From Chaos to Clarity: How to Maintain Your Organized Space for Business Success with Kitti Andrews
Jul 14, 2023
In our latest episode of Cash In On Camera, we had the pleasure of discussing the importance of maintaining an organized space for business success with our guest, Kitti Andrews. From chaos to clarity, Kitti shared some valuable insights and practical tips that can make a significant impact on your productivity and overall well-being.
Kitti understands the struggle of having too many papers firsthand. They emphasized the immediate sense of calm and control that comes from neatly stacking papers and keeping the left side of their desk paper-free. By having all their papers in one designated place, they found that it became more manageable, even if they didn't have the chance to address them until the weekend.
One interesting point that Kitti mentioned was the impact that physical items, like journals, can have on mental clutter. Kitti questioned whether holding onto old journals hindered rather than helped their progress, as the notes within were not relevant to their current situation. They even suggested finding a safe place for these items and observing the energy shift around their desk.
Decluttering, whether physically or mentally, is crucial for business success. We defined clutter as things that no longer serve a purpose and act as distractions. It can have emotional and tangible effects on your business, potentially leading to lost clients or missed opportunities. Implementing a management system, whether through color coding or alphabetizing, sets a strong foundation for organizing your space and alleviating chaos.
While messy desks may be commonplace among entrepreneurs, Kitti introduced a system that focuses on one task at a time, breaking it down into manageable categories. By prioritizing tasks that directly benefit others, such as assistants or partners, Kitti found that building momentum and a sense of accomplishment was key before moving on to the next task.
We received a great question during the episode about balancing the need for cleanliness with the practicality of a busy workday. Kitti acknowledged that things won't always be neat and tidy in the course of a day's work, emphasizing the importance of finding realistic solutions that allow for productive work.In terms of note-taking, Kitti discussed their preference for using pencil and paper during business meetings. They believe that physically writing notes helps cement information in the brain and find it just as easy to organize notes on paper as on a computer. However, they have a great deal of respect for those who can successfully manage digital notes.
We encourage you to give Kitti's organizational system a try and see how it works for you. Remember, taking action and just getting started is more important than worrying about doing it perfectly. And if you're considering using digital notes for tidiness, take into account the benefits of physically writing notes and organizing them in a color-coded binder system, as Kitti has done.
In our next episode, we will dive into the importance of leveraging social media for business success. Stay tuned!
Until then, stay organized and keep cashing in on camera!
[00:03:00] Neatly organizing papers brings immediate calm.
[00:07:13] Entrepreneurs develop system to manage overwhelming tasks.
[00:08:43] Taking action is key to overcoming clutter.
[00:13:25] Experience leads to helping entrepreneurs with organization.
[00:15:53] Attention span is shorter than a goldfish.
Sheryl Plouffe [00:00:00]:
If you're a business owner and you are feeling overwhelmed, it might not just be the sales and marketing. It might be something deeper that's going on in your physical space, in your mental space, and that's why we have Kitty Andrews here with us today on Cash In On Camera. Kitty, so glad glad that you're here to share your insights on how we can go from this place of overwhelm and chaos into a place of clarity which ties into organization and really decluttering. I don't think many of us fully understand the correlation between those things. I'd love for you to start there. Explain to us why it matters for us as business owners to know that Clutter has a lot to do with the feelings that you're feeling in your business.
Kitti Andrews [00:00:45]:
Oh, good heavens. And thank you for having me, Sheryl. I've been waiting for this for a long time. I'm honored. Thank you. When it comes to clutter in your business, The two things that it's important to remember is that clutter number 1 by definition, of course, is that which no longer serves you. And it's a distraction. It's a visual distraction. Jeez. I really should get to that. Yeah. Okay. I'll get back to it. Alright. Back to work. or okay. So it's a distraction. Also, the way it's affecting you emotionally is important as well. Because if you're feeling that you're not that you're not accomplishing that clutter, or you're or, frankly, you're so cluttered that you come to a client call. or a discovery call, and you come on your browser. I've got your file here somewhere. Where are my pencils? that doesn't exactly exude confidence on your part. And the client feels that, and you may not get a new client or you may not get the repeat business afterwards. So clutter can have very tangible effects
Sheryl Plouffe [00:02:13]:
on your bottom line. Yeah. It can. And I think of speaking of physics, because you just painted a good visualization there of the messy desk. And I don't think there's an entrepreneur out there who's being honest who's gonna say that their desk is completely clean. I mean, it's chaotic. There are lots of moving parts. But what should we do? How should we do it? Does it need to be absolutely clean and tidy, or does it just need to be pushed over to one side? Like, talk to us a little bit more about, like, how we can declutter that so that it actually makes it realistic for us to actually work there too. Because Well, the fact is that, you know, there are a lot of things that we're doing in a day, and it isn't all going to be neat and tidy all the time. How do we mitigate that?
