IT’S SEASON FOUR, EVERYONE! This year we are doing quarterly themes – and I’m so excited to bring you the theme for the second quarter: Business Strategy. I feel like as we go into the second part of 2023, it’s so important to be able to take a look at what you have done so far, and then look to the future as we prep for the rest of the year. Business Strategy is going to encompass social media strategy, hiring practices, internal business structure and more.

Today’s episode is with Brittany Dixon, and in it we are discussing what it means to get rid of your “digital clutter” – from organizing your daily routine, to maximizing time management, to making your tech work FOR you (instead of against you) and what tried-and-true systems you can implement today.

Getting Rid of Digital Clutter with Brittany Dixon

Brittany helps entrepreneurs build businesses without burnout by creating minimalist business & productivity systems to do more in less time. She organizes routines, time management & tech to work better for you! A former Event Planner & Professional Home Organizer, Brittany is now the Marie Kondo for Businesses with her Consulting, Coaching & Podcasting. As the CEO of Brittany & Co, she uses her organization skills to help business owners simplify to amplify their income, impact & influence! When Brittany is not helping business owners, she is raising her twin girls, Kenna & Layla with her Husband Steven Dixon, Camping & Learning the Art of Wine & Cheese!

LISTEN HERE:

TUNE IN + SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORM:

Apple Podcast | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play

Show Notes

  • What does hustle like a mother mean to you?
    • Moms are just known for juggling it all, right? Like we have to do all the things and we really learn how to organize the chaos and the crazy and we’re still able to get stuff done and use our mom superpower. So I really do feel like it’s just we have been given this thing that we’re like, okay, we have to keep other humans alive, we have to do things that make us happy, and we’ve gotta figure out a way to juggle it all. And then you throw entrepreneurship in it and it’s a whole different game, right?
  • Tell us a little about your story – how did you go from event planning and professional home organizing to what you do now?
    • When I got out of high school, I was in the hospitality field. I started getting into the event side of the restaurant business and I really started liking it. So I actually found an internship doing event planning and what I came to find is I loved the planning piece, but the actual wedding planning and events and like all the logistics around it was not my jam. So I ended up working for a corporate restaurant doing some of that for quite a while, and then I actually got fired. So I became an accidental entrepreneur.
    • I had started my professional organizing businesses, like a side hustle. I did that and then really realized I had no clue what I was doing running a business. So I searched for business coaches online and then kind of went down a rabbit hole, hired a coach, and she’s like, you could totally do this like organization stuff for business owners.
  • What is digital clutter? How do you define it and what does this look like for different businesses?
    • Digital clutter is digital files, emails, zoom links, PDF, JPEG images, video images, like these different things that you’re using as a business owner, right? It’s pouring in and it doesn’t stop. You get emails every single day. You have digital files that are coming in that you’re downloading to your computer and saving different places. You have Zoom links, you’ve got emails and texts. It just doesn’t stop. So it really is all of that stuff that in an online business is crucial, right? These are all the different pieces we have to use to be a business owner. But if you don’t have really great systems in place to organize it and get rid of things, digital clutter, I feel like it is even worse than physical clutter because you can’t really see it. Yet it still gets in your way. It’s just all of that stuff that you use within the business that gets very overwhelming if you don’t have a system in place for it.
    • One of the biggest things that I have clients tell me all the time is that they need more leads.I’m like, okay, cool. How are we keeping track of those leads first off? And they’re like, well, you know, like in my email, in my dms and I’m like, okay, so if we don’t actually have a system, you probably don’t need more leads. You just need a system to follow up with your current leads because I guarantee you have plenty. And you’re literally leaving money on the table. Setting up simple systems to keep track of all of that just takes away a lot of that for sure.
  • When we’re talking about going through all this digital clutter, what are some steps you take to start working through them and getting rid of it?
    • I always start with the digital workspace, which is your Google Chrome, essentially your bookmarks and your extensions and your passwords and basically the space that you work in on a daily basis. I think that’s where so much of the clutter comes from. I’m sure people have hundreds of bookmarks of things that they thought they might go back to at some point. Spoiler alert, you’re probably just gonna Google it so you can just delete it. So we really do kind of a detox of that. I use bookmarks in a way. It’s all the different stuff I use on a regular basis. So all the different tools, the different platforms, things I use for my podcast, things I use for my group coaching. It makes it real fast to click in and log in. Two, when your credit card expires and you have to redo all of that in all of your different softwares, you can just click through one by one and go through that process. Helping them to organize that so that it’s fast and easy for them to get to the platforms that they need to use. That’s really the first place I start with people. It sounds trivial cause you’re like, oh yeah. I mean like yeah, we can get organized there, but yeah. Is that really gonna save me time? But it really does. Like it is a tremendous time saver for sure.
  • What other digital clutter do you find people struggle with most often?
    • First thing I see is people are using multiple digital drives, which is really difficult because then you have to make a lot of decisions like, “what goes where,” “did I put that there or did I put it there?” I highly suggest just having one [digital drive]. Digital files are another huge piece that I find people searching and looking and having different versions and it’s very overwhelming very quickly. There’s a lot of digital paperwork, if you will.
  • Besides Chrome or Drive, do you have any project management systems or tools, things that you use to, you know, keep yourself organized?
    • Yeah, so I am an Asana fan. I actually used to do Trello for a long time. I had a course on Trello. Like I was a hardcore Trello fan. As I kind of grew my business and added on different arms, it just wasn’t sustainable for me. I kind of had to grow into something that had a little bit more bells and whistles. But yeah, for me Asana is life. Like if it’s not an Asana or Google calendar, it’s probably not happening.
    • The biggest thing with tools is that somebody’s always gonna tell you to use something different, right? Essentially any project and task management tool is made to do the same thing. Some have more bells and muscles, some have come up with new things. The biggest thing is you’ve gotta have the workflow within the system and then you have to use it consistently and you can make any of them work.
    • System hopping is, I think, the worst thing that you can do because you end up losing information from system to system, or you don’t transfer everything over. Or workflows get stuck in places. You know, if you have zapier set up through something else and you don’t remember to transfer it over. I mean, those are huge problems, you know, and I really work with people, too. I always say like the few, the smallest amount of systems and tools that you can use as possible.
  • So what is your last big tip for everybody working on decreasing their digital clutter?
    • Honestly, I think you have to kind of look at it from a 30,000 foot view and take some time to stop and look through what’s not working. We all get so stuck in this like, we’re too busy. We’re working on all these things. We have life, we have clients, we have business. If you don’t take that time to declutter and to clear things out and to get some of these routines in place, you’re gonna always live in it because it doesn’t stop. Our email, you can clear it out the next hour it’s full again. Your digital files, you can clear it out the next hour you’ve got more. So you’ve gotta step back and say, okay, we really need to set up some structures and some routines to keep this clutter in check. I have systems in place and it still gets overwhelming at points because it just keeps coming in. So it’s really taking that time and like stepping back and looking. It’s kind of almost like that thing they talk about. Like you’ve gotta step back to speed up and you’ve gotta slow down to speed up it. It’s really the same when it comes to digital clutter and, and business clutter in general.
  • So where can we find you on the internet?

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *