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Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast
This Productivity Hack will Change Your Life! | Clutterbug Podcast # 282
01:09:54
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- [00:00]
Cass
Excited about today's podcast because I'm talking to someone who is an expert on productivity. Her name is Megan Simrell from the Pink Bee, and this is sort of a passion project of mine, productivity time management. Because truthfully, I suck at it and I am constantly looking for a way to make it feel easy. I know that it's possible because I also sucked at decluttering and organization, but having these systems in place and having these incredible kind of processes running in the background make my life so much easier when it comes to my physical things. And I want the same magic when it comes to my time. Despite the fact that I try everything when it comes to time management, I just feel like I'm not quite there yet. I feel like this isn't something that I've nailed. And I know this because I'm often stuck, still scrambling to find time for the things that matter. I'm really great at scheduling all the things I'm supposed to do and writing to do lists, but at the end of the week I'm like, oh man, I didn't spend as much time as I wanted on my hobbies or with my family or reaching out to friends. I'm great at stacking the to do's but not so great at prioritizing the stuff I love. The biggest life changing thing that happened when I decluttered was that I instantly had so much more time, like an abundance of time. But I wasn't great at organizing that time, right? So what what happened was I just filled it with nonsense other things. Instead of doing dishes and, and tidying and doing all this laundry that I used to be doing because I had too much stuff. Now I'm filling it with watching TikTok question mark. Like I need to organize my time in the exact same way that I organized my home so that life feels easy not just physically, but emotionally as well. Hey Clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Super excited about today's episode. But before I get into the life changing, awesome advice on productivity and time management, I want you to do double duty on this one. I want you to learn, but I also want you to be proud of the progress you made while listening to this podcast. So you are not allowed to just sit and watch or sit and listen. I want you to take action on your home today. Specifically, what I'd love you to do is find things to leave. Let's declutter, let's get things out of our home. Even if it's just a few things, it will Make a difference. And what I recommend you really focusing on today is a hot spot in your home that is in, like, valuable real estate area. Someplace in your home that every day is creating friction because there's too much stuff. Kitchen counters, a big one. Kitchen table, a big one. Entrance way. If you are having to move things every day to live your life, that is the spot that we're tackling first. Because the ultimate goal here is that you can reset your home and definitely this spot in 15 minutes. Right now, if you're looking at piles and mountains and things that have no place to go and everything is stuffed, it's impossible to reset in 15 minutes. I want your home to feel effortless. And step one is less stuff. So think about a hotspot in your home right now. Go there and let's make it easy to manage. You've got to find things to go, but you also have to look and identify. Like, what is here that needs a place to live? The reason you're putting it down on a flat surface is because it isn't easy to put it away or you don't have an away. The best place to make an away is to declutter the stuff that's there. Now, every time I go into a client's home, if they have stuff piled on their kitchen counter, I immediately open the drawers and cupboards below and above. What's in there? You know what's in there. Salad spinners, that's what's in there. Food processors that haven't seen the light of day. You probably have a drawer filled of random paper that you didn't want to deal with. You just shoved and hid it in a drawer. This is so common, but it's also unnecessary crap that's making your life harder. Because now you don't have an easy place to put the stuff that you're piling. And the pile is a problem. It's a problem because it's hard to see and find what you have. It's a problem because it's an annoying nag and clutter attracts clutter. And it's a problem because this is a surface that should be used for living. Whether you're using this to roll out cookie dough or do a craft or have your kids do homework at the kitchen island. That's what this is for. It's for living, not for storage. So the piles have to go. But the clutter that you're seeing in that pile, you're using that. Find a home for it by getting rid of the stuff that you're not using close by. Grab a bag. Grab a box right now and be ruthless. You are fighting for the home of your dreams, and there will be casualties in this war. There will be things that are good, that are useful, but they're not serving you, so they got to go. Let them die, my friend, because the other side of this battle is the peace that you're craving. I talk a lot about friction, and what this means is all those little bumps between you and the thing you want to do. So you want to cook dinner, but you have to wash the pots and pans first, or you have to hunt for the thing that you need because the. The noodles are in the back of the pantry and you have to move the canned goods and the snacks out of the way. Friction. Friction. Friction. Your kids want to color, but you've got to clear off the counter first and find the crayons. Friction, friction. Every time something is in the way of you doing the thing you want to do, that is the roadblock you've got to bust through. Those are all the things that have to be removed in order to save you time, but to make your life easier, too. If you're new to the clutterbug community, it's hard to know where to start. You're looking around and you're like, everywhere needs attention. And this can be so paralyzing. It's like perfection paralysis. I need to know exactly where to start. So I want to give you three spaces that I recommend. The first is your entranceway. It's the first thing you see when you come home, and it's the last thing you see when you leave your house. And so it's kind of like the catalyst for productivity. If your entrance way is a disaster, you're going to be late. And if your entranceway is a disaster, when you come home after a long day, you're going to walk in and be like, I hate my house. Honestly. So tackling this space is key. Decluttering all the things you're not using and just trying to make it more functional so that it stays tidy by adapting your home system with hooks and storage to catch the clutter so it's not just being put down. The other space that I really recommend that you start is actually your bedroom. And here's why. This is a spot that is the most neglected area in a home, because company doesn't see it. So people tend to shove and hide and shut the door, and who cares? Except this is the ultimate disrespect slap in the face to you this is your private, beautiful sanctuary. And it looks like a crap hole. Every time you just shove and toss and. And have a pile on the floor that is telling you subconsciously that you are not important, that you don't matter, that you don't deserve better. And you do. You deserve to wake up in the morning and look around and make this sound. I love my bedroom. You need that. And before you go to bed at night, you certainly aren't gonna lay in bed and look around and be like, look at all the laundry I didn't do. Oh, man, I'm such a piece of crap. Well, good night. What are you talking about? You should feel like. You should look around and be like, wow, this is gorgeous. It's restful, it's peaceful. And you drift off into lullaby sleepland, man. Hard to do that in a cluttered mess with your CPAP machine and your piles of clutter and your empty freaking wrappers. Start in the bedroom. And then another space I recommend absolutely. Is your kitchen.
- [09:00]
Megan Simrell
Why?
- [09:00]
Cass
Because it literally is the heart of the home and it is the most used space. And if it's cluttered, everything's harder. Cooking's harder, cleaning's harder, getting a snack is harder. And it's like the catalyst for the rest of the home. So if those three spaces, if you could pick one, whichever one feels the. The coolest to you, that will have an immediate and long lasting effect on your entire home. Hi. Welcome, Megan, to the Clutterbug podcast. I'm so excited to have you here.
- [09:33]
Megan Simrell
I am thrilled to be here.
