As this crazy year draws to a close, I believe we are all seeking to reduce the stress in our lives. Today, I interview Joanie Nicholas of All Things Organized who shares some great tips on how to reduce the stress in your life through organization that works for you!

In her role as a Space Organization Expert Joanie Nicholas helps people live life with enthusiasm and clarity by decluttering, reimagining, and organizing their space. She approaches decluttering and organizing from a soulful place ~ recognizing the impact clutter has on every aspect of our lives. For over 25 years, Joanie has led people across the metro area in creating positive changes to their space, in ways that fit their lifestyle and personality. Joanie brings professional guidance, enthusiasm, empathy and humor to her hands-on work with each client. She loves sharing tips and tricks in group settings, where she can infect large numbers of people with her organizing energy!

Visit Joanie's website: https://allthingsorganizedkc.com

big sigh and a relief. So, Hey there, Business Animals. It's Kim with Be More Business and welcome to the Business Animal podcast. I am here today with a dear friend of mine, Joanie Nicholas, with All Things Organized So, Joanie and I got to meet, well, goodness, it's been a long time ago.

It was. Yeah.

I think we first met through our mutual friend, Jen Wewers in Kansas City, because you were organizing her apartment when she moved. Do I have that correct? That's been a while. It's been wonderful having you in my life, though. So Joanie, are... So when Jen was... Let me just give a little story here. When Jen was getting her house organized, you know...

right?

Yes, I think that might be right. Yeah. It has been a while. Yeah. Yeah. Likewise. Likewise.

I've always looked and you've been to my home, so you know kind of I do not, I'm not the super organized variety of human. I tend to live a little bit more free flow. And when you were working with Jen, the thing that impressed me was that you really helped her in a lot of ways that.

That's...

felt good to me. you weren't somebody who came in and said, you have to do it this way. And here's the things you have to put here. So I appreciated that. So I got that vibe from you from the very beginning. And so I want the listeners that are listening today to know that the advice that Joanie gives you, because she's got some tips for y'all on how to reduce the stress in your life through organization, this is not going to be, this is going to be a good thing. Let me put the positive spin on it. So.

Yep.

Right, right. No judgment, no solid strict rules.

You can be who you are and still be organized. I love that thought. love that thought. So, Joanie, would you share a little bit about who you are and all things organized?

Exactly, exactly. Yes, yes.

Yes, thank you so much for having me on the podcast, Kim. I always love to talk about ways to be more organized. And so I'm excited to have this platform. I came, well, I was born organized, I guess you would say, but I came to it from a path of a pack rat mother and a minimalist father. So growing up, I really saw quite

a difference in approaches to things and how easy it was for my dad to find what he needed when he needed it, get out the door and get on with life and the frustration and the stress that her disorganization brought my mother's life. I always found it fun, which I know most a lot of your listeners will think this is crazy, but fun to organize and try to

clean out drawers and cabinets and help my mom be organized. But it really brought me a sense of peace and calm, even as a child, to have spaces organized. I didn't know that there were enough people in the world like my mother that there could be a whole industry around this until I was around 30. But when I found the profession of home organizers, space organizers, I knew that that was what.

I was meant to do. I've really evolved over the years from kind of what you mentioned in the beginning, sort of the strict, is how you ought to do it kind of mindset and that there's one way to be organized. And what I've learned over the years is that organization means different things to different people.

And the main point of it is that your space works for you and that what you have in your home or in your work environment contributes to what you want to do each day. Helps you live the life you want to live. For some people that will be sort of minimalist look and for other people it will be a much fuller environment. But as long as you know, as long as it serves you, that's the goal.

I love the fuller environment. I sometimes feel blanketed in my clutter and it makes me feel comfy. And other times it brings chaos to my life. And I know for me personally, I grew up in a family that has a lot of tendencies toward hoarding. So my particular family members were the two, the parents that I grew up with were not.

Uh-huh.

Mmm.

particularly avid hoarders, but my sister was a very avid hoarder. And I saw the destruction that that could bring to her life. And I would say her life was anything but peaceful and was often very stressful just because of the amount of things that were in her world. And she was also an entrepreneur. So I can see, see a lot of times where my clients, although I

Yeah

mm-hmm.

don't think I've met anyone else to that same extreme, that there are times that their work environment definitely adds to their stress level and impedes their progress as a business owner. so I want to come to the meat of what we're going to talk about because you have some special strategies that you teach and I, you know, I love these strategies around like, not just clutter on your desk, but clutter in your digital environment. So would you

ahead and share. know you have three things you want to talk about, so let's go ahead and share the first one of those, whether it's about the digital clutter or about the desk clutter. I don't know which order you want to go in.

