When it comes to decluttering, it’s usually a question of how to do it rather than why. People also find it almost impossible to accomplish, considering the other things they have to do. But it doesn't mean they don't want a clean home – and a smooth schedule, right? However, it's not impossible if you know the right steps to start. Using all those planners and attending online courses can help, but those are only tools - you need to learn how, when, and why to use those tools to be the most effective.

Gael Wood is a mother of two, and a former massage therapist turned entrepreneur and a certified Feng Shui consultant. She writes and coaches people on mindset and journaling strategies. Today, she joins the podcast to share how to re-evaluate your time and spend your energy on what matters to make positive changes.

It's a matter of figuring out how you can ignore other things that might feel pressing. And I think a lot of that depends on your personality. Like some people tend to like not to want to settle down to work if their house is messy. If they could straighten up their house and get everything clean, they'll be able to think better. If you have that stuff done, it won't distract you. So, it's a matter of having to learn to train yourself to set all of that aside and focus. The morning routine also really helps. Like getting up early, doing some basic things for your mindset, reading something motivational, and thinking about your goals and what you're working toward in a big picture way, which helps motivate you on the smaller things throughout the day. 

One of the biggest habits is to do a daily routine of prioritizing your tasks. So, that mindset of "if I only had two hours to work today, what would I need to get done?" What are the most important things? Because we all know, as entrepreneurs or as parents, that things can pop up throughout the day that can derail you. So, if you spent your whole morning answering emails and not writing your book or preparing for your class, it's really easy to get behind. So, make a daily most important tasks list and then, from there, prioritize it. It helps to get all that clutter out of your mind and onto paper.

Step one would be to figure out your 10 hours that could be made up of different 30-minute chunks here and there. So, start thinking about where your time is going. Because we always time. And you know, there are different things to think about with all of this, for example, is watching TV at night wasting time, or is that just relaxing? Is that just something that we should do or need to do? And of course, we all need to relax. And then take a look at all of these things you are spending time on to see if you could do less of that and maybe get some time there or do things in a new and different way. So, think about anything you're doing because there may be stuff that's just a holdover from another time in life. Start looking for more and more ways you could optimize your schedule.

One way is to do a challenge. Maybe if you want to get up earlier, put yourself on a 30-day get up the early challenge because that helps take some of the hardness out of it. You'll think that getting up earlier is a really hard thing to do. But getting up early for 30 days seems a lot easier. Because it's like, you'll do it for 30 days, and it's a challenge, it kind of puts fun energy to it. Because then, you can see the benefits by the time you're done with the 30 days. And it's not hard. 

Sometimes every day would go by, and you'd be like, you didn't find the time or the space to do it, or all these excuses come up. So, try the 10-minute thing. Like, find a way to make it not hard for yourself and start small. And you could do that with anything like writing a book. So, there...