How To Declutter Your Digital Space as a Business Owner with Tracey Hoth [Ep216]

Today I’m joined by professional organizer and life coach Tracy Hoth who helps people reclaim calm and clarity in their home, business, and digital world. With more than 16 years of organizing experience, Tracy applies her signature 5-step framework to everything from messy downloads to overloaded calendars - and she believes organization is about creating space to do your best work, not just making things look pretty. 

If you’re sick of cluttered files, chaotic Canva accounts, endless open browser tabs, or to-do lists that feel like they’re screaming at you - this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The 5 steps to organize anything - sort, purge, assign homes, set limits, maintain.
• How to use just five file folders (operations, marketing, content, education, clients) to anchor your digital system.
• Why naming files and being consistent is more powerful than colour-coding perfection.
• How Tracy manages her schedule and to-do list to reduce overwhelm.

Guest Spotlight: Tracy Hoth

Tracy Hoth (rhymes with “both”) is the heart behind Simply Squared Away. Since launching her organizing business in 2008, she’s guided hundreds of clients - from homes to offices - and mentors coaches and entrepreneurs on creating order in their work and life. 

Links & Resources

• Website: https://simplysquaredaway.com/
• Learn her 5 file folder system (on-demand class): CLICK HERE
• My podcast episode with Tracey:  108 | Tired of Social Media? Grow Your Audience Like This Instead With Kylie Kelly

Ready to grow your audience with less hustle?

NEED CLARITY FAST?
Grab a Business Breakthrough - a personalised diagnostic to uncover your biggest growth opportunity right now.
⚡️ $66 - Book here

p.s - Loving the show?
Hit follow or subscribe so you never miss a new episode. And if you want to support the podcast, sharing it with a biz friend is the best way to spread the love!

Transcript

Tracy Hoth [00:00:00]:
Sort, purge, assign homes, set limits, and maintain. Those are the five steps to organize literally everything. Your mind, your computer, your schedule, your stuff, your closet, everything.

Kylie Kelly [00:00:16]:
Are you a female business owner frustrated with battling the algorithm and looking for growth strategies that don't involve awkwardly pointing or dancing online or throwing cash at paid ads? Welcome to the Email Growth Show. I'm your host, Kylie Kelly, visibility and email marketing strategist. I grew my email list from zero to almost 10,000 subscribers in less than two years, and the same is possible for you, too.

Josie [00:00:39]:
Are you ready to build your email.

Kylie Kelly [00:00:40]:
List and start making more money in your online business? Let's head into today's episode.

Josie [00:00:48]:
Tracy, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you.

Tracy Hoth [00:00:51]:
Thanks, Kylie. I can't wait to talk all about organization.

Josie [00:00:55]:
Oh, my goodness. I'm excited too. For anyone that is tuning in that doesn't know who you are, let's start there though. Can you share a little bit about yourself, what you do, where you are, all the things?

Tracy Hoth [00:01:05]:
Yes. I'm in Kansas City, Missouri, in the states. So in the very middle of the country. My name is Tracy Hoth and I have been a professional organizer for 17 years. I have also am a certified life coach. And so I combine the practical steps of organizing with all the mindset and identifying as an organized person. I have one program that helps the regular people with their life in their house and I have one program that helps business owners organize their businesses.

Josie [00:01:36]:
Your house and your business must be so organized.

Tracy Hoth [00:01:40]:
Well, here's the thing. I am down to earth, like, practical person and I always like to start with what is organization mean? Like, what is being organized mean? And it's just that you can find things that you know what you have and you can find things when you need them. So that is me. I'm not super anal and I'm not, you know, everything's not color coordinated. I have less stuff, I think, because I've practiced this for so long, but I still have the same challenges. Like, oh my gosh, I have this habit of downloading things to my desktop and I need to move them to the folders where they belong. So I'm literally just like everybody else. I've just practiced this more and have the structure set up in my own head and in my spaces so that it's probably easier.

