5 Things to Clear from Your Desk Before the New Year | VLOGmas 2024 Day 16

Is your desk a cluttered mess well before the New Year's let's clear out that chaos and create a workspace that inspires focus and productivity. Hi friends. I'm Simply Cherie, and we are starting a new 5-day miniseries focusing on your workspace it could be your home office or the place where you go to work I'm going to help you get it ready so that it will function and serve you better so here are five quick things to clear from your desk for a fresh start before the new year number one old notes and sticky pads so a lot of times we write notes to remind us of things on sticky notepads so I actually have a really cute set of uh cacti here and what I found is sometimes I get into this head space where I just or this kind of over a span of a few days I just write my notes there and no there like it's a reminder versus actually putting it in my notebook where I check off my to-dos right so after a while what happens with our sticky notes they're no longer notes they become to-dos checklists our calendar and they shouldn't be hous there they should actually go to a calendar they should actually go into a notebook they should actually go into a checklist so go through your sticky notes any you know any scribbling that you did there reminders make sure you transfer those to the appropriate places whether it's a notebook a planner your calendar things like that and then go ahead and discard those notes if there's important stuff in there make sure you shred them and I so happened to do mine last night um I had a bunch of dinner guests coming over and somehow It Came Upon me like let me just clean up my sticky notes and there are so many notes there like I had already done them but I didn't scratch them off or notes where it's like a whole new idea or project and they don't belong in that sticky note and I made choices and decisions that they weren't in important enough projects or things to do that had to go into my planners or my checklist and it was just kind of like just ideas or thoughts but I have so many ideas and thoughts and actual projects that I'm working on now that I went ahead and put that you know I said if this uh was really important it'll either come back to me and I just I made that hard Choice like you know sometimes we have so many ideas and thoughts like we write everything down but really they're just passing thoughts right and they don't need more time from us and so what I saw there was there's a just a handful of things that were passing thoughts good things maybe at that point I wanted to write a down and it helped but I have moved on since and actually a lot of the projects that I do or video ideas ideas they're all in separate um places so like my my job job I have that in a separate notebook YouTube stuff I have in a separate notebook uh video ideas I actually use Google Sheets and Google docs for my scripts and ideas like that and so everything has a place and so these you know temporary sticky notes that's the whole point right they're temporary that's why even the stickiness is meant to be peeled off right um so anything that is temporary uh they need to go into the more permanent if they're important enough important enough and then the rest just toss them wait for the end where I will show you a little tour of my desk area if you'd like to see it but let's move on to the next one number to unnecessary papers so these are receipts that you're never going to get a refund for if they are receipts where you need to be reimbursed take care of that reimbursement whether it's you have to take a picture you scan it fill out that reimbursement paper you need your money back or there are receipts where you're not going to return the item uh I know my daughter has this app I forgot what it's called where she takes a picture and she gets points or something for rewards for the receipts so um if there are any receipts for those type of apps go ahead and take care of that now all right loose paper sometimes we grab a bunch of let's say computer paper and we want to draw something and then we just kind of leave the rest of it in a little pile over here to your left right so go ahead and take that pile of paper that's still good for using as printer paper and put that back in the printer or The copier print outs sometimes we print things out because we'd rather see it in hard copy form versus on our laptop or computer and if you've used that already go ahead and shred it if it's important information or go ahead and toss it if you have mail to sort through go ahead and do that now open up those envelopes are they things that you need to take action on do they need to be shredded or is it mail that can be recycled so any other papers that you do not need shred or recycle them the rest of them go ahead and file them if you do a physical filing system file them now if you do a digital filing system scan them and categorize for this part if you feel like it's a little bit overwhelming categorize so for example you may want to just deal with receipts and if there's receipts that you have to reimburse receipts that you need a refund for things like that maybe for one day deal with the receipts and then the next day or even the next next week you can deal with let's say the mail another way you can tackle paper is having the mindset inch by inch it's a cinch yard by yard it gets very hard so look at your pile of paper and let's say it's 5 in tall right and so if you go inch by inch so Monday you deal with that one inch Tuesday another inch by Friday you would have gone through that paper right or if you want to do 1 inch per week in five weeks that P pile of paper is going to be gone so even if it takes you five weeks one inch per week after five weeks it's not there anymore versus letting it sit there and 5 weeks later it's still there so let me repeat that inch by inch it's a cinch yard by yard it gets very hard so tackle your paper today acccess stationary so I know I used to have like a nice stationary set and