5 Steps 5 Steps to Declutter Your to Declutter Your
BusinessBusinessA Guide to Making Your Work Flow by
Simplifying the Technical Things
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.