- [09:35]
Cass
It's gonna be awesome. We're talking about productivity and time management, and I'm saying it with this deep voice because I feel like.
- [09:43]
Megan Simrell
Feels heavy.
- [09:44]
Unknown
Right.
- [09:44]
Megan Simrell
It's like, oh, my gosh.
- [09:46]
Cass
Also, like, it's time to be business. It's time to put on our big girl pants and get stuff. But before we talk about all of this, I'd love to know how you got started. This is such a. You know what? Honestly, Mostly male dominated industry. And here you are, the pink Bee.
- [10:05]
Megan Simrell
The pink bee. Well, it's what's fascinating. I was reading a book the other day and the. The latest stat that she was sharing was that 93% of books written about time management and productivity are written by men. So, yeah, it is a very male dominated industry. Yeah. In third grade when someone said, hey, Megan, what do you want to do when you grow up? I was not saying I want to do time management.
- [10:27]
Unknown
Right.
- [10:29]
Megan Simrell
But I think for a lot of business owners, it kind of came out of a personal need. So I actually spent over 20 years in the corporate IT space working in several different software companies and spent a significant part of my career getting a lot of certifications and backgrounds in process improvement and project management quality. So I would go into kind of chaotic software teams and rebuild their processes from the ground up to help them build their software better, faster, more efficient, higher quality, Got married later in life, started a family later, and had a very interesting, pivotal day when a complete stranger asked me at the park when I was there with my 2 year old, what do you do for fun? I was like. And it kind of floored me because I couldn't remember the last time I just took time for myself for something fun. I think like so many women, my, my calendar was a representation of everything I was doing for everyone else.
- [11:31]
Unknown
Right.
- [11:31]
Megan Simrell
It was full of my time as an employee, my time as a daughter, as a mom, as a wife. Like my entire calendar was in accountability to a role that I served. And nowhere in there was space for myself. And I'd been using the same planning, the Franklin Covey planning system for over 20 years. So thankfully it kind of hit me. I was like, this is what you do for a living, Megan. How about you take your own life and use all the tools and frameworks that you've developed to help create harmony out of this very chaotic situation. So that was at that time. I did not know. It was the start of what is now called the top framework, which is time management, organization and productivity for women. It transformed my life. Friends and family started noticing. They're like, you look so light. Are you at a new gym? I'm like, no, I'm actually just having time for myself. And so a couple women that I knew in technology asked if I'd train them on it. So I did. And then fast forward to today, about five years ago is when I had finally shared this with enough people and I saw their results and I was like, this is my passion and my calling. So we've gone all in on, on building out the company and I absolutely love it.
- [12:46]
Cass
I love it. So if like, if time management was a human, your relationship, you're like best friends, is this what you're saying? Yeah.
- [12:53]
Megan Simrell
And that's one of the things I like to tell women as well. Like, it's really learning how to take back control of your time is. And calendar is really about establishing a very different relationship with it. Like it really changes your relationship with time instead of it always feeling like the thing we don't have enough of Right. It becomes a gift that we get to control and honor and prioritize.
- [13:17]
Cass
I love that I. I became pretty obsessed with time management and productivity years ago because I felt like I was working all day, especially as a mom. Just like, I was exhausted. I was like, I've been running my butt off and I'd fall into bed and then I'd think, I, what did.
- [13:34]
Megan Simrell
I get done today?
- [13:35]
Cass
I can't actually think of one thing I accomplished though.
- [13:38]
Megan Simrell
But I'm exhausted, but I'm tired.
- [13:41]
Cass
But then I feel like I went too far the other way. And I started scheduling, like everything. And I tried color blocking and time blocking, but then what happened was any time life would happen, and I want to call this life, there was no room for a. There was no room left. I had over scheduled things and like, it was almost like a balancing cards. Like this was. This was scheduled here, and then, then, then I could do this this day and then this, this day. And if one day messed up or.
- [14:11]
Megan Simrell
I was sick, everything. Yeah. And the reality is almost, I can't say all. I'm sure someone out there doesn't do it, but pretty much every, what I call masculine planning system teaches you to do exactly what you were talking about. And some will say create the perfect week that you can just rinse and repeat week after week. Right. Every Monday from 9 to 11, we do this, then we do this, then we do this. And everything, every minute of every day is ass. And the biggest thing that's missing there and why this works for men but not for women is the reality is two, part one. We carry the mental load. And even though that doesn't show up on our calendar, it. It consumes a lot of energy and time. And number two, we are 99% of the times. We are the ones that have to absorb what I call uncertainty or life. As you talked about, Right. If my kid's sick, they're not calling my husband first, they're calling me. And so when you take a very masculine approach to time management, it works great because they're not navigating the unexpected, the unpredictability. The schedule changes the way traditionally women are. And so if you don't have a planning system that supports uncertainty every Monday by noon, everything's going to be in disarray because something will happen and then all of your plans. And this is why women eventually just go, well, there's just no point in planning. Why bother?
- [15:37]
Cass
Yeah, exactly there. You know, I can just think about today. I had this podcast scheduled. My daughter missed the Bus. Then my son's like, I forgot my lunch bag. And then my mom called and she's like, I'm really having a bad day and I need you to come sometime today and just help me get, you know, prepare meals and things. And I'm thinking all of these little, I'm like, okay, what do I shift? What do I shift? Gotta shift, shift, shift. My husband's, he's, he's still sleeping up there, enjoying his morning. I'm glad you say that because we've.
- [16:06]
Megan Simrell
Had a similar morning over here where I like right before we got on with all the stuff that changed after we booked this. I've got my dogs in their crates and I'm praying that in about 10 minutes when I know that this other car is going to pull up to pick up my daughter, that it stays quiet. But you know, I had everything planned perfectly and then life threw us curveball.
- [16:26]
Cass
So that's it. Life. So I'd love to hear you talk about a different way, a different way of still being productive and time management and planning. Because let me tell you, it is key going from someone who used to never plan to someone who planned all the time. Man, I, my productivity shot through the roof, but it was at the expense of that flexibility now. So I would love to.
