With Christa, the Christmas Elf with a Plan – 15 December
Christa’s seems to be having some fun with End of the Year Planning Tip # 15. She’s pulled out old notes pages and Post-It notes and is enjoying a bit of trash can basketball. Time to start de-cluttering our planners, I suppose.
De-clutter Your Planner – Out with the Old
Perhaps, if you archive your entire planner in a few weeks, you’ve little interest in de-cluttering it now. But if you are someone who keeps the same binder, shifting the calendar pages as time goes by, this can be important. If you are one of those planners that keeps a section, as needed, for a special project (i.e. planning a wedding or having a baby), de-cluttering might be very important.
The planner I had that my co-workers nicknamed “Linda’s Brain”, was usually overstuffed. I would print an e-mail and rather than copy all the details of a short task I needed to do at work, I’d fold it and stick it behind the divider for the work section. There were lots of Post-It notes stuck in there. And it was at it most interesting phase when I was planning my wedding. Imagine bits of fabric in shades of blue sticking out. It needed frequent de-cluttering of the folded sheets and Post-It notes. The wedding section got removed sometime between March and August of that year. I got married in March and needed to add a section for pregnancy notes by August.
That brings back memories … but let’s press on.
What to De-clutter
One of the most obvious things to de-clutter, are loose pieces of paper that have been tucked in the planner for safe keeping. If the information is relevant, record it in the appropriate place in the planner and toss the paper. If it’s not relevant, don’t record it and toss the paper.
Post-It notes aren’t much better than loose papers. They can fall out or get stuck to something else and accidentally removed. So again, record any relevant information and toss the Post-It note. I do use Post-It notes occasionally, but do not let them hang out in my planner very long.
Pages for past months, completed projects and old notes can be removed from your planner and archived. This will free up space for coming months and new projects. I keep 3 months of monthly and weekly pages in my planner at a time.
Purging old lists. If the theme or topic of the list is still relevant, create a new “clean” list. For any item on the old list that you’ve not completed, confirm it’s still relevant to you. If it is, add it to the new list (or record it elsewhere in your planner, if applicable). The lists I need to clean up most often are Brain Dump lists. I have a generic, catch-all Brain Dump list. But I also have Brain Dump lists for specific things like: product ideas, post ideas and such.
If you have a planner that came with sections that you don’t use, remove them. You can use that space to add pages that you need and will use.
Why De-Clutter Your Planner
Your planner should feel a little bit lighter now. And it’ll be easier to use without any loose items sticking out of it. Your lists will look neater and be easier to read. Keeping your planner de-cluttered could improve your productivity. De-cluttering will remove distracting pages and notes and improve clarity and focus. It will function better and improve your confidence in your planner (personal assistant) to keep you on track.
Summary
Christa’s End of the Year Planning Tip for today, purge old notes and pages, was a good one. And it’s an easy one to implement. Clutter increases stress levels, and that includes clutter in our planners. Old pages we don’t need and loose bits of paper can make it harder to use our planner. Planner clutter can distract us from focusing on our priorities, schedules and goals. It can make trying to use the planner frustrating. Keeping it current and de-cluttering makes it more functional and capable of supporting us in getting things done.
If you’ve missed any of Christa’s previous tips, you can jump back to Tip #1 by clicking here.
Happy Planning,
Linda
Tell me what you think …