Latest / The Habit Lab / Episode 63: Spring Cleaning Simplified (14 day challenge)

Transcript

Episode 63: Spring Cleaning Simplified (14 day challenge) · The Habit Lab

• 1:08
  Speaker 1: We all have areas in our life we might feel stuck or overwhelmed.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So join me, jenna Zint, habit Coach, teacher and follower of Jesus, as we go after little bits of better by building offensively small habits that create big impact.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: This is the Habit Lab Podcast.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to Habit Lab.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: If you heard a weird sound in the background, I got so excited.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: As you know, I usually talk with my hands, but I punched my overhead light shade, so that's a first, you guys, and if this is your first time ever listening to this episode or to this podcast and you're like, this lady is interesting, you are accurate.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: That is an accurate assessment of this podcast.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Host.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I am Jenna Zint and I'm really excited because this episode is going to be about spring cleaning.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: And the reason I'm excited is it's not just an episode, there's actually a challenge wrapped in it.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: So I just I got this idea a couple of weeks ago and, yeah, so I'm executing it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I have I made a 14 day offensively small spring cleaning checklist.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: All the things I put on there.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I actually titled a portion of it offensively small.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Chores are meant to be done in 15 minutes or less.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: But the reason I made this little freebie is because I actually want to do it with you.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So I don't know how long you've been following along my journey or me on Instagram, but one of the things I initially started doing was these small accountability groups because one I have just realized that I am way.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: It's not unique to me.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I am an extrovert, but in general, I'm wired to follow through so much more like the freak.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: The success rate for me with a goal or a task or a plan is three times higher if I have other people that I have like some level of a social contract with.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So I love accountability groups for this reason.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: That is one of the reasons that I usually am working out with people or, frankly, that's why I did my Bible habit group for 2025 is because I wanted accountability.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So when I used to do like little small free accountability groups for like a month on Instagram and I just haven't done one in a while because I've been had a bit of a fuller life, so I feel very excited to get back to my roots here.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: So what this is is, if you I will put the link in the show notes you sign up like, the link will take you to the form.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: You fill it out, then you'll get it in your email.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: It's just like a click attached to the email.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: So then you'll get the 14 day spring cleaning challenge.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: You're welcome to either take a screenshot or print it off.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: This episode will be more than just this.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to give you context for the rest of the episode.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: But the idea is then I will also have a free little account, really small, low stakes accountability group.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start on Instagram only.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Sorry, folks, I've done Instagram and Facebook at the same time and it's a little too much for me.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: So on Instagram there'll be a free group message, like a group thread.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I'll start and if you want to do this spring cleaning challenge, I'm going to do it for about a month, so there's not like a start date.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: We don't actually all have to start at the same time.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You're welcome to DM me and if, for some reason, I'm like, oh, you know, you're welcome to DM me.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And if, for some reason, I'm like, oh, you know, you're listening to this six months in the future, I'm like that doesn't exist.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: But here's the free chat.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: You know, here's the free checklist.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Regardless, you can always get the free checklist regard if you're listening to this six years in the future, six months in the future or six days in the future.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Checklist is yours, but anyways.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So I'm just inviting you into that component.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And then the other thing is I'd love to actually see your results as you tackle day ones.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Let me see Day one offensively small shoes, purge out chrome pairs of shoes, put away winter ones, tidy the bin and the rack.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: The goal is that you do not take more than 15 minutes for any of these chores any day for the next two weeks.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: But I'd love to actually see your before and afters, so like a before of your shoe rack and then an after.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And if you just tag me, I'm actually going to gamify it, and the person who tags me the most, I'm going to pick actually three winners.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The one who tags me the most is going to win a free 10 minute coaching, and then I'll pick other two at random.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: So I'll give away three 10 minute coachings and you're going to be shocked at how far we can get in 10 minutes.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of people who book them and then we make a game plan, we solve where they're hung up and then they go on their way.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, that's the three components for the literal challenge of this episode.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I am going to get to meat and tips and information in the rest of the episode.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: If you don't actually want to do the challenge, but very least you could just download it and do it on your own, or you could download it and then ask me to on Instagram to join the little accountability thread message, group message and then, if you want the third option, it could be tagging me for a chance to win a free 10 minute coaching call.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the reason I specifically wanted to talk about spring cleaning is a lot of times people.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: The question I get when I'm working with people, when I'm coaching them, is how do you apply the principle of offensively small habits to projects?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: So maybe you get like starting with 10 minutes of exercise consistently over time, but how do you use the similar principles to apply bigger tasks that don't maybe need consistency but are too big to do in bite-sized chunks?