Kitti Andrews [00:03:00]:
Well, I can actually relate to that to that personally because last week, I was doing a challenge, and there were quite a few more papers than I would like to have. And one day, I just want to say to myself, this is not good. Alright. So all I did was I just stacked them neatly and it wouldn't weren't that many, but just stacked everything neatly and I felt immediate calm. I felt immediately controlling. Okay. Yes. Some things are varied. but it's not that much, and I will be able to find it. The left side of my desk never ever has paper. It's a rule. paper does not go there. So all the paper is there. It's a category that you can it's it's manageable if it's all in one place. and then you might have your water on the other side or a cup or a couple of other things. But just basically having a place for it and you know that you will get to it even if you don't get to it till the weekend, which sometimes happens. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I I like that example of just taking something and just a simple step of just
Sheryl Plouffe [00:04:10]:
stacking the papers. So the papers are there, but we're stacking them. And that simple process brings you even a little bit of calmness in that chaotic environment. You know, I think about my own office. I have a stack of I wouldn't say they're papers. They're old journals. Journals that I like, I write in these types of, you know, journals all the time. And I have a lot of them, and they're full. But I don't wanna get rid of them because there could be important notes that I might wanna review at some point. Anyway, I have a whole stack of them. This is embarrassing to admit, but I'm going to tell you and our listeners and viewers. It's been sitting there for, like, over a year easily. And it doesn't bother anyone. It's just sitting underneath the tripod in a little stack. It's not an organized stack. But every time I see it, I wonder if it's having some kind of impact on me that I'm not even realizing.
Kitti Andrews [00:05:05]:
Interesting. And I I have an answer for that that might surprise you. And what that is is Those are your notes from the past, which are a good thing. However, from an energy or a fengshui point of view, They are almost like ghosts from the past. And, yeah, to the tone too. So if you were to Tate they're not hurting you, but are they helping you? Are they moving you forward? Or are they keeping you ever so gently anchored in the past. So my first recommendation would be if there's a place that you can put them and where, you know, that they're safe, But I would just I would just try that, and I'd be I would be curious as as I'll get out to see how the energy around your desk would be would be flowing without without these things from the past. Just a thought. It's a great idea, and it's a great suggestion. We'll do it and see if it has some type of impact on how I view the present and the future. Because to your point, those journals are indicative of the past. And my business has done all of our business. Yours included, like, they evolve. they evolve over time and you do different things and you have different offers and you move in different directions,
Sheryl Plouffe [00:06:27]:
Those journals are not helping me. They could be hindering me by trying to pull me back into the past, and I know that those journals are not full of notes that pertain to where I'm at at the moment. Yes. So it's an interesting observation. I love that. I wanna ask you, which dovetails nicely into the mental clarity, the mental clutter that we all carry with us. and you sort of we we're alluding into it a moment ago, which is that there's energy around these things. These physical items that are around us carry energy because we're looking at them, like you said, earlier, visually looking at these things. Talk to us about the mental clutter that we carry and how we can do the same process of decluttering the physical in order to have an impact on the mental?
Kitti Andrews [00:07:13]:
I believe so. Now entrepreneurs, we all, by nature, have busy brains. And I had to develop a system a few months ago because I was having a personal situation as well as business and just everything was all bubbling up. And I could feel that little iPhone battery, mental energy going, yeah. after about 15 minutes at the beginning of the day of saying, okay. Did I email that person? I better hunt it. Did I write down the phone to this person Yada Yada? All of these things started bubbling up, and I got overwhelmed, like any good ADHD deer. Just too many things happening. And where am I going to start? Just like the declutter physical decluttering, where do I where do I begin? You know the song. And then I thought, okay. I'm only going to be able to do, number 1, my one system one thing at a time, And I'm gonna break that down into categories. What should I do? The phone calls or the email. Just choose 1. And if you can make it a boge, does it affect a human being? Like, my assistant needs certain things for me. Okay. Well, let's look after the human being. or the partner or the cat, whatever it is. Just pick a category, get that done, get that momentum. Get that dopamine under your belt, and then you feel okay. Next,
Sheryl Plouffe [00:08:43]:
Because you're right. Your I mean, your system, you you call it the I think you call it the 1 system. Right? It's one thing at a time. I think that's why especially if your, again, physical or mental clutter is so overwhelming and chaotic, we don't know where to start. But to your point, just pick up a place. There's no right or wrong. It's just starting, and it's just taking that action and getting it started. Yep. That's that, yeah. just the single journey beginning with the single step, but it happens every day. But you need to take that single. Otherwise, you might as well just go back to bed, and you don't pay the rent that way. So I wanna go back to being entrepreneurs business owners, we're always taking notes, at least we should be. They would take notes on strategy calls and sales calls. Like, we should be taking notes a lot. And I have a lot of things I like to write physically, but I wonder what your thoughts are on digital note taking. in order to keep ourselves organized, because digital notes, obviously, you have to keep them file management would be an important thing to do to keep things organized. But do you describe that idea of doing digital notes instead of physical notes in order to keep the space tidy?
