Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - The Magical Power of the 5% Push | Clutterbug Podcast # 128

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

Looking to get more done? Do you want to stop procrastinating or start feeling more motivated? You need the Magical Power of the 5% Push!       You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're talking about the magical power of pushing yourself just 5% and what that actually looks like and how it can impact your life in a huge way. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about pushing yourself and how to push yourself and what that looks like and what sort of results you can see from doing that. And I want to just start by saying, I am not advocating that you become a workaholic. And I'm certainly not saying that when you are mentally and physically exhausted that you keep going past your breaking point. What I want to talk about today is procrastination, really.

It's those times where we kick the can down the road. We say, I don't want to do this right now, so I'll do it tomorrow or later. And there are things that we know we should be doing. There are things we even want to do. We just don't feel like it. And so we push it off till later. Unfortunately, what this really does is just create more work for us in the long run. And we know this and we say this.

And it's like, I'm saying this to you right now and you're probably rolling your eyes. Like, what is the magic secret? What is the hack that I can learn that can suddenly make me a person who is motivated and doing the things I know I have to do? And unfortunately, I haven't yet to find the magic answer. There are a lot of things that I do to get more motivated. There are little tips and tricks and I borrow motivation or I listen to things like podcast. podcasts or audiobooks. I mean, you're doing these things right now. And let's just take a second to tell you how fabulous you are. I mean, I do have to say that. There are so many people in this

world who stop educating themselves when they're done school. And you, right now listening to this podcast, you have made a commitment to yourself to better yourself, to level up, to continue learning, which makes you very rare. And I want you just to take a second to acknowledge that about yourself. People who listen to podcasts are people who want to better their lives. Well, people who listen to self-health podcast, which is what you're listening to right now, whether it is that you want to get your house under control or you want to learn some hacks or tips to get more motivated or become more productive. I don't know why you're listening to this podcast. But the fact that you are shows me, it tells me that you are

showing up for yourself and you are bettering yourself and you want to learn and you just want to be a better person, which makes you a better person. Every day that you continue to learn and improve, you are better than you were yesterday. I just have to throw that out there. I want you to take a second to really acknowledge that about yourself because so many people don't do what you are doing. They just accept life for the way it is. They complain about the things they can change and they don't take action on their lives to make it better, you are showing up for yourself. So I want to throw that out there and say, you're amazing. And I hope you, I honestly, I honestly hope you really see that because this is amazing. But we're going to talk today about

that push, pushing yourself just a little bit more and the impact that that can have. And I want to give you real life examples so that you don't think I'm saying you need to work harder. Obviously you are a person who is showing up for yourself. You're listening to podcasts. you are a person who you're already going above and beyond. And so I definitely don't want to scare you off when you're listening to this thinking, oh my gosh, it's going to make me work harder. I want to talk about a little technique that I've been doing that's helping me sort of overcome my procrastination problem. I'm a huge procrastinator. I am insanely lazy. I always look for shortcuts to get out of work. I would say hard work is one of my biggest.

things that I try to avoid at any and all costs. I avoid working out. I avoid doing anything strenuous. I want to spend my days doing absolutely nothing. So I'm always on the hunt for hacks to just simplify my life and give me shortcuts. But that being said, I also want to have an exceptional life. I also want to just not be cool with mediocrity. I want a house that's tidy. I want to be debt-free. I want to be running a successful business. I want to be a great parent. I want to be a good mom. I want to be a good daughter. I want to be a good sister. I want to be a good friend. I want to be part of my community. I want to be doing all of these things and also working the least amount possible. So I'm saying this to you because I feel like I don't want to call myself an expert,

but I've researched and done a lot of work to find ways of having my cake and eating it too. of still being a really productive person, still feeling proud of myself, still doing the baseline adulting, right, but still also not feeling mentally and physically exhausted. And this 5% push is something that I do that I find very helpful because I really do have a tendency of putting everything off, putting things off, putting things off. And it's not like I'm even filling this procrastination time with something cool. I almost feel guilty. when I procrastinate a job that I know I should do, I feel bad just relaxing or watching Netflix, though I do do that. I'm not going to say I don't do that because I do. But I sometimes fill it with like

make work projects to therefore justify my procrastination. So I'm not pushing the needle forward, but I'm still working to avoid working on the thing that I feel like is going to be too much work. Does this make sense? I mean, I might just be rambling right now. But, But I find when I procrastinate the things that I know I should be doing, I end up working harder in the long run every single time. So let's talk about what the 5% push is. Anytime I don't want to do something, anytime a thought comes into my head like, oh, Cass, you should do the dishes before you go to bed, or you should really send that email, or you should really edit that video, or you should really sit down and record a podcast. That was due last

Friday. Just saying, I tell myself, I don't have to do the whole thing. I just have to do 5%. I never allow myself to put an entire task off until tomorrow. And I started doing this a few years ago because I put everything off till tomorrow. And guess what? Tomorrow came and there was just as much work as there was today. And now I have yesterday's work too. And last week's work and the week before that. And I seem to be the type of person that always procrastinates the most important stuff. And I don't know if it's fear of failure. I don't know if it is fear of hard work. I don't know what it is, but the things that really have the biggest impact on my life are the things that I procrastinate the most.

