How to Declutter your Workspace for Increased Productivity with Amy Slenker-Smith

Ever felt like your workspace is draining your energy rather than fueling your productivity? Join us as we sit down with Amy Slenker-Smith, a passionate decluttering coach, who transformed her chaotic dining room table into a harmonious home office. Through her coaching program and popular blog, Amy’s framework proves that even the most unmotivated can conquer the overwhelm of stuff, save hours in their day, and create a space they love whether it’s their home or office. Discover the secrets behind creating a dedicated workspace and the profound effect it can have on your work-life balance, especially for those navigating the blurred lines of working from home.


Connect with Amy

Amy Slenker-Smith is a Washington DC-based decluttering coach and author of countless living simply articles at Simply Enough. Amy's articles have been featured in Forbes.com, Becoming Minimalist, No Sidebar, and Redfin where she is a regular contributor. She’s also been a guest on the popular podcasts, Simple by Emmy, Simple and Intentional, The Stepmom Side, and Earthy Girls. You can find all her work at www.simplyenough.net!


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Chapters

• 0:00 Decluttering Your Workspace for Productivity
• 8:51 Creating Margin in Workspace for Productivity
• 14:16 Benefits of Decluttering Home Office
• 27:57 Optimizing Paper and Office Organization
• 39:41 Before and After Desk Cleaning Inspiration

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:44

In today's episode, we're going to be exploring a topic that may be more powerful than you think decluttering your workspace. Whether you're working from a home office, a co-working space or your kitchen table, the environment around you can have a massive impact on your energy, focus and, ultimately, your business grows. And who better to help us understand this than our guest today, amy, a professional decluttering coach who's passionate about transforming workspaces to boost productivity and creativity? I can't wait for you to join us in this episode. Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, keri Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine-month-old. My main goal To help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry, and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place, so sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the e-commerce made easy podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Today we have a special guest, amy Slinker-Smith, and she is a decluttering coach. Through her coaching program and popular blog. Amy's framework proves that even the most unmotivated can conquer the overwhelm of stuff, save hours in their day and create a space they love, whether it's in their home or in their office. She'll be talking to us today about how decluttering your workspace can really improve your productivity and save you time. So welcome to the show, amy. Thank you for having me. It's very exciting. It's so good to have you. I've been watching you and following you for several months now and it's been wonderful to see how you just love to help simplify people's lives and make them so much happier, and I just thought it'd be perfect to bring on the podcast to teach us how we could do that for our workspaces, so that we can be more productive.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Yeah, home offices are a popular space to talk about, so I'm excited to dig in.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Yes, for sure, especially with the last few years and where we're many times living in the same place. We're working too, so I feel like this is super important nowadays, for sure.

Speaker 2: 3:02

Yeah, absolutely. It actually is why I pivoted from being a professional organizer to being a decluttering coach. I mean, the pandemic caused a lot of small business owners to pivot, and I was one of them, and one of the reasons that I did so is the first phone calls I started receiving were about oh Amy, I was thinking about hiring you, but do you work virtually Because my home office is a mess, and now I work there seven days a week and we're home all the time, and so home office is really like working from home bubble to the top pretty quickly in 2020, as you would expect it to.

Speaker 1: 3:39

So that makes total sense. So let's dive into our questions then, so we can get going for our listeners, because I'm sure they're curious what advice you might have. So my first question I want to ask you is what was the turning point that made you realize and you kind of already touched on this a little bit but realize the importance of decluttering your workspace for productivity?

Speaker 2: 3:59

Yeah. So for me personally, thank goodness I had done that pre-pandemic. So really the kind of the light bulb moment, I think, for me was that I was working at when I was still in my nine to five job before I started my own business. I found myself working at my dining room table a lot, and I think many work from home folks, whether they're working for a company or whether working for themselves. The dining room table becomes a pretty common space folks go to because the home office is just something they don't want to face. They don't feel inspired, they don't feel productive, they feel like it's the dumping ground, it's cluttered.