Kitti Andrews [00:09:56]:
I envy anyone who can type that fast. If I'm doing notes during a meeting, it has to be with pencil and paper. And notice that pencil. Because you well, number 1, we're at the physical act of writing scientific fact of course that cements it more in your brain. Digital, I am getting better at or organizing what is on the computer. But I find it is just as easy to have a piece of sheet of loose leaf with the client's information on it that will go in the color coded binder. And there it is, and it's alphabetized, and it's easy. Now, again, I'm old school. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who can do it digitally and keep it managed. And it takes time and patience, and god bless you if you have that. Me, pencil, and paper. is good. And I only have about 6 minders over there, but they're managed, and I know where to find it. I know where to find your sheet.
Sheryl Plouffe [00:11:08]:
Well, that's the thing. You have a system. And so regardless of whether you're doing digitally or doing it manually, that there has to be a management system there. You mentioned color coding. you mentioned alphabetizing. And that is indicative of having a system right from the get go instead of it being kind of a willy nilly kind oh, I'm just gonna grab this blank piece. Let me flip it over and just start writing things I speak from experience as you can tell. Yeah. That's the reality of where it is. It's just things are chaotic, and then you're just trying to figure it out. But if you have a system that is well established, before you get on that strategy call and taking the time to establish that system is what I'm hearing you say works the best way. Yes. Exactly.
Kitti Andrews [00:11:53]:
And you're gonna tweak the system as you go a little bit. But if you do it but if you have something in place that you can rely on, that your brain doesn't have to think about, use up mental energy so that you can devote that mental energy to what really matters like serving the client or serving your family, whatever it is. But use as little mental energy as you can on Monday? Exactly. Yes. And those are things that are
Sheryl Plouffe [00:12:28]:
say preventable. I mean, you can establish a protocol or a system to save yourself that mantle bandwidth before you get into that chaotic place. It was starting to be fantastic. I'd love for you to, Katie, tell us a little bit about how you get into this line of work? Like, tell us a little bit about the story of how this came to be your thing that you teach people to do. Oh, well,
Kitti Andrews [00:12:51]:
My first job or one one of my first jobs out of school was to fire a file clerk for a bank in Toronto, and Canada permanent, if anybody remembers that chair. And I was promoted to the accounting department. And a couple months later, one of the ladies where I was filing, she came and said, would you consider coming back and working for us part time in the evenings because we can't find anything anymore.
Sheryl Plouffe [00:13:25]:
I'm seeing This stems back this stems back some time. Like, you've been in that decluttering space for quite a while. And then you applied what you did in that professional experience into how you help entrepreneurs and business owners today. Yes. Yes. And we need a lot of help. We need a lot of help in this area because it is chaotic. And if you are on the path to success, you want it to be busy. Right? You want there to be momentum, and you wanna be taking calls and doing all the things, but you have to have some sense of organization
Kitti Andrews [00:13:59]:
in that process and be organized in your space physically and mentally as well. Yes. And if you don't have an assistant, then that's even more important. And if you're a solo printer that's juggling too many hats, the better system you have in place, then you can you can keep working until you can afford a team,
Sheryl Plouffe [00:14:19]:
and they'll do it for you. There you go. There you go. So for all the solopreneurs out there, I'd love for you Kitty to tell us a little bit about your website? Where do they go to access your downloadable?
Kitti Andrews [00:14:34]:
declutter brain.comeback/declutter. and the PDF guide is 7 easy steps to conquer your physical and mental clutter. It's intended as a grounding tool. for your for your declutter journey and beyond. Because what's the point of doing it, if you can't keep that way, and it goes under the acronym of control, like, control your chaos. I love that.
Sheryl Plouffe [00:15:05]:
What is something that is a tip, a tool, tactic, or technique that's helping you to market yourself these days? You know, as we are in this new era, this post COVID era, and I'd love to know what's really working for you and pass that along to our viewership and listenership.
Kitti Andrews [00:15:23]:
I love that question. And what I've been doing is shortening my texts. You know, we all get marketing emails that are scrolls and scrolls and scrolls and who has time to be reading all of that. So I've made mine shorter and sweeter, and my open rate is it's a general way 33%, just keeping it short because people have a very short
Sheryl Plouffe [00:15:53]:
attention span. Less than that of a Goldfish now. so they tell me. Yes. I agree. That's great. I love that tip, and that is one that I think we can all relate to as we get a lot of emails in our inbox. We do see a lot of text messages, a lot of DMs, but just getting to the point of being brief and succinct and pithy with your text messages and your communication in general. Yes. Awesome. Kitty, are there any final thoughts? What do you wanna leave our audience with today in terms of they're feeling chaotic, they're feeling overwhelmed in their business right now. What are the last words of advice to help them move away from that and into a place of feeling more organized.
Kitti Andrews [00:16:34]:
Your clutter did not accumulate overnight no matter what your cutter is. It didn't accumulate overnight. It's not going to go away overnight, so cut yourself some slack and take it if you need to, one piece of paper at a time.
Sheryl Plouffe [00:16:51]:
Kitty, thank you so much. Kitty Andrews, thank you so much. You're a thought organizer. Thank you for being on the show today. We really appreciate your insights here on catching on camera. Thanks.