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Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast, answering

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any questions along the way. Today, guys, is a great topic that we've not talked about

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in a long time. If you've seen one of my Instagram reels recently, you've seen me talk a little

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bit about the cone of cleanliness. And that's right, today we're talking about the cone

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of cleanliness and what that means for you, what that means for your creativity, things

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like that. So the cone of cleanliness is not necessarily if you are doing just an audio

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podcast, but if you are doing a video podcast, the cone of cleanliness comes into play a

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a lot because essentially what it is and if you're watching this on YouTube or Instagram,

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you're seeing that I have just a spot in front of my camera that's fairly clean. I have a

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few decorative items, but for the most part, it's fairly clean. However, if you were to

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look around my studio, there's literally stuff everywhere. There is stuff. There's boxes

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sitting around. There's cups. There's extra equipment. There's a couple backpacks. There's

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that's sitting around kind of cluttering up my space

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and it hinders your creativity.

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It limits you.

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While you don't see that on screen, I see that here in studio

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and there's benefits to cleaning up.

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So today we're going to talk a little bit about the benefits

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of cleaning up your space for productivity,

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both physical, your physical space that you're sitting in,

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as well as your digital space, too, because your digital space

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matters and your digital space will hinder your creativity also.

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So let's get into this topic right now.

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So what are some of the the benefits of cleaning up your space

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for your productivity?

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So it's going to reduce your distractions.

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A clutter free environment helps you focus better on the tasks

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without visual noise or competing for your your attention.

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If you've got less in your peripheral, you're going to have reduced distractions.

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You're going to be when you're trying to be creative.

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There's less things that are pulling you away and pulling your attention away

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and and begging for you to go spend time with other items.

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It's also going to improve your mental clarity to an organized space,

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promotes clear thinking and reduces mental overwhelm,

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making it easier to prioritize and make decisions.

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So it's going to help your mental clarity,

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especially when you're trying to come up with topics for your podcast,

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topics for your your social media topics for

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all of the different things that you're going to be producing.

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A better clean space is going to allow you to to have that mental clarity

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and just be better off in the long run and help you to be more creative.

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It's also going to create time savings for you, too,

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because when everything has its place, you spend less time

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searching for items and more time being productive.

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So again, it's going to save you time because you're not going to have to go.

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Where was that adapter that I had?

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You're going to know where it's at when you need it,

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because it's going to be better organized.

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It's going to be just a better overall experience for you.

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And it's going to help you also lower your stress levels, too,

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because a cleaner workspace creates a cleaner atmosphere, reducing anxiety,

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helping you feel more in control.

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It's going to make your space feel like a place that you want to be

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as a place as opposed to a place where you're just kind of feeling overwhelmed

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and so much stuff is kind of just taking over your space.

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So it's going to lower your stress levels and enhance your creativity, too,

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because an orderly environment provides mental space

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for creative thinking and problem solving.

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I don't know about you, but but when I go into a place

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where everything is organized, where I can lay my thoughts out,

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I have if I have a whiteboard, I can write my thoughts down on the whiteboard

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and it's going to be easy for me to come up with topics and ideas

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and just be generally overall more creative than when I come into a space that's.

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Crowded and lots of things that I got to move before I actually become creative.

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It's also going to increase your motivation to starting your day

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in a clean, organized space can boost your energy and willingness to tackle large tasks.

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So it's going to help you actually be more motivated to produce the work.

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So that's your physical thing.

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Now, the benefits of keeping your digital space clean for productivity is faster

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file access. So if you're keeping your your computer, then again, these days,

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especially those of us who are creating content, whether that be podcasts or

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YouTube streams or whatever, are doing a lot on our computers, right?

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We are doing everything on the computers.

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We are doing everything that that computers are really the way of life right now.

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Everything that we do is based on a computer.

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So it's going to help you have faster file access, organized folders

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and clean desktop mean you can locate different documents and files

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and applications quickly without wasting time searching.

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I know for me on a Mac, I don't have hardly anything on my taskbar

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when it's not running.

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I don't have shortcuts to programs and things like that.

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I go in and I hit command space and I type what I want to find and open up.

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So if I want to type and open up Zoom, I hit command space Zoom and it comes up.

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I don't have a shortcut for Zoom on my desktop.

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Same thing with Ecamm, same thing with anything that I'm using a lot of,

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I don't keep a whole lot in my start bar.

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And same thing with the desktop, I don't like having folders

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and files on my desktop because it just feels cluttered.

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Now, I know on a Mac, you can hide that unless you're clicking on the desktop

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and that that helps.

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But for me, I don't keep anything on my desktop.

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I barely keep things on my desktop.

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The things that are on my desktop are things I literally access

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every time I'm on my computer.

