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Transcript

How to De-Clutter Your Workspace · The Daily Writer

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, I am so glad that you've joined me for this episode.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: And first of all, happy Valentine's Day.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you celebrate it or not, but if you do, I hope that you're having a great celebration with your loved one today, or maybe sometime this week.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: On this episode today, we're going to get very practical and we're going to dive into the topic of clutter.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know this isn't the most exciting topic in the world, but having a clean, organized workspace is really important to your productivity.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: And maybe even more importantly, it's for your mental health.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it said that your physical space represents your mental space, and I think there's some truth to that.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: In other words, your emotions and your mindset are manifested within your physical environment.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: So if you live and work in an environment or within a workspace that's complete chaos, where things are disorganized and it's always a mess, that's a reflection of what's going on inside your heart and your mind.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, I also think the opposite is true.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: If you have a nice, neat, clean, organized environment to work and to write in, that really helps you to be at peace and relax.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And that really helps our creative flow.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: It helps our mindset whenever we're in an environment that's organized and nice and neat.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: For example, whenever you walk into a perfectly clean and neat hotel room, you're at peace because the environment communicates neatness and peace and organization.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you are not naturally an anal, retentive type of a person or you don't naturally feel organized, that's okay because I'm here to help today.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: I am not an expert in this area, like I'm not a somebody who goes into people's homes and cleans them, or you know, I'm not um you know somebody who's like an organization expert.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And I definitely don't always do this perfectly, but I do want to share a few things that have worked for me over the years, and I think this will be helpful to you also, just about decluttering your space and getting organized.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's time for a confession.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: Our basement used to be an absolute disaster area.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Over the years, we had let boxes, odds and ends, and even some unused furniture accumulate to the point where it was hard to even get to our washer and dryer.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: And every time I went into the basement, which was several times a day, I felt a tinge of stress because of the clutter in that space.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And I knew that cleaning it would be a huge project, and I had been putting it off literally for a couple of years.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, a couple of years ago, we needed to have a new furnace and air conditioner installed.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: And when the representative from the company came to do an inspection and an analysis, he had to go down into the basement.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And I was embarrassed because I knew it sent kind of a negative message.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who likes to have somebody visit their house and go down into a basement that is an absolute disaster area?
3:18
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of embarrassing.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So, in a flurry of activity the evening before he came, I cleaned the whole basement.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: It didn't really take that much time, I think maybe five or six hours once I got started, but I was so glad when I got it done because not only did the area look like an entirely new place, it now resulted in a real sense of peace every time I went into the basement.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, that principle applies not only to any area of a house or a building, it also applies to our workspaces.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps especially it applies to our work areas.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time we don't give a lot of attention to how our workspace is organized or how it's functionally set up.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: But if this is where we do our writing, if this is where we do our creative work, we've got to make sure that it's set up for maximum efficiency.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: We've got to make sure that it is a place where we feel joy and where we feel at peace.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've already mentioned this, but I want to repeat this for emphasis.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: The reason that a clean workspace is so important is because there's an intimate link between your physical environment and your mind.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: The state of your environment tends to reflect the state of your mind.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: But it also works both ways.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you clear the clutter from your environment and you have an orderly, clean place to work, it also affects your mind.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: So you have less stress and anxiety because the clutter is not there to distract you.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: So it can have a good effect or it can have a bad effect, depending on the state of our environment.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So let me be really clear about something here.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: This is a no-guilt zone on this episode.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean that the whole podcast, every episode is a no-guilt zone for sure.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: But especially this episode, uh, I'm not interested in making anybody feel bad because number one, I don't do this perfectly well.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: I it's not like my home and office are always completely immaculate by any stretch.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to think that I'm Mr.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Perfect in this area, and I don't want to give you that impression.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: But second of all, I don't have any um intentions of judging anybody or making anybody feel bad.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things that we that sometimes we do in life is we think that getting angry at people or getting upset at people or guilting people into something is is going to motivate them to take positive action.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And they might take action just because they want to acquiesce or make you feel good for a moment or just make you happy.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: But in the end, you know, negative emotion rarely results in positive things happening in your life.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: The most positive things happen whenever we are taking action from a positive mental state or a positive standpoint.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to do today is approach this from a very positive standpoint.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: If you struggle with clutter or your office or workspace is a total disaster area, hey, it's fine.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Don't feel bad about that.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you some things that are going to help you to change that.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to just go, oh man, this episode is making me feel horrible.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we all have problems in life, we all start from somewhere.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: So let this be a new day for you.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: And uh maybe this episode will help you take a couple of positive steps uh to help you deal with the clutter and deal with the mess and just make this more of a positive place for you to do your writing and your creative work.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to do is share five steps for clearing the clutter from your workspace.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: So let's dive right in.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Step number one is deal with one area at a time.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: If you have a really messy workspace or an office that's a disaster area, just take it one area at a time.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: It is very easy to get overwhelmed with things and to let this stress you out.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, here's what I mean: you might start with one box or just start with your desk.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: You can't do everything right now, but you can do something right now, or you can do something later today.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So start with one small area, then once you have that organized, then move on to the next area.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: When you do it this way, it's gonna give you positive momentum and it's gonna let you do this in a in a way that's doable and doesn't stress you out in a huge way.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Now, the important thing here is just to get started.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: It can be incredibly intimidating to stand in the middle of a messy area and to envision a clean, neat environment, especially if it's in bad shape.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: It is way easier just to close the door and to walk away.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: However, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Just get started, and pretty soon you'll feel the momentum that you need to carry you through.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: So the step one is just get started and deal with one area at a time.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Step number two, this is where the rubber meets the road, and that is get rid of things that you don't really need.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, I got a confession to make.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, you know, I feel like I need a priest on this episode because I need to do a confession, apparently.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: But here's another confession.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, all of us have certain things that we tend to hang on to longer than we should.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, literally, so I'm recording this, uh, I'm actually recording this on Saturday, February the 6th.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: This episode doesn't come out for uh, I think eight days or something like that.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: So literally about 60 minutes ago, uh, my wife has been cleaning out some stuff here in our house and doing an amazing job.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: And the only area in our bedroom closet that's left is my space.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: So on the shelf in our bedroom closet, it's clothes that have been sitting there for a while.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say for a while, I'm not gonna say how many years, but I pulled off a pair of jeans.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: This has just been literally an hour ago, and they were those like really light-colored, stonewashed kind of jeans.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: I well, first of all, they were they were a size that no longer fit me.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: That's a whole nother topic.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: But they were um, they look like they were about 15 years old or maybe even 20.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: They were probably out of style when I bought them.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really known as like a style maven or anything like that.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: So I looked at these jeans and I just kind of looked at my wife and we just kind of laughed because they were so out of style.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at these going, why in the world have I kept on kept this pair of jeans?
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Why do I hang on to things?
9:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's just a bad habit that I have.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can relate to that as well.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: I tend to hang on to clothes longer than I should.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: I also tend to hang on to technology longer than I should.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm still the guy who has cassettes from 1985 in his closet.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I still have my Walkman from the 80s, and it still works.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Surprisingly so.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, they made really good stuff back in the 80s.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: We um we still have a TV in our basement, I think, that still works from like the early 80s.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And my Walkman from the 80s, it surprisingly still works.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's kind of shocking how well technology was made back then.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: It's cool.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: So I tend to be a pack rat.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a pack rat, I completely relate to your state of mind with that.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me to throw stuff away because I think, hey, in you know, 18 years, I may use that for five seconds or something.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: So this is an area where I struggle, but we've got to get rid of stuff that we don't need and that we're probably not going to use.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, a couple of years ago, I moved into a new office at the college where I teach, and I gave away a ton of books, like I don't know how many hundreds of books that I just gave away to our students.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even sell them, I just gave them away.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: My rule of thumb when I did that was that if I had not used a book in 10 years, I probably did not need it.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, I didn't apply this rule consistently because I have a lot of reference books that I didn't want to get rid of, but I did get rid of a lot of other books.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it was amazing when I got rid of those books.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: It just kind of feels freeing whenever you give stuff away.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Not only because you're getting rid of it, but because you're helping somebody else who may want what you have to give to them.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: So this is not necessarily just a matter of you getting rid of something.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: It's also a matter of, hey, maybe somebody else can be blessed by what it is that you want to get rid of.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's another area where I used to struggle, and I don't really anymore, but I used to struggle with this a lot, is I used to keep old magazines.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And now every time I see a magazine in my home office or in our house that I haven't read, but that I paid for, I kind of feel a tremendous sense of guilt.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is that if you haven't read it soon after you got the magazine, you're probably never gonna read it.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: So what I do these days is if I haven't read a magazine within a couple months, I just I just throw it away or I cancel the subscription because I'm probably not gonna read it.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: So here's a rule of thumb that I that I follow more and more as I get older.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: These are two questions that I ask about stuff that I have when it comes to cleaning.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Question number one is Is this something my son would want when I die?
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Does it have any sentimental value?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Is he gonna want wanna keep this when I die at some point?
