Latest / More Organised Less Clutter / 243. The Business Minimalist’s Guide to Digital Declutter
Transcript
- speaker-0: Welcome to More Organised, Less Clutter, a podcast to empower individuals and neurodivergent families with practical, realistic tools to create a more organised, sensory-friendly, clutter-free and intentional home that works with your lifestyle and brain, not against it. I'm Narelle King, a professional organiser and neurodivergent mum who understands the unique challenges of family life. I help people just like you simplify your space build sustainable organisational systems and create more breathing room physically and mentally. Every fortnight, you'll hear solo episodes and guest conversations filled with practical strategies on decluttering, home organisation, routines for neurodivergent families, mindful living and how to build a home that feels safe, calm and functional. You'll walk away with actionable takeaways you can implement even if you only have 10 minutes to spare. Is your digital life more cluttered than your wardrobe? Today, I'm more organised, less clutter. We're tackling the hidden clutter, your tech, your files, your business processes. My guest, business minimalist mentor, Saskia Mahdi, shares how she went from over shopping to intentional living and how you can use the same mindset to clean up your files, streamline your client journey if you're a business owner, and build business systems that work from day one, even if it's just you. This conversation is a video recording that you can watch on YouTube. Let's jump into this more organized less clutter episode with Saskia to declutter your digital space. Today on more organized less clutter, I'm talking with Saskia from the Business Minimalist. She's a Business Minimalist mentor, system strategist, and a verified consultant. She will be helping us today to declutter your actual digital workspace rather than just your physical space. Welcome, Seske. speaker-1: Hey, Narelle, thanks for having me. speaker-0: ⁓ no, thank you for making the time to come on. We'll start though with two accessories that you would come with as a Barbie doll, just so that people can get to know you a little bit. speaker-1: Okay, yeah, this is an interesting one. sounds easy, but it is not. think one would have to be my trusty little coffee thermos that I always have with me, which explains itself, I think. And the second would have to be a little peach scooter because I live in Bali and I'm always scooting around on my scooter. speaker-0: ⁓ And does everybody in the family, do you have a car as well? Or you just put everyone on the scooter? speaker-1: scooter. We've got two. We've each got our own scooter and my husband's is a little bit more. It's a larger scooter so we fit on that one together. speaker-0: So if I was to come over to Bali, Indonesia to work with you as a professional organizer in the physical space, what area in your home do you think you need some assistance with? Maybe there's nothing though. speaker-1: Look, we're pretty organized around here, but there's this place that we call my husband's office, but it's actually, it's our indoor shed. I think that would be, we don't have a shed outside, it's a room in the house. And I think, ⁓ that's the one that needs the most love. speaker-0: Yeah, wow. So it doubles as a study and a shed then. speaker-1: No, he doesn't. It's not actually an office, but we just joke. Because I have an office at home. And we call the indoor shed my husband's office. speaker-0: And has it got shelving and things like that for it? speaker-1: It's shelving, it's, you know, shelving, it's, that's sort of the macro. We need micro help. need the drawers and the, and the shelves within the shelves, if that makes sense. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, definitely. So that even just gives me a hint that you're probably more of a micro organiser than the big macro having everything together. speaker-1: The difference is that he has organized that and not me. speaker-0: Yeah. So you talked about then minimalist. How did you become a minimalist then? speaker-1: Yeah, well, wasn't intentional. It was definitely accidental. I would have described myself anything but a minimalist up to 15 years ago. I was living in Europe at the time and I loved to go shopping and spend money on absolutely anything that I could. I earned pretty all right, but at the end of the month I was always broke because I just kept buying stuff I didn't need and spending it on things I didn't need. And then my husband and I made the plan to travel overland from Europe to Australia and then to go and settle back home in Australia. And we looked around our apartment and we looked at our bank accounts and we thought our house is so overflowing and our bank accounts are there. So something has to change in order for us to be able to do this. Cause we're talking about pre Instagram influencer era. People were not making money traveling. It was a budget activity and So we got really clear on what the goal was. Okay, we want to be able to stop work for a year. We want to be able to immigrate. And what do we need to do that? Well, we need X amount of money and you know, we're, going backpacking, but we're not coming back. So we could only take what fits in our packs and anything that doesn't help either of those things. We're not doing so we left