- [16:54]
Megan Simrell
Yeah, yeah. And this is why, like when I define productivity, I have a love hate relationship with the word. But the way I describe it is getting the most important things done in a stress free way, which is very different than I got more done than my neighbor today. Which is what I think a lot of the masculine energy around productivity is. Right. Get up at 5am Might be part of the 5am Club. Block every minute of every day. You know, just circle your top three only just all this stuff, it's like that just doesn't work for women. So I think one of the key things that is really powerful for women to learn to do, and this ties back to that uncertainty, is calculating what I call your uncertainty number. Everybody is going to have their own unique number and it will change over time. And a good way to think about this is if you think about your finances, right. A lot of financial experts would say you need to create an emergency fund, right? Because you're going to need to replace your tires, the hot water. Like we don't know what's going to happen, but something's going to happen each year. That's usually a large expense. And then we're like, if you don't have the money sitting there, then you go in debt Right. So a lot of people will say, hey, put away, you know, maybe 100 bucks a month into this fund, and then the money will be there. Well, we need to do the same thing with our time. We essentially need an emergency fund, or what I call your uncertainty fund. So I encourage people, I'll say, hey, take like a week or two and go about your daily life. And anytime something happens that now needs to absorb at least, you know, 30 minutes of your time, make a note of it and write down how much time and what it was, Right? So, oh, my kid missed the bus this morning, then had to, like, that was another. Like, there was 20 minutes of my life I did not expect to have happened.
- [18:40]
Unknown
Right?
- [18:41]
Megan Simrell
So actually write down how much time. And I tell people two weeks is best. You know, if you only have one week, do it over one week. But what we want to start to do is figure out what is an average number for you of hours that is going to be consumed by something that you have no clue is coming at you every single week. And so when I was first doing this for myself, this was a good. Gosh, 10 years ago, my daughter was transitioning to preschool, and it did not. It was not a smooth transition. So we started off two days a week, you know, three, three and a half or four hours a day. Well, we never made it. Like, I always got a phone call that, you know, come pick her up. Now, I could have every week at the beginning of the week gone. It's going to happen this week. And I could have planned to have all that time, but reality was telling me, no, Megan, you maybe are going to get two and a half hours, right? So back in that season of life, I had a higher uncertainty budget in my life. Today I know that each week I'm going to have about five, four hours of work tasks that are going to pop up during the week that I don't know about, and about two to three hours of life. What I call my household, COO stuff, right? Dogs, kids, all of that. So what that means when I plan my week is I actually block four hours of, like, randomly. I change it up each week depending upon what's real. But I basically create four hours worth of appointments on my calendar during my work time. And you can just label it uncertainty or holding. I mean, you put name it whatever you want. Buffer, some people call it. And I color it a different color. So that is proactively protecting that time. So, like, when I look at my calendar for this week, I can see I have an hour of that today, later today, that's just reserved. I'm not planning on doing anything with it. So yesterday something came up for work that I was like, oh, I really do need to get this done this week. Well, instead of panicking and trying to figure out how to get that done yesterday, I was able to go, oh, look, I have that block of time tomorrow. That's when I'm going to do it. So learning how, you know, for each individual, what is that average amount of time, whether it's work related, whether it's family related, whatever it is for you, and then actually blocking it and protecting it on your calendar is what gives you the ability when life happens to either move things around.
- [21:13]
Unknown
Right.
- [21:13]
Megan Simrell
Or like, if it yesterday, if it had to be done yesterday, well, I could say, okay, well, what I was going to do right now, I'll move to where, you know, in a future time that I had protected, or I can wait and do that new thing when that time presents itself. And even just that one little skill alone is a real game changer.
- [21:33]
Cass
I like that so much. I. I feel like I used to do this with Fridays. I used to protect Fridays and call it errand day. And so I wouldn't book any work, even though it's technically a work day. And that's like, I'd go grocery shopping or if I needed to get my hair done, it was Fridays. But somehow I allowed work to creep back into the Friday.
- [21:54]
Megan Simrell
Trying to do it all in one day, that's going to be hard. It was hard to do. And a lot of people are taught, you know, keep, quote, white space on their calendar. But what white space usually ends up being is, okay, that thing took longer than I thought.
- [22:10]
Unknown
Right?
- [22:10]
Megan Simrell
And so white, white space gets eaten up by all these other things. It's not the same as intentionally saying, here is chunks of time that I know I'm going to need. I just don't know what I'm doing with it yet. And white space should be in addition to your uncertainty time.
- [22:30]
Cass
So you still are a big supporter of like planning in your calendar and putting stuff in, which is the traditional. It is still traditional productivity. But you're just like, we can't cram it like men can cram it.
- [22:45]
Megan Simrell
No. And I teach, I am. The foundation of everything is a five step weekly planning process. I call it the basic weekly planning process. And once you master that, then we, then we move to the advanced weekly planning process. And that's 10 steps. And before everyone panics and is like, when the heck am I supposed To I do it in 15 minutes usually. So it's a very. Because once you've, once you know how to build your planning inputs, kind of the machine I call it, it makes planning really easy. And what is fundamentally different is. Notice I talk about weekly planning, not daily planning. And a lot of planning systems, even planners that you go by, right, they teach a daily planning system. Wake up in the morning, brain dump, Identify your top three priorities. I do this.
- [23:34]
Cass
You're saying this is bad.
- [23:36]
Unknown
I am.
- [23:37]
Megan Simrell
And then magically focus on just those three and then when those are done, then somehow everything else is, is going to fall into place. Right. So then what happened?
- [23:48]
Cass
I do.
- [23:49]
Megan Simrell
It's what so many people are taught to do. Well, when you are operating in daily planning mode, I call it just in time living.
- [23:56]
Unknown
Right.
- [23:57]
Megan Simrell
What's happening is things are very, they feel very reactive, they happen very last minute and they don't allow you to absorb uncertainty very well.
- [24:07]
Unknown
Right.
- [24:07]
Megan Simrell
Because all of a sudden what happens is usually the top three were things you've known about for three weeks, but they kept getting punted until now it has to be today, like it's due tomorrow. And then you brain dump everything else and maybe half of it gets done. So then tomorrow what do you do? You wake up, you rewrite half of yesterday's onto today's and you add to it. Well, when we're working this way, at no point is the entire list really prioritized. Well, and at no point does anyone ever look at everything they just brain dumped and then write down how long will each one of these take.
- [24:45]
Unknown
Right?
- [24:46]
Megan Simrell
So if, if people did, I guarantee you every single day they would see this. Math doesn't math. Like I've just listed 10 hours of stuff. My calendar shows me I have five hours available. So how, how am I going to make this work? What is it that's not getting done today? And so when we stay in this daily list, make top three priority, somehow magically we're going to get those three things done. Which I've still never understood how people make that work. Because I have days intentionally where I'm not working on any of my top three because it's a day that is stacked with meetings and appointments that only gives me small pockets of time. And maybe the top project I'm working on needs a two hour quiet block because it's creative, right? So I will intentionally design a week where I can say, hey, on Wednesday I'm not touching any of my top three projects, but Thursday I am.
- [25:40]
Unknown
Right?
- [25:41]
Megan Simrell
So if we're Staying in this daily reactive mode. It keeps us, I really feel like it almost keeps our nervous system kind of humming at a pace. It's just not sustainable.
