5 Steps to Declutter Your Business

5 Steps 5 Steps to Declutter Your to Declutter Your

BusinessBusinessA Guide to Making Your Work Flow by

Simplifying the Technical Things

COPYRIGHT ©2020 DECIPHER CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS, LLC

5 STEPS TO DECLUTTER YOUR BUSINESS

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YYou know the feeling: you’re at your desk,

fresh cup of your favorite beverage

at your side, a to-do list that’s slightly

ambitious for the block of time you have before

the next client call. You’re feeling motivated,

determined, and ready to check things off as done!

Three hours later, your drink is long gone as are all those other

things you were feeling. The second item on your list (if you got

thatthat far) sent you down a rabbit hole of how-to videos, articles

comparing different software you could use. And now you’re

throwing the question out to every Facebook group you’re in just

trying to get an answer on how to make what you thought would

be a simple tweak to your website. Or your Instagram page. Or

mailing list. (What’s worse, the majority of the ‘helpful’ answers

are extolling the virtues of whatever system you don’tdon’t have and

making you doubt your initial decision.)

So now, instead of motivated and ready, you’re tapped

out, wondering once again why technology hates you, and

recommitting to the “fact” that you’re just not a technical personyou’re just not a technical person.

It hits me in the gut when It hits me in the gut when I hear people say this.I hear people say this.



3Because most of the time, it’s women – and most of the

time, the subtext is “I’m not smart enough when it comes

to that stuff.” Even if they’re driving and thriving in every

other area of life, technology and technical things seem

to be an all too common Achilles’ heel.

Am I here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way? Of course.

Am I here to tell you that you too can learn to code and master

building custom applications to make your life easier? No way

(because does that sound like it would actually make things

easiereasier?)

You don’t need to be an expert on coding or servers or even on

setting up A/B testing. Like so many other things in our lives,

you just need to be intentionalintentional about what is in your life (and

business). There are so many great services and programs out

there, aimed at making our day-to-day run smoother – but...

More. Is. Not. Necessarily. Better. More. Is. Not. Necessarily. Better. More can mean more learning curves, more manually copying

and pasting, more things that can break, and more frustration.

Technology should helphelp your business – whether it’s keeping

track of project details, making files accessible to the right people

at the right time, automating repetitive tasks, or connecting your

audience. Technology should let you focus your time on what

you’re BESTBEST at (and do the same for your contractors, virtual

assistants, and employees).



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So let's dive in.So let's dive in.1. 1. Take Inventory Take Inventory It can be easy to forget what tools we’re even using or have used

(or signed up for and never used). List out as many programs,

services, software, and plugins you use or have used as you can

think of. Refer to bookmarks in your browser, pins, saved posts…

wherever you collect things to reference (and then don’t forget

THAT piece of software that does the collecting itself!) You can

also check your financial statements for any recurring charges or

subscription fees.

If you have an established team well-aligned with your business, this can be a good thing to do with them as well.

The last thing you want is to end up sticking with a service that everyone finds difficult to use!



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InventoryInventory



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2. 2. Like with Like Like with Like Grouping things together helps us see a few things: which areas

are packed and where there are gaps. Gaps can mean an area

that right now needs a lot of manual, step-by-step, repetitive

work. Packed areas can mean hopping between all the things,

trying to remember what you used for one particular graphic; it

can also mean overlap or redundancy and maintaining the same

information in multiple spots. Take your list and sort everything

into one of these categories (there’s no right or wrong – just put

them where it makes sense for you):

¥ Finances Finances (Bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll; e.g QuickBooks,

Freshbooks, Xero, Wave, Excel)

¥ Communications & Marketing Communications & Marketing (Email, mailing lists, website,

social media accounts, print services, ads; e.g MailChimp,

ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Wordpress, Squarespace,

Shopify, Facebook, Instagram, AdWords)

¥ Design Design (Documents, brochures, graphics, video; e.g. Canva,

PicMonkey, Adobe, G Suite, Office)

¥ Admin Admin (File sharing, scheduling, contracts; e.g. Google Drive,

Dropbox, Acuity, Calendly, HelloSign)

¥ Project Management Project Management (e.g. Asana, Trello, Airtable, spreadsheets)

¥ Miscellaneous Miscellaneous (Anything else that’s hard to classify)

¥ Trash Pile Trash Pile (There’s going to be ones you already

know you’ll never use again – draw a line

through these)



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FinancesFinances Comm/MarketingComm/Marketing

DesignDesign

Project Mgmt.Project Mgmt.

AdminAdmin

MiscellaneousMiscellaneous



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Account CleanupAccount Cleanup

Trash Pile BonusTrash Pile BonusAs a bonus move, figure out what needs to be done to

clean up and delete your account on anything you already

know you don’t need anymore. Is there data that needs

to be migrated or exported? Does it tie into any other

program or workflow?

What steps are needed to delete your account? Who on

your team could handle it?

Not only will this help you move on, you’ll be cleaning up

your digital footprint and being a good steward of your

data (and who it’s hanging out with).



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What's the Problem?What's the Problem?It’s important to figure out why any ongoing technical problems

are problems. Did you need training or more information? Does

it not work in a way that complements how your mind and/or

business work? Is it just really badly designed? Or actuallyactually faulty

– maybe support went away and it’s been abandoned?

When it comes to project management, one of the clear leaders is Asana. You can make checklists, layout timelines, assign tasks, manage things for multiple clients – and a lot of it can be done through their free plan. Chances are if you ask “what do you use…” for project management or keeping track of to-do lists, someonesomeone is going to tell you “Asana.”

