Why Declutter Your Workspace? 4 Powerful Reasons plus Journaling Activities to Help! | by Lynda Monk MSW, RSW, CPCC

Our coaching work spaces are like our closets - over time they get disorganized and filled with stuff that we no longer need or want.

I have been an entrepreneur for nearly 20 years. During this time the focus of my business and offerings have evolved and changed - I am a Registered Social Worker, Life Coach, Trainer, Facilitator, avid Journal Writer and Speaker! My physical office location has moved 8 times, and for the past 4 years I have had a home office - which has its own organizing challenges.

There are many aspects of our coaching businesses that need organizing, for example:

• Client management systems - including Intake processes and keeping client files/records
• Time scheduling
• Email marketing (writing and sending newsletters)
• Social media marketing
• Organizing our computer files - so we can find what we need, when we need it!
• Managing our offerings eg. coaching service, product and program offerings
• Tracking our ongoing professional development
• And last, but not least, your physical work space

There are so many areas to manage that are relevant to growing our coaching businesses and serving our clients. In particular, a key area worthy of organizing is your physical work space - as this directly impacts your energy levels and how you feel when working.

Decluttering our work space helps us avoid overwhelm, create flow, allow for abundance and generate gratitude. And journaling can help. Lynda Monk

Here are 4 Reasons to Declutter Your Coaching Work Space From the Inside Out

1. Avoid overwhelm and burnout

While I can still work when my office is cluttered and messy, I feel better and less stressed when my working space is clear, tidy and organized. I feel clearer in my decisions, actions and key priorities.

That's because our external physical environments impact our internal environments. While your work space is external, it impacts the inner world experience of your coaching business. So it's important to consider how you feel in your physical work space.

A cluttered work environment contributes to an internal sense of clutter and overwhelm. When our work spaces are organized, we are better able to manage our time, think clearly, be productive and reduce stress - which supports us to do our best work.

"Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination." Christina Scalise

Journaling Activity: Take a few minutes and sit quietly in your work space. Look around. Notice how you feel in this space. Without judgement, simply notice. Take 10 minutes to observe, notice and record your thoughts and feelings in your working space. Use the Journaling prompt: As I sit quietly in my office, I notice that I feel…, I think…, I want…, I need…

Another question to consider is, "What aspects of your physical work environment help you avoid overwhelm and stress?"

2. Create Flow

When we have open, organized, flowing physical space, we help to nourish that state of flow within us. We can feel more spacious, relaxed, expansive and are more able to access a state of flow (inspiration, ease, peace) within.

Being in a "flow state" is also known as "working in the zone" where we have access to an energized focus and enjoy what we are doing.

"Flow is an optimal state of consciousness, a peak state where both feel our best and perform our best." Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Journaling Activity: Sit quietly for a moment, then use the following sentence starter as a Journaling Prompt: For me, I am best able to access a state of flow in my working space when…

3. Allow for Abundance

When our physical work spaces are jam packed, full, constricted they can block energy from flowing.

Money is a form of energy. It wants to flow. If you are feeling stuck or constricted in your space, the chances are it might feel this way with cash flow/money too. Emptying your wallet of bunched up receipts, balancing your cheque book and other clearing practices can give money the message that we have space for it and that we are going to take good care of it.

When I want to increase my revenue/income, I purge my office and make more space and invite more money in. There are many energetic activities we can do around the flow of money, but clearing space, literally, is one thing that's very easy to do.

"Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into." Wayne Dyer

Journaling Activity: Set aside some time to reflect on your money/financial practices in your business. Some questions you could journal around include: How do you track your business income and expenses? What is your relationship with making money as a coach-entrepreneur? How does your physical work environment receive the inflow of money, revenue and financial prosperity? And finally what prosperity symbols do you have in, or could bring into, your work space? (For example, I have a bamboo plant and many citrine crystals.)

4. Generate Gratitude

Spaces can be sacred if we treat them that way.  Every time I enter my office, I greet the space and thank it for being a place that I can work and serve from. I sometimes ask my office what it needs from me as its keeper.

The coaching work we do is meaningful work, and it flows from our physical space. When we infuse our physical spaces with that same sense of meaning, connection and intentionality we put into our work, it can energetically support the emotional and transformational work that happens there. Think Marie Kondo (who wrote a book and has a Netflix Show about Tidying Up) or Feng Shui* principles.

"In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude."  Wallace D. Wattles

Journaling Activity: We're going to try a different journaling technique called dialogue writing, which is good for insight-building. Start by entering your physical work space and greeting it. Thank it for being the physical container for the work you do in the world. Now connect with your space. Ask it, "Working space, what do you need from me right now?" Listen and see what information you receive. Write down any messages, ideas, intuitive hits you get - in the form of a dialogue between you and your work space. Have fun. See what comes.

Wrap-up

Clutter isn't all bad. In fact, for those who like a lot of stuff in their midst, there may be benefits to clutter. Creativity doesn't require a clutter free space. In fact, in a Psychological Science study, researchers found that people who worked in messy offices generated ideas that were rated significantly more creative than ideas conceived in neat offices. It's really about creating a working space - that works for you.

Take time to journal to access your thoughts, feelings and inner wisdom about your business and work space organization. You can tap into your inner ways of knowing, through journal writing. Get clear, grounded and centered in your coaching business, and connect with your insights and needs so you can lead the way through your physical work space.

*Feng Shui or fengshui... is a pseudoscience originating from China, which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. (from Wikipedia)

If you liked this article on Journaling to help declutter your work space, you may also like:

• An "End of Year" Creative Journaling Process: Look Back & Dream Forward! also by Lynda Monk
• 3 Steps to "Marie Kondo" Your Coaching Business! by Ruby McGuire
• Want to Declutter Your Business? The 4 Areas You Need to Consider by Jennifer Britton

Contributing Author:

Lynda Monk, MSW, RSW, CPCC is the Director of the International Association for Journal Writing. Lynda regularly writes, speaks, and teaches about the transformational and healing power of writing. She is the co-author of Writing Alone Together: Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection (2014), and co-editor of Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists, and Clients: A Complete Guide to the Benefits of Personal Writing (2021). Lynda is also co-editor of The Great Book of Journaling (2022). You can find her FREE gift for coaches here: Gratitude Journaling for Coaches & Clients Workbook.

Learn more about Lynda & see all their articles here >>