- [25:51]
Cass
Oh, I feel this with all my core because this is what I do, this is what I tell people to do.
- [25:57]
Megan Simrell
It's what everybody's been told to do. And there's entire planners built around you doing that.
- [26:03]
Unknown
Right.
- [26:04]
Megan Simrell
And again, it can work. It served me when I was single and in my 20s and in a corporate environment without a smartphone.
- [26:16]
Unknown
Right.
- [26:16]
Megan Simrell
It worked great because work was work, home was home. Never did the two meet.
- [26:21]
Unknown
Right.
- [26:22]
Megan Simrell
People couldn't, you know, Amazon prime, all of that technology did not exist. And so 25 year old single, corporate Megan absolutely could function that way. But now, you know, 50, almost 52 year old Megan with the latest study is showing that we are getting so much information from our mobile devices every day. It equals watching 18 movies per day. Yeah. So we're consuming all of this. We have blurred lines between work and home. Information's coming at us, notifications are going all of this. And yet we're still being told to use a planning system that was built 50 plus years ago when the realities of our world today were completely different.
- [27:14]
Cass
I'll tell you why I leaned into this more than the other. I would pick up a planner every. I have so many planners every year I go and I'm like. And then I open it and it's like my life this, it's like 5:00am, 6:00am and they break them down by hour. And I go a big hell no. Because that's.
- [27:35]
Megan Simrell
What do you wait?
- [27:36]
Cass
I need flexibility. So in my brain, this daily dump, pick the favorite, feels like flow and flexibility. But you're right, what ends up happening is it's 7 o' clock at night. I'm like, oh crap, crap. I have two out of the three that I haven't done yet and I stay up all night.
- [27:58]
Megan Simrell
Yeah, exactly. And I love that you brought up the flow and creativity because I actually did a workshop for a group of professional creatives recently. And I mean I walked in there and they were ready to shoot holes into every single thing that I was going to teach them about planning. Right. So like we're creatives, we can't. Because I always say structure creates freedom. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. You know, I need to, I need to be free to be able to, you know, draw when I feel like Dr. To the art museum when I need to. I need to have that flexibility. And I said, okay, so let Me ask you this, when was the last time you actually went. I'm feeling it. And you went to that art museum and while you were there, you weren't stressing out about the other things that weren't getting done. When was the last time you went and did something just for you and were able to be fully present and enjoying it? Not one person was able to raise their hand and say yes, because I'm.
- [29:00]
Cass
Gonna tell you also, they probably aren't even going to the art museum.
- [29:03]
Megan Simrell
Yeah, well, most of them were like, yeah, I never actually go. Right, because you don't. And then when you do, if all of a sudden you're like, I have this amazing idea like maybe you're a writer and then you want to go sit down and write, well now you're like, oh my God. But I haven't done this and I haven't done that. And then the kids and the blah. So you're not actually having any freedom. Whereas if you learn how to create plans again, with the ultimate goal being helping you get the most important things done in a stress free way, now what happens is, you know, I, I work very little. You know, we run a seven figure annual run rate company and collectively all four of us combined work 80 hours or less per week. So I only work about 20 hours and less in the summer. Yeah. So we're in our summer season.
- [29:50]
Unknown
Right.
- [29:50]
Megan Simrell
And so when I want to check out at noon and go spend the afternoon with my daughter at the pool, my computer's not coming with me, I'm not checking my phone and I'm not in the back of my mind worrying about I gotta still do this, when am I going to get that funnel down? I gotta write those emails.
- [30:07]
Unknown
Right.
- [30:07]
Megan Simrell
I've created a plan that shows me you're doing that on Friday morning, Megan. So go check out and do it whatever you feel like doing on Wednesday afternoon. Which means I truly get to enjoy my non working time. And then when I am working, I don't feel guilty about what I'm not doing with my family because they get the best of me when I am in mom mode. They're not getting tired, stressed out, whatever mode, or I'm on a date night with my husband. I'm not tapped out because it's been an exhausting day. I mean, it may be right, that's life. But it means you really get to be fully present in whatever you're doing. Whether it's work, whether it's time for yourself, whether it's time with your family, and if you're operating in daily list making mode. You're never going to not have that stressor of the things that don't have a check mark next to them bugging you when you're not actively working on them.
- [31:06]
Cass
Okay, you make me want to scratch your eyes out a little bit. But also I want this so bad. This is it. This is what I've been craving. So walk me through what it looks like. Because my brain, I can't see anything. But it's the, it's the 5:00am, 6:00am or it's the daily brain dump circle. I don't, I don't see. I can't visualize a difference.
- [31:35]
Megan Simrell
So think about this. So I do use just like, I mean people can picture the weekly view of a Google Calendar and iCal, right? That is the, you know, and I do it on paper. So I do use a planner that. And I tell everyone you've got to have whatever planner you're using. It needs to be every day in a column and it needs to have the Times next to it because you need to see how much time do you actually have. But the goal is not to fill every minute from 5pm to 10pm either or whatever the range is in there. So think about like kind of back to this idea of finances, right? What ultimately we want to do is know how much time do you have in your bank account and how much is already spoken for at the start of each week. Just like if I were to, let's say it's the first of the month and everybody gets paid. Maybe you open up your bank account and you're like $5,000. Oh my God, yes. I'm going to go to the store and go shopping. Well, hopefully you already know. Hang on. You know a thousand of it spoken for rent. One million of it spoken for groceries. That's what it feels like today. You already know. Okay, no, no, no, no. Of that 5,000 we already know. You know, X amount is already spoken for this month for the incoming bills.
- [32:53]
Unknown
Right.
- [32:53]
Megan Simrell
You need to have that idea of what is truly left for me to decide where that's going to. Well, that is the whole purpose of creating a weekly plan and actually acknowledging how long do things take. It's not to force you into something you can't change. You can change your plan as the week is moving on, but it's to show you what is your bank account when it comes to your time so that you don't go into time debt.
- [33:23]
Unknown
Right?
- [33:23]
Megan Simrell
So when we. And that's what I mean by Changing that relationship with time. So by creating a weekly plan where I am proactively saying, okay, you know what, on Tuesday from 10 to 11:30, that's when I'm working on this group of tasks. On, you know, Wednesday morning, this is when I'm recording a podcast. You know what? I'm gonna be ready for video. So I'm gonna proactively plan on recording two other videos that I needed that I see I need to get done sometime this week.
- [33:52]
Unknown
Right.