Speaker 2: 4:40

And the epiphany for me was I realized that my son was seeing me work all the time. There was never any separation If I was working at my desk or, I'm sorry, if I was working at the dining room table. Work was always like a part of our family. And I realized that that was not the message that I wanted to send to him or to my husband, and I wanted there to be like some separation. And so eventually we created like an office space that we could really enjoy.

Speaker 2: 5:13

So actually my husband and I share a home office, which most people think is crazy, but we were really good at it.

Speaker 2: 5:18

We do it on a regular basis, today included, and I just felt that this was where I wanted to do the work, as opposed to the dining room table, which was meant to be for anything but working, and so I think that that's a really common. It's just a really common symptom that I see with a lot of people. They'll say, gosh, I sit on the couch with the laptop or I sit at the dining room table and we don't intentionally send this message to our families dining room table and we don't intentionally send this message to our families, but it is that unintentional consequence of, you know, our kids. All they see is us working, and having that physical separation, I think, sends that better message and it actually makes you more productive, like you have a little more of control, a little more start and end to your day, and then you can actually walk away from your work, which is what I love about a home office or a defined office space, even if it can't be a whole room.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Right now, and I totally agree with you there, and I can really actually relate, because when I started this business back in 2002, I had a nine month old and then shortly thereafter I had another kid, and so I had to really make that delineation of when is it work time and when is it mom time, and so having a dedicated space was definitely something that helped me do that. Um now, I won't say my space is super neat. I tend to have my office area um a bit messier than I would like, so I think this call is going to probably help me with that. But yeah, it's definitely having that physical separate space. Then people will know when you're sitting in that space it's work time and when you're not in that space it's family time. So I think that's that can really help the work-life balance, especially if you're work from home and have a home office too.

Speaker 2: 7:10

Yeah, it's interesting now because my husband and my son will kind of peek their way down the stairs and sort of look around the corner to be like, is she on a call or isn't she? And so it does really send that signal that you're working. And I know that many of my clients find that they're just getting invaded, you know, by when they're trying to get work done they're getting invaded by the family members and things like that. And so having that space really does has always set that example for my son and so we did. Fortunately I made the shift when he was pretty young and he knows okay, if mom's downstairs that's what she's doing. But he can kind of poke his head in here and if I'm not working or not on a call, I'll stop and be able to talk to him. But he can quickly figure out like the right time and the wrong time and I think that just serves everybody so much better. So it doesn't have to be super neat and clean office, but I can definitely help you with that on this call.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Oh, that's great. And actually this next question I have for you is something I struggle with a lot how do you balance a minimalist workspace with keeping items that inspire your creativity or just bring you joy or just you really need kind of, you know, within arm's reach? How do you make that balance of having that minimalist workspace? Because that's something I've always struggled with and tried to find the right balance and sometimes I win at that and sometimes I lose at that. So how do you do that?

Speaker 2: 8:36

Yeah, so I really think that a minimalist space actually helps to inspire like more creativity, in other words. So it's funny you say about within arms reach. So I'm going to describe this because I love that you sort of brought it up. I am the kind of person and I think a lot of people working need what I call this wing space. So I have my hands here on either side and what I call this wing space of your desk is usually to your left and your right of your laptop and that's where I can have my planner on one side. That's where I can have maybe a project that I'm referencing for the work that I'm doing on the computer. It's also where I can like turn away from the computer because I think there's sort of a lost art of the pen to paper and in reality we're more creative when we do some pen to paper things like morning pages or journaling or just writing in a paper planner. I mean, I'm a full digital electronic girl when it comes to keeping my calendar organized, but I do use a day planner, something that I write in, because there is something to that creativity of the paper.

Speaker 2: 9:43

But if you have a desk that the wings of your desk are just piled with papers or lots of extra decorations or lots of knickknacks or three pencil jars or, you know, paper files. I always suggest, like looking at that and trying to bring that volume down a little bit so that you have some empty space. That empty space is, one, what makes your desk more organized and two, it gives your eyes like a place to rest, and so quite often you'll see spaces in other parts of the home where there are empty spaces. So we have built-in bookshelves. I don't have them super full and the reason for that is not that I just don't want to own a lot of stuff that's part of it but I like to be able to see to the back of the wall, because when your eyes have a place to rest in your home, including in your home office, it's more peaceful, it's more calm, it inspires creativity, and so, really, if you're walking into your home office and saying I have to clean up before I can get to work, that makes you less productive, it makes you less efficient, it means you're spending more time doing your work or, worse yet, you're one of those people who, like me, for a long time was working at the dining room table. You never set foot in the home office, and that's because the creativity just stops at the door, and so I know that it can feel like the word minimalist workspace feels very stark and empty and blank.

Speaker 2: 11:13

But there are a couple of quotes that I like to reference, and one of them is the enemy of art is the absence of limitations, by Orson Welles, and so a lot of times when I work with an artist, that is something that we talk about, or necessity is the mother of all invention. If you are working in a space with less, or you're doing an art project where you have fewer supplies, you're actually more creative and more inventive, and so that's what I would encourage someone to think about is that having some empty space in your office is what's going to actually promote the creativity. It's going to allow you to be more productive and be more efficient. So hopefully that answered your question.

Speaker 1: 11:55

No, that does and honestly, as you were speaking, I was thinking we can totally relate this actually to websites too, because creating that white space on websites is what really makes a website even more effective. So it's similar to what you're talking about in your desk and your work environment.

Speaker 2: 12:11

And.

Speaker 1: 12:11

I hadn't really thought about that, because I'm always thinking about well, how do I make a website more effective while you create the white space so that people can focus on what's important? And that's just so revelational for me that I need to create the white space here in my office so that I can focus on what's important and work. I'm going to be cleaning my desk. That often happens. I have that.

Speaker 2: 12:37

I do have that effect on people. Well, it's interesting, you say it. So, yes, the other day I was doing you know I'm doing this decluttering challenge, I was doing a live and I was talking about margin in your space and what maintains an organized space. So I realize we're talking about home offices but like, for example, in a clothing closet, what creates the organization? There is the space that's in between the clothing, what allows you to put things away and remove them easily. Similarly, on your desk, what creates the organization in desk drawers is going to be like the empty space inside the desk drawers where you can easily find the pen that you wanted or the highlighter you wanted or the staples to replace in the stapler. It's not so much about the exact items but rather the space in between them and so that you've prioritized having the things that really make you productive in that space.

Speaker 1: 13:34

I love it. I'm already thinking about my desk right now and what I need to change Creating margin. Yeah, yes, and creating margin yes, I've done better than I had in the past, but it could still use some improvements. I will be working on that later.

Speaker 2: 13:47

Yeah, the nice thing is that when you start to see the space differently you want to, when you hear things like I have said, like white space and margin, you then start to notice it and it is easier to maintain. So so you're going to deal with your desk today and then the systems that you put in place will be much easier to maintain, because you'll probably do some reducing of the volume too, which is always a good idea.

Speaker 1: 14:14

So yeah, I love that, okay. So then, what are some common mistakes people make when they're trying to declutter their workspace and how can you avoid them? So, like when I, when we get done with this podcast interview, what are the some things I can avoid making mistakes on doing?

Speaker 2: 14:30

Yeah, I think the biggest mistake people make is what I would consider a lack of definition for the home office. Home offices to some extent master bedrooms too, but a lot of home offices become the dumping ground. So, especially I will generalize a little bit, because I think women are the CEO of stuff in their home typically. So when mom works from home and has a home office, she is the one who's in charge of managing a lot of things. Maybe it is she's in charge of mailing the birthday gifts, she's in charge of managing the returns. She's in charge of you know all of the things that come in and out the birthday gifts. She's in charge of managing the returns. She's in charge of you know all of the things that come in and out, the flow of things coming in and out, and so quite often her office becomes the dumping ground, and so I think that's the biggest mistake people make is allowing the home office to be defined as miscellaneous.

Speaker 2: 15:26

And so really, what I encourage my coaching clients to think about is how does your home office function?

Speaker 2: 15:31

Because it's a little different for everybody, like for some of my clients, it's really more about the personal work that they do, or maybe it is about creative work, like maybe they're a scrapbooker and they have their art supplies in there.

Speaker 2: 15:45

So it comes down to like what's the definition of the space and how do you use it, and then being really kind of militant about saying, okay, if it doesn't fit the definition, then it needs to leave. And so that's like the first step is decide how is it your home office functions, who lives in that space, who works in that space and what kind of work do they do? And then, once you know that definition, you can decide, like what stays and what goes, but trying to avoid the dumping ground and, like I told you before, like when the pandemic hit, that was really what most of my clients were facing. They looked at their home office and they just put stuff aside. Company was coming, they shoved stuff in the home office, they closed the doors and deal with it another day, and then another day came and so trying to, once you've got it in a place you're happy about, then remembering that definition and try and avoid the dumping ground is what I would say.

Speaker 1: 16:46

I love that I actually now I'm wanting to reorganize my home office, because I actually do work in my actual office office and really when the pandemic hit, you know, I was having to work from home again. That's how I started the business was, I worked from home delineation, but then during the pandemic I was back working from home again and this was a new thing for everybody. But I was going back to my old roots in the early 2000s, when it wasn't heard of to work from home. And so I'm just thinking, as you were talking, about what my home office looks like, and it totally has been a dumping ground, one just for everybody and two just because I was forced to work there for, you know, a year or so.

Speaker 1: 17:32

And just things were flying in and I didn't have the time to deal with them, and so yeah no, I, I love how you related that to it being a dumping ground, because many times it is.

Speaker 1: 17:43

And my husband just the other day just randomly stuck stuff on my desk, you know, because he didn't know what else to do with it, right? So I need to work with him. We both need to work with each other and find a you know where's the good? We're not sure what to do with this, cause I'll do the same thing on his desk. I'll put things that are for him on his desk, you know you know.

Speaker 1: 18:01

Sometimes, when I see that, my brain's like oh no, that's not, you know, but he doesn't know that he doesn't know anybody. He's trying to do the best he can on his end.

Speaker 2: 18:11

So no, I love how you related that For sure, and it's funny you said about that not knowing what to do with that, and people are bringing stuff to you. So I do think that a big part of this for you and for anyone listening, is going to be about those systems and habits, and so it's going to be about a little bit about training everyone else in your home for what is that definition? Now, once you've decided what the definition is, and then the system like inside the space, and so when my son was young and I was not working down here as much, he would drop things off upstairs for me, and so we kind of have a, we have a command station upstairs, we have the home office in the basement and things travel from the command station to down here, and so what he knew to do was any important papers that came home from school that I needed to do something with. He knew where to put them on the counter. My husband knew the same thing. If there was a bill that came that I needed to address, he would take the stuff out of the mail that he needed to address. He would put my stuff in this like literally just this corner of the kitchen. There wasn't even an inbox or a basket or anything. It was just like this known zone that mom was going to take care of things, and we set up that system. I helped them to understand if you want me to do something, I'm going to look for those papers here and so kind of communicating to my family. That's how that was going to work. And then I could decide if I was coming downstairs to the office I would bring all the things I had to deal with when I got down here. At the time I was working more in an office and so sometimes they go straight into like my bag, my work bag, that I would take.

Speaker 2: 19:53

But whatever your system is, if it has that combination of work from home and in the office, that's kind of what you have to build is. And then be patient with your family and let them know like hey guys, I'm trying to build this new system. Let them know like, hey guys, I'm trying to build this new system. And if you all can, here's this inbox in mom's office and label it like super clearly. I was fortunate that my husband and son adopted the system pretty quickly, but I think label it like you know, mom's inbox, and you might if you have the space in your home office to have it set, not on your desk. I think that'll help you too, because you won't feel like you're walking into your desk and you're all ready to sit down and suddenly people have covered your workspace with things you weren't planning to work on at that time. So that's how I would kind of go about that. I hope that's helpful.