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Question number two is Is this something I would want my wife or my son to have to mess with if I were to die tomorrow?
12:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, like for example, if I were to die tomorrow, they would have a lot of books to go through.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think I think one of the one of the overarching values that we want in our life is that whenever we die, we don't want to leave a mess.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to leave a financial mess, we don't want to leave a literal physical mess, we don't want to leave an emotional mess.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's why it's important to make sure that we tie up loose ends on a very regular basis in our life.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be one of those people who, you know, if you go out tomorrow and you get into a car accident and you die, you don't want to leave unresolved tension with people in your life.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to leave unresolved financial issues.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: You don't want people to have to go hunt for, oh, what was their bank account number?
12:56
SPEAKER_00: What were all the bills that they had?
12:58
SPEAKER_00: How do we, you know, you don't want to leave people in in a mess because I mean, my goodness, especially when it comes to your family, they're gonna have enough stuff to go through.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're gonna have enough turmoil to deal with emotionally just by virtue of you dying.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we don't want to leave even more of a mess if we've left a bunch of loose ends, you know, again, financially or um organizationally or emotionally, uh, but also when it comes to the physical space.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's nothing worse than someone having uh one of their loved ones die and then they have to go through all this stuff that they have in their house.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that's just that much more that stress that we can that we put on people, uh, of course, unintentionally, but that's something I think about a lot as I get older.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: I I don't have grandkids, but uh at some point I probably will.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm 40, I'm 46 years old, I'll be 47 this summer.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: So I'm getting to that stage of life where I'm thinking about this stuff more.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to leave messes for people.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: So I'm tending to go through a lot of stuff.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh just today, we helped my brother move.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: They they bought a new house in the area, and that was kind of one of the themes of the day is you know, we all we all need to kind of regularly go through our stuff.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, because whenever you move, you find out wow, you have accumulated a lot of stuff.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: So I I guess kind of the theme of this episode is let's not accumulate more junk in our lives than we need to, whether that's again emotionally, financially, or or in other uh areas.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: So that was a long step number two.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to step number three.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, step two, by the way, again, was get rid of stuff that you don't need.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: So don't hang on to stuff that's gonna weigh you down.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Step number three is free up the real estate on your desk.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, our desk becomes kind of a catch all for things like mail, to-do lists, trinkets, pins, and other stuff.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's important to try and move everything off your desk except for the items that you actually need.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: A messy desk doesn't mean necessarily that you're busy, it just means that you're messy.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, messiness doesn't necessarily indicate anything except that, well, you're just messy.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking to myself here, by the way.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how much it reduces your stress whenever you have a clean desk.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: You just kind of feel at peace.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: You feel like your life is organized and it just gives you the sense of relief whenever you have a workspace that's clean and free of clutter.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: A number of years ago, there was a professor at the college where I teach, and this professor was really bad about having piles of stuff on his desk.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you would walk into his office, there were books piled all over the floor in these disorganized piles.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: And his desk, and this is not an exaggeration, okay?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly how it was.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: His desk looked like somebody had literally taken a box of papers and just dumped them all over the place.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: And every time I would go into this professor's office, I felt incredibly stressed just being in that environment.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: And I have no idea how he concentrated, how he even got around his office, or how he got any work done.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was like a lesson to me of man, I never ever want my office space to get that bad because it's just, you know, and I think he kind of prided himself on the fact that his office was chaotic.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I'm just like one of those creative types and I'm very relational, and I don't really want to concern myself with all the nuances of having to be a neat nick or an obsessive component or like an OCD cleaning type of a person.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: And uh my thought was, man, that I think that's fine, except when a student comes in and wants and wants to see their paper, and you can't find their paper from your class because you're so messy and disorganized.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: So, one more thing here, um, just in terms of of desk stuff, the way that I have my uh desk actually set up, just in terms of freeing up real estate on your desk.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, I use a laptop, I have a MacBook Pro.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I just ordered one of the new M1 Macs.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited to get that.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: I may do an episode about those uh later on, about why I use Apple products, why I love my MacBook, and so forth.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: I may or may not, I don't know.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: If that sounds interesting to you, let me know.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because there are some very definite reasons why I use Apple products uh that do have to do with productivity and creativity and so forth, but that's a whole other episode.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, what I do on my desk is I have my laptop and I put that on a laptop stand made by a company called M stand.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: It's just like a metal laptop stand.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: And then I have that setting off to the right, and then I have a 32-inch HD TV that I have mounted on the wall right in front of me.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: That's my setup both in my home office and my college office.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: I have literally the exact same setup in both places.