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And it is, I think, one or two things in transit.

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Sometimes I put things there, but then I delete them as soon as they're done

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because I don't want to keep things on my desktop

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that have nothing to do with my everyday life.

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It also is going to improve your computer performance.

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If you remove unnecessary files, you're going to clear like

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including your cash and uninstalling unused programs.

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It helps your computer run faster and more efficiently.

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Now, computers these days are super powerful.

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They are super, super strong.

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You know, you can get a fairly decent computer for a small price,

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but it still helps you to to your computer to run faster

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if it doesn't have to process all of that stuff.

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It doesn't have to keep all of that stuff.

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It doesn't have to have all the applications, the programs, the stuff

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that you're not actually using day to day.

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And we'll go through some of the topics down further.

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We'll talk a little bit later in this episode about how to get rid of stuff,

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both both physically and digitally to help reduce the clutter.

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It's also going to help reduce your mental clutter, too,

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because a digital workspace that's clean is going to have fewer,

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fewer open tabs, less bookmarks, streamlined applications.

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It's going to help you not to be overloaded mentally, too.

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I know when I have tabs open and I don't do so much in my browser,

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I tend to close the browser down every so often.

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So I keep all of that stuff clear.

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But on my on my phone, you shouldn't even see my phone.

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Like I have tabs upon tabs upon tabs, open things that I may actually go back

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to eventually. But I should not do that.

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I should close that out.

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It's going to help you also focus, too, because when your desktop has less items

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and notifications popping up, it's going to distract you less.

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And so it's going to help you concentrate on your task at hand,

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whether that's producing podcasts or producing digital content or videos

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or whatever you're producing, less is more.

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It's also going to help with easier backup and recovery to if you

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those of us who create things like this is our project, this is our artwork,

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this is our our files are what are what our art is.

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And and so you need to have backup and recovery

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in case your machine crashes, but a better organized

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desktop and better organized file structure is going to help

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you to be able to find the things that you actually need to back up and restore

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when it comes down to time to actually do that.

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Now, it's also going to lower your stress, too, because keeping everything

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digitally reduces the frustration and anxiety when working under deadlines.

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So again, it's going to be easier to find things.

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It's going to be better off in there.

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And it's also going to extend your your lifespan of your machine to

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regular maintenance and cleanup can help your computer last longer

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by preventing system slowdowns and crashes.

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And we all know computers are not cheap these days, especially really good ones.

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Max, they're not cheap.

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And so I know about you, but I want to keep my machine running.

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It's top physical thing.

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Top that it can do for the longest that it can do.

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Now, here are some practical ways that we can clean up our physical space.

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Now, remember, we are talking about physical and digital space here, both

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your physical space where you're sitting,

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your desktop, your room, your your your tabletop,

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whatever it is that you have your computer in your mics and things on.

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But we're also talking about organizing your your digital life to you.

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So first, we're going to talk about practical ways to clean up

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your physical space.

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These are some things that you can take immediately.

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Now, the one minute rule, meaning that if something takes

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less than one minute to put away, do it immediately rather than letting it pile

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up. So if I'm done using an XLR cable.

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and it's sits normally across the room in a box.

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Go put it away right now.

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Don't let it accumulate to the end of the day, the week, the month.

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Do it now.

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I know for me, when things start to get more cluttered

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and more cluttered and more cluttered, it's hard to want to organize them

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because I know it's going to take all day to do.

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The second thing that we can do to help keep our physical space

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is clear flat surfaces.

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Start with your desk counters, tables, removing anything that doesn't belong

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isn't used the daily. If you're not using it actively on your desktop, get rid of it

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on your on your on your space. If it's flat, don't let things pile up. The other thing

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you can do is use the four box method, meaning keeping items that you use regularly in a

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box. Donate have a box for donating and selling good condition, but you know, used a little

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bit. Trash broken things, unusable, get rid of them, relocate. It belongs in another room.

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It belongs somewhere else. So can I keep those? You can keep those four boxes in your in your

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space and help you organize things again. Those four boxes are keep, donate or sell

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trash or relocate. I know a lot of times computer equipment that's hard to get rid of a hard

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to sell because you might use it later. So but those things will help. You can also use

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an organization system, designate homes for everything.

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Everything should have a specific place, label containers and drawers if needed.

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I know it always helps me when I go into the kitchen at our church.

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The kitchen at our church has everything labeled.

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Literally everything.

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There's a drawer. It says knives, spoons, plastic spoons, soup bowls.

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Like there's a place for everything

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in in our our church kitchen.

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And the thing that should be the same thing for you and your studio.

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Place everything, make everything have a home, make it neat and

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and label it if you need to make sure it goes back to that same spot.