Josie [00:02:26]:
I love that because I do picture your color coded a house of perfection when you said you were an organizer. So I love that you shared that.

Tracy Hoth [00:02:33]:
No, one time I walked into another organizer's house, like, this was probably 10, 15 years ago, and she opened her pantry and I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, mine does not look like that. But I'm so proud of that. Like, it doesn't have to look a certain way. And we just, I think, need to release that it looks a certain way. If you know what you have and you can find it, then start realizing and like, identifying. I am organized in that area.

Josie [00:02:58]:
I love that. So being that we're speaking to a lot of business owners on this podcast, where would somebody start? So let's just use me as an example. I am a hot mess on my computer. My download folder is like what you just described. You know, I, at the end of the year, I tuck it all in like a folder that says like 2024 and I don't look at it again. That's kind of my system. So where does somebody get started with becoming more organized in their business?

Tracy Hoth [00:03:22]:
Yes. Okay. This is so fun when you think about your. Let's just go with digital files, because I think that is the biggest thing. You waste so much time looking for and trying to find what you need and duplicating things. And so I like to start by choosing one place, your one central place that you're going to keep things. Now, that might be your computer. If you're.

Tracy Hoth [00:03:44]:
If nobody needs to access any of your stuff, it could just be on your computer. You could choose to use Google Drive if you're a Google person. Like, keep it on Google Drive or some people have OneDrive or Dropbox, whatever the location is, you're just deciding that that is my hub. I will store things in that one location. And then I have five files. I believe that you can have only five file folders to store your. Your digital files in for your business. So I like to think of it like a filter.

Tracy Hoth [00:04:17]:
Things are coming into your computer and they are either going to go in home or a business because most people have both on their computer. So home or business, when it's in business, it's like a little filter or a flowchart. It comes into business and then there's five file folders, and they are operations. So anything inward facing anything it takes to run your business, and then marketing is outward facing anything to do that other people see. And then there's my content, what you create. And then there's education, anything that you're taking in of other people's. And then the fifth file is clients. So now you have this really clear structure.

Tracy Hoth [00:05:00]:
You can make those five file folders and then we can talk about the steps to organizing, but you have those five file folders and you know, like, in your mind, okay. Everything goes into one of those five places. And it just starts to simplify what happens when you bring things into your computer and when you look for things on your computer, it's simplified.

Josie [00:05:22]:
I love how simple you make that because. And you're right. How much time do we waste looking for that single PDF that we know is there, but we don't know where it is? So I can imagine the amount of time that will save having a system like that.

Tracy Hoth [00:05:33]:
Yes. And it's simple. And you practice it and practice it, and you just all of a sudden your mind is freed up from like, where do I find it? Even search. Like, you can search things if you want to have it a big mess, you could search, but it just doesn't work all the time. You still can't find it, and you're duplicating and you didn't name it and all of that. So good to have that foundation. And I have a class that people get free workshop where I walk people through that so they, you know, if they don't remember it, they can go watch the workshop. But it is just so freeing.

Josie [00:06:06]:
Okay, so you download something and then you move it straight away. Or do you have a system? How do you go about organizing things into those folders?

Tracy Hoth [00:06:14]:
Yes. So first you have bad habits. We all. Not you. I wasn't yelling at you. We have habits that we have to correct, and that might take take some time and some practice. So ideally, you want to touch it once. You've kind of heard that probably in house organizing, like, touch it once, put it away, and you would want to put it in the place that it goes.

Tracy Hoth [00:06:36]:
But I mean, I often am in the middle of something. I want to be able to not have to click into folders to find it. So I download it to my desktop and then I use it. But then you have to just have some time where you clean that up, where you slide things in. And that's the part where organizing becomes easy if you have the structure in place. So cleaning up my desktop's easy because I know where things go. But I also could start practicing downloading them into the folders that they need to go in initially, and then I would save that step. So that's how you start to correct habits that you have and make it easier on yourself.