Okay. Okay. All right. So yeah, think, you know, scientists, if we're going to get down to kind of, I guess, you know, proof or data, scientists at Princeton have discovered through MRI studies that our brains really do like order. And when our space is super disorganized, it's like stuff is just shouting at us.

constantly don't forget remember you didn't do this and just you know just all this stress in our heads and The studies also showed that when the space was cleared out a little bit people were able to focus better to process information better and then productivity goes up so Look at the items on your desk or in your workspace and ask yourself

What do I use on a daily basis or a very regular basis that helps me do my work? Think of your main work area and your desk as prime real estate. What items earn the right to live there?

and only allow things in that space that really help you get done what you need to get done. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to get rid of other items. Maybe they just need to be stored elsewhere, but you want to make, again, it doesn't have to, I'm not saying you have to have this whole clean desk policy because for some people that impedes their creativity. So again, what helps me get my work done?

And then you'll have to create systems for managing your paper, your workflow, your processes, your supply management. You'll have to put systems in place. And while we could spend a whole podcast talking on different kinds of systems, the main thing to keep in mind is that it works for you. So I'll tell you a story about one of my clients who is a very creative entrepreneur.

does a lot of strategy planning with companies in very creative ways to help them figure out where they're going. His office is in an extra bedroom in his home, and this is a guy who loves paper. He prints everything out and he had piles, know, the pile on his desk that he's working on and then,

different tasks comes up, so that pile gets kind of shoved aside and another pile gets put on and then some's on the floor. And then I walk into his office and there are just piles all over the desk and the floor. And we talked about it and I asked him about his creative process. And he said, this is even too much for me. I don't wanna clean desk, empty desk.

But this is impeding my creativity.

So what we came up with that is not a system that would work for me at all, but works for him is we got some bins, plastic bins that are slightly bigger than eight and a half by 11. So big enough that papers could fit in and about two inches deep. And each bin was designated for a specific topic or a specific client.

And any papers that were sort of active that related to that sit in that bin. And then he puts the lid on and then he had kind of a shelf next to his desk where those bins lived. One reason I didn't particularly love that idea is because it seems like you always want what's in the bottom bin. And so then you've got to, you know, pull the bins off and take the lid off and all that. So for a lot of people, that is not a system that would work well. But for him, it did.

Yeah.

So that's what I mean by, know, entrepreneurs are creative people. We're think outside the box kind of people. So, so that's what I mean by it might be a wacky looking system. might be something that you are not going to see on, you know, Pinterest or Instagram, or that anybody's ever going to advise you to do. But if you find a system that works for you,

that's what matters because that's what you'll be able to maintain and will help you get your work.

Absolutely. you know, one of the best pieces of advice that you gave me, and I think I learned it in one of your classes or when you came here, I can't remember where exactly it came from. one of the things was that the problem with people like me, and I'm sorry, I'm being scattered today, but the problem with people like me is we bring things in, and then those things accumulate everywhere. So in my house that I grew up in, there was always a table that was kind of like the center

focus of our community area and that table would be covered in things because every time anybody brought something into the house it ended up on that table but it never went anywhere else and some things you know we stayed there for I hate to say this years you know

Right? Right? Yeah.

But one of the pieces of advice you gave me was get a centralized place where things that come into the home go in that centralized place, preferably not the dining room table. And from there, there's a period of time, like on a regular basis, that you go into that particular.

designated area. And I always think of walking the stuff home like I it's my job to walk, walk all of the stuff in that box home. So we did create that in our house. And I will tell you, we don't follow it all really well. My son Nick is he's very akin to me, we're both pretty okay with clutter and disorganization. Now we'll get into a mood and we'll clean everything up and organize it. but if I walk the stuff

I love that.

huh.

huh.

home from that it doesn't accumulate to an overwhelming quantity and so that has been a huge help for me and I don't know as though it's a crazy little box we put in our kitchen and I would say it would drive most humans crazy but for us it works.