our big fancy apartment. We stopped eating out. stopped buying things. I started selling things. And it was like this visceral emotional experience for me to have to part with my things and realize that it was, you know, obviously there's some sort of hole that you keep filling if you keep trying to buy things. And as we went through that process, I started to realize how freeing it was and how light life felt having less, less things to think about, less things to clean, less things to take care of. And I started to actually embrace this lifestyle. So even we did the trip, we ended up saving enough for two years. And when we finally got to Australia and we got a house, we decided to continue living that minimalist lifestyle. And we moved back to Europe a year later, but still that minimalist lifestyle has followed us all the way. speaker-0: And how do you go then? How did you go then with the transition with kids? ⁓ speaker-1: Everyone started, when I was pregnant, they said, you can't be a minimalist with a child. And we said, okay, well, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. And actually, our daughter doesn't know life differently. There's certain kind of practices that we have in life that, okay, well, if you want to have the new stuffed animal, we're going to have to get rid of another one. Or if you want to bring more clothes into the cupboard, we're going to have to get rid of some clothes. We have a max capacity rule and you can have whatever you want within there. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And it works. And I think the thing is also, it's about how you approach things, right? So when we are going to purchase something, we don't just buy things on a whim. If we see something we like, we say, okay, well, let's think about it. And if we still like it in a week, we'll come back. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And then even when we immigrated together from Europe to Bali, we all had one suitcase. speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's a great way. speaker-1: Again, we brought our lives down to one suitcase, even our daughter, she was three at the time. And everyone thought, ⁓ no, that's not possible. You can't do that. But yeah, she's embraced it as well. speaker-0: That's fantastic and I'm sure because she's been part of that from a young age it may continue on you know into her adult life as well. You never know though. speaker-1: Who knows? Who knows? It might be the pendulum swing that goes the other way. speaker-0: It could be, it could be, yes. Yeah, So then how did it shift with your work then as well? speaker-1: Deprived childhood. Yeah. So I actually was working for someone else. had a salary job in the past. So it wasn't really until my daughter was born and I wanted to create my own business because I didn't want to have to work when someone else dictated. And I was trying to figure out how I could take the experience that I had, which is working in the operations department of big corporations, big multinational businesses, also smaller businesses, but both. How can I take that? And do that for myself. How can I be an office manager without an office? And I came across the idea of being a virtual assistant and I thought, Oh, I can do admin. I can check off to do lists. No problem. And so I started that business and very quickly realized it was a horrible business model for me because I kept working myself out of the job. Clients would hire me and set up the system. Yeah. Clients would hire me and say, Oh, I'll need you for 10 hours a week. And then then, you know, after a month, I say this, I don't actually need you anymore. And the problem was is that I kept minimizing their businesses. You know, people would come to me and say, oh, my plate is full and I'm overwhelmed. So I just want to throw some tasks onto your plate. And I'd start asking them awkward questions like, well, why do you want it? Why do you want this task to get done? And what are you trying to achieve? And why haven't you automated this? And we could create a system for that. And so slowly I just kept working myself out of the job with every client that I was working with. And then luckily I had this one lovely client and she said to me, Saskia, you're not here to tick off to do lists. You're here to Marie Kondo people's businesses. speaker-0: That's great. I love that. speaker-1: At the time, Marie Kondo was huge and it was an approach that I had never thought about. I was consciously bringing minimalism into people's businesses because I was working with clients who were coaches or consultants or had agencies and they had all of these goals that they were trying to achieve. And I was standing there and going, why are you trying to achieve six different goals at the same time? You know, you're only taking one step ahead in each of them. What if you just focused on one and went all in on that? And then we made sure that everything else was systemized and simplified. And I didn't realize that that isn't how most people's brains necessarily work. speaker-0: Yes, no they don't. speaker-1: Yeah. And it's the same within our ⁓ own lives. We've all grown up in this world where more is more. there's the career path or the life path. You graduate, you get the job, you buy the house, you get the bigger house, you get the bigger car, and you just keep more, more, more