- [33:52]
Megan Simrell
I'm very intentionally designing a week to maximize efficiency and to make sure I'm protecting my time so that I don't get overbooked and over scheduled. Now, again, could I move it around? If Tuesday hits and I'm looking at 10am, I'm supposed to be working on this one particular task. I'm like, I really don't feel like it. Like, I don't want to. Well, in that moment, now I get to look at my plan for the week and say, what are my options?
- [34:23]
Unknown
Right?
- [34:23]
Megan Simrell
I was the world's worst procrastinator. I mean, I procrastinated a lot and this supports me to make better decisions. So now if I'm like, I don't want to do that right now. Like creating a slide deck. I'd rather stick hot pokers in my eye than create a slide deck. So if I were to look down and be like, oh, yeah, right now is when I told myself I was going to work on that slide deck. The very first thing I'm going to say to myself is, I don't want to and I'll do it later. But now I get to go look at my plan for the week and say, when is later? And maybe I see, hey, I do have time on Thursday. And so I'm going to change it. I'm going to change my plan. And I see that I have an hour open on Thursday. I'm actually going to move this and say, you know what? I'm going to do that on Thursday instead. That's not procrastinating. That's changing my plan. Now on the flip side, what also can happen is I can say, now Thursday hits and it's time to build a slide deck. And I'm going to instantly go, I'm going to do that later. But now I'm looking at my plan and I'm seeing I don't have later. If I don't do it now and I'm supposed to go do something really fun with my kid this afternoon, I'm going to end up taking that Computer to the pool. Does that sound like something I want to do? No. No, it doesn't.
- [35:42]
Unknown
Right.
- [35:42]
Megan Simrell
I get to have this conversation with myself and then it supports to do some of the things we don't mean. As business owners, we all have some tasks we don't love doing.
- [35:51]
Unknown
Right.
- [35:52]
Megan Simrell
But it prevents me from, I'll do it later, I'll do it later, I'll do it later. Meaning I'm doing it at 9:30 at night or I'm doing it at 5 in the morning, which is what's ultimately going to happen. So when we realize that creating a plan like this is to support you, to not procrastinate, to protect the time you need for the things you've said are most important, and then to prevent you from getting overbooked and over scheduled, all of a sudden that weekly plan looks really freeing instead of prescriptive, right? So even this week I got a request from someone that they're like, hey, you know, would you be able to do this thing for us on Friday? If I had looked at a traditional calendar which only shows appointments with other people, Right. I would have gone, oh my gosh, yeah, totally could do that. But because I looked at the plan I made for myself for the week, I looked at what I intentionally said I was going to spend my Friday morning doing. So now I get to say, how do I feel about that?
- [36:57]
Unknown
Right.
- [36:57]
Megan Simrell
That was the morning I was going to work on this thing I'm really excited about. If I say yes to her, I'm saying no to that. What decision do I want to make? Neither one's right or wrong, but old Megan would have said yes and then I would have gotten overbooked and then this thing that I wanted to be working on would just keep getting pushed off and pushed off and pushed off.
- [37:19]
Cass
That's so good. Oh my God.
- [37:21]
Megan Simrell
See, it's a very different relationship.
- [37:23]
Unknown
Right?
- [37:24]
Cass
And I'm thinking, as you're saying, the whole time, we have buffer built in, which is nice. And I think anytime I've tried this in the past, I haven't built in buffer. I've just kind of filled it and I've used different colors. And then I'm looking at it and I'm like, oh, this feels overwhelming, but leaving that buffer space feels good. So I have questions. Are you doing this one week at a time or are you going forward even like two weeks in the future, three weeks in the future?
- [37:52]
Megan Simrell
So I, I do four levels of planning and this ultimately what I teach for folks. So weekly planning is the Most detailed. And I'm doing that every week, one week at a time. Now, I do have some women in my program that have shared that they plan two weeks out because they have a job that does two week schedules, right? So they're, they're shift workers, some nurses, some EMTs, some vets. So they're like, no, I plan in two week chunks. So again, feel free to if you want to do two weeks at a time. My life is too unpredictable. If I were to plan two weeks out, I would have wasted my time planning that because things change way too much. So most people, the weekly planning process is something you do once a week. You get to decide when you want to do it.
- [38:37]
Unknown
Right?
- [38:37]
Megan Simrell
I, and I change it up. Sometimes I do it on Fridays for the following week. Sometimes I'm doing it on Sunday for the upcoming week. There's no right or wrong way. The next level of planning is the monthly planning process. And so once a month, and I'm usually doing it about four or five days before the new month, I have these little nine steps that I teach women to go through of how to prep for your next month to make sure that you are protecting time for those projects, for the trips, for vacations, looking at the school calendar, all that kind of stuff. And that's not done nearly at the same detailed level as the weekly plan because life's too uncertain. So those are the two things we master first. Then when women are feeling good about that, then they learn a quarterly planning and then finally an annual planning process. But it's, it's backwards from what most people are taught, right? So I know, I used to go to workshops. They're like, all right, this is the year, like, we're going to do our goal setting. And they always start you at, you know, what's your five year vision? And then you back it into what are your goals for this year? And then they teach you how to break that goal down into bite sized chunks with little milestones. So you map this whole thing out.
- [39:46]
Cass
You're like, yes.
- [39:47]
Megan Simrell
But then you come home and the reality of your life slaps you upside the head and you don't have time for this thing you've just created. So this is why I start, I call it bottom up planning. This is why we have to learn how to master our weekly planning and our monthly planning. So that now we have the framework and the systems in place to say, now I know how to make sure that I am protecting time for this goal and this project that I'm working on. But You've got to get out of drowning mode and out of overwhelm first before we do that. So this is why I start in the weeds. I'm like, we got to get your day to day realities under control to create that space to now show you. Yeah, I do know how to plan in a way that will support some of these dreams that I've got.
- [40:37]
Cass
This is. I just want to suck your brain like some sort of parasite for all your knowledge. Because I do all the things you say.
- [40:49]
Megan Simrell
Yeah, but the thing is you can't like, and women are the worst. We beat ourselves up over it. Like, what's wrong with me? Like, nothing. If. What if no one ever taught you how to read? Would you be blaming yourself for not knowing how to read? Of course not. You'd be like, I haven't been taught this. Time management and planning skills are not taught. They're not taught in our schools. Most organizations don't teach them. Or if they do, they bring in a very masculine time blocked thing. And they're, they're not addressing technology and digital overwhelm, so they're not really equipping you with everything. And so then we're left to believe because we see pretty pictures of calendars on Pinterest that everyone else out there has it figured out but me. No one has it figured out. So now the good news is this is a teachable skill. It's a learnable skill. It's just you haven't been taught it yet.
- [41:40]
Cass
So. Good. Okay, one last question before I send people to buy your planners and your method and learn from you. Are you baking in the day to day type things in your weekly, like cooking dinner and going grocery shopping and all that type of. Is that in your weekly as well?