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Vertical storage can help to use shelves and pegboards

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and vertical organizers, maximize the space and keep your surfaces clear

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because when your surfaces are clear, things feel less cluttered.

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Another way that you can organize this cable management, use cable

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clips, ties, boxes, organization, accords and chargers,

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things like that that's going to make your space feel clean.

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I know for me, that's this is probably the one of my hardest things that I do.

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I just run cables wherever I need to get the data, the power, the whatever to.

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And I don't actually ever really organize them.

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I've got cables running everywhere.

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Again, you can't see that if you're watching the video

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because I have that cone of cleanliness.

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But. I need to get better at my cable management

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because that will help clean your space up and make it feel more.

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Like a place that you can be creative.

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Get drawer dividers, use organization

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drawers that have little dividers, places that you can put things in

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that have a space, so I have a little plastic cubby over here.

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It's got three drawers in it, and I have different cables for different things.

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I have all of the little

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Mike mounts the things that screw in for different size

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containers and things like that are different size mic microphones

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as well as some USB cables.

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I just have a drawer for all all of that.

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That's keeping it kind of kind of maintained and an open.

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Now, some of the maintenance habits that you can do to kind of keep your

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things maintained is are the are the following

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a daily 10 minute tidy at the end of the day.

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Do a quick cleanup, reset your space for tomorrow.

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It can only take 10 minutes.

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So if you normally are done by five o'clock p.m.,

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stop what you're doing at 450

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and go and clean up 10 minutes.

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It only takes 10 minutes.

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Another thing you can do is have a one in one out rule,

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meaning that if you bring something new into your space, remove something old.

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This is critical because it's really easy to bring something into your space

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you need to find a place for it and it's you don't have a place for it.

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And and and now what do you do?

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Well, you just have more and more and more stuff.

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No one in one out.

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You bring something in, you get rid of something.

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And some of the things for that week that I'm going to talk about here

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in a few minutes are going to help you actually do some of that

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decluttering and getting rid of of some of the things that you no longer need.

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And then the last thing is do a weekly purge set aside

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some time each week to remove items that you no longer need.

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We are all guilty of it, keeping things that we may use one day.

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Every week, take a few minutes,

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look around your space and say, What am I going to use?

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Am I really going to use that Ziploc bag of Keurig cups

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that has been sitting on my shelf for three years now?

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No, probably not.

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So go walk over and take it and throw it in the trash.

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Start small, begin with one drawer, one corner,

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then try tackling, then trying to tackle everything at once.

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You're gonna, like I said earlier,

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you're gonna feel overwhelmed if you're trying to do

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everything and everything is so much work.

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Start small, start with that little drawer, organize that.

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Maybe even take some time away and then come back.

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Celebrate your win, celebrate the fact

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that you took that corner, that drawer, that space,

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that little space and cleaned it up.

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Now work bigger and bigger and bigger until all of your stuff is clean.

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All of your office is clean.

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All of your your studio is clean.

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Limit decorations, keep only meaningful things that bring you joy or motivation.

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So I have a few items that are decorations in the back here

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that kind of just decorate my my video visual.

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But I also have some things like a arcade game

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a newspaper box and some other stuff in my studio that isn't it's decorative, but it

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could be clutter. It's not really serving any purpose in my studio except for to clutter.

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So get rid of that. Create zones doesn't it specific areas for activities, work, storage,

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items. So the reason you do this is because when you're when you're coming into your area,

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your work, your brain knows what it's there for. It knows that when you're in your studio,

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it needs to be creative because you're going to be creating content. It's ready to go. It's ready

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to fire because you've created the zones for that specific studios for your specific creativity.

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Also use the 90 90 rule. If you haven't used something in 90 days and won't use it in the

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the next 90 days, consider getting rid of it.

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Put it in one of your four boxes

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that we talked about earlier.

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In the keep, donate, trash, relocate.

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If you're not gonna use it in 90 days,

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and you're not gonna use it in the next 90 days,

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get rid of it.

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Now, that's the physical space.

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We've talked about the physical space

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and practical ways that you can get rid of things

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in your physical space.

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Let's talk a little bit about digital space.

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Cleaning up your desktop.

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move your in your files into organized folders,

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put them in documents, put them in aim for a minimal

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or empty desktop with only essential shortcuts.

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Like I was saying, my desktop only has one shortcut on it

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and its folder to run a script to make that stoplight

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in the back and do a do its thing.

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That's all I've got on my desktop.

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Everything else is in documents.

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And I keep things in there organized by different things.

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So I have a folder for podcasts.

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in that folder is each of my podcasts.

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There's also a folder for podcast clients

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because I do podcast editing.

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So I have a folder for each client that's in there

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and each of their podcasts.