because that's the path that's laid out in front of you. And it's the same with business. But what if we stopped and asked ourselves, is that the path that makes me happy? Is it? getting the better label on my door at work with the role that everyone thinks is amazing? Or is it having the fancy car in the driveway or the big house? Or is it something completely different? Maybe I want to live out in the forest with a tiny little wooden cabin and, you know, tend to my chickens. Maybe that's what's going to make you happy. It's not what everyone else told you would make you happy. And I find it's the same with business that we'll hear the business coaches or internet gurus and they say, speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: this is what you should be doing and you need to have this goal and you need to have this thing that you're working towards and you have to specialize in this and create more offers and do this. And before you know it, people have just added all of these things to their to-do list that aren't actually aligned with what it is that's important to them. speaker-0: Yep, yeah. And then they've got too many things, isn't it, which they don't actually really need to manage as well. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And everything that you start creating, every goal that you're working towards, every offer that you have, every client you work with, it's effort to keep it up. speaker-0: Yes, definitely. do you find then, like obviously it's different to, how is it similar to the physical stuff? Like, you know, your drawers and your cupboards, and then when you apply this sort of thinking to say a business. speaker-1: I think it has so many parallels. Obviously in your work as well, Narelle, you would notice that it's not just about the stuff. It's all the feelings around the stuff, right? Whether it's the awkward feeling of not wanting to open the drawer or it's the feeling that I described earlier that I got joy, I thought, from buying things. It's not actually about the things, it's about the feelings around them. And I think that's definitely similar in work. And it's the same also with You know, everyone's got the famous drunk drawer at home in businesses as well. mean, whether that's your Google drive that you just keep shoving things in and hoping that you never have to find again, or whether it's a task list where you keep dumping things or the, what do you call it? The desktop on your computer. When you start it up, it's like this instant, ⁓ my goodness, look at all of this mess, right? There's a lot of similarities that you can draw between the two. speaker-0: on your computer. And then I suppose the other one that comes to mind that I seem to come across with clients I've worked with is that they're like deleting photos or deleting things because otherwise they've got to pay for more storage as well. that I'm sure something that you come across as well. speaker-1: Yeah. So while I don't specifically help people with their Google Drive photos or their Google Photos, is an honestly, if I'm being like really truthful, I'm not amazing with my photos. have to say minimalism does not exist with my photos. But yeah, for sure. It's, speaker-0: So that looking at it and going, OK, do we need all of this or what's the system that can help me to organize it and simplify it or even delete some of it, isn't it? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I ⁓ think it was James Clear who said really aptly, your goals will fall to the level of your systems. You can have the plan of achieving something, but if you don't actually have the system in place to make it a reality, it's going to be about an uphill constantly. speaker-0: Yeah. So what's one of the systems that you see that business owners like founders in particular might skip and not have in place to be organized? speaker-1: Well, I think people always have systems. think the question is whether or not it's consciously or subconsciously created, right? Like if we look at something to relate to your personal life, how you brush your teeth, how you start your morning routine, you can consciously create a morning routine that serves you, or you can subconsciously just roll out of bed and have no planning come into it. It's probably not serving you. And it's the same in business. The number one system that I work with my clients on is looking at their customer journey. And that is the entire process of someone who's never met you, never heard of your name. How do they discover that you exist? How do they engage with you? What's the sales process like with them? What's the delivery process like? And how do you off board them? And what do you do when you finish working together? So that from that start to finish, first meeting to saying goodbye, what is that process? And most people that come to me have subconsciously created that process. through trial and error over the years, it's all in their head. And not to say that the steps aren't working, but the quality of the customer journey depends on their mood. And that's a really big problem that people are running to is that if you don't have a system in place, you're not going to be able to give people the same consistent level of service because maybe you'll have one client that joins you. when you're feeling amazing and you're in a good mood and they're going to get all