Speaker 1: 20:45

No, it's very helpful. I love that analogy. Okay, so then what can you share? Some surprising benefits that you've experienced after decluttering your workspace? I'm sure you're going to come up with some that I haven't thought of, but some. What are some surprising benefits of doing this declutter? What makes it worth it? For those listening, you know they're like, oh, I kind of want to do this, but why? I really need a why to keep it going. So what are those?

Speaker 2: 21:11

How much I love working here, how much I love working in my home office, how so my husband and I are empty nesters and we travel quite a bit, and it's interesting because, as much as we love the freedom to work from wherever we both just last week, when we were away for an extended period of time we both said I miss the office, like we miss sort of this space that we have carefully curated to be so productive. For us. It's a rarity that I sit upstairs at the dining room table with my laptop. In fact, it feels more like a chore to okay, I'm going to work up here today because, for whatever reason, maybe we have family visiting or my son's home, and it really isn't something I am inspired to do to work outside of my home office. And I think that's a really good thing that this is.

Speaker 2: 22:04

My brain, my body is so trained that this is the space that it feels unnatural actually to work somewhere else, and I think that's such a good thing, and so I think that was a huge surprise for me. And then I would also say that my productivity has increased and I'm way more efficient. So a nice thing about working for yourself right and to being an entrepreneur is that you have this time freedom and you get to decide. You know you get to decide when you're going to work, what days and how, and whatnot. But as entrepreneurs, as you know, we probably work more than we really ultimately want to, because it's all on us.

Speaker 2: 22:47

And what I have found with working in this space is that I'm much more structured and I have my list, I have my planner on the right side, I have my to-dos, I have my calendar blocked out and I'm down here and I get it done and then I can walk away. And so those would be some of the like. The biggest surprise, I think, was just how much I enjoy and appreciate this space and like being in it and feel productive. And and the second was just, you know, really being able to to really walk away. So I think that's nice.

Speaker 1: 23:20

I think that makes a lot of sense because for me I am so much more productive at my office, at my office desk, and if I have to work from home. Like you know, a couple of times this year I have had some health issues um, which I don't normally, and so I did work from home, you know, as much as I could, but oh my goodness it was. It's so hard for me to work in my home office and part of it's just from the COVID pandemic, you know, outlay of the mess that's in there.

Speaker 1: 23:49

And I'm so much more productive if I'm either in my office here or outside on my porch on a laptop rather than in my home office, but I think it's because here in my office, here, everything's where it's supposed to be, there's not as much distraction. It could be neater, as I said, but there's not nearly as much distraction as my home office and then outside at my house, on my back porch. You know it's nice and peaceful and tranquil and there's a lot of white space. If you really think about it, there's a lot of white space out there right Compared to inside my house.

Speaker 1: 24:21

So I can totally relate to feeling more at peace and and wanting to work in that space. It does make you want to, just, you know, get to work and get your things done and enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 24:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:33

And then you can step away. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2: 24:37

I think you're. I think it's funny because I think your porch is a bit of like the dining room table for a lot of people. So your, your escape to me it sounds like your escape from your home office when you're at home is to work out on the porch, and it's because you know intuitively you'll get more done there, You'll be more productive. And that avoidance of the home office I see and hear all the time. I really do, and that's, I think, one of the biggest benefits to just do the work and you will find how much you actually then enjoy the process of working in your home office and, better yet, your ability to step away and close the door.

