When overwhelm is imminent, it's time to stop.

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Ping. Ring. Ding. Notification. Repeat.

Check the phone. Look at email. Answer questions. Take a call. (What was I doing?) Oh yeah, trying to focus. Start over. Stop again. Text message. Turn off the phone. Silence at last. (Now what was I trying to accomplish again?)

Can you relate? Do you struggle with information overload and trying to keep up with spam calls, emails, news and general "junk"?

Six months ago, I had had enough. I found myself sitting at my computer, clicking on buttons and basically doing nothing.

All day long.

And calling it "work".

What a joke.

I would look at my phone, with an endless notification list, and being the kind and helpful person that I am, felt like I had to answer or do something about every message. Even if it was Amazon or the endless news headlines that were clogging my awareness.

(Oh yeah, that reminds me... I forgot to...) and the cycle continues.

Understandably, I had a lot going on. We had decided to move to a larger home, I was restructuring businesses, working with clients and growing the store. Not to mention family, health and self care (which was not happening often).

And then I had an epiphany. It's slightly embarrassing to share, because I have taught productivity, time management and stress relief for years to my entrepreneurial clients.

And here I was drowning in overload, overwhelm and stress.

What a hypocrite.

So...after a week of wallowing in my own sorrow, I decided to make a change.

It was time for what I affectionately call "C&C" or Cleanup and Completion. I needed to clean up some messes. (Can you relate? )

Here's what I did to declutter (and you can too)

To do a proper cleanup and completion do these things:

1. Write out all categories in your life that need "cleanup". Some examples are:
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   ✅ Financial
   ✅ Work / Business
   ✅ Digital (the biggest one for me)
   ✅ Friends and Family
   ✅ Physical space
   ✅ Marriage (you get the idea).
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2. Next, write down all the things that are left undone or are causing you anxiety. For me, the influx of digital communication was what I tackled first. (It was also the longest list) So, I:
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   ​Unsubscribed from emails I no longer wanted
   ​Turned off notifications on my phone (yes, all of them).
   ​Social media on the phone? Gone. (yep, all of it).
   Made time to organize my desktop​
   ​Cleaned out ALL my email inboxes
   ​Cleaned out ALL my social inboxes
   ​Got to InBox ZERO! Yay! ​
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   I have to admit, just taking the notifications and social media off my phone made me sit back, smile and breathe a sigh of relief.
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   ​(Try it - I double dog dare you!) ​
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3. Once I had the beginning of a cleanup, things started happening.
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   ​Sleep came easily.
   My mind clutter went away.
   ​Smiling was natural
   My physical body (stress) changed to calm.
   And... I reinvented my self-care routine (can you say 1.5 miles before breakfast?)
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While we could probably discuss the decluttering and reorganization for quite a while (I've done seminars on this and my clients and I regularly discuss it), I'll stop here for today.

🐶 Time for you to declutter and do some cleanup? What's the ONE thing you'll do this week that will make you feel calm, confident and connected?

Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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P.S. Did you know:

Polar bear hair is colorless: Each strand of hair is hollow and reflects light, making them appear white.