Tracy Hoth [00:07:12]:
But if you're brand new to this and you've made those five file folders, then the first step to organizing is to Sort. And you're just going to take all your files and sort them into those five folders. You don't have to rename things, you don't have to make it neat. Just sort them into those five folders. Then the next step is to purge. You're going to go back into each folder and that's where you can open things up, look at them, say, do I really need this? And delete it. Or that might be the step where you rename stuff in a systematic way. If you have a naming convention, you can rename things in that step.

Tracy Hoth [00:07:49]:
And then you're going to decide, where are they going to live? They're in that folder. But do they need a subfolder, the limit that you're setting? Because the fourth step to organizing is to set limits. That would be the file folder. With digital, we literally have unlimited access, so it's hard to set a limit. Maybe your storage space would run out of limits. But then the M is maintain. So I don't think I said those very clearly. Sort, purge, assign homes, set limits and maintain.

Tracy Hoth [00:08:18]:
Those are the five steps to organize literally everything. Your mind, your computer, your schedule, your stuff, your closet, everything.

Josie [00:08:26]:
I love that. And especially breaking it down like that. Because I'm one of those people that goes down a rabbit hole. So if I started opening everything up when I was sorting it and looking at it, I'd end up who knows where. Like, yes, I'll not get it done.

Tracy Hoth [00:08:38]:
That's so true. And that's what happens. Like, even me, I walk into my closet and I'm like, I have got to get rid of some stuff. So I walk in there, pull something out and think, should I get rid of this? Oh, I don't know. Like, I don't know, maybe I'll wear that, you know, and then I just leave. Because I don't know. I don't. You can't start by making decision.

Tracy Hoth [00:08:55]:
Like hard purging type decisions. It's sorting is the first step and then everything you have in that category is there. You see it all at one time and it's easier to make decisions.

Josie [00:09:06]:
Yeah, I love that you can even break it down. Right. So if we're sorting and it is a hot mess and there's a lot to sort, at least we can sort it all and then even do just like a folder a week or like, do it in small chunks.

Tracy Hoth [00:09:17]:
Yes, and I like to do that. When you first start and let's say your computer's just a mess, I would just start by making the Five folders on your computer, and then I open my documents and then slide everything into those five folders. Like, that could be one task. Then you'd open your downloads, you know, slide them into the folders. Then you open your desk or you're on your desktop, slide it all into the folders, and pretty soon everything on your computer is in those five folders.

Josie [00:09:43]:
Okay, can I ask, does this apply to things like Canva? Because my Canva gravy is completely insane. Do you apply?

Tracy Hoth [00:09:51]:
And Canva is so bad. I have a podcast episode that talks about Canva and I actually had someone that is a designer that works in Canva on there. So there's a link to a little workshop she did for us on the podcast episode. But since you couldn't see it, I linked to that workshop. But I like using the same file structure as much as possible everywhere you do it. I use the same file structure in my email folders, and you can use this same file structure in your Canva account. So, you know, anything to do with operations would be in a folder. Anything to do that you create my content would be in a folder.

Tracy Hoth [00:10:33]:
Anything someone else is giving you, like templates, you could start keep the original ones in education that would go under other people's stuff. So you can create similar file structures in all of your stuff. And it just keeps your brain organized, I guess. But Canva is its own beast because it needs a lot of work. But that's where the maintenance step comes in, to have at least some point where you are maintaining and moving files. But in that episode, it's good because she talks about, okay, the first thing you do when you make a file or make a design is to name it and to put it in the folder that it lives. Same with when you bring something on your computer, name it, and put it in the file folder that it lives in. So those are two good things to start doing if you're not doing that already.

Josie [00:11:25]:
I love that. And again, it's all about creating these habits eventually, right? Starting somewhere, getting some kind of organization, and then just building these habits over time. And it will get easier. I can imagine.

Tracy Hoth [00:11:36]:
Yes. And the naming part of it in Canva is huge because I'll go in there and just so quickly not name it or duplicate something, and it's five pictures down and I don't have it named in a way. So then I search and I can't find it. So, yes, it's the thing.