Good.

Right, right. Well, and you bring up a couple of good points in that life is crazy. And in an ideal world, every time we walk in the door and we have things in our hands, we're going to go put them in their rightful home. But almost nobody lives that way. So when you get systems in place, then

then it, like you said, every few days or every few weeks, you have a place for those items to go. And so it, it is less overwhelming and it's more likely that then you'll go put those things away that accumulated when life was busy because you've got some systems, some sort of foundation in place. And the other thing that what you said makes me think about is every organizational system needs maintenance.

So whether you do it every day, like five o'clock, because that's entrepreneurs stop at work at five, At five o'clock, I'm going to clean off my desk. Or whether you say once a month, I'm going to go back and review my office organization systems or whatever it may be. you just have a time when you go back and kind of check in and make sure

that the system is still working because again, life gets busy and we fall down on our habits or something changes. We have a shift in our business or in our life. And once the system that worked for a while doesn't work anymore. And so it needs a little tweak. I think, and I think sometimes that those two facts can be discouraging if people don't realize that because they put a system in place.

Maybe it works for a while, then it falls apart, then they feel discouraged and like a failure and I'll never be organized. And it might just be that you just need a little maintenance or a little tweak.

And I just recorded, prior to this episode, I just recorded a whole thing about being okay with making mistakes. Like how we hold making a mistake is super critical to our stress level. Like we get super upset about the mistakes we make or get worried or concerned about being able to make mistakes comfortably, then it adds definitely

that's that now you have better information you know that that doesn't work and you can move on to another system that does

work. So, Joanie, what is your... So, everybody I talk to, I'm sure, works on a computer. A lot of people who follow this podcast follow me because of my technical and digital marketing expertise. And so, a lot of people, whether they love it or hate it, are relegated to some time on a computer. What is your approach to digital clutter? Because it can be as overwhelming as the physical stuff on your desk.

Yes.

Yes.

Absolutely. makes us that digital clutter help makes us feel like we're always falling behind and it really can deplete our energy just as much as a physical mess. a couple of things like specific to email. Kim, I know we've had conversations about how many emails are in your inbox and so.

I'm looking here to give you the horrific crazy number and hopefully make people out there feel better. But I'm going to tell you this is not something that bothers me. All right. I know it bothers a lot of people. It phases me not, which is why this number can be this high. But it's 41,989. So I'm getting close to branching over into 42,000 unread emails in my inbox over two email accounts. Please give me credit. It is two email accounts.

Joanie (17:03.434)

and

my gosh.

my gosh. Yeah. wow. well. Yeah. Okay. That's then that's nothing. Yeah, right. Right. So yeah. So again, you raise an important point. If it's not broke, don't fix it. So if that's not bothering you, and you're able to respond when you need to respond and stay on top of things and get things done, and it's not giving you stress, then you don't need to do anything about it.

That makes it better, right?

If it is giving you stress, though, a couple of tips for dealing with email is if an email is a notice of something that is an action step you need to take that will take maybe less than five minutes, try to do it right away. So for example, if I pay all my utility bills online through my bank and I get emails when

the bill is due. So I can go, I'm sitting at my computer. I go right into my bank account, say, pay the water bill on this date. And here's how much it is. Log out, delete the email, I'm done. That took me less than five minutes. So if there's a task that will be quick, try to just do it. Clutter both digitally and physically is oftentimes delayed.

decisions. So make a decision and deal with it. If it's an action item that's going to take longer than five minutes, consider putting it on your calendar. Whether you say, okay, on November 21st at 10 a.m. I'm going to do X or you say sometime on November 21st, I'm going to do X or sometime this week, I'm going to do X.

However, it will vary obviously depending on what's going on, but trying to convert it from an email clutter to something on your calendar scheduled and then get rid of the email, that will help clear out the things that you need to keep track of. Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. It takes you five seconds. If you are getting junk email,

from stores and catalogs and merchants that you are not interested in or newsletters you're not interested in, unsubscribe immediately. And then go back and you can delete old emails in a batch. I mean, so the unsubscribing keeps things from coming in. That's gonna reduce your inbox. But if you have a lot of old unread emails or old emails that are

bothering you, then you can go in and let's say you just unsubscribed from ACE Hardware. Then you go in and you search for all emails from ACE Hardware. They all pop up. You click on them, delete all, and they're gone. And you can do that also by searching for things like password reset or out of office, update preferences, things like that. And then

Yeah.

as well as by company or by topic. And then creating folders, you know, you could have a travel folder. So all those emails in the inbox that have to do with upcoming travel get moved over. They're still there. They're still easy to locate. And it's really easier to locate because they're all right there together and they're out of your inbox.