the emails and all the attention and you're going to, you're on, you know, you've had a good night's sleep, so you're not going to forget to send them the contract or the welcome kit or whatever the thing is. But then you might have another client who joins when you've had a shitty week and you forget things and your emails don't sound as nice. And you know, you've got two people who paid for the exact same service and they're not getting the same one by going through that customer journey and mapping out what are each of those steps? And then figuring out, can we create a template? Can we set up an automation? Can we have a checklist? Can we create something that's going to take the weight off you to remember and to manually do them? And not to say that we're going to completely remove the heart out of your business. You dictate how those things happen, but setting up those systems and processes so that you don't have to do everything from scratch each time, right? Like just this week I started working with a new client. and they're amazing business and they're super successful. And every step of the process, they said, okay, we have to send this email. We have to do this email. I said, have you got a template? No. Have you got a template? No. Have you got a template? No. So every time Paul is typing the same email and obviously a template email, it's not the same as an automated email, right? A template email is one that you can still change. You can add a personalization. You can adjust to each person, but by having speaker-0: I do it again. speaker-1: 80 or 90 percent of the email written, it saves you time, but it also saves you brain power. You don't have to remember all the things, right? And if the whole thing is in your head, you're mentally carrying it. So it is taking up so much head space. So anyway, as we go through this process, we're figuring out the emails that they can write, the templates, the checklists, what have you. And we're also looking at what we could automate. So the tool that I specialize with is called ClickUp. speaker-0: Yep. ⁓ sorry, I as a clip. speaker-1: That's okay. Click up. That's a task or project management tool. So maybe if people haven't heard of that one, they've heard of Asana or Trello or monday.com. In my opinion, ClickUp is the best, but everyone has their own way of looking at things. So then we'd be looking at that customer journey together to say, okay, well, maybe we can set up an automation in the system that when a new client submits a form that then We can ensure they're getting an automated email that says, thanks for the form. We'll get back to you shortly. Maybe we're going to generate a task list of things that have to happen. Maybe we're going to notify someone in the team that they have to do XYZ. All of these things could be automated that you don't manually then have to go and do. So it's going to make sure that it's saving you that time, head space, and the customer is going to have a much better experience because they're not getting forgotten. speaker-0: I'm a huge believer in systems and I love that. It has changed the business. And so do you find though for people, because obviously it's going to change from someone who's just one solo person and then someone who has to say a small team of two or three people, do you have a number where you find you need the systems need to change or you need to actually develop the systems or you recommend from day one? speaker-1: day one, even when you're by yourself, I consciously choose to work by myself by a few freelancers that I sometimes hire in. But that's a conscious choice. Everything in my business is systemized because I'm not going to waste time on things that past me could have taken care of that future me would have to pay for now. Right? So it's from anyone. Because even if you're working by yourself, like the template of emails we talked about, that's such a simple fix, even if it's just you. And again, if Even if it's just you and you've got that system that's saying, okay, we've mapped out the process. We've sent them this. Now we're going to give them the booking link. Now we're going to prepare XYZ. It just takes out that having to start from scratch every time and reinvent the wheel and make sure that everyone's getting that same experience. But obviously as the business grows, you want to be able to outsource things. And if everything's in your head, no one knows how to do it. And something that as a virtual assistant I experienced, but also in the work that I do now, we make the assumption that everyone's brain works the same as ours. Spoiler alert, they do not. Because if I was to say to you, I don't know, for example, like draw a red car, the car that you drew was not going to be exactly the same red car that I'm going to draw. Maybe you're thinking of a four door. Maybe I'm thinking of a two door sports car. Completely different. We make the assumption that everyone thinks the same as us. So if we tell someone to respond to the emails in the inbox, they're going to reply in a completely different tone of voice. And if we tell them to create social media on our behalf, it's going to be completely different unless they have a clear specific process to follow. This is how I talk. I do say these words. I don't say those words. Or these are the brand colors. We always use this font. We always make sure