- [42:00]
Megan Simrell
So it integrates personal and work, whatever hats and roles you're playing. And there's two keys, inputs ultimately that, that I teach people how to build. One is what are your recurring things week over week over week?
- [42:16]
Unknown
Right.
- [42:16]
Megan Simrell
The meal prep, the grocery. Now I'm fortunate my husband does all the grocery shopping and cooks dinner every night, so I don't have to incorporate that in. But things, you know, I do all the school driving and the pickups and that, you know, all of. I do all the dog care, the laundry, all that kind of stuff. So we all have both for work and personal, what I call our recurring tasks. What are the things that you do every single week? And if it's not on true autopilot, like there's a difference between a true habit versus not Right. Like I'm not putting in my planner, wake up and make a cup of coffee. I mean, that's gonna happen unless, I don't know, hell has frozen over and I can't get to my coffee maker.
- [42:59]
Unknown
Right.
- [42:59]
Megan Simrell
So I'm not, I'm not scheduling at that level, but I am looking at the life stuff. And then we learn how to create routines around those to make them as efficient as possible. So yes, those are going in there and those are our recurring tasks versus now. What are all the one off things? Right, the projects, the things that are one and done that we're not doing on rinse and repeat. And how we build those into our plan gets to look a little bit different because we don't know what those one off ones are. But then if we learn how to create really efficient routines, how we start building those into our plan starts to become much easier.
- [43:38]
Cass
Oh, this is so good. Okay, I'm going to go to your website and buy all your things. I'm feeling inspired. Please let my listeners know where they can follow you and where you recommend on your website, maybe that they start. What, what, what do you recommend?
- [43:54]
Megan Simrell
A great place to start is actually to go download my app in the App Store. So it's in the App Store and Google Play, it's a free app and it's called the Pink Bee or all one word. You don't put spaces in there because when you download it, you'll need to put in like an email. And I have two free mini courses just in there in the app to start to introduce you to what is the full time management framework. And I always send people there because I'm like, it gives you a chance to see how I teach.
- [44:22]
Unknown
Right.
- [44:23]
Megan Simrell
Because I'm always, I know I'm wary on investing, on learning something unless I've kind of seen someone's teaching style a little bit. So it's really number one. You're going to learn a lot of great stuff you can implement, but then you're going to make sure that how I teach resonates with how you learn. So I highly recommend go grabbing the Pink Bee app and then again, you can come to my website. Just go to thepinkbee.com I've got information about the signature program there. And you know, come hang out with me on, on the Instagram as well.
- [44:54]
Cass
I love it. I'm going to put links to all of that and more in the show notes of this podcast. So make sure you check that out. Thank you so much for joining. I'm Literally right now I just want to like run and buy a bunch of colored markers and try a planner again. I mean, you know, you. I'll tell you, try again.
- [45:13]
Megan Simrell
If you're getting the colored markers, I get no kickbacks for this. I just love these so much. Go get. You can get them on Amazon. It's the brand Friction F R I X I O N. But you need to get the felt tip fine liners. They come in a pack of 12 felt tip different colored pens because they erase beautifully.
- [45:39]
Cass
Stop your face.
- [45:40]
Megan Simrell
I know. Am I right? Because I do everything in pencil. Because I was a math major, I like to erase but I need color on my calendar and so these allow me to create my color scheme because they're fully erasable and, and you can just get them delivered from Amazon right to your desktop.
- [45:57]
Cass
Okay, I'm excited.
- [45:59]
Megan Simrell
Right to your house, not your desktop. You know what I mean?
- [46:01]
Cass
This is good. This is good. I'm going to run now. Thank you so much. I'm going to go rethink everything I've ever thought about time management and I'm definitely getting your app and I'm, I'm just so grateful. Thank you. You are a wealth of knowledge and I love how you are just looking at it differently. I love the like the, the bottom up thought when it comes to productivity because I am living in a constant state of.
- [46:28]
Megan Simrell
Yeah, yeah.
- [46:29]
Cass
With my daily planning and I'm going to stop teaching people to do that. Thank you. Thank you, Megan. Thank you so much.
- [46:35]
Megan Simrell
It has been my pleasure. Incredible day.
- [46:38]
Cass
We'll see you soon. I want to take a second to thank Caraway for sponsoring today's podcast. I switched to Caraway cookware and there is no going back. My old pots and pans used to be those Teflon coated and they were scratched. And then I read a study that shows that even a small micro scratch releases so many toxins and microplastics into the food. And that was it. Enough is enough. I switched to Caraway and not only are they non toxic, but they're also like beautiful heavy duty grown up cookware And I feel like it's luxury every time I'm making dinner. Did you know that over 70% of cooking and baking pans sold in America are coated with PTFE and it only takes two and a half minutes for this to overheat and release a ton of toxins into your food. And I knew microwaving plastic also released a lot of toxins. But what I didn't know is that in just three minutes in the microwave, it can release over 4. 4 million microplastic particles. If you've been thinking of upgrading your cookware, now is the perfect time to give Caraway Non Toxic Cooking a try. Their 12 piece cookware set, which is like Internet famous right now. You can enjoy fast, free shipping, easy returns and it's risk free. You can try it for 30 days and if you don't love it, absolutely get a full refund. Plus, if you visit Carawayhome.com clutterbug you'll get an additional 10 off. This deal is exclusive just for my listeners. So Again, go to caraway.com clutterbug or use the code clutterbug at checkout to save an additional 10%. Now it's time for the Talk to Cass segment where you are part of the podcast by recording a question or a comment and I get to listen. I haven't heard this before. It's my first time. So let's hear from, from Cindy.
- [48:45]
Megan Simrell
Hi.
- [48:48]
Cindy
Cass, this is Cindy. I'm one of your members. I just watched the Jessica, Jessica McCabe segment and you officially made me cry. And I'm not a crier.
- [49:04]
Megan Simrell
I just, I just get it.
- [49:08]
Cindy
I'm 74 years old. I have just been, I guess, officially diagnosed with adhd. I have been watching you for maybe, I don't know, four or five months. I just want you to know that.
- [49:26]
Megan Simrell
I really feel like you changed my life.