Of course, I still procrastinate laundry and the dishes and all of those little things too, which I shouldn't be procrastinating. But it's the big things where I'm really struggling. So anytime I write myself a do-list all the time, I rarely complete all of those things. I'm being honest, I try to keep my to do list to three to five things max. So I don't get to the point where I have so many things I'm just overwhelmed. But when that comes into my mind, when I realize there's something on my list I haven't done and I think, and I always do, I'll do it tomorrow. I think I've got to do 5% of this right now. And 5% usually looks like five minutes or less. It means when I have to film Milo's closet,

which I had to do a couple of days ago and I kept putting it off. Instead of just completely putting it off, I moved the trash bags into his room. And then I moved the supplies I needed into the room. And then I took the before pictures. And so when the day came that I actually was going to do the closet, I was already 15% of the way there because I was chipping away at it. And anytime you get started on something, that is the hardest part. And so let's talk about examples of what this 5% looks like. It means you want to go to bed. You're physically exhausted, but there's a ton of dirty dishes. You just fill the sink with soapy water and you let them soak. Or you wash five plates. Or you run the dishwasher even if it isn't full. You just press start. You get 5% of the way there.

You have a ton of laundry. Oh my gosh. You feel so overwhelmed. You load it into the washing machine. You put delay start for eight or nine hours so it starts the next morning. You're doing 5%. you're putting yourself a little bit there. Kitchen's a disaster, wipe the counters. You can do five minutes. You don't have to have this all or nothing mentality, but so often what will happen is we'll get started. We'll tell ourselves we only have to do the 5%

and we might do a little bit more. But even if we stop, we're better than we were before we started. And tomorrow is easier to continue the task because we've already taken the first step. So right now while you're listening to this podcast, I want you to take action on something you've been procrastinating. I don't want you just to be passively listening to this podcast. I think most of you who are listening, you're probably cleaning or decluttering or tidying your house or you're driving your car. Listen, if you're driving your car, do not take action on your life.

Just get to where you're going and then you can take action. But if you are home, get up right now and let's do something together. Let's take this opportunity to push the needle. forward, whether it is housework, whether it is decluttering, whether it is organizing something, or it's something bigger in your life that you have been procrastinating. Can you send an email right now? Can you pause this podcast and send an email? Can you right now take action on whatever it is? Five minutes. What can you do? How can you push yourself? This is magical. This is the secret to getting more done in less time to stop procrastinating and to see big results in your life. It is pushing yourself. It is being that parent. It is saying you don't have to do it all, but you have to do something.

You are not going to put this off for one more day. You can do five minutes right now. So think the first thing that pops in your head, something that you have been procrastinating. Maybe you have things in your garage that you want to sell. Right. Take a picture. Get your phone. Go right now. Take some pictures. so you can post them on Facebook Marketplace. Even if you don't post them right now, I want you to take the pictures. I want you to take action

on whatever is popping into your head, anything that's popping into your head. And if you're like, I have no idea, Cass, I have no idea. I want you to grab a trash bag right now. I want you to go to your bathroom. I want to open up your cabinets wherever you have medication and I want you to spend five minutes looking at expiration dates.

If it's medicine, medicine, you're going to put it in a separate bag and you're going to drop that off in the pharmacy. But if it's cough syrup or if it's, I don't know, old polysporin, I want you to find expired things. Maybe it's expired makeup or you can go to your pantry and look at expired food. Right now, taking action, getting things out or doing a task that you have been procrastinating, but only doing 5% of it. You only have to do 5%. If you want to do more, that's amazing.

But 5%. Oh my gosh. You know what this feels like? This feels like a weight off my chest. Anytime I tell myself, I don't have to do it all. I just have to take one bite, take one step, do one minute of it. I instantly feel so much better. I do.