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: It's at it's even the exact same TV that I bought both of them from Best Buy.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: They're 32-inch uh 1080 resolution visio brand HD TVs, and it is a beautiful TV.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: I think they were about 150, 140, 150 for each of those TVs, which was not too bad, I thought.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I have this set up, again, we're talking about freeing up the real estate on your desk.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: The reason I have this setup is that um I like big monitors, I like having a great big honkin monitor where I can see things really clearly.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: I can have you know two or three things open at once if I want to.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: And then I've got my laptop off to the side.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: So I really, really love that setup.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: So I would encourage you to really consider, if you haven't considered it before, to consider having a large monitor.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, these HTTVs are not that expensive, you know, 150 bucks, you can have a super nice uh TV.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: So uh definitely consider that.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: It's surprising how much better you work when you can really, really see what you're working on, as opposed to just like looking at a laptop all the time.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: So um now the cool thing about using something like a laptop stand is that it has a little space underneath it where I can tuck stuff.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of saving real estate uh that way on my desk as well.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: So okay, let's go to step number four, which is get rid of as much paper as possible and go digital.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Over the last few years, I have been pretty ruthless about getting rid of as much paper as possible and scanning it or just throwing it away.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: This includes receipts, tax information, um class notes from my college and grad school courses, appliance manuals, and basically anything else you can think of that's paper.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And this frees up space both in your filing cabinets, but also in your mind.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are only three things that you should do with paper items.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's only three things you can do when it comes to paper.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Number one is that you can file it physically, you can put it in a file cabinet or in a drawer or in a box.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: I recommend a file cabinet.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you can file it digitally, which means you scan it and then you somehow file it digitally on your computer.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: And then number three, you can discard it.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: So what I recommend is that whenever you handle paper, make a decision about what to do with that paper as soon as possible and then take action on it.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: For example, if you okay, just uh literally just a couple days ago, we got from so I live in St.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Charles County in Missouri, which is like um sort of northwest of St.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Louis.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh a couple days ago we got our assessment form from our county government where I have to we have to put in the mileage of our vehicles so they can determine our personal property tax for the year.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: So, what do I do when I get that that piece of mail?
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, I look at it real quick and then I file it so that when I go through my bills each month, I can remember to do that and send that into the county government.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, what do you do with that?
20:54
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with that piece of paper?
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Do you put it in a box?
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you just put it on your desk?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Do you put it on the floor?
20:59
SPEAKER_00: What do you actually do with that piece of paper if you're not going to take care of that task right then and there?
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, what I do is I have a folder, little literally just um like a file folder on my bookshelf next to my desk, and that's where I keep all my bill-related stuff, and I stick it in there.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Then whenever I go to take care of my bills for the month, um, I go into that folder and I know that that's something I've got to take care of.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: So the moral of the story here is that whenever you get mail, whenever you get paper stuff, decide what you're gonna do with it and then do something with either organize it, you know, shred it, scan it, and put it on your computer or or put it in a file folder somewhere.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Don't just let it sit on your desk because what happens whenever you set that mail on your desk or any other kind of loose paper is that's an unresolved task in your mind.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Now you may not be thinking about it constantly, but there's a tiny part of your brain that's like, oh, I gotta deal with that.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's taking up real estate in your mind.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: And if you have Have a whole office or a whole workspace full of that kind of stuff, it's going to really stress you out.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: And I think you probably know what I mean because I've been there and we all know what that feels like.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: So whenever you get paper, either file it physically, file it digitally, or discard it.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, I used to actually have talking about scanners, I used to actually have a desktop scanner that was a Fujitsu ScanSnap 1300.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: That was a great scanner and that went right into Evernote.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: But a few years ago, I stopped using a desktop scanner and I just use an app on my phone called Scannable.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: This is from Evernote, so I'm a huge Evernote fan.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: I've used Evernote for about 10 years.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: It's like my digital brain.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: So whenever I need to scan something, I just get that scannable app and I blip blip blip blip and I scan it and then it connects to Evernote and it's wonderful.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's how I process paper.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: I have a lot more to say about that actually.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: But um that's kind of the the Cliffsnose version of it.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, one other thing I want to say before I go into step five is that beside my desk in my home office, I have a trash can.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: I also have a small shredder.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: So whenever I have something that needs to be shredded, I it's just right there and I can shred it.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: That includes stuff that's going to be obviously personal information, anything with you know credit or bank account, info, uh, your social security number, any any stuff like that.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Contracts, um, client stuff, especially if you're ghostwriting, you don't want you know there to be paper identifying client work um getting out there.