maybe a stapler there and a bunch of pens on my desk and when I got my new desk I went ahead and got one where I could put at least one drawer and this is where I keep my everyday supplies in fact actually I was looking at it the other day there's probably a whole bunch of pens here that I can let go of because I don't use it on a daily basis I mean I basically use this pen every single day so think about extra pens markers highlighters glue sticks any type of office supplies uh that you may have on your desk paper clips I mean how many paper clips do you actually need rubber bands uh staple removers letter openers you don't need that much to get through your day so think about your typical day let's say on a Monday for me I get online right away and I try to answer um several emails for about an hour or two then I move on to my next task and as you go through your schedule when do you really need to grab let's say uh paper clips uh no matter the size you know some of us we have like the large paper clips all the way to the small ones even the cute ones let me show you my cute ones um you know like you have those little coffee cups or look at uh llamas so Hey listen I appreciate cute paper clips but having it that's why I have it in my drawer because having it on my desk I really don't use paper clips every single day in fact not even every week but I still like the cuteness and I still would like a paperclip ready when I need one so for your desk keep only what you use on a daily basis and the extras you can donate number four outdated or duplicate Tech accessories these are the unused Chargers cables cords gadgets that you don't remember what they were for or where they came from so if you have extra Chargers let's say you want to keep one like I have two Chargers one charger sits here on my desk because I use it every single day I'm always charging something and then I have a separate charger for my travel B bag and so I don't mix the two because what has happened before is that I've forgotten my charger when I travel so I just have a charger just for travel it sits in my travel bag it never moves from there I never let anyone in my household take that cuz that's happened before too and then I go travel and then I'm like where's my charger right and so uh those are just little systems that I've put into place where duplicates are worth it for me and this might be a little project but sometimes we have a lot of cords or cables and we didn't label them so I took some time to really label all our chords and the things that were extra you know like when you have um you know so like this is my airpods case and I have like how many cables that can fit into this particular um um I don't know what it's called input um and so after you know I have one for my travel bag I have an extra one there in my office supplies and I have one here uh I also have one in my junk drawer so when I'm downstairs CU I do in my kitchen area if I need to charge my phone I have something for that so those are four you know uh not charges four cords for this particular um um Gadget and that works for me so I'm not saying like like having more than one is unnecessary it depends on what you need it for so for me if you for something like that that scenario where I want one on my desk an extra one my travel bag and downstairs versus grabbing it here and then going downstairs that is uh what works for me so think about what you think would work for you so if you need four chords then have four chords and then sometimes we have gadgets like this like this is a clicker for a camera or a phone and there was a time I had three of these right and because sometimes you you buy something and then they throw this in there's like an extra so I have this one that I keep here cuz this is where I film when I have a talking head video this is my home office and YouTube studio and then I have one extra that is with my office supplies so even with my office supplies I do like to have depending on what it is a backup and so uh let's say for some reason this all of a sudden broke right maybe it got it dropped and then got run over or smashed or kicked or whatever right and then I but I need one that day I have that extra so that's how I work and um it might be also something like this this is a battery charger and I just have one of these and I like to keep it here and the reason I keep it here is that if I know I'm going to be out for a long time for the day and I want an extra charger meaning I won't really be in the car a lot to charge it there I go ahead and bring this uh charger for my phone okay and then sometimes we get a charger then we change phones or the phone got changed as far as which one to use so you don't need that anymore if it doesn't go to your phone for example go ahead and recycle that and um so that would be kind of outdated right that would be an outdated Gadget or if you have a duplicate where let's say if I have two of these and then I realize you know what it's okay for me to just grab it and throw it into my purse that for some reason works with my mind or maybe you want two one here where you can grab it and go and like I said the same thing for your travel bag you have one on in your travel bag or you don't keep this at all in your desk area it stays in your purse or your work bag because that's the only place you think about having something like that there number five personal items and trinkets keep only the photos Decor things that inspire you the most so that you don't have a desk filled with knickknacks and photos and chachkies and you know Awards and things from uh whatever trip that you went to you only need a few or just very little one or two that really bring inspiration to you in a little while I'll show you my desk and the things that inspire me but here you can see these bookshelves and I wanted to show you that what I keep here are the my absolute favorite photos of my kids maybe trips that we've taken things that inspire me my alma modder stuff you know a reminder of my uh Doc and Molly and then you