Those are all really great tips. I want to, because I know when you said unsubscribe from all the email lists, like every entrepreneur who does email marketing just cringed a little bit because they're like, my gosh, you're telling my people to unsubscribe. So I want to help everyone out there reframe that a little bit, both from the perspective of the consumer and the perspective as a business owner. So as a perspective as a business owner, if somebody is not engaged with your email,

I know.

it does some damage actually. If they're not opening your emails, it's not gonna like immediately cause a problem, but if enough people aren't opening your emails or they're trashing them without reading them, it does start to damage your domain reputation over time.

and especially with whoever your email service provider is. A decade ago, we didn't have that concern. Now we do, because email deliverability is important because more people are putting out nefarious emails that aren't good for the general population that nobody signed up or wanted. And email service providers like Google and Microsoft are very keen to eliminate that from their customers' lives. And so when people don't

engage or open emails, it causes problems for that particular business. And so you're actually, as a consumer, doing the business a little bit of a favor by going ahead and unsubscribing. And as a business owner, you're actually getting benefit from those people who aren't engaging with your content to get them on off your go ahead and get them off your list. they're not a taking up space that you pay for because almost all email marketing databases are

driven in payment by how many subscribers there are to that particular email database. And so you're not paying to communicate to a person who doesn't want to hear from you. And at the same time, you're increasing your domain reputation, your good domain reputation, and that consumer is kind of out of the flow of things. And the reality is, is they can come back and subscribe again, if they find that in the future that they need it.

So everybody needs to let go of this expectation that unsubscribes are a bad thing. I think they're actually a really good thing for both business owners and for consumers as well. It gets the stress out of the consumer's life and it gets the stress off of the business owners list.

I agree. you know, I, but I also understand. I mean, even as I was saying that I kind of wanted to say, well, unsubscribe from everybody's newsletter, but mine. So I totally get that. And, but I, had a coach once who talked about this thing and she said, God bless the unsubscribes because they're not your people anyway.

Yeah. Of course. Of course.

And so I try to adopt that attitude of they weren't my people. This makes more room for my people to come.

That is correct. You've opened up space for somebody who really does belong in that spot and will engage with what you're putting out there. I could talk all day about email marketing and all of this. what other tips do you have for us on helping us reduce our stress in our environment and helping us get a little better organized?

Uh-uh.

Well, think clutter shows up in lots of different ways. It shows up as stuff, it shows up digitally, and it shows up as intangible stuff in our lives, in our minds. So you clear your desk, you clear your computer, and you clear your mind. And I think the end of the year is a great time to do that, to assess where are you in life or in your business, and where do you want to go?

What about your work is feeding your soul, bringing you joy, and what about your work has become clutter? What's become too hard? Where are you pushing and not making progress? And you know, we all know that to grow our business takes time and effort and persistence and stretches us outside of our comfort zone. So I'm not saying

you know, stop just cause it's hard. But if we keep hitting walls in certain areas, maybe it's because we're headed in the wrong direction. And I can tell you a personal story about this experience. I found myself about a year ago, really pushing hard for a new revenue stream to take off. And this was going to be the thing. This was going to make me millions.

And I was working so hard and I really had been really working hard in this area for a couple of years. And it was getting to where my efforts almost felt sort of frenetic and just go, go, go. But I wasn't getting the results I wanted. And I was, it felt like I was just fighting all the time. And I was so stressed and frustrated and unhappy. It was really hard.

to let go of that idea that this was the direction I should go. But this year, I had the opportunity, sometimes we don't see them as opportunities at the time, but to step back and really assess where am I and to look at my business, what parts of it energize me? What are the parts that I am truly the best?

at providing what parts set me apart from all the other organizers in Kansas City doing something like what I do and how, and then that allowed me to release that other stuff and to be able to say, well, you know, I tried it, I gave it a go and that did not work out. So that's not the path I'm supposed to be taking. And that has brought so much peace and calm.

