Spring Forward Through Spring Cleaning

Mar 28, 2019

Two weeks ago we officially “sprang forward” adjusting our clocks one hour ahead and last week we welcomed the official start of Spring. For me, this time of year always brings on feelings of revival and rejuvenation, which is why it’s the perfect time to actively refresh our minds, hearts, homes and workplaces through a little “spring cleaning.”

The recent popularity of Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizational guru and bestselling author who advocates streamlining your life by surrounding yourself only with items that “spark joy,” speaks to the immense need for and satisfaction to be gleaned from decluttering. “From the moment you start tidying, you will be compelled to reset your life. As a result, your life will start to change,” Kondo writes in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. After all, she notes, clutter often signals an attachment to the past or a fear of the future. “No matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past,” she adds. “The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important.”

Perhaps nowhere is this more important than at work. This season I encourage you to give your career a good spring cleaning. Here are a few ways to tidy up and re-energize your work life for future success:

  1. Clean up your office space. It may seem basic, but discarding what you don’t need—hard copies of files, papers, those tchotchkes you’ve been hanging on to for a decade—can free up not just space for new projects, but also your mind for new ideas.
  2. Virtually vacuum. Nothing feels better than an inbox that’s in order and a digital presence that’s been appropriately curated. Tidying up loose ends also helps you control your personal brand.
  3. Take a fresh look at your processes and procedures. How are things going? What’s working? What’s not? Why? How can you improve? Now’s the time to adjust your strategies to ensure success going forward.
  4. Re-examine old ways of thinking. Are you doing anything a certain way because that’s simply the way you’ve always done it? What about your clients—are they engaging in that routine, too? Take some time to rethink your methods from a new perspective. You may find that there are better approaches.

If you have other suggestions for how to declutter your career, I’d love to hear them. Happy tidying!

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