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that I do hence the spring cleaning challenge is I will write it out in small like.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I'll literally get specific and limit myself to 15 minutes.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: So if it's cleaning the garage, I think I've told you before that when my garage gets out of control, I'll hit it for like five or six days where I only get it, give it 10 or 15 minutes, but by the end of it my whole garage is clean.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: But I didn't lose a Saturday to doing it, you know.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So I think you can still use the same principles, and I actually wanted you.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't just want to tell you how to chunk out a bigger task into small steps.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I wanted you to experience it.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: So that's why I put this challenge together, so that we could do this together.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Some things to note is that, whether you're going to follow my checklist or you're just learning in general the concept of how to tackle a bigger project into bite-sized chunks, most of the time when I limit myself to 10 or 15 minutes, I literally set a timer Some of these days as I was writing the chores, I know it's going to take you longer to actually complete it.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: It's going to take you longer than 10 to 15 minutes.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: But one of the things for myself is often when I'm scheduling out my day, if I go longer it would be at the detriment, or almost like run into the next task and there'd be like a couple ripple effects.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: So to build trust with myself.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I actually think it's a really important skill to be able to give a task the time you committed and learn how to walk away.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: So many people I don't know if it's just, I don't think it's just ADHD, but have almost like an anxiousness from not completing it, so they avoid tasks until they have the whole time that they would need to complete it.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of the idea of why I did the spring cleaning challenges, because one I'm looking ahead.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I just did my spring planning workshop this morning.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: It was fun.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Everybody who was on there, live thank you.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: It was fun to do it together.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm looking at my season, the months ahead, and I have like a lot coming up.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I have our church host a conference and I'm on the executive team for that, and then I'm actually speaking at the workshop.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: The day after the conference, our Bethel Women's Conference, and then a day after that I'm actually leaving.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I've told you guys this, but I'm going on a 10-day missions trip to Ecuador which I'm going through with our church's ministry school.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: As an alumni, you're allowed to go because I haven't gone.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I graduated over almost 20 years ago from our ministry school, so I haven't done one for you know, 18, 17 years.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: But every year I have a habit, like one of the things I do every year is invest in my own spirituality somehow.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: So whether that's a conference somewhere else or a workshop or a class, and this year I just wanted to.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: A couple of years ago I took my oldest daughter.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I organized a group of mom friends and we did a mommy and me missions trip to Mexico and we built a house.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: But I knew that I wanted to do this year.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go with my best friend who's led this trip to Ecuador for a couple of years.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Just because the testimonies are unreal and as I've been reading the New Testament the last, you know, actually I'm a year and a half into just repeatedly reading the New Testament.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You know, actually I'm a year and a half into just repeatedly reading the New Testament I was like, oh my gosh, what this would be, the like almost culmination of studying something so meticulously for a year and a half and then go with the chance to live it.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: So in my mind, this missions trip is 10 days where I get to just go live the gospel, like pray for the sick, oh, days where I get to just go live the gospel like pray for the sick.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Oh sorry, I feel emotional, like I just feel so much anticipation about getting my only.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: My only role that I will be embodying in those 10 days is to get to be a disciple, like I'm not going to be a mom.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what I mean.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Of course I'm going to do lots of planning ahead of time to make sure everything runs smoothly at home, but I'm not a leader, I'm not a wife, I just get to have my primary.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: It's such a unique opportunity in my season of life to get to be so narrowly focused for something for a couple of days.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, that to be said.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: So, after my conference and my speaking and then leaving the country for 10 days, and then a few days after me returning from my missions trip, my in-laws come for and we're going to go out of town with them for 10 days.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: So it's just a lot.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: And I started realizing like, oh my gosh, the reason spring cleaning is a thing is because we all kind of feel this tendency.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: As the you know, the weather warms up and we're opening the windows to kind of clean and purge the house for a fresh start as the weather shifts and I have been feeling that like my windows are open behind me.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: But realizing I felt overwhelmed looking at what my next month would hold and I was like I don't know that I'm going to have the capacity to do that.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: And that's literally the point of taking a big task and bite sizing it out Like I don't actually have the time to give a whole day to spring cleaning.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: It would tank my normal coaching hours.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: It would tank the next couple of weeks, two weeks.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I have a bunch of speaking obligations that I have coming up, so I wouldn't be able to give spring cleaning a whole day, a whole day, like the task would require, if I was to approach it with the all or nothing mindset.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: But I realized, like when I start getting hopeless about things, I'm like, oh wait, wait, this is the old thought pattern of approaching a big task.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: So that's why I actually broke it up, because I'm like I actually need to find time to do some of these things because I'm hosting more, but I don't have the large quote unquote ideal window of time to do this.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: So hence the 14 day spring cleaning challenge was born.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: What I want, what I'm hoping you experience is one, taking a big task and learning how to literally specifically make it to bite-sized chunks that are 15 minutes or less.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Two, I want you to practice setting your timer and walking away.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I feel like a coach right now because I feel very energetic about you practicing this stuff.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I want you to practice walking away when it's not complete and being okay with good enough.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: And then the other thing I want you to notice is if you look at this when you download this little checklist, it's not going to be a total spring cleaning overhaul, like your house isn't going to be spotless by the end of it.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: But what I notice again is in the all or nothing mentality, because I couldn't do all of it then I would almost shy away from doing any of it.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: But what you're going to notice when you're jumping into it and just having very clear, defined 15 minute tasks, one a day, you're not going to feel overwhelmed, no-transcript.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: With the all or nothing mentality you're going to watch this momentum and be able to find bits and actually get a bet.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I would be shocked if you didn't experience wins and other cleaning benefit.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: You know, like chores, that you just start naturally looking for a few days in outside of the list that I made for you.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: So that was another thing I want you to experience.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I call them timer tasks.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: And then the other thing I was going to say is, just with some of the as you're purging and giving away, I'm going to do an episode in the future about habits of sharing.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: It's just been cool.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: My community does such a good job of wanting to be good stewards of our stuff, all of us being, most of us being on tighter budgets and then awareness of not wanting to waste.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: So like sharing or like donating, finding local places that we back or believe in.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Actually, my missions trip, we're actually taking empty suitcases and our local mom group we've connected with them to get their kids extras to bring with us on our missions trip.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: So, as you're doing, there's quite a few like shoe purges and closet resets and bathrooms, just thinking through who do you want to give it to, how do you do that in a systematic way?