Speaker 2: 25:21

We talked my husband and I talked sometimes because for so many years he had to be in an office and what was nice about that was he always left. It could leave it at the door. And I think, with these blended workspaces that so many people have now and so much more work from home and remote and work from where you want, it's hard to, it's hard to like, turn it on, shut it off in kind of a consistent manner. It's almost always bleeding into other parts of our day and and I think it just means we're we're not spending time with people we love, we're not being as healthy as we could be, and it's all those things that are trade-offs, that those benefits that I that make me always want to have like some kind of a dedicated space, even if it's not a whole room.

Speaker 1: 26:07

So, yeah, that totally makes sense, and I think that's part of the reasons why I love coming into the office to work, because I'm on when I get here and I'm off when I leave, and I usually only work in the evenings or weekends if it's a client emergency or if I want to be creative and not have any. You know, employees ask questions at that moment and I want to just you know, do some fun work stuff on the side.

Speaker 1: 26:30

Yeah, okay. So then, for those listening, what are your top three practical tips for someone who wants to start decluttering their workspace today but feels overwhelmed? I know for me, thinking about tackling my home office, like here, here at the office office, this is not going to be overwhelming, but my home office it's going to be overwhelming. So what are some top three tips to get through that?

Speaker 2: 26:57

So the first thing I would say is you need room to do the work, and so I would say start with the top of your desk. So I would start with the top of your desk and remove everything humanly possible that you can like. Grab a laundry basket, slide it all into the laundry basket, starting kind of with a blank canvas, so you can leave the computer, you can leave the, you know, the Wi-Fi router, if that's on your desk, you can leave that. And you can also leave a printer if you have to, if that's what you're done, but that already, that alone, when I just say those three things, are going to fill up a desk space pretty quickly. And so that's why I say start with like a blank canvas and remove as much as humanly possible. Ideally, only leave the computer on the desk. So that's my the first thing, because that's what's going to allow you to have some room to be productive, get your work done and then spend some time on doing the sorting and dealing with all the other things. And so the second thing that I always tell people to focus on is a filing system or a paper processing system.

Speaker 2: 28:07

Paper is something I get asked about all the time, whether it's a home office or not, there's in, even in this paperless environment that we're in, there's still paper like constantly coming into our world, whether it's work related, whether it's bills, whether it's junk mail. And so many home offices have these, like endless file cabinets and boxes full of files, like endless file cabinets and boxes full of files. And what everyone's first instinct is, their first instinct, is to like okay, I have to deal with all those file cabinets and all those boxes. I'm like, no, no, no, no, you don't have to do that, they're contained. Okay, so that's at least contained. Now, I know that clutter that's behind closet doors or inside drawers weighs on everyone's mind, so it's still weighing on you mentally.

Speaker 2: 28:51

But before you kind of tackle a backlog of paper and files, what you've got to do is set up a system that's going to work for how you're going to process the paperwork coming into your home. So let me give you an example. I like to set up like about five categories. I have an action category, so I have folders. But I'm going to talk to you about a couple of different systems, because my system doesn't work for everyone, so it's really having sort of five categories of papers. It's either an action, so it's something that has a consequence with it. An action would be a bill to pay, a form to fill out. An action is not a coupon. That's not an action. There's no consequence.

Speaker 2: 29:31

The second thing is file and scan. So if you've got papers that need to be filed, if you're digital and you scan them, I always recommend like putting those together in one stack and batch scanning stuff together or batch filing. My third is current. So current is a piece of paper that doesn't really have a consequence but you want to get your hands on it at some point. In the past it would have been things like, you know, theater tickets or a wedding invitation or event tickets or a form for your kid's field trip. That folder for me has less and less, but it still has some important papers that I know like I want hold onto this and I'm gonna need access to it in the next 90 days or so. So that's what I would use that folder for.

Speaker 2: 30:19

And then shred is the fourth category. So I like to batch shred. So I just when I'm working with something and I'm like, okay, this needs to go in the shred pile, I put it in a folder labeled shred. And then the fifth folder. For most people is typically either their kids' stuff or work stuff. So this is where you know your final category kind of is dependent upon the type of person that you are.

