Nearly every meeting I’ve facilitated lately has begun with some version of this phrase:
“I can’t believe we’ve reached this point in the year already!”
And by the time we blink again, we’ll be kicking off a brand new year.
For this reason, I always like to dedicate time during 4th quarter to clearing out, cleaning up, and setting up my office environment for success – for both the new year as well as the active year-end season. Here are a few areas on my checklist:
* Drafts
Time to let go of rough drafts of proposals, articles, etc. and just keep the final copy.
* Files / file cabinet
I typically ‘shred as I go’ but I like to do a year-end sweep, just to make sure.
* Email subscriber list
If people haven’t opened an email from me in months, it’s likely they’ve either changed email addresses or no longer wish to hear from me. I silently send them well-wishes and delete the inactive accounts from my list.
* Email lists I’m subscribed to but do not read
Again, I tend to cull these regularly throughout the year, but now’s the time to take another look.
* Social media
I like to thoughtfully review the platforms I’m on and ask if they’re contributing to my quality of life or helping me contribute to others’ quality of life. At this point, I am only active on a very few – and that may decrease even further before the year ends.
* Office supplies
I probably get a little too excited about stationery, different types of pens, decorative paper clips, and the like. I’ll sort through and donate the excess.
* Bookshelves
Does anyone else love to bless Little Free Libraries with personal + professional development books they no longer refer to? 🙂
* Photos
This may involve filing them into folders, removing duplicates, or deleting them altogether. I plan to make this part of my weekly ‘life administration’ routine.
Those are some of the practical areas; I also have several more purposeful, internal areas that get a thorough cleanup at this time of year as well. Let me know if you’d like me to write a blog on those as well!
What else do I need to add to my list above?
Christi Hegstad, PhD, PCC, is the Practical + Purposeful Coach for Achievers! Join our email community for coaching tips, book recommendations, tools, resources, and more!