And this is a practice, just like decluttering, just like every new habit that we are implementing in our lives, this gets easier. At first we push ourselves and eventually it is habit. We are in the habit of taking action as soon as we think about something instead of procrastinating. And this doesn't mean we're always going to do it all the way. But that's okay. We are closer and it makes it easier to pick up the next day. I want to take a second to thank KiwiCo for sponsoring today's podcast. Now that it's spring, my family is really looking forward to planting flowers in our garden. It's warmer. We're going to spend lots of time outside, but it's also a really great time of year to just introduce new things to my kids. Every single month we get a crate in the mail and this day that the box arrives is totally the favorite day of the month for my kids.

Usually we get the tinker crate because we love teaching our kids about math, science, and engineering. Right now, we're going to go ahead with the Atlas crate for spring and we're getting the kite making kit and the maker's. crate we're going to get in this spring too so we can make hanging flower pots for the kids windows. There's something for all ages and there's absolutely no commitment. Step into spring and celebrate the season of discovery with a KiwiCo subscription box. Get 30% off your first month plus free shipping on any crate line with the code clutter at kiwico.com. That's 30% off your first month at K-I-W-I-C-O-com promo code clutter. Okay, clutterbugs, I hope you are right now wandering around your home, taking action on your

life, taking action on your home and doing something to push the needle forward. And when we talk about pushing the needle forward, every time I talk about this, it can be confusing of what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the things that are going to have a big impact on your life. And for a lot of us, for me, man, pushing the needle. forward is tackling my laundry mountain when I haven't been doing laundry every single day. That's going to have a big impact because when my home is under control, I'm happier, I'm less stressed, and I'm more productive. Everything is better when I feel in control of my home.

So do I think getting your house under control, especially when it's feeling really cluttered or if you have dirty dishes or if your laundry's like everywhere? Yeah, absolutely. That's pushing the needle forward. Do I think dusting and vacuuming is pushing the needle forward? Not so much. That's not going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. That being said, if you're doing that right now while you listen to this podcast, that's amazing. Kudos to you. That's something that we have to do too. That's part of adulting. But what can we do that's bigger? What big push can we do? Decluttering is a big push. Organizing is a big push. Doing big tasks that are going to move our lives. in the direction that we are craving.

Cleaning is maintenance. Cleaning is maintenance mode. That maintains. How do we climb up? How do we level up? How do we do things that are going to genuinely improve our lives in a big way? And yeah, decluttering does. Having less stuff means every day is easier.

It's easier to tie to your house. You're going faster. you're less overwhelmed. It's less inventory to manage both physically and mentally. Getting organized pushes the needle forward because it's easier to find things. It's easier to put away and every single day your house will be tidier. But there are other things too. There are so many things. I mean, I remember when I was really struggling financially and I was like all the time, like, how can I save money? How can I save money? I logged on to my online banking, TD online banking, and I set an automatic withdrawal every week to take so much money and just transfer to my savings account.

That's it. On the day that I got paid, the day that Joe got paid, so much money was transferred out and put in my savings account. It took five minutes to do. Five minutes. Done. Huge impact on my life. This is the stuff that I'm talking about. Things that you can do right now in five minutes. Things that you can do that have all. huge profound impact and if you're thinking of a ton of stuff you're like oh my god my mind is racing I can't think of just one thing declutter right fill a bag go find 10 things that can leave your house today because that will have a huge impact on your life that is enough today what else can you do you can go online you can find a cleaning schedule for free you can print it off you can put it on your fridge how about that picture that you haven't hung that's been you know kind of

floating around your house, you've been stuff shuffling it. You're like, I'm going to hang this one day. Go get a hammer and a nail and hang it right now. Do you have clothes that are too small in your closet? I want you to take them out. I don't care where you put them. You can put them under your bed. You can put them in the basement. You can put them in the attic, but they do not belong in your closet. Start something that you have been putting off right now. Push yourself. Take action on your life right this minute. If you're listening to podcasts, it might be that you love podcasts. I'm just going to throw this last thing out here.

Have you thought about starting your own podcast? This is easier than you think. It doesn't have to cost you any money. I use a free app called Podbean. You can download this app on your phone. Why not have this fun little thing where you record a fun just for fun podcast and you don't actually upload it. Right now on your phone, if you're listening to this when you're done this podcast,

I'm going to be done in a second. Why not record yourself? Just talking, talking while you clean, talking about your day, talking about whatever it is that you are passionate about. If you have been thinking about this, take action. Push yourself right now. You don't have to post it. You have nothing to lose. I promise you you will be so proud of yourself. Let's push the needle forward on your life right now. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you're feeling really motivated to do this little hack, this little trick to starve off procrastination and get so much more out of your life in just five minutes or less. Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.