Speaker 2: 30:44

Now what I have are folders, and they're in a vertical filer on my desk. I'm like pointing to it as if everyone can see that. But for some people, folders really don't work. The out of sight, out of mind, doesn't work, especially with my ADHD clients. They have to be able to see things, and so in that case what I suggest is you're going to need like a stackable filer, something that has some open bins, maybe five, four to five open bins, so that you can see all right, I see in there I've got a lot of actions. That means I have some bills I've got to pay. Oh, I see my filing pile is getting bigger. I need to set time on my calendar to deal with the filing. The shred pile is about to fall out of the basket, so then it's time to actually sit down and do the filing. But that visual reminder works. For some people who are visual, that works really well, and so it's like a know yourself whether file folders or more of an open bin situation will work.

Speaker 2: 31:43

And then the third system that for some of my clients has worked really well. These are for folks who are maybe, like you, going back and forth between spaces, and is a folder, more like a folder book, that's done with a spiral bound I'm not describing it terribly well but has multiple pockets inside it. And so for some people who are going from an office to home and need to carry those files back and forth, that's another good way. But, like I said, for my ADHD clients from an office to home and need to carry those files back and forth, that's another good way. But, like I said, for my ADHD clients it's open trays and for everyone else the folder system seems to work pretty well. So that's our second. That's my second tip. It was a long one.

Speaker 2: 32:23

My third one once you've dealt with the top of the desk and now you have a paper filing system, with the top of the desk and now you have a paper filing system, the third step is to rough sort everything else that's in your home office.

Speaker 2: 32:35

This tends to be the dumping ground-like items, so you'll need a relocate pile.

Speaker 2: 32:41

You'll need a pile of electronics that need to be recycled, so dated technology is often found in home offices excess office supplies, and then you'll get to that backlog of all those files, and so it's a good idea just to try and clear the floor, clear the flat surfaces and rough sort things into categories that make sense and then start tackling them one at a time. And it's overwhelming so you can't do all of those at once. But that's a way to sort of avoid the overwhelm is if you first rough sort the stuff in your office and then you can pick up that pile of relocate items and take them where they should be. You can take the pile of items to be returned and you can tackle them at once. You can take all the electronics recycling to Best Buy They'll recycle your electronics and so on and so forth. So you can just work your way through one pile at a time. And because doing a home office is it's not an overnight process, it will. It will take some time, and so the rough sorting I find really really helps.

Speaker 1: 33:47

I really like that because I've actually done that before in my home office is done like a rough sort. I basically got a bin and I put every single thing on my desk into that bin. So it does actually really work and I just need to do it again thing off my desk and just the relief it's going to feel once I've just done step one and cleared my desk off.

Speaker 1: 34:16

I mean, that's just going to like feel like the heavens have opened and all this weight is lifted off of me. And I love how you have the analogy where the ADHD people might need like the open bins, cause I wouldn't necessarily categorize myself as that, but I'm more of a visual person too, so I feel like that would actually work better and I've always tried to do the file folders. So I like how you have the options based upon how our brain works, because I think that because if it's in a file folder, I just never look at it for like a year or more, like I need to have the open bin. So I'm going to change some of my organization on my desk here. I need some of those open bins again.

Speaker 2: 34:58

Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1: 35:00

I love how you really kind of broke that down and I feel like you can take that step by step and maybe do even just one of those tasks. Maybe take three days in a row and do one, and then the next one, and then the next one yeah, absolutely, if you don't feel like you have a whole day that you can just dedicate to that. Yeah, and.

Speaker 2: 35:18

I think you hit the nail on the head to carry where you're. Like you said, I'm envisioning taking everything off the desk and how that's going to your. You're already visualizing what it's going to look like. You're already excited about it and that's what helps with the overwhelm of the whole rest of the home office. So that's why I always like to start with the top of the desk, because I feel like what I know now. I feel like I know if you get some success, that makes you want to do more.

