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Are you ready to take the steps necessary to thrive? Join us every episode as host Adam Gragg discusses what is holding us back and how to move forward with purpose, along the way developing healthy relationships and navigating life transitions while overcoming fear, stress and anxiety. Adam is a family therapist, mental health professional and life coach, helping individuals and organizations find the transformational clarity that unleashes hope. Live the life you want, the legacy you decide.
Ep89_Declutter
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Adam Gragg: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode 89 of the Decide Your Legacy podcast. When I did primarily mental health work, clients would sometimes ask me, am I crazy? And I would always say no, because nobody asks if they're crazy, if they're actually crazy. It's the crazy people that don't know it. But I will tell you that one thing that will make you feel crazy [00:01:00] is having your life cluttered.
Neglecting the essential things in your life. And so today I'm gonna talk to you about seven ways to declutter your life. If you found this podcast helpful, subscribe so you won't miss another episode. Pull out your phones, gimme a rating, and review wherever you get your podcast content. Apple, Spotify.
This helps it reach more people and help more people. So I'm your host, Adam Gragg. I'm a legacy coach and I've been a licensed clinical family therapist for over 20 years, and my passion is to help others find self-confidence and transformational clarity that propels 'em to face their biggest fears and live and leave their desired legacy.
I teach concepts that a six year old can grasp, and I talk about things that I struggle with myself. I'm a fellow traveler. I have a cluttered life often. I challenge you to listen as a teacher, not just as a student, and to share an insight that you gain from today with someone else within the next 24 hours.
Something uncomfortable that I did recently. A scary thing is, [00:02:00] well, and the reason I share these at the beginning of it, Brett, Every episode is because nothing is more important to your mental health than facing your fears, and nothing is more damaging to your mental health than actually just playing it safe.
So I texted some friends about a stressful situation that I'm dealing with just to get their support and their prayers and their feedback. I have some decisions I need to make difficult situations. Number two that I did that was risky and scary is I said no to some good opportunities to say yes by faith to some best opportunities, which is scary to me.
And now this is the podcast that you do not just listen to my listeners get uncomfortable too. So let's start with an action. First of all, I want you to journal. Write down what is something in your life, an area in your life where you need to declutter. Maybe it's a relationship where you need to make amends.
It's a room in your house that needs to be cleaned up. You need to go have a garage sale. Maybe you need to delegate some things to your kids. [00:03:00] Maybe it's a project that you procrastinate on for frequently, that if you started to make progress, you'd feel a tremendous sense of relief and excitement. What is something that you wanna make progress on?
Now, keep that in mind as we go through the show.
I was actually in Italy with my daughter at the very beginning of the summer, and we got to check out some of the artwork of Leonardo da Vinci, the Last supper in Milan. Some other paintings as well, and also some architectural things that he was involved in, like the canals, which are actually not in action anymore. But the Cathedral of Milan, Leonardo da Vinci, the engineer was involved in the canals of Milan, which they used to transport the materials to build that massive cathedral of Milan, which is amazing to me. And so he died 472 years ago.
Yet think of all the credit that he deserved. So he came up with a flying machine. So the first version of an airplane, a helicopter, the extendable ladder, which we use in our fire departments and in our [00:04:00] homes frequently. The bicycle, the snorkel to go snorkeling, the parachute.
Actually the parachute with the dimensions that actually work today, he came up with that over 472 years ago. The monkey wrench locks for a canal system like the Panama Canal. A water powered alarm clock, a crane for digging ditches. And then here's some other really cool stuff. So the armored tank, Leonardo da Vinci, the machine gun, a guided missile, mortar, the submarine.
These are all ideas from Leonardo da Vinci, and by the way, he hated war. So he referred to war as a beastly madness, and he wrote that he found bloodshed infinitely atrocious. He wrote also that the instruments of war were designed to preserve the chief gift of nature, which is liberty. He was not about war.
He was about liberty. Also, anatomy. He's the first to draw the cross section of the human body. Botany. He noted that the age of a tree corresponds [00:05:00] to the number of rings in a tree's cross section. Geology. He's the first to document. Understand the concept of soil erosion. 472 years ago he died.
We are not focused.
The reason I wanna talk about Leonardo da Vinci is 'cause he was focused, he made progress with each and every day. At least it appears that way. 'cause he didn't live to be nearly as old as Michaelangelo. He lived to be an old man, but, He was a person of progress. He was curious. He was a learner and he didn't have this clutter that many of us have.
He wasn't involved in politics and drama. He's very much noted for being on both sides of the aisle and for relating to people of all different political views and even, you know, kings in other countries like France, opposing armies. The leaders of those armies. He was involved with the Catholic Church in projects and he was able to somehow step back and not get sucked into the drama, which is not what happens in our modern day society.
We get pulled into our phones. We have trouble. I have, clients will tell me they have trouble reading a [00:06:00] chapter in a book, even a page in a book, and I challenge 'em to go back to that same page and read it again until they start to focus on that page. Yet we miss out on all this satisfaction and productivity that we could have in our lives.
We know how it feels, at least most of us know if listening. This podcast, you know how it feels to get a project done and that sense of relief and excitement when you're prepared and you know you have the planning done in advance to make some progress, and I want you to have that feeling. I want you to know what that feels like and that will help you push through difficult things in your life.
So seven things, seven ways you can declutter your life. So number one, you know, in the honor of Leonardo da Vinci, record your thoughts. So Bill Gates in 1992 paid nearly $20 million for 18 pages of Leonardo da Vinci's Journal, and there are, I believe thousands of pages in this, in his jour of his journals, many of which exist today, some of which were actually destroyed.
And that was one of the reasons he was so efficient because he recorded his [00:07:00] thoughts. He was noted for bringing his journal everywhere he goes and writing some things down. And that will help you declutter because you know you'll have a safe place, a safe space to write down your thoughts as you go through the day, whether it's the daily five and five, which I'll link to in the show notes, or whether it's focusing on things that you're grateful for in your life, or whether it's just noticing things that you're curious about and making observations or questions that you want to ask people.
But the thoughts come to mind and you have a chance. You have a chance to record them or you have a chance to forget them. It's up to you. You can get a little journal, a big journal. So. Actions you can take to start this process is keep that journal with you all the time. Get something that you like.
If it's something cheap, like a $1 journal from the Dollar Tree, that is a composition book, that's fine. If it's something that's a mole skin Italian journal or it's a nice pen, that would motivate you to journal and start doing it in the morning and in the evening just for five minutes a day. Number two, focus on the important and the not urgent.
And I'll link in the show notes as well to a video I did on this, the four quadrants of [00:08:00] time management and it basically take a piece of paper, divide it into four sections in quadrant one on the top left. That's everything that is both important and urgent in your life.
So those things would be a crisis that you're dealing with, specifically a health crisis or a family crisis. An emergency quadrant two top right is gonna be. Not urgent yet. You know, it's important. So maintaining your health, having a schedule, planning your week in advance, having tasks to delegate, creating a job description for an employee, you know, having some fun.
Bottom left quadrant three is not, is urgent yet, not important. It feels urgent because of other people. Things that you wanna say no to yet it feels urgent to you and differentiating. Between those two types of tasks is very, very important. And then quadrant four, bottom right, is not urgent and not important.
So time wasters, things that you're just doing to go ahead and waste time, addictions, that sort of stuff. You wanna focus primarily in quadrant two. And so there's a doc, there's an article I wrote on Decluttering Your Life that I'm linking to, and in there there's [00:09:00] also a way that you can print off a worksheet that'll help you guide A P D F and some articles on this.
Four quadrants of time management model. It'll make a huge difference in your life. 'cause you'll start knowing what you should focus on. Because good is the enemy of the best. Good is the enemy of the best. So you have to learn how to say no to certain things. So number three, to declutter your life, you want to get rid of something each and every day.