Josie [00:11:51]:
Yeah, I'm the same.

Tracy Hoth [00:11:52]:
Challenging.

Josie [00:11:52]:
Oh, I love this. So can we Shift a little bit and talk. You mentioned your schedule a little bit earlier as well. Like how you organize your schedule. Can we talk a little bit about that as well? Like how does that look? As a business owner, do you do anything different when you're thinking about your schedule or your calendar and organizing that as well?

Tracy Hoth [00:12:11]:
Well, I use the steps to organize it. So whenever I'm feeling overwhel, whenever you are feeling overwhelmed. Anybody listening? The first step is to sort. So I sort on a piece of paper everything that I'm. That's in my mind, all the tasks I need to do. And I do this once a week to get planning for the week. And once a month I do it with a group and we go in and plan our month by following these steps. So I sort everything down.

Tracy Hoth [00:12:39]:
And as I'm sorting, I like to put them in categories as much as possible. So phone calls I need to make different programs that I have in my business. I think, oh gosh, I have to do that. I write that under that program name. You know, computer tasks I need to do, errands I need to run, however that looks. I sort all that out and then I go back through and purge. And when we're looking at things to do, it's like we can delay things. So if it's something I know I just don't have time to do this month, I can delay it.

Tracy Hoth [00:13:09]:
And what I do is put it on the next month. Like either if you use a paper planner, you could put it on a. Post it on the next month and come back to it then. Or you could put it on an appointment on your digital calendar the first of the month and just know every first of the month. You delay things that you aren't going to look at this month. And then you could delegate things and you delete things and then you have left the things that you want to do. So then you go into your schedule, so you've sorted, you've purged, and now it's assigning homes. So you're assigning homes with appointments on your calendar.

Tracy Hoth [00:13:44]:
And that's kind of how I plan my time.

Josie [00:13:46]:
That's a big thing. When we are, we're in control of how we spend our time as business owners. And I think that if there's anyone listening that's like me, my to do list is way longer than it should be. And then that's when the overwhelm creeps in, right?

Tracy Hoth [00:14:00]:
Yes.

Josie [00:14:00]:
And we don't know where to start. So I love that.

Tracy Hoth [00:14:02]:
Yes, that to do list. And that's what I'm working with different clients right now is to get the things that were not. I mean, we just can't do it all but to get it out of our vision. And so by putting it even to next week, like you're not going to look at it again now, you're going to look at it next week so that you aren't feeling that pressure or weight of all those things that you can't get done.

Josie [00:14:26]:
Yeah, I often snooze emails in that way because everything comes into Gmail, which is what I use. And so I'll just snooze them until the day I need to look at it. So I know it's coming back, but it kind of is like, oh, it's out of my brain, it's out of what I'm looking at and I can forget about it until it comes back to me, which is really helpful.

Tracy Hoth [00:14:41]:
Well, now I have a question about that because I just talked to someone that used the same term. Do you use, do you do that in Gmail or do you have a system on your computer?

Josie [00:14:50]:
No, it's a Gmail thing. It's literally like you can right click on, on your email inbox and snooze is one of the options and you just pick when to snooze it until. And then it comes back in like a new email whenever you set the date and time.

Tracy Hoth [00:15:02]:
I have not done that yet and was talking about it too and I thought, oh my gosh, I need to start doing that. That would be so good. I have the two folders on the left that are to do and pending and then I will slide things over there. But I like the idea of snoozing it. I'm gonna have to try that.

Josie [00:15:19]:
Just don't snooze it for all the same time and date because I've done that before by accident where I snoozed everything like 9am next week and then at 9am next week comes around and the inbox is like, I'm like, oh my gosh, lesson learned. Don't do that again.

Tracy Hoth [00:15:32]:
That's so good because I can totally see how that would be valuable. As you know, you put a block of time on your calendar for follow up or reading and then you have all those come back into your inbox at that time.