And so that relief kind of lets me know I've made the right decision, that I've made the right move. And I've let go of that aspect of my business that really was clutter and stress. And I think, know, Kim, you always talk about, know, the goal of being entrepreneurs and having our businesses is supporting the life we want to live. So we want to set up a business that we want to work in.

and to work on. So try to take some time to clear your mind about where your business is going and make sure you're headed down the path you're supposed to be headed down right now.

Entrepreneurs are very good at seeing opportunity. And I think what we have to realize is not every opportunity is the right opportunity. Like there's you can have discretion in the opportunities that you choose to interact with. And I do think it brings personal and professional peace and a lot less stress if you will be mindful enough to explore that within yourself. And I give you kudos in the grace

Mm-hmm.

that I have seen you in your life in the last year express through how you've walked through that experience and how how it has how you have protected your own personal piece despite a lot of people trying to pull you out of it in varieties of ways and we don't need to get into that but I've watched that and it's very heartfelt and that's the whole goal of entrepreneurship because as entrepreneurs we have the

Thank

Thank you.

I think there's roughly a few that are in it for the money, but I think a lot more people are in it for the freedom. And when you give up your freedom to an idea even, it's detrimental and it's stressful. It's stressful. And so you've already answered the question in how does all things organize support the life that you want to live. But is there anything you want to add to that notion before we get on to the last question about animals?

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Well, just a little more, you know, touchy-feeliness, I guess. And as far as, you know, I think we all, in addition to freedom, we, most of us want to leave the world better, you know, for us having been here. And I look at my work as helping people live the life they were born to live. And this business just helps me create some peace for people in my little corner of the world.

And I have to believe in the ripple effects of that. And so, you know, again, for you listeners, as you create some more peace in your space and in your business, that gives you the energy to go out there and help someone else, but in whatever way you do that to, you know, try to make this world what we want it to be.

Absolutely, pay it forward and pay it back. Both directions are important. So Joanie, you know you're on the Business Animal podcast and animals are such an important part of my life and my work. And I would love for you to share a story about an animal that has impacted you either professionally or personally or both.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay. Well, I haven't had the opportunity to be around a lot of animals or a lot of variety of animals other than dogs. I am a big dog lover and I was thinking about this question the other day as I was walking my dog. And I thought, know, Ted, he shows me some great lessons. A daily walk out in nature brings you joy and be curious, sniff everything.

and embrace the adventure. And that's hard for me sometimes because adventure can be scary. So I try to take that lesson from Ted. And then don't hesitate to take a good nap. You've got to refresh and re-energize after that adventure. And then, you know, I think most of us, the animals that we live with show us how to love. Love your people.

with your whole heart and your whole soul and your whole being and do everything you can to help them have a great life. So those are the lessons from my dog Ted. Right. Yeah.

Well, I appreciate coming to Ted's Ted X.

That is awesome. All right. So, Joanie, do you work with people over Zoom or outside of the Kansas City area? I believe you do, don't you? Okay.

I do, I do. And it depends. There are people that I have worked with via Zoom. We can do it in a couple of ways, both side by side, you're working with your camera on and I'm watching and coaching you through what to do. I've also done it with sort of accountability sessions where we'll meet for a little while. You decide what you, we decide what the next step is.

you go do that, we come back again in a couple of weeks and kind of check in and then see what's next. And then there are times that I have met with people to discuss the situation. And if I feel like what you really need is someone by your side on site, then I have resources through my national association to help you find someone in your town who can be there on site with you. So.

Even if it turns out that a virtual session isn't the right fit for you, please still feel free to reach out because I can try to help you find somebody.

Probably the easiest way is to go to my website, allthingsorganizedkc.com. From there, you can learn more about me, you can sign up for my newsletter, and you can book a discovery call, which is a free chance for us to get to know each other and see what's gonna be the best way to help you move forward.

Awesome. So if you have some organizational challenges that are bringing stress to your world and you would like to get rid of those, I highly recommend Joanie and go ahead and reach out to her. And even if you're not in the Kansas City area, definitely if you are in the Kansas City area, give her a look up on the internet. Thank you, Joanie for hanging out with me today and the business animal audience.

thank you so much for having me. It's been really fun and I just appreciate the opportunity to spread some organizational joy.

Absolutely, I love it. And on that note, thank you all and I'll see you guys next Tuesday.