- [49:29]
Cindy
And I'm doing so well. I think I'm in the messy middle, which is really kind of a horrible place to be because I know I'm going to get there, but I'm not there and there's so much to do. About five years ago, we downsized from a very large, beautiful house to a log cabin. And we had so much stuff, so much beautiful stuff that was really hard for me to get rid of. And so we had three storage units that we were renting. We finally got rid of that and rented a shed, which of course I had to end up buying because I knew I was never going to get it empty. And just through watching the things you've done, I've been able to, you know, I've had to spend some money, but I kind of know what to do. I'm, you know, it's very hard to get rid of everything, but I've gone through and gotten rid of a lot. We've taken about four truckloads to St. Vincent's deposit where they give things away. We've donated everything. I am a potter. My studio is a Mess. But that's going to have to come later because I have to be able to live. It's just gotten to the point where I cannot live like this anymore. I'm embarrassed to have anybody come over. I. I've always stuffed things I didn't get rid of, and so I've been able to purge an outstanding amount of things. So much more has to go. But I. You know, I think I'm gonna have to make, like, second, third passes. I also sew. I make product for dogs. I have so much fabric, and I've already donated a lot, but I probably have. Well, I know I have at least 12 to 15 bins of chiffon. I've got bins of cotton. Really good stuff. It's like, if I had to purchase that over again, I wouldn't be able to afford it. So I've given myself six months, and if I don't go through at least X amount of bins, I'm just picking up the bin and taking it to somebody who really could use it. And it's. Things right now look messier in a way than when I started, even though they're not, because the decision has been to. I am not going to put it away unless it's either going to or it's staying and it's getting to its spot. So I really just wanted to let you know how much you have helped and how I love your transparency and honesty because it's not like you have to tell everything, but you make it so real for me. And. And it's not like anything is ever going to be perfect, but it sure is shit better than it was. I love you.
- [52:42]
Cass
Oh, my gosh, Cindy, thank you. I love that message so much. And I'm proud of you. You got rid of your storage lockers, which was.
- [52:51]
Megan Simrell
I feel like that's.
- [52:52]
Cass
Oh, that is huge. I hope you're proud of yourself, because I am proud of you. And I. I feel you on the messy middle. So I do want to give you a little bit of advice, Cindy, here I would love you to follow. Focus on one room and get it feeling beautiful. I want you to have a win in this messy middle. And I think a really good place to focus is your living area, or where you're going to, like, sit and relax at the end of the day. And you nailed it when you said, I'm not just gonna take stuff and shove it. This is called stuff shuffling. So your living room has stacks of something and you're like, oh, well, it has to go somewhere. Cass. And then you just pick it up from that room and make another room worse. So if there are things in your living room that have to go somewhere else, this is where the Ruthless comes in. You're gonna. I wanna keep this bin of fabric. It's in the living room. Where would you look for it? In the craft room. Take it there immediately. There's gonna be no room in there, friend. Trade it for one thing that can go. So remove one thing that can go. Put it. It doesn't have to be perfect. We're not organizing. We are putting it in a good enough spot and moving on. And I think, Cindy, in one weekend, you could beautify your living room, maybe even treat yourself to a. Plant some throw pillows, get some flowers.
- [54:17]
Megan Simrell
You do.
- [54:18]
Cass
You boo. But I want you to not be embarrassed. I want you to be able to have someone over and, like, direct them directly to the living room and sit and enjoy your hard work because you deserve it. You've done so much. Now it's time to really treat yourself to a space that feels done. Okay, now we have a question from Carolyn.
- [54:45]
Carolyn
Hi, Cass. This is Carolyn. I'm 67 years old and I'm. I believe I have a little ocd, but my craft room is a disaster. I have too much for the space that I have and I was raised in. You keep everything because you may be able to use it someday. Environment. And then we got kittens, and they won't leave my craft room alone, so I keep the door closed with it blocked so that they can't paw their way in. And so that means I just open it a little ways and just end up throwing stuff in on the floor. And now you can't even walk into the room. And I'm just. I'm overwhelmed. I don't know where to start. I want it to be usable because I'm retired now, so I need help.
- [55:49]
Cass
Carolyn, this is so tough, but I'm so glad that you recorded this because I have some advice for you. You said you were a little ocd. There's probably some perfectionist going on in there. So rules will be extremely helpful for you because when you have a rule, it's like a roadmap to success. It's like a treasure map that you can just follow along. And so what I would love you to do is grab a piece of paper and write down the crafts you like doing your start with your favorites. So you like scrapbooking or quilting or painting. There's going to be a lot. You're probably going to be I also could do this and I could do pottery and I could blah, blah, blah. And think about the craft supplies that are in the room and incorporate those two. And then circle your top ones, the ones that are like, yes, I wish I had more time for this. Then look at the list and think, I actually don't love that as much. It's a least favorite. Pick one and then say, I'm willing to let go of all the supplies for this one thing. So I'm probably never going to do jewelry making, so I'm gonna hunt for all the jewelry making supplies. That way, when you do cram that door open and you got to push the stuff out of the way, you're not looking at everything and thinking, oh, my gosh, what am I even looking for to go. What? Everything feels special. You have a plan, you have a road map, and you are searching and hunting for specific, specific categories of things to leave. This will make it feel a lot easier. Don't worry about organizing or making piles or sorting. Just hunt for things within those categories and put them in bags and boxes and leave the room. Set a timer for 15 minutes and come back the next day and do it again. It's like peeling an onion. There's different layers, but this is the perfect way to start. Is your least favorite having a plan and just hunting for those, those things that you can share with other crafters. Now let's hear from Violet.
- [57:54]
Violet
Hi, Cass and the Clutterbug team. My name is Violet. I'm 25 years old, and I'm from Providence, Rhode Island. I would say that I didn't really declutter ever in my entire life leading up to my Nana's passing in 2023. So me growing up, it was always a problem of my dad, who I love very dearly, would say, oh, you don't. You don't need less stuff. You don't need to get rid of stuff. You just need more shelves. You just need more storage containers. And he's a big collector, and I think he just wanted me to feel like I could be safe to collect things that I love and surround myself with things that I love. But what it has led to is a lot of friction in my life, as you say. And I'm just kind of constantly reminded of all the stuff that I have. So getting rid of it and clearing things out has been a real gift to me. When it came to my nana's house, she passed 2023, I started cleaning out her house. She was a teacher, so there was lots of identity clutter, 30 years worth of her students artwork. And so kind of reckoning with her stuff definitely made me self assess. And that's when I listen to listen to Clutterbug. I ended up on this perhaps Amish. I don't know if she was Amish. I don't know how I was on this part of YouTube, but she was like, oh, I listened to Clutterbug. I was like, who's Clutterbug? So and I think that I was just looking, just watching YouTube videos about homemakers and like I'm not a homemaker, homesteader or anything like that. But obviously they have incredible tips and know how to run their stuff. So I went, okay, like lovely listed Clutterbug. And oh my gosh, that first episode, Cass, you were saying that you brought a car's worth of stuff to the dump and also to a donation center and that you do that frequently. And my mind was blown. You know, I think about all the stuff that I bring in that I was bringing in From Marshalls and T.J. maxx, home goods Savers, Goodwill, Salvation army, because I am a lover of stuff. Stuff makes me happy when I buy it. But I think on the podcast you mentioned there was an experiment with rats. Like they're happiest, right, when they're just, just about to get the treat and then they get the treat and they're like, oh, okay. You know, and then their happiness goes right back down. So recognizing that and realizing that my nana's house didn't. It just, it didn't happen overnight. It took a whole lifetime to get that bad. Has made me, yeah, reassess and rethink how I viewed the stuff and how memories are more important. And I love having, you know, my photo, my photo album, things of that nature. But I have definitely pared down and discovered new tricks and learned new tricks and kind of taught myself like it's okay to have, it's okay to have stuff. It's okay to of stuff. But the friction was overwhelming my whole life. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'm going to go back and listen to more clutterbug. Have a great day. Thank you, Violet.