Josie [00:15:44]:
Yeah, absolutely. Or even deadlines. So like when I'm contributing to a summit or a bundle or something like that and they have a deadline that I have to submit by even snoozing it to the day before the deadline or a few days before. That way I'm like, oh, it'll come back. I don't need to worry about it. But it gives me enough time. Yeah. To action it then when I need to action it.

Tracy Hoth [00:16:02]:
Yes. That's interesting. Do you do that instead of putting an appointment on your calendar?

Josie [00:16:07]:
I do. So the way that I like my calendar. So in Google Calendar, I have all my calls I block off. I normally do CEO weeks every second week. I don't have many calls. So I work in the business, so I block off stuff like that, but I don't put tasks. I was using the task list for a little while and then I wasn't looking at it and I was like, 27 pending tasks. Oh, my gosh, that's stressing me out.

Josie [00:16:28]:
So that didn't work for me. But yeah. Yeah. So I use the snoozing feature rather than putting things like that on my calendar.

Tracy Hoth [00:16:36]:
That's so. It's so fun hearing how other people make it work. You know what I mean?

Josie [00:16:41]:
Yeah. And because we are all different. Right. So there's a system that works best. Like, it's good to have something to go from if you don't have a system at all, but then I guess you probably find your own flow as well as you're doing it.

Tracy Hoth [00:16:52]:
Yeah. And I think that's what's so important is what I work on is we test something. Did that work? Why? We ask why? Is it because you just didn't do it? Or is it because your mind doesn't work like that? Or is there some other reason? And then we can test another option for, you know, time management or calendaring or whatever.

Josie [00:17:13]:
So the business owners that you work with, when they go from hot mess desktop, like I probably, to a more organized system, do you find that they get just so much further ahead, like, in their business and their goals? Like, do you get these amazing testimonials of what that looks like? That transformation is not. Because it's not just a feeling.

Tracy Hoth [00:17:31]:
Right.

Josie [00:17:31]:
I guess the roi, because you're getting more stuff done could be amazing.

Tracy Hoth [00:17:35]:
Yes. And then they're able to focus on their clients. They're able to create, you know, resources for their clients. They're able to find things quickly and have so much more time to be able to spend. Or some of them are like, no, I just have free time. Yeah, I don't have to do more work time. I have free time to be able to do it. I think it's an interesting thing as I've talked to different clients, and they're like, now they feel more like a CEO instead of someone that's a disaster.

Tracy Hoth [00:18:06]:
Behind the scenes, they're trying to act like they are, but they. They're feeling so disorganized. So they're feeling more like a CEO. But I think a lot of times they didn't realize how much stress or time it was taking even. I just talked to someone today, a client that I helped her with her bookmarks bar. That's one of the biggest return on investments is having a bookmarks bar that is organized and efficient and all the things. Like if you join a program, I suggest making a folder linking in that a shortcut to their portal, a shortcut to the call link. You know, all those things in a folder and you just.

Tracy Hoth [00:18:43]:
With one click, you have your notes, you have the portal login, you have the resource you're working on or whatever. I mean, she was just like, Tracy. I. I spent. Their face lights up. They like, I spent four hours on a Saturday just getting all this set up. And now I just have so much freedom. I feel like a CEO.

Tracy Hoth [00:19:01]:
I'm more confident. I have the ability to focus on and be creative the way I'm meant to be, you know, because everyone's gifted in a different way. And so once they learn the skill of organizing, it just frees them up to use their gifts.

Josie [00:19:16]:
I love that because I feel like so often, and I mean, it goes to anything, right? You start with that pain point, like, so they don't feel organized, so they come to you. But then look at what comes from that. And it's not even the tangible first thing that they think that they're signing up for or they think that they're getting and they get to experience this lightness and more white space and like, whatever.

Tracy Hoth [00:19:34]:
That.

Josie [00:19:35]:
That mindset shifts and whatever comes as a byproduct.

Tracy Hoth [00:19:38]:
Yes.

Josie [00:19:38]:
It's beautiful.