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's how I do that.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: I got this scanner, I don't know what model it is, but I got or the scanner, I got this shredder from Amazon, gosh, six or seven years ago, and it wasn't even that much.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: It is a great little shredder.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: I've got to say Amazon makes really, really good office products and they're cheap too.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, you can just get one of those shredders from Amazon if if you need one.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go into step five, and then we'll start to wrap up this episode here.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, step five of this whole process is don't confuse clean with perfect.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, I say this because if you're like me, which means being a perfectionist, sometimes you put off doing work until you can do everything perfectly, everything is is tidy, everything is neat, and it's all wrapped up in a bow.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not careful, you can easily procrastinate on getting something done.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: If you always have to be a perfectionist.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, things are rarely perfect in life, and even when they are, it doesn't last long because life has a way of being not perfect.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Don't let your desire for a perfectly clean environment be an excuse for putting off your work and for putting off cleaning up your workspace.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you can get it 90% there, that's a massive improvement.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't need to be perfect, but I think it does need to be clean enough to where you're not distracted by the clutter in your office and on your desk.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Here's a little trick that I have learned, and that is whenever I'm doing something like cleaning or folding laundry or something else that I want to avoid that's kind of like a menial sort of a task, I almost always put on some of my favorite music or I put on a movie that I really like.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's, by the way, that's another advantage of having a nice big HD TV as your computer monitor, is you can watch movies if you want to while you're doing some of this kind of stuff.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: And I love doing that because if I'm doing something I don't enjoy, but I know I can watch a movie while I'm doing it, then that sort of tricks my brain into thinking that this is a fun activity.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, like folding laundry is something I don't really enjoy.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: But uh that's that's one of the things I oftentimes take care of in our family.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: So whenever I do that, I put on a TV show or music or a movie that I love, and that way it makes the time go by faster and it makes it enjoyable.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: So that's a little tip that I would give for how to handle things that are not necessarily pleasant and fun, like cleaning, like decluttering, or other kinds of things.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, one more thing about this issue of decluttering.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've talked about five steps to declutter your workspace, which are deal with one area at a time, get rid of stuff that you don't need, free up the real estate on your desk, get rid of as much paper as possible, and don't confuse clean with perfect.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, those are the five steps that I've suggested here.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: But what are the benefits?
26:26
SPEAKER_00: What actually happens in your life that's good because you've done this?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are three benefits from decluttering and cleaning your workspace, and that is number one, you have more peace.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: And you have more peace because you're dealing with less physical stuff that's cluttering up your life.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: And this has a really positive effect on your mind, your emotions, and your spirit.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: It makes life more enjoyable when you don't have that clutter weighing you down emotionally.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you have more focus.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you don't have as many distractions in your environment and you can focus on the people and the work that matters to you, you're simply gonna do better work and you're gonna be happier.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: Then number three, you have more momentum.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you have success in your life, even if it's something as small as just cleaning up your office, whenever you have that success, it's gonna breed more success and you're gonna have more momentum because you've taken action, because you're getting closer to your goals.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: And if you're overwhelmed with the clutter in your life, just start in one small area.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Just clean up a box of stuff, just clean off a shelf, just clean off your desk.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Once you have that cleaned, you're gonna feel a sense of momentum that's gonna lead to the next small success.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, Dave Ramsey in his on his radio program and his financial peace university and and related things, he talks about the debt snowball, which means you start off small, then it just grows.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And the the longer it goes, the more impact it has because success breeds success, which breeds even more success.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: So I would almost call this a clutter snowball.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: It's dealing with clutter in one little tiny area, which is gonna help you deal with clutter in the next area.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And then pretty soon you're gonna have clean up a whole workspace.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's really the way to handle it.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Is don't get overwhelmed.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Just start and do something really, really small that's gonna give you a very tiny win, then you're gonna move on to the next thing from there.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: So the moral of the story of this episode is make your workspace a place that brings peace and harmony instead of stress and anxiety.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is gonna have a great impact on your mind and your mental health.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate you listening to today's episode as always.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: And man, I just I just want to say that I so appreciate you listening to the show.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, it means a lot, honestly, that you would take time to listen to this.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: I hope that this has been helpful to you.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: And if there's anything that I can ever do for you, please let me know.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: You can always get a hold of me by emailing me at Kent at DailyRiderLife.com.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear from you.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: And if you have any thoughts on this episode, please let me know.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I would love to know if this impacted you and what kind of action you took as a result of it.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend, thanks again so much for listening, and I will see you tomorrow.