- [61:23]
Cass
I love that. I love it because 25 is like such a good age to get it and you have so much self awareness. Like just hearing you talk, you, you just have self awareness and you know about identity declutter and you've got all this knowledge that I wish I had at 25 because it does make your life easier when you Understand that too much stuff is a burden to the life you want to live. It is a roadblock to the life you want to live. So you've learned this so young, and I'm just really happy for you. I also was never taught to let go. We just shove the extra stuff in the attic and in the garage and then, you know, it went moldy and went bad. And what a burden. What a burden when we move. And I'm so glad that I'm not going to burden my future self or my kids if something happened to me. And you have learned that lesson very young. So congratulations, Violet. You're amazing. And I also love homesteader content. I think we should all have a giant garden, maybe not milking cows like they do. We don't have to go full chicken, but let's plant some tomatoes, friends, because there's something pretty magical about it. If you are still not sure of your clutterbug style, there's a question that I like to ask that can help make it maybe a little bit easier for you. I use this one diagnosing clients, and basically it does come down to time. So it's. It's good. We're talking about time management and productivity. So let's bring this in. When you go to put something away, would you rather take a few minutes to put it away so that you can find it fast? So take a few minutes to sort it or open a lid, put it in its own little compartment so you can find it fast, or would you rather put it away really fast and you don't mind taking some time to find it later? What I mean by this is you've got. Let's. I love using this as an analogy. You have an aspirin, you had a headache. Would you rather take a second and put that back in the pain reliever container so that next time you have a headache, you go right to the pain reliever and it's there, or do you need to put it away fast? Just chuck it in the medicine bin. And the next time you have a headache, you don't mind going in the medicine bin and digging around until you find the aspirin. This is the difference between that detailed and that non detailed brain or the micro and the macro organizing system. And neither is better. Honestly, people say, I want both. Sorry, babes, can't have it both ways. Neither is better. It's just. It's just what works best for you. For me, I never think when I put things away, my brain has moved on, but I don't Mind taking a few minutes to find what I need for an adhder. This is probably where you're going to be because we're hyper focused on the thing we're looking for and we're over it when we're done using it. Knowing the difference, knowing yourself is really helpful when setting up the right organizing system in your home. Now it's time for Mythbusters. We don't have a jingle. I'm not going to make one up. But imagine in the future mythbusters jingle. One of the biggest myths, myths that I over and over again, honestly, this is why people aren't decluttering, is that decluttering is a project. That's the myth that decluttering is something you have to schedule on a weekend or maybe even a whole week and you have to trash your entire house. And you're basically Marie Kondoing. What I mean, it was a great book and it inspired a lot of people to let go. But the idea of pulling every single thing out of your closet and making a pile is bonka donks. Because the truth is, decluttering isn't a project. It's a way of life. Just like you vacuum your floor on a regular basis or you wash your dishes, decluttering should be a regular, constant practice, not a project. So if you are pulling out a shirt and you're like, actually, I don't love this shirt. Doesn't look good on me. We don't put it back on the hanger or throw it in the dirty hamper. It just leaves. It's just going. And I regularly do like a 21 item toss or trash bag therapy. Decluttering is part of my weekly chore and it should be part of yours too. We're not making piles. We're not pulling things out. We're just identifying things we don't use, we don't love and that don't serve us, period. Not a big deal. And when we stop turning it into a big deal, it actually is doable. This is how I see it. You're still probably going to do that big yearly or every five years, huge declutter where you're getting rid of a ton of stuff that's kind of like the deep, clean spring clean that you do, right? It. It needs to be done. It is important. But you're not only going to do your dishes one time a year during spring cleaning. You're not going to, like, never wipe a spill and then only do it during spring cleaning. It is both. You can have both. And you should have both. You should have that big deep down declutter once a year to kind of get out the cobwebs and reset your home. But you should also do decluttering on a regular basis for the sponsor. Small things to keep up because it's a whole lot easier to keep up than it is to catch up. And those big deep down are the catch ups. But we still gotta keep up too. Thank you so much for joining. I hope you're feeling super proud of whatever you got done today and I hope you learned something. Talking to Megan really blew my mind because as much as I consume constant like productivity and this is how to make your to do list optimal, I realized I was kind of doing it wrong. I wasn't looking at my time in the same way I look at money. Realizing, like I only have so much and I have to budget it throughout the week, not just try to cram in as much as possible in my daily to do. I need to spread it out evenly like icing, icing a cake, you know what I'm saying? So that I actually have breathing room, so that I actually have a little extra left over so that I budget that emergency fund of time when things do happen. I'm not left just like overwhelmed and not getting stuff done. So that was really fascinating to stop looking at each day and start looking at each week. And I got myself a planner. I got myself erasable markers. I'm in it to win it. It's taking time. Okay, it's taking time. It's a full adjustment. But friends, if you're watching the video, look at me go. I'm color coordinating and mapping things out and I'm leaving. I'm purposely adding. I shouldn't say leaving. I'm not leaving room. I'm adding in room for relaxation, for down times and for those unexpected emergencies. And that is something I've never done before. Thank you so much again. If you want to be featured on the podcast and you want to record a message or let me know about some old dinosaur you decluttered or you just have a question, go to clutterbug.com talk to Cass and record something and you might be featured on the podcast and tomorrow. This is super exciting. I'm doing kind of a behind the scenes, more explainy type video with that Jessica McCabe how to ADHD makeover that I did. So many of you loved that video and I loved reading all your comments. And the biggest takeaway I learned was I didn't really explain the how and the why. And showing you how you can do the same zoning in your house. So if you want to see the nuts and the bolts behind the scenes, how to do it in your home, too, check out that YouTube video on Clutterbug. It's coming out tomorrow. Thank you again, my friends, and I'll see you guys next time.