So it takes up mental space. When you have cluttered rooms in your house, when you have a garage, that's a mess. When you have things that you know you want to get done or given away or sold that you're not doing anything with, if you've not worn it in two years, get rid of it. If you've not used it in two years, you're probably not gonna need it.
I don't say. I'm not saying throw away your grandfather's watch that he got for retirement or throw away your wedding ring. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that you have these things sitting around your house that you can get rid of.
I sometimes will tell my daughter, ask my daughter to go ahead and go through her stuff and give me what she wants me to donate to Goodwill. And she usually is resistant. And then she gets into it, and we've had this happen a number of different times when she's done, after sorting through her things and throwing some [00:10:00] things away, she's gen, she's energized, she's excited, she's found some things that she wants to wear usually that she didn't really realize.
She still had, she found some old heirlooms that she wants to keep, that remind her of when she was a little kid. And then she has a. Bunch of things that I can go ahead and get to Goodwill or sell potentially on eBay or on Facebook marketplace potentially, but it's something I'm gonna get rid of. So do that every day.
Where do you start here? We'll start by throwing something away or giving something away today. You know, maybe it's an old box for a coffee maker that you still have the coffee maker, but you know what? If the coffee maker goes at, you're just gonna throw that coffee maker away. You're not gonna sell it.
Throw away the box. Come on. Or you have some old planters, or you have some old just. Crappy clothes that you think you're gonna wear at some point, but you can give them away. You can and just tell yourself, you know, someone will make better usage of this because I have not. A second thing you can do is start deleting old emails and unsubscribing to newsletters that you actually don't look at.
Don't unsubscribe to mine, but unsubscribe to ones you don't actually read. And then you can [00:11:00] even go back on your emails 'cause you may be surprised how much storage it takes and start deleting old emails. I mean, I started doing that with emails from 2014, about a month ago, and I've been just going through and even finding some things in my email trash actually, or inbox, I'm not sure.
You know, inbox, I guess they're just files that I thought was helpful and inspiring and encouraging. Things that could remind me of how far I've come in certain areas of my life. So number four, delegate something to someone and delegate to develop somebody. So make a list. Of tasks that you can delegate.
I know for me this stepping back and saying, here's a job description, or Here are the tasks, the key performance indicators for my admin or for my legacy coaches, take some time. And at the moment it is quadrant two. It's both important, yet not urgent. But that lack of urgency for me makes it feel like it's not.
Worth it or it's a waste of my time. Yet when I get it done, similar to when Emerson goes through her stuff to organize and declutter, it always [00:12:00] feels great because I have a list of things that someone can utilize to get done, a checklist, and I just know it's getting done. Even if I'm traveling, I know it's getting done, even if I'm not in the office, because I've taken the time to.
Articulate the most essential tasks in that specific job, which is very exciting and empowering. So delegate something. So what's something that you can delegate today or tomorrow that will develop somebody else? So to your kids, to your spouse, to your parents. There are times when I've delegated things to my parents that are helpful to me, and I delegate all the cooking when I go out and visit my parents, because that's something that I get to.
Not worry about at all. So anyway, that's a great thing about going to visit my parents. Set up a time to sell, have a garage sale, or set up a date with your family when you're gonna go to Goodwill and make it a week out. So, hey, we're gonna go to Goodwill on this next Saturday, and what do you guys have in your room that you can give to somebody and sell?
To support this cause or to support this fundraiser at a church for a friend [00:13:00] that's a missionary that's having a garage sale, a mass garage. Those are the best. I've gotten some great books of those kinds of things. So make a chore list and sit down with your kids and have them give you some feedback or have them make the chore list and then you give them some feedback and ask them what they need some help with on this list.
It empowers them. It gives them the opportunity to make decisions. It's a delegation that actually it is 10 x. The amount of time you're gonna save long term in a year by doing something like that. So if you found this podcast helpful, hit the link to shatterproof yourself. These are seven small steps to take a giant leap in your mental health.