Checks all the boxes; sounds great, right? Except I couldn’t stand it. I know it’s a great product because many people I know practically live in it, but something I couldn’t put my finger on didn’t work for meme.

Which meant every time I went in for a project update, I felt resistance (i.e procrastinated). Every time I got a notification, I got in and out as quickly as possible.



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Dig a little deeper.Dig a little deeper.3. 3. Identify the Time Bandits Identify the Time Bandits Refer back to your original list and circle the 5 things that eat up

the most time. NOTE: These may be different from what you useuse

the most or like the best. And if you’re not sure, pick the ones

that you block out your schedule to use (and then avoid

until absolutely necessary).

Was it needing more training on how to use it? Possibly, but 90% of the time I learn by poking around, not sitting through training videos. Was it the type of task – project management – itself? Nope. I lovelove a categorized, color-coded list of things. So that left my actual interaction with it as the culprit.

In the end, I tried other systems until I found one that did work for me (Airtable, in case you’re wondering, because although it can take a little work to start, it was easy to customize and change things as I went).

Even the best software can be a bad choice if it doesn’t match how youyou work.



114. 4. Room for Improvement Room for Improvement Now, write those 5 things down at the top of each box

on the next page. Then, for each item, rank each of the

following:

¥ Cost/investmentCost/investment: Are there any fees, subscriptions, or other

service costs for this item (or for tying it into other things)?

¥ Knowledge gapKnowledge gap: How much do you feel is left to learn about

what this can do (for you/your team)?

¥ AutonomyAutonomy: How isolated from other systems or workflows

is it? In other words, how easy would it be to remove with

minimal impact?

¥ RedundancyRedundancy: Are you already using something else that can

do the same thing?

¥ ResistanceResistance: What is your level of dread before using it?

Having an overall picture of how these rank is important.

Something could be easily improved or replaced, but require a

large investment because it’s integrated with certain key things

in your workflow. Or something could be free to replace but

need a longer block of time.



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Example



135. 5. Make Your Choice Make Your Choice Now that you have a good handle on your Top 5, it’s

important to keep the momentum going and that means

deciding what to change. Trying to change too much at

once can leave everyone overwhelmed and, even worse, derail

your business in the process.

So the goal here is to narrow down a little further and focus

on 3 things to work on over a period of time; also, identify any

critical things that would need to happen .

The first thing will be something you can The first thing will be something you can accomplish in the next accomplish in the next weekweek..This could be something you need a little more training on or

something that could easily be removed altogether without

effecting anything else. This is the “quick win” phase. Removing

even one small irritation can make a difference, so start small

and build upon it.

1 Week Goal1 Week Goal



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Next, pick something you can accomplish in the Next, pick something you can accomplish in the next next monthmonth..Maybe this is something that requires a little more leg work.

There may be files or data to export, connections to other

services that need to be accounted for, or you may need time

to get everyone up to speed on what the new workflow is going

forward. And again, list any critical things that would need to be

completed to make this happen.

1 Month Goal1 Month Goal



15And then, the thing that can be And then, the thing that can be accomplished in the next accomplished in the next yearyear..Now if a year seems like a long time (or too short a time),

you can make this whatever makes sense for you.

Maybe it’s a quarter or 6 months. Maybe it’s 18 months or two

years. This is the thing that needs the most unraveling. The thing

that you’re more than willing to hire out or bring on extra help to

handle. Again, maybe it’s onboarding and training so everyone’s

on the same page. Maybe it’s migrating years of data (but only

after you’ve decided if you really even need it).

Chances are it’s the thing that needs to be addressed in phases.

And there’s many different ways to tailor that, but two common

choices are:

¥ Cut OverCut Over: Choose a cutover date to start using the new system

(and finish up anything existing in the old).

¥ Start OverStart Over: Just start over, building something new piece by

prioritized piece (rather than worrying about having it 100%

ready/finalized/perfect before switching).

To keep on theme, the goal is not to put in sweeping changes

that leave no breathing room for learning and getting used to

something new. The goal is to build a better environment for

your business to thrive in the long run.



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You can always repeat this process as many times as you need until you’re comfortable with how your business is running. The goal is to do so in a way that doesn’t completely disrupt everything else or overwhelm you (or your team).

1 Year Goal1 Year Goal



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Fantastic.Fantastic.So you have your goals (most likely with dates assigned

already, ready to be added to your schedule/planner/

calendar) and some clarity on whywhy you’ve made the choices you

did.

Here’s the thing: it’s still easy to get distracted – and if this is

your first round of decluttering, possibly unavoidable. Maybe

you had something rank high that didn’t make the short list.

Maybe someone hears you’re cutting out a particular system they

absolutely love and have made it their mission to convince you

otherwise. Maybe you came across something new that seems

like it could replace everythingeverything.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re decluttering a closet or

your business - being intentional about and confident in your

decisions is critical. New things will pop up. People will give you

new information. Even your team will have valuable insight. But

at the end of the day, your decision is the only one that matters

for your business.

Clear away all the extras everyone else told you were “must

haves” and take back ownership of your business so it can get

back to supporting your goals and how you work.



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NotesNotes



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NotesNotes



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FFollow-through can be tricky when you’re

balancing all the other aspects of your

business. If you’re interested in dedicated help to

make your work flow, check out deciphercc.com deciphercc.com

for details on working with me.