that we do XYZ. And very often people are growing with their business and they want to outsource. They say, but it's just so hard because I spent so much time on this person and so much money and it ended up costing me more time because I have to redo the work or it wasn't good enough. And look, there's two sides to this coin. One, yes, no one is you. No one's going to do it exactly like you do. The second, you can get it as close as possible, but only if you have the systems and processes and training in place. Because you can't, these people can't absorb by osmosis. They're not exactly you. But if they have a foolproof process that they can follow, if there are templates that they can use, and if they've been trained that they can understand what it is that you're trying to achieve, then they're going to get an 80, 90 % version of what you could do by yourself. Maybe even better if they're specialized in a field that you're not specialized in. Because we all have this idea that we're the only one that can do anything when it comes to our own business. speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. So what about transferring, say, something, a part of a system into your own household and relating it to digital? Is there any in particular that you can think of that you've used with your own family? speaker-1: Sure. So I think there are so many systems in our everyday life. And again, do we consciously or subconsciously create them? The one that for me is one of my biggest pet hates is it's 5.30 and there's no dinner plan. I can't stand it. it's almost unreasonable, but it stresses me out like nobody's business. So we have a weekly meeting that we have with the family each week and on Sunday, And we talk about, ⁓ so what went well this week? What didn't we have like, we have like a scrum retro together. It's really funny. What went well, what didn't and what did we learn? And then we look at the calendar. Okay. So this week we've got such and such as birthdays coming up. All right. We need to buy a gift. We've got some other commitments. So I won't be home that night. Are you going to be at home? Yep. Okay. And what does everyone want to eat this week? Right. So we plan that out. we decide on Sunday, this is what we're going to eat. And honestly, most weeks, it's the same thing. I used to think that this would be one of the most horrible ways to live, but we basically eat the same thing every week. Variations of, but we make the decision upfront. And it's also, we've taught our daughter that we say, this is what we're eating this week. This is your one chance to share your opinions about it. Because after this, we've agreed, nothing's changing. So they're like, ⁓ don't feel like that. yeah, you had a chance to talk about it on Sunday. Yeah. And so yeah, we have a plan that we follow. And then from that, we create a grocery list. My husband does the grocery shopping and we have all the food in the house to make all the meals. No one has to decide anything. It's all we plant. And you could choose if you wanted to do this in a digital way. We choose to do it analog in a book. Yeah. But that's definitely a way you could do it. speaker-0: Yes, no, we've only just changed to digital in the last 12 months just because of the calendar that we're using. But yeah, it makes such a difference. And especially as kids get older, like our daughter, 17, has a job and works sometimes at nighttime now. It's like, the meal isn't ready, you know, isn't thought about, you know, she doesn't finish work till 10. It's like too late to eat dinner. So We've had to get really organized lately about what day she's working to make sure that there's either the dinners early or it's something that we've already cooked. So yeah, it definitely makes a big difference. Otherwise, she'd probably miss out. She'd have toasted sandwiches every night that she finishes work otherwise. speaker-1: Yeah, I can imagine. This is a 17 year old's dream. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Saskia, what is the best place then for people to connect with you? speaker-1: Sure. So everywhere it's the same name, Saskia, Marty, which is the difficult one. So I'm sure you'll put it in the show notes, but you can find me on LinkedIn for the most part and on Instagram. And I've also got a podcast of my own called the business minimalist. speaker-0: ⁓ definitely. Thank you so much for your time and for also sharing all that information in regards to digital organization, which is so useful. speaker-1: Yeah, but thanks again, Narelle, for having me. It was really fun to have a chat and ⁓ I loved that little chat that we had before we got on, but also that we had on the episode. It was really nice. Thank you. speaker-0: Is your family's paperwork piling up and taking over your kitchen bench? Do you waste hours searching through piles of paper clutter, looking for documents and reminder notices? Our comprehensive guide walks you through each step to help you effectively organise your paperwork and provide simple solutions to digitalise your administration processes to reduce paper clutter. Head to simplyhappy.com.au to the resource tab to get instant access today. I'd like to acknowledge the Wathaurong people of the Kulin Nation on which this podcast is recorded as the traditional custodians of the land. pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.