Decluttering Your Calendar: Why Your Calendar Feels Overwhelming and How to Fix It

Mary Anne Ivison  0:01  
The Declutter Queen with Avery Cundill.

Avery Cundill  0:06  
Calendar Clutter. Let me ask you this: Do your days feel jam packed, but you're still not getting to the things that actually matter. This episode is for you. Hi, welcome back to the Declutter Queen, and today we're going to declutter your calendar by figuring out what doesn't belong in it. Let's free up time, energy, and mental space. Sound good? Let's dive in.

Matt Cundill  0:53  
What is calendar clutter?

Avery Cundill  0:56  
Your calendar is important. Dare I say crucial? And a part of keeping your calendar clean is to say yes to your priorities and no to the stuff that you can eliminate. Your calendar and everything related to it is a part of keeping your mental health in check, so make sure that you are spending your time in the right way, and not depleting your energy needlessly. So let me just talk about calendar chaos for a minute, and this is a very real kind of clutter. It's not clutter in your kitchen or clutter on your counters in your bathroom, this is a very real kind of clutter that can hit at the nervous system way harder than a physical mess. So understand that when you feel overwhelmed, or even that you're failing in life, you're not. Your calendar is just asking too much of you, one human. So let's calm your calendar down instead of optimizing it to death. So before I get to some hard and fast techniques on how to declutter our calendars, it may be helpful to understand why this happens, and I know I love talking about the why because I truly believe that if we can understand why or how we get here, then we can make positive changes and perhaps even prevent things from cluttering up again. So most people who are harried and maybe even late are dealing with one or more of these symptoms. See if some sound familiar. You schedule tasks, but not the transitions. You underestimate how long everything takes, and this is very human, by the way. You say yes before checking your future energy. Your calendar reflects other people's priorities, but not yours. And finally, you don't have white space, so that one hiccup can ruin your day. A few episodes ago, my daughter joined me, and we dealt with these issues, and a lot of them hit home for her. So, see if some of those hit home. Let's fix this gently. So, calendar clutter is similar to drawer clutter in that it's the stuff that sneaks in that takes up the space, and that stuff makes it hard to find what's important. Our aim today: let's fix that. So the first step in helping to tackle calendar clutter is to take inventory. So print or open up your calendar for the next two weeks, and look at every block and ask yourself: Number one, why is this here? So, remembering why we have something scheduled is important because sometimes we may have actually miswritten something, or maybe even we have something down that doesn't need to be here. So this is a simple check. Why is it here? Should it be here? Now that we've established, okay, these things I've written down and I intend them, we can ask ourselves: Does this align with my priorities? Sometimes I refer to this as: Is it a something or is it a nothing? And Matt always lets me know: is it a something or a nothing? If it's a nothing, we let it go. And the third thing you might want to do is to ask yourself: How do I feel about this when I see it? So. So you know that feeling-the dreaded "Oh no, I have to do that today, or "Why did I put this in tonight? If your event is bringing about that feeling, does it need to be there? Do you need to go? The next step that I suggest is to categorize everything. So we use those three labels: the keeps. So these are the must-do priorities, and we need them for our energy, or they just can't go. The next category is edit. Could it be shortened? Could it be rescheduled or could it be improved? If any of those can happen to some of your events, do it. And lastly, the delete category. So here's where not needed, outdated, draining doesn't have to be here. And I'll tell you the truth: deleting things from your calendar feels wonderful, just like removing things from a drawer. Okay, let's move to step three. We're on a roll. Start canceling. Decline Unnecessary meetings, reschedule. Nice to have things, but I don't need to do it this week during weeks where you have lighter appointments. So move things around. If you've got seven things and one of them's optional, make it go away to another week.