It's a book, it's a workbook and video, 30 minute video. You don't wanna miss this. Hit the link. That's the only way you're gonna get it. So number five. Number five tool for you to declutter your life of the seven that I'm giving you is time blocking. So time blocking, I think of it as 30 minute blocks or as one hour blocks, and sometimes on occasion, two hour blocks.
But I don't like to go further than a two hour block and the Pomodoro technique. Which is [00:14:00] going to be linked to in this podcast as well. In that article that I wrote on Decluttering Your Life That You Can Access, it describes this technique, more descriptive language than I am right now. But what you're doing basically is you're working really hard, eliminating distractions.
I like to listen to music with my headphones on. I like to put my phone in another room. I. Like to only have my computer in front of me, or the book or the journal, whatever I'm working on, and at that moment in front of me, eliminate those distractions. Tell my admin that I wanna stay focused in my office to only knock on my door if there's an emergency, or call me if there's an emergency.
Tell my daughter the same thing, that I have this one hour period that I have blocked off and I set a timer on my phone that will alert me when that period is done. It's actually not one hour. I set it for 53 minutes and then I take a seven minute break. And that's the Pomodoro technique is you're working really hard, staying super focused.
It's hard, I get it, but then you're taking a break. So for me, a break could be walking my dog or reading a book unrelated or watching something on TV or having dinner and then jumping back into the project after that. [00:15:00] Using the Pomodoro technique. So I've done it with a 30 minute period. I usually set my alarm clock at 25 minutes and it goes off, gives me a five minute break.
When it's an hour period, I set it at 53 minutes and it goes off and I get a seven minute break, or I get a break and I go do something different. I. That is like a workout, which is gonna be another block of time, whether it's a 30 minute or an hour block of time. I block out my workouts in an hour block of time, and then I give myself some margin in between those tasks.
So not only do I have that seven minute break, but I might have the drive time or another 15 minute break, but I'm getting things scheduled in my schedule so I know when I'm having a successful, productive day, and I know when I'm not. I'm decreasing the clutter. And by the way, people don't and can't have a vision in their life.
It's very difficult when they have so much clutter in their life because these things are pulling at them all the time, and they're not even acknowledging it yet. They wonder why they can't dream. And by the way, a lot of times people don't clearly write and articulate down their dream because they're afraid of success.
You know, they say they're afraid of failure because when it's written down and told to other people, they're afraid, they could feel, but I think they're even more afraid. Yes, they are [00:16:00] afraid of failure, but I think they're even more afraid of success. What if it goes right and how will that impact my life?
So decluttering gives you the space, mental space to have your vision, to have a vision for your life. So number six, plan your week on Sundays, or if it's a Monday because it's. A holiday like Labor Day or Memorial Day will plan your week on Monday, but do it in the morning and block off a half an hour of time, 25 minutes using the Pomodoro technique.
And then imagine what your ideal week would look like. What is that ideal week ahead gonna look like, and how are you gonna feel? How will you feel at the end of that week if you complete these tasks that you've committed yourself to? And what I like to focus on is what are my quadrant two tasks for the week, and then how can I time block those things into my schedule to get them done?
Because I want this specific result, which is my vision at the end of the week, but I wanna set these objectives, which are objectives or goals. They're clearly measurable things that I get done. So I make progress towards this project or this one piece of the project, or I finish the project, or I make this number of [00:17:00] calls, or I call.
I do something that's uncomfortable with my job, like create a job description for employees or do an employment review, get ready for reviews the following week, but that's time blocked into my schedule. But I do that on the Sunday in advance, and it starts to propel me into being more excited about the week ahead because when I do that, and it's not something I generally ever want to do.
Is that 30 minutes? I mean, kid, you not, it's really not something I wanna do and I'm excited about doing, but I know when I'm done, nine times outta 10, I'm excited about my week to a much greater extent than if I had not done that 30 minutes of planning. I. Makes a huge difference. And then the seventh tip to declutter your life is to follow through.