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Within those folders I have things like artwork

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and I have a folder for raw audio,

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like things like their jingles and things like that.

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Then I have an episodes folder

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where each episode has its own space to keep organized.

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Keep your things organized.

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One of the things you can do to really stay organized

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is to delete duplicate files.

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I know for me, when I'm when I'm editing podcasts,

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I end up having to end up with lots of files

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sometimes that are duplicates that I don't necessarily need.

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When I export from my roadcaster, I have files that are not

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necessarily duplicates, but blank.

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I have files that are recorded for each and every mic channel.

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And even if I'm not using them.

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So one of the things I can do to clean up is get rid of those files

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because I'm never going to use them.

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The other thing is you can archive old folders, get things off of your computer.

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By doing that, you're going to want to also create a backup.

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A couple of different places you can do that in the cloud.

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You can do that on a physical hard drive.

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You can do both. In fact, you should do both.

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But go through once a month.

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Get rid of all of your episode files in your podcast

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like the folder.

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So for me, I have a lot of episodes in my podcast folder

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for podcast answers.

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One of the things that I could do is hook up an external drive,

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move all of those off, also put them up to the cloud.

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So that way I have those files if I need them again later.

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Another thing you can do to clean up your digital life

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is empty your downloads folder.

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Raise your hand if you're if you're guilty of this.

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My downloads folder has everything that I've ever downloaded in it

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because I might need it again, right?

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No, you're not going to do it.

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Empty it. If you need to keep it, keep it,

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but go and organize it and put it in the places where you're going to need it.

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Not. Oh, well, I know I downloaded a file for this podcast at one point,

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but I don't know where it's at.

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It's there in that podcast folder.

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It's in the downloads folder.

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Get rid of it.

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Empty your downloads folder and use it just for downloads that week.

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Get rid of it at the end of the week.

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Uninstall your unused applications and programs.

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If you haven't used them in the last six months

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and you're probably not going to use them, get rid of them.

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It's just taking up space.

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Limit your startup programs.

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I know a lot of times and I see this a lot mostly on Windows,

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but when you start a machine up apps open,

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do they need to be open?

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Do you need to have Zoom open?

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Do you need to have Notion open?

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Do you need to have Evernote open?

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Do you need to have Spotify open

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every time the machine opens, that takes forever for your machine to start up.

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Then, guys, everything that's in your startup folder

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for your computer is going to start up at boot time.

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And that takes a lot of time and space in your computer slows down

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because you can't open all of those things at once.

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It has to prioritize it so it opens things that slows it down.

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Those of you who have cloud storage, get rid of some of the unnecessary files

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from drive Dropbox, OneDrive, et cetera.

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Get rid of it. Organize things just like you would on your computer.

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Get rid of things you don't actually need.

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Do a weekly digital cleanup schedule 15 minutes each week to get rid of

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and maintain your organization that you've created.

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And then take it one step further and monthly do a deep dive,

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a deep clean once a month, do a thorough review of your files, apps and storage.

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Do you need them? No. Get rid of them.

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And make sure you're doing a naming convention,

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so you know exactly where things are at.

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Guys.

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This is a huge thing,

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and I would encourage you to to take some time.

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Now is the perfect time to do this.

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This is Christmas.

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This is time to relax and spend some time.

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You have a few extra minutes.

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Take that time.

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Go out.

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Do the things I talked about here.

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Organize it.

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I challenge you this week.

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Do these things.

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implements one of the things that I've talked about here.

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Just one.

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But start cleaning up, you're going to find yourself a more creative creator.

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You're going to be more apt to do this thing creation,

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whether it be podcasts or videos or live streams.

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If your space is clean.

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So go out and do that.

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Guys, this is going to be the last episode

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until the beginning of the new year.

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Next year is Christmas.

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I want to wish you guys all a Merry Christmas.

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I've yeah, I've enjoyed each and every one of you.

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Thank you for for listening.

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But this is going to be the last episode until after Christmas.

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I'm taking a little bit of a break and I'll be back after Christmas.

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But stay tuned.

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I will be back. Don't worry.

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If you've gotten any value out of this podcast episode,

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00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,460
consider giving back some value.

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If we were meeting at a coffee shop and I went over all the tips

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00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:09,980
that I went over today, would you pick up the tab?

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00:23:10,780 --> 00:23:12,380
If so, consider giving me a few bucks.

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00:23:12,460 --> 00:23:16,900
Whatever you feel the value of the content was you received from me, go to

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00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,040
podcastanswers.com/support and give back a few bucks.

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00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:26,560
I appreciate it. It helps keep me encouraged and keep me going as well as

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just allows me to support this podcast.

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So guys, have a safe week and good luck cleaning up your space.

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I will see you in the new year.

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Merry Christmas. Have a great week.