Tracy Hoth [00:19:39]:
Yes. And then their processes. So then they can do a launch, and then they can do another launch because they have those processes in place and they just become easier and easier as they go.

Josie [00:19:50]:
Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I love that you mentioned the bookmarks bar, because that's something that I've never even thought to organize.

Tracy Hoth [00:19:55]:
Oh, my goodness, it is. So it's like one of my favorite things.

Josie [00:19:59]:
How many tabs do you have open at one time on your computer when you're working?

Tracy Hoth [00:20:03]:
Well, that's just it. You don't have to because you know that if it's something you want to get back to, it's in, it's one click away. Now, there are times when you're in the middle of something and then you have a call, so you don't want to close those out because you're in the middle of it. And then, you know, you might have another call and someone needs to get. So there's some. But, I mean, you should see what I've seen. There are like. Like three chrome windows with 27 tabs each or 100 tabs.

Tracy Hoth [00:20:29]:
I don't know. I've. I've seen some where you can't even see that something's open or what it is. So it is. And it's just a valid fear, like, I'm not going to be able to find that again. And so once you solve for that, it's like, huh, it's just so much freedom.

Josie [00:20:42]:
I think one of my. I won't say worst traits, but probably bad habits that you were referencing earlier. But one of my bad habits is I'll just restart the tabs I had open yesterday every morning, and so it just reopens. And my thinking is that it saves time because I didn't go and do all the things. But then there's a million things there that I don't need anymore or that I'm not really using right now. Yeah, that's an interesting thing to think about with the bookmarks.

Tracy Hoth [00:21:05]:
Or they're just distracting because I'll be like, oh, what's that? Oh, and then click on it to see and then be like, oh, wait a minute, what am I doing? I wasn't working on that. I was supposed to be over here doing this thing.

Josie [00:21:16]:
Absolutely. Those damn rabbit holes.

Tracy Hoth [00:21:18]:
Yes.

Josie [00:21:19]:
Yeah. Oh, I love this. Okay, you've given me some things to think about. Absolutely. We'll put the link. So what did we have? We had the link to the workshop where you went through those buckets and those categories.

Tracy Hoth [00:21:29]:
Yep. The five files. Yep. Yep.

Josie [00:21:31]:
And then we'll put the link to that podcast episode with the Canva lady as well do that. Is there anywhere else they should go? Is that a good place for people to start this journey with you?

Tracy Hoth [00:21:41]:
Yeah. And go. Just go to my website, simplysquaredaway.com and on there they can get to the five files if they want. I also have a file naming formula to get in a habit of consistently naming their files that's on the website. And then my podcast, they can find all those episodes. I think I have a bookmark spot bar episode on the podcast as well, if they want to listen to that as a start, too.

Josie [00:22:03]:
So amazing.

Tracy Hoth [00:22:05]:
So good.

Josie [00:22:05]:
Oh, my goodness. Well, thank you so much for sharing so much with us. I cannot wait to hear everyone that listens to this, what they go and do. I would love to know. And I will definitely keep you in the loop as well as I sort out my digital life.

Tracy Hoth [00:22:17]:
Yes. Check in, tag me, tell me how it's going.

Josie [00:22:21]:
I love it. Oh, perfect. All right, thank you so much, Josie.

Tracy Hoth [00:22:24]:
Thanks, Kylie.

Josie [00:22:25]:
Thank you so much for tuning into.

Kylie Kelly [00:22:26]:
This episode of the Email Growth Show. I hope you found valuable insights into the next steps you can take to grow your email list and boost your business without relying on social media or paid ads. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the.

Josie [00:22:41]:
Show and share it with others.

Kylie Kelly [00:22:42]:
Your feedback helps me reach more female entrepreneurs just like you who are ready to say goodbye to social media and leverage email marketing to grow their business and make a bigger impact.

Josie [00:22:52]:
Thank you so much for listening and.

Kylie Kelly [00:22:54]:
I'll see you in the next episode.