So you're gonna go ahead and make some commitments based on those quadrant two tasks and also your schedule for the week. And we waste so much time not following through. I see people and I hear about people who have just stacks of books that they haven't read. Because they started it and didn't actually finish it.
I talk to people who have all kinds of projects at their, in their house that they started and didn't [00:18:00] finish. My commitment to myself with reading is if I start a book, I'm gonna finish it. So I'm very careful at what I select to read. I do some research in advance. I know somebody who's read it or I trust the source that referred me to the book, and when I started, I'm going to finish it if.
I start a project at home, I want to finish it. It might be a long project, and I don't do a great job with this because sometimes I have these massive projects and I don't time block them out with daily objectives. I just have this one massive vision of getting this thing done, and I don't actually think it through and plan it out.
I need other people to think it through and plan it out for me because my brain doesn't function that way. I'm much more of a visionary than I am a planner, and I. I hated to admit that until recently, but it's made a huge difference in my life because now I can delegate things to the people in my life who can plan.
So you follow through. If you're gonna go and work out for an hour, you go and work out for an hour. You know, maybe it's 45 minutes that you're gonna work out, but you go and you get it done. You don't have. Asset. You can't share that with your six year old, but you don't [00:19:00] do it that way. And you also have a level of grace with yourself.
So I have said before, like 15 minute workout is a great thing. Now if you plan a 45 minute one and then you get distracted and it's only a 15 minute workout, well it's still a great thing. But that can hopefully motivate you next time to eliminate those distractions that pulled you away from that 45 minute workout.
That will make a big difference. So may this coming week be the most productive week that you have had in a long time because of these seven. Tips for decluttering your life, and let me go ahead and review seven ways to declutter your life. Number one. Number one is record your thoughts like Leonardo da Vinci recorded his thoughts.
Thank God, because we wouldn't know 472 year years later how amazingly brilliant this man was and how much we all owe. To Leonardo da Vinci as far as modern science and the knowledge base that we have and have the benefits of today. Number two, focus on the important but not urgent tasks and make those 50% plus of your focus during the week.
Number three, get rid of something each day. Give it to somebody, throw it away, sell it. [00:20:00] Give rid of something that you don't need. That's not essential. Each day. Number four, delegate to develop somebody and think about who in your life you can develop because it's a great blessing to them. Number five, use time blocking to schedule your week to get these tasks done.
Get your objectives done, so you're going to be moving towards your vision. Number six, plan your week on Sundays or plan your week on Mondays. If it's a shorter week, if it's a vacation, you don't worry about it, but plan your week in advance. Get your time, block your major objectives, get your objectives in order.
That was number six is plan your week on Sunday is number seven is follow through. So make a commitment. And a commitment is more than just fluff. You know, that is a decision. You're gonna do this thing, you're gonna get it done and you're gonna follow through. So what do you wanna apply from these seven decluttering tips?
Commit to applying one of them today and teach it to somebody today. Take an emotional risk on something that you've learned. Remember my rule, 20% of transformational [00:21:00] change is insight. Okay? It's information that you're gaining and you're gonna, it's knowledge. You have this knowledge, but 80% is action.
It's inspiration, it's taking action, moving towards your goals. I have been a lot of talk. Little action. For much of my life, I'm shifting in that, but I struggle with that daily, less talk and more action. That's where change come from. So what resonates with you? If you love this episode, tell somebody about this side, your legacy podcast.
Share this episode through Apple or Spotify to share the link. Hey, this was helpful to me. I'd greatly appreciate that. So have me out to speak live or over zoom. Hire me or one of my legacy coaches to start your legacy journey or the legacy journey for somebody on your team. And I'm gonna sign off the way that I always do make it your mission to live the life now that you want to be remembered for 10 years after you're gone, you decide your legacy.
No one else. I appreciate you greatly, more than you know, and I'll see you next time. [00:22:00]