Speaker 2: 35:47

It's the progress principle. It's sort of, it becomes contagious, it's very motivating, it creates a momentum and with all these other categories that we're talking about whether it's paper, whether it's excess decorations you need some space to work and sort through the things. Maybe you have office supplies stashed in a bunch of different spots in your home office. Well, if you have some empty space on your desk, you can bring them all together, you can sort them, you can decide maybe I don't need two staplers, maybe I don't need this many binder clips and you can start to kind of reduce and sort and get rid of the things that aren't serving you anymore. So that empty, flat surface is what is gonna allow you to tackle the rest of the office like category by category and um, that freeing sort of lighter feeling there's. There's nothing like it.

Speaker 1: 36:36

Um, so it's a good place to start. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm now excited to go clean my home office area, as well as the one here. Um, that's awesome, yeah, no, I think that's just wonderful. I think that's really going to help our listeners kind of visualize how can they actually get this accomplished and what are they going to feel like when they're done. I think they're going to feel so wonderful and relieved is what I imagined me feeling Um whenever they get this done. I think it also doesn't.

Speaker 2: 37:06

It doesn't stop them from doing the work that I know they need to do day to day, because so many of my clients say to me Amy, I just don't have time to do this work. I know I need to do it, but I don't have time to do it, and I would argue that you're going to find the time that you're lacking when you start to do this work. And so the reason I try to break down the home office with first take everything off the desk, because that's a pretty achievable thing to do, like I'm not asking you to make any decisions, but any of the things that are on the top of your desk other than move them, other than take them off your desk, and now you have a space that you can walk into and be productive and do your day job and get your work done, because that's the thing that most often is holding my clients back. You know they're busy working professionals and they have to stay on top of that. And when they realize that all they have to do, step one, take everything off the desk and they start to become more productive and therefore more efficient.

Speaker 2: 38:08

Now they've got time to go to step two. Now they've got time. Okay, now I can actually deal with these papers and I can build a system. Okay, now I've done that and you just break it down into these smaller projects, which is the only way to win at this. It's the only way to declutter any overwhelming space, whether it's your home office or the entire house is you have to do the work in small increments, and most people are kind of resistant to that. They think I just need a whole weekend to organize my house, and it turns out that's not true.

Speaker 1: 38:40

So yeah, when it didn't get messy in a weekend either, you know it did not. So it's kind of like you know, when you want to lose 50 pounds, you didn't gain that 50 pounds in a day.

Speaker 2: 38:50

That's right.

Speaker 1: 38:51

You've got to. You've got to. You know, chunk it off slowly so that you know you make your progress. You know Absolutely no. I love that.

Speaker 2: 39:00

You didn't accumulate everything overnight and it is going to take some time to undo it. There was a funny meme I saw that someone during the pandemic was like I thought I needed, you know, just a couple free nights with nothing to do and then my house would be organized. And they said it turned out, turns out. That's not true and while I think a lot of people made some kind of progress in their home during the pandemic, they realized that they, I think they also realized, like, how big of a job it can be and how overwhelming it can be. So one small space at a time is the name of the game.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Yeah, I love that strategy. Well, thank you so much, amy, for being on our podcast today. It was just such an enjoyable conversation. I'm so inspired to clean not only my work desk but my home desk, which has always been so overwhelming to me, so I cannot wait to tackle both of those and feel more relief when I walk into that room at home.

Speaker 2: 39:56

All right. Well, I would love to see a before and after photo. So, and if nothing else, take that photo for yourself, because seeing the progress that you make in that space is what's going to give you the momentum to tackle other spaces in your home. So make sure you have your own visual, like before and after, to remember, like the progress and to appreciate the work that you did.

Speaker 1: 40:16

That's a good idea, cause I would be like so embarrassed to like actually send it to you, but if it's for me, no, I totally get that. That is a good way to really remind yourself where you came from, as far as your mess, and how far you got along.

Speaker 2: 40:29

Absolutely. Do that for you, a hundred percent.

Speaker 1: 40:32

Well, thank you so much, Amy, for being on our show. You're welcome. Thanks for having me.