Don’t you just love new beginnings. They can renew your enthusiasm and make you feel like you’re getting a chance to start all over, clear out the cobwebs and forge a new year for you and your business. But before you dive in, you’ll need to take a little time to declutter for a clean start to 2017!

 

Electronic Folders

Most of us let these get at least a little untidy during the course of the year — out with the old and outdated! How quickly can you find a file that you need? Are your files scattered throughout the computer in any number of places such as the hard drive, documents, the cloud or portable storage? Electronic folders that are not filed in their right locations can be just as messy and cluttered as paper folders.

  • Go through your desktop and delete unused folders.
  • Ditto for Google and/or Dropbox.
  • Going forward use a hierarchal system to organize your files. File: Clients >Folder: Client Names > Subfolder: Topics such as Communication, Projects, Contact Info

 

Email Inbox

The email inbox can easily get unruly. Time to choose and junk those sales pitches and subscriptions and anything you no longer want to receive. Block them and/or unsubscribe. Goal: 0 emails. Don’t spend longer than 30 seconds deciding what to do with each. Put things that’ll take time to do on your to-do list.  Don’t forget the file folders. Clean them out or delete whole folders that are no longer relevant or necessary. Sign up for unroll.me to help you unsubscribe and have a system going forward.

 

Facebook

Reconsider how much time you want to spend on Facebook. Unfriend people who are friends of friends or casual business acquaintances. Move the business acquaintances to your Facebook page or group. If unfriending seems too harsh in some cases, at least unfollow that person. Be deliberate with your time on Facebook. Set a timer if you need to so you don’t end up going down a rabbit hole. The goal for 2017 is maximum productivity!

 

To Do List?

Has your to-do list reached monster proportions? Do what you can to simplify it and test potential improvements to your system. If you have properly planned out your 2017 goals you should have 3-5 top goals that you want to accomplish this year. Always keep those visible. If you have a long to-do list, ask yourself which tasks will contribute to accomplishing your top goals. Those are the priority. For everything else, either put it in a parking lot folder or delegate.

 

Down to the Nitty Gritty

One pile at a time, get rid of any old notes, correspondence, etc., that you no longer need to reference. In fact, do a relentless purge of anything that doesn’t contribute to the productivity of your business. Get rid of the little things that pile up that have absolutely nothing to do with business, period!

A year-end purge reinforces the “ready to go” attitude that feels strongest at the start of each brand new year! Amazingly, your office and electronics won’t be the only beneficiaries of your efforts — your head will feel amazingly clear as well!