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I purposely put a couple of the closet purges back to back so that you could save your piles and do one run for a donation or working out to give it to a friend.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I was going to say I have.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I think I've mentioned this before, but when Rosie outgrows, when Audrey outgrows stuff who's my oldest I save it for Rosie.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: When Rosie, my youngest daughter, outgrows stuff.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I then have a couple mom families, two mom families who have younger girls that I donate, like I usually.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: We just kind of have a track record of giving them stuff, which helps me with not being overwhelmed with all my options.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I just text them if they want it and I usually try to drop it off within 48 hours.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Actually I'm laughing because both of them live on my way to pick up my kids from school and I'm wondering if that was subconscious, if I chose people that was easy for drop-offs.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: But I think sometimes we get overwhelmed or idealistic about wanting to find them for a good home or a perfect home.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: But I just have found people that are the right size and they know freely, without offense, I'm going to give them everything from our closet purge, but they are welcome to re-gift, chuck or donate whatever they don't like.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: So it's like a freely given, no offense if you don't want or like whatever they give.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: And it's been cool because we've done this.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: We're on some people's list like that as well, and then I have girlfriends that I will give to specifically, but then for donation box.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I'm looking in my closet right now as I'm recording this.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I actually have kept.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: It was funny.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: It kind of happened by happenstance where I realized that I would wait till I could do these huge hauls for Goodwill and then I'd be overwhelmed or it kind of again, analysis, paralysis.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So instead I got this giant it was an accidental purchase like giant blue bag that I was going to gift to Goodwill and then I realized, oh, I could make this my tool for my giveaways, for my donations.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Or when I say Goodwill, I think of it like Kleenex.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I don't just donate to Goodwill.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: There's other charities and there's some shelters and I'm more creative.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to use it as a catch all for donations but simply having this bag be what I fill up with donations.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: When I was going through Wesley's closet this weekend and I've caught a couple of shoes that don't fit anymore, I just put them instantly in there.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Or what I do kind of is, when I don't like things, I don't like how they fit, but maybe they're really not great enough to give to my friends, I'll do the big friend pass offs when I'm switching their wardrobes for the season.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: But if I'm collecting bits and pieces here and there, I won't make the effort to give them to a friend, usually unless there's something nice or I don't know name brand.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: But beyond that I have my big bag.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: It's a big blue bag.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: That's just my Goodwill and my habit.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Cue to myself is when I fill it up then I take it for a drop off but I keep the bag.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: And I take it for a drop off but I keep the bag.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: So the bag's always in my closet, it's hung up on a hook and I just slowly fill it up.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: So that's been a helpful little hack for me, rather than having Goodwill piles I used to try that or I'd wait and have a ton and it was overwhelming.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: So just kind of actually making my donations bite size has been super helpful.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think that's it.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I would love for you to join me in this spring cleaning challenge, whatever portion you want to do.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: If you just want to download the checklist, if you want to make your own.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: You don't want to download my checklist, no problem.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Lady or man dude, I can't imagine there's very many dudes listening to a random girl talk about spring cleaning.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Offensively small spring cleaning.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Anyways, you're welcome to download it.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Do it on your own.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You're welcome to DM me and join the little group accountability thread on Instagram, or you can also.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: You could do all of those, none of those.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: You could also tag me in your before and afters for a chance to win a free personalized coaching with me.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Anyways, I enjoy activating people, I enjoy community, I enjoy doing it together and that's my heart behind this.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: So join me in this spring cleaning challenge to lighter loads everybody.