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How to Spring Clean Your Communication in 5 Easy Steps

What do you think of when you hear the term “spring cleaning”?

If you’re like most people, your mind might instantly go to cleaning out your closet, organizing your pantry, or getting rid of items around your home that you no longer need.

And while we highly recommend all of those things (hey, who doesn’t love a good closet declutter!), spring cleaning can also be applied to many other areas in your life.

Given the fact that we’re a communications company, we thought it would be appropriate to provide you with some simple steps you can take to spring clean your communication. Because yes, even your communication can use a tidy-up from time to time.

Here are 5 ways to declutter your communication (in your business and personal life) right now.

1. Simplify your call to action in presentations and meetings

Did you know that the average person will only remember a maximum of three takeaways from a presentation? That means that if your Call To Action (CTA) isn’t super clear, concise, and to-the-point, your takeaway will be completely lost.

We posted a video a while back on Tidying Up Your Communication, inspired by the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. In that video, we discussed the importance of simplifying your CTA in your presentation. “Tidying up your points”, so-to-speak.

When you’re giving a presentation, it can be easy to fall in love with some of your information and want to hold onto it really tight. And what can happen through that love affair is that we lose sight of what’s actually relevant and appropriate to the main point we’re making.

So, this spring, get in the habit of assessing your communication and presentations. Ask yourself if the information in front of you is adding to the presentation takeaway or detracting from it. Remember, the ground rule in any presentation is to give your audience a maximum of three takeaways to remember.

That means that if it’s not relevant, it’s gotta go.

2. Eliminate filler words in your verbal and digital communication

We all use filler words from time to time. When you’re speaking, these might be words like “Uh; um; like; you know, etc.” They can be a natural coping mechanism to fill a pause in conversation or dead air. The issue with filler words is that they don’t add anything to our communication. In fact, they do the opposite.

The same goes for filler words in your digital communication, like a text or an email. In school, we’re often taught to sound as smart as possible. Let’s face it, we’ve all done the classic “increase filler words to reach the word count in an essay” strategy. And in this attempt to sound smart, we end up adding a bunch of unnecessary phrases and words that only frustrate our readers and take away from the point we want to get across.

I’m sure your mind has already come up with a few ways you’ve done this in the past. Here are some examples of phrases to avoid and that can be replaced with one or two words:

My personal opinion – My opinion

During the course of – During

Same exact – Same

First and foremost – First

At this point in time – Now

These are a few of the countless filler words and phrases that can almost always be replaced with a simple alternative (1).

In your verbal and written communication going forward, become aware of these filler sentences. As a rule of thumb, scan your next email or document before you send it to see if there’s a way to simplify.

3. Watch out for Weasel Words

At Connect To The Core, there are certain words that we do our best to avoid as much as we can, also known as weasel words. Weasel Words are ‘weak’ words that allow you and the people you are communicating with to 'weasel' out of making a commitment. So, we suggest removing these words from your vocabulary right away.

The first of five weasel words categories is a biggie. It’s the word ‘try’. In general, this word evokes feelings of uncertainty, and it’s always in your best interest to strive to be someone who brings certainty to an uncertain situation.

The people we communicate with act as mirrors to us, which means that if we use the word try, they will be non-committal too. For example, how confident do you feel when you hear “I’ll try to get that proposal to you by Friday”, instead of “I will get that proposal to you by Friday”.

Another weasel word is ‘but’. The problem with this word is when you use it, you negate whatever was said before it. This word also braces the listener or reader for bad news. A way around this word is to replace it with ‘and’. It might feel awkward at first, AND the more you do it the more comfortable it will feel, and the more confident you’ll sound.

For a comprehensive list of weasel words and info on how to eliminate them, click here to download our FREE Weasel Word Guide.

4. Structure your internal communication and team check-ins

A great thing our team has started doing is having more structured personal check-ins. As a small tight-knit team, it’s important for us to check in with one another so we’re aware if one of our team members needs extra support and how each of us can help the other feel their best.

It’s only as of this spring that we realized we still wanted to check-in with each other and knew that our system in doing so could be more efficient. Our newest team member suggested an awesome system that I’d like to share with you. At the beginning of each weekly team meeting, we all share our:

  • Mental noise
  • Wins from the week
  • What we’re grateful for right now

This system has done wonders for our connectedness and productivity in our meetings. We end up sharing more than we did before in an effective, time-efficient way. After we each share these three items, we begin our agenda, which of course, is another non-negotiable item at every team meeting.

Implementing strategies to keep you and your team on track is another great way to spring clean your communication. Who doesn’t love organized (and heartfelt) connection! 

5. Declutter your files and technology

Last but not least, it’s a good idea to take this change of seasons as a chance to declutter your technological space. After all, we spend so much time on our phones and laptops that keeping them organized is just as important as the physical space around us.

“Cleaning up” your technology can look like organizing and sorting files on whichever storage platform you use (our favorite is OneDrive), cleaning up your inbox, organizing your desktop/workspace, the list goes on (2).

Organizing our tech is something we’ve prioritized this spring and have made it our mission to keep it that way. With organizing tech, it’s also a great idea to simplify your technology wherever you can.

In other words, are there any platforms being used right now that are unnecessary? There could be a platform you’re using that has the capability to cover more bases than you might think. Kajabi is a great example of this. We use Kajabi for many different areas, like our website, blog, email marketing, the list goes on.

You can also simplify day-to-day team communication by selecting one video conferencing and messaging platform (3). We use Outlook for quick communication and Zoom for all of our team meetings, client calls, and webinars. Reducing the number of platforms you use will do wonders for your tech organization and your mental space.

As a final suggestion, go through your platform subscriptions. Are there any platforms you’re still paying for that aren’t being used?

These are a few of the countless ways to simplify and declutter your technology. Although it might seem tedious, spring cleaning your technology can make a huge difference to your productivity, happiness, and results in your business.

Conclusion

Be honest, ‘communication’ probably wasn’t the first word you associated with spring cleaning, was it? After going through these five simple steps we expect you’ll be inspired to take this shift of seasons as an opportunity to tidy up many areas of your life, including your communication! Check out our website or send us an email at [email protected] if you're looking to outsource all that tidying. Our communication coaching and consulting services have helped hundreds of organizations and individuals clarify their messaging and experience exponential success. We'd love to be a part of your communication journey, too.

The big takeaway here is to simplify. Simplify the information you give during a presentation, simplify your verbal and written language, simplify your team meetings and check-ins, and simplify your technology. It really is that simple!

For a full list of Weasel Words you’ll want to get rid of in your communication – click here to download your copy for FREE.

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more tips on tidying up your communication. And if you enjoyed this blog post, be sure to share it with anyone who could use some spring-cleaning inspiration!

Sources: 

  1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Communication
  2. 5 Ways to Declutter Your Communications
  3. 3 Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Business Communications
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