know that's our trip to Japan and this is actually about travel that's kind of my Globe you know the world and I think that one says be wild and wander and a couple you know my favorite picture of my husband and I when we were younger favorite picture of my husband and my son this is a handprint of my daughter and a little poem and just some books that I like and so what I have chosen is you know as far as like my desk area aside from the function I have put here things that um you know my favorite things what inspires me are my family travel memories so when you think about your space whether it's just your desk area or you have bookshelves or a wall or different walls to really limit and only put the things that um really give you inspiration this is my desk area and I'm just going to go from left to right and I definitely like a desk that is L-shaped this is my iPad I have my calendar there that is my view from my second story uh window and then here are a couple things that inspire me this is a crystal that I got from when we were on a trip to Bisby and this is a little paper weight that is from my dad's office uh he had passed and when we were decluttering his home to uh their home to sell it this is one of the things that I kept because he's had that since I was a little kid and then I definitely have a fan here cuz this room does get warm and I have my little avocado that's my um uh coworker just it's a pencil and eraser and it just keeps me happy I love this mug it's from a friend uh they had given it to me for all the volunteer work that I had have had done and I love that morning beautiful and this desk is from I think standup desk I'll link it below I should probably do a whole video because I absolutely love this desk anyway this is a popup uh plug and listen this is the I mean if it looks clutter to you then it it looks clutter to you um there's nothing that I could do about this this is some I need the plugs all the time and I could have had the plugs come from underneath but I just love how this is actually kind of like a a popup okay so it can go down or you could take this out and then uh I actually have a um cup holder there too so there's some options with this desk and this is what I chose to have was I knew that I would always be plugging something here which is like my laptop my airpods my phone this one also goes to the iPad that you saw there earlier and then this is my laptop okay and I have my ergonomic Mouse the mouse pad and this is for I usually have a cup of coffee in the morning and then since I'm filming this is uh what it looks like this is to hold my phone I just have a book to hold this down which I wish I could do more entertain entertaining videos like how to entertain how to organize how to set things up but we'll see how that goes and then I have my lights here because I'm filming and this is uh there there Zoe Zoe uh Zoe's taking a nap she's tired she went to bed late last night cuz we all went to bed late so this is also a guest room so that's why I have the bed but this is the view that I have right and then um what else do I have here I this is my notebook that I take notes in my pen that I always use and then I have my cup of water here sorry for my lipstick stain there and then I have two mugs there because I tell you I have one two three four places to put drink cuz sometimes I want a coffee I want water um I need juice you know whatever you need you know put it on your desk but okay I'm sitting in my chair and then when uh so you can see what it looks like that's my gift wrap station behind the door I have a video for that and so when I'm done filming because I'm you know I have I'm doing 25 videos in a row for uh this month so this has just been out but once that's done or sometimes you know I film in the kitchen or other parts of the house these go away this book goes to the Bookshelf here and then these lights they you know fold down and they go into that corner that's kind of my uh camera my studio lights and all different stuff there and then I def I have a TV here um and then I have this section where I have some files my printer yes I still have the Wii I won't let let that go I'll do like a clock there and just books that inspire me Harry Potter adventure awaits little football helmet from my alma mat some books here and then I leave that space open CU sometimes I eat here not not sometimes every day I eat here and I put the plates there and then when that uh then that's my cue you know like all my plates and food go here and then I put that away and take care of that and then that is my Jun cookie hi Jun cook and when I'm not filming I put away the lights in the stand and it looks like this hi Zoe and my lights go over there and my stand so when we talk about clearing out your desk for a fresh start it doesn't mean just to have your laptop and your lamp right that would not be functional for me but I only have here the things that help me get my work done so think about for you what do you need here for your creativity for getting through your checklist for corresponding and communicating with your colleagues once you have that set in place and you clear the rest of the stuff that doesn't serve you you're going to have such a great workspace number one old notes and sticky pads number two unnecessary papers number three excess stationer number four outdated or duplicate Tech accessories number five personal items and trinkets if you found something useful in this video to help you have a fresh start in your workspace then go ahead and subscribe to my channel so that you can continue to declutter and organize if you'd like more help then sign up for my Weekly Newsletter it's called Tuesday Transformations I share howtos tips tools and encouragement so that you would have less stress and more peace and create a home you love the link is in the description box below and when you sign up you will receive six free printables don't miss the next one where I will share five things to get rid of in your papers and mail before the new year [Music]