Avery Cundill  6:39  
And finally, let go of old commitments that no longer serve you. And just as an example, if you need a little idea of how to get rid of that, in an email or a text, hey, I need to step back from this right now. I got to refocus my time and energy, but I'll get back to you. Voila! You've just cleared up some space in your calendar. Now we've got some space, and remember, decluttering is about creating space. So we've got space for what matters. Now that you've cut down on your calendar clutter, remember we don't need to fill the spaces up with more noise, so many people fear that free space. But think of it as a gift. Use up free time to rest, focus on your creative work, maybe some family time or friends that you haven't seen for a while. Exercise or hobbies always good to put in a schedule. Or here's one that sometimes hard to deal with, but is great. Nothing. Yep, nothing at all. White space is valuable. Okay, so now that you've found some space and cleared up some clutter, how can you prevent calendar clutter from creeping back in? I'm going to give you some good general tips on how to prevent not only calendar confusion but also calendar chaos from coming back. The first thing I'm going to suggest is, with any event that you put in your calendar, create non-negotiable buffers, and I promise you, this is a game changer. Build in 15 to 30 extra minutes for each appointment or meeting that you have, so you have extra time. We're watching the World Cup soccer right now, so I know what extra time is in soccer, but I'm talking of a different kind of extra time. This kind of extra time will prevent you from over scheduling things, so from now on, every event in your calendar automatically gets 15 to 30 minutes before, and think of it as getting ready, travel, or brain warm up time, and then 15 minutes after for decompression and lateness insurance. You don't have to do anything in that time. It just exists, so you're not sprinting. So, practically speaking, if something starts at two, it goes into your calendar as starting at 130 or 145, depending on if you're doing a 15 or 30-minute buffer, and it doesn't end until 315 or 330. And on the front end of that, this alone can often cut lateness by 70 to 80% And the second thing I'm going to. Suggest to prevent calendar chaos from creeping back in is to cap your daily out of house events. So decide your personal max, and what do I mean by that? So let's say weekdays. Outside of necessary things, like if you're a student and you have classes, those are mandatory and of course work stuff. But outside of the requireds, figure out how many out of the house events work for you. Is it two to three? Is it one? Is it five? Pick your personal max and cap it. Same thing goes for the weekend. How many out of the house events work for you so that you do not feel harried and tired and out of energy? Is it one? Is it two? Is it three? You choose. Anything beyond your personal max becomes Optional, virtual, rescheduled, or a no. Your calendar should reflect capacity, not possibility. Finally, step three. I want you to do a weekly calendar declutter. So put your timer on for 10 minutes. Once a week for 10 minutes, ask only these four questions of your week coming. Does this event still need to happen? Could this event be shorter? Could this event appointment be grouped with something else? And finally, do I actually want to do this? This weekly calendar declutter is an opportunity to delete, shorten, or move something. And if you even do just one, that is success.

Matt Cundill  12:02  
And now, the queen responds to your silly little questions. How long should decluttering take?

Avery Cundill  12:10  
So this question, I'd like to answer it with it depends, but I'm going to try and go a little bit broader. It does depend on your space, lifestyle, and also the amount of belongings that you have, but here's a guide. So for a small apartment or similar facsimile thereof, two to six weeks of steady effort should get you in a very positive decluttered place. A home, probably more like one to three months, realistically. If you work, you have other things to do, kids, family obligations. That's a nice timeline to give yourself. Now, for looking at a fully cluttered home, let's call this the worst case scenario home. Bank about three to six, possibly even more months, because you're going to have a lot to go through, and Rome wasn't built in a day. Remember, consistency beats intensity. Don't beat yourself up and have to go 324 hour days. Pick an hour. Pick a manageable, bite-sized time. Work there. Even 10 minutes a day can declutter an entire home. May take longer, but over time you'll get the job done.

Matt Cundill  13:34  
How do I prevent clutter from returning?

Avery Cundill  13:37  
Ah, the old prevention game. Well, maintaining has to become a habit, so everything will go back. You know what I mean. Things come in, and the clutter will start again. So you have to give yourself permission, almost as if it's a job to maintain. So I'm going to give you some prevention. When I mean, prevention, preventing the clutter from coming back. Prevention strategies. First, follow the one in one out rule. So, I buy such and such. Let's say you buy a pair of gloves. One pair of gloves has to go. You get the gist. Another thing that really helps is to do a five-minute nightly reset. So just before you go to bed, do a little bit of straightening. I call it an S and T, a straighten and tidy. Keep flat surfaces in your house clear. I'm often complimented. I take it as a compliment, but when friends come over, they say you don't have any clutter. You don't have anything on the surfaces by design. Clutter loves horizontal space, so keep that in mind. All horizontal spaces as clutter-free as possible. Give yourself permission. To have designated spots in your home for important items, so we all have stuff. Where are we going to keep this stuff? Once we create designated spots, I guarantee you, you will lose less things, and you will have less clutter. And finally, shop intentionally, and this is a tough one for many of us, myself included. Wait a couple of days before buying non-essential items. So we get it in our mind we need something, and we impulsively go and buy it. Wait, think it over. Keep something in your cart. Two days. Clutter builds from unmade decisions, okay, and I'll repeat that. It's important. Clutter builds from unmade decisions, so make your decisions intentionally, on purpose, and with purpose. And micro decisions happen daily. Think about them before you commit.

Mary Anne Ivison  16:05  
Thanks for listening to the Declutter Queen with Avery Cundill. For more decluttering tips and tricks, go to thedeclutterqueen.ca. Produced and distributed by the Sound Off Media Company.