things.
If you actually need it, you can always find it through your computer or Safari on your phone! For business, I have my Facebook pages app & ads manager downloaded, but my personal Facebook is completely removed. Mindless scrolling takes up more time than you’d imagine.
And then once you’re done, stay patient and wait for week two! We’ll be chatting about social media and how to get ready to automate, curate, and wipe out the unnecessary.
See you next week!
