082 What WON'T Work for Your Bookkeeping
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In this episode of Money Through Ease, we’re focusing on what doesn’t work for your bookkeeping and home organization. Avoid common pitfalls and ineffective strategies that can hinder your financial organization efforts.
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Welcome back to money. Through ease, everybody, this is your host, Regan Bashara, and I am back with another episode talking about organization, because that's all bookkeeping is right. It's financial organization. It's financial record keeping. So we need to have a good system for organizing. And I promise that even if you don't think you're good at organizing.
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Like your house or your finances or whatever. That's not actually true. We're going to talk about that today because today.
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Topic is all about what's not going to work for your bookkeeping. If you haven't listened to last week's episode, that's episode 81. It's organization hacks for your bookkeeping pause this episode, go back, and listen to episode 81, and then come back because I want to focus on the tips and the hacks first.
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To positively reinforce the things that you are already doing in your life.
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That you're not even aware of that make you a good bookkeeper or make you someone who's good at organizing. Today, we're going to talk about the things that don't work, but I want to start with the positive, which is why I did that episode last week. Last week, I Googled the top organizational tips and how to compare that to your bookkeeping and your financial organization.
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And I found an article from better homes and gardens. I found some other articles from, like magazines and Reddit threads, unfortunately about organic.
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And I talked about the.
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Tips that I really liked and the ones that I think that we can draw like a one to one line or correlation between home organization and bookkeeping. But this week's episode is going to be about the tips that.
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I saw that.
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I don't think will work or that I think are counterintuitive to.
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Home organization and doing your bookkeeping. And I want to remind you that this episode is sponsored by the Bookkeeping Foundation kit. This is a kit that I made for you. It is all of the essentials that you need in video format questions. It's a PDF.
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Book some samples, some resources all to help you set up a bookkeeping system and to stay on top of it for your small business. The Bookkeeping Foundation kit is $77, and you can purchase it by clicking the link in the show notes and as a bonus, I'm also offering a 30 days free inside my private virtual community.
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Y'all know I love a bonus and I wanted to make sure that when you purchase the bookkeeping foundation kit, you have a support system built into it to do the work. So you'll get 30 days for free inside the private virtual community where me and all of my clients currently live.
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Hang out so you can have support from me. Other people will be able to answer your questions and provide you feedback and you know troubleshooting and tips to help you through this work. So the material and the bookkeeping foundation kit is, you know, the basics, right, setting up a bookkeeping system. And I also have live content, hours and hours of tutorials and tips and lives that I did inside the group.
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Because I go live twice a month in the group.
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For more Q&A, financial organization Tips, QuickBooks Online tutorials, all that good stuff. I also host Co working sessions on zoom that are exclusively available to members of the community. These sessions are kind of like a study hall where you can work silently alongside me on or off camera. Or you could even bring questions to the Co working.
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Session and you can get support from me on the call. So grab your bookkeeping foundation kit by checking the link in the show notes. Alright, y'all, let's talk about today's topic, which is.
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What not to do for your bookkeeping or what won't work when it comes to organizational.
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Tips for your?
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Bookkeeping and #1. Let's just get this right out of the way, because I did see this on several of those lists, and it was to bribe yourself. And I don't know about y'all, but I'm an adult woman. I'm a grown *** ***** and.
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I cannot be bribed to do anything, especially when I'm the one bribing myself, like if I want something, I'm just gonna go get the thing. I'm not gonna tell myself like, oh, we gotta do this tour first or I gotta do this bookkeeping or my work first before I can do this.
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It's not a bribing situation, it's just knowing myself. It's knowing how my brain works and knowing that if I have something that I need to get done or I want to get done like a chore or I want to do my work y'all I work for myself and like I could just choose not to and there would be consequences to that.
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So I want to get my work done. I like getting paid. I like, you know, being self-sustaining and having money. And so I don't need to bribe myself with that, right. It's just something that I want to do.
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And I like my reasons for that.
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And so I'll do my chores first, you know, on the weekend I'll do chores, I'll like make myself breakfast to spend a couple hours, like taking care.
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Housekeeping things and then the rest of the day, I just get to enjoy myself and relax and I will crochet or I will read or I'll binge watch Bridgerton, which is what I was doing this past weekend. And you know, I just get to do whatever I want after that. So it's not the fact that I'm bribing myself and telling myself that I can't do the pleasurable.
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Things that I want to.
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After I do my chores as a reward reward system doesn't work for me because once again I'm a grown adult and bribing myself doesn't work that way. It's the fact that I do want to do my chores. It's the fact that I do want to do my work for my business and I know that it would be much more effective if I do that first. If I set up my environment.
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We talked about the last episode.
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To set up my environment to make sure that it is conducive to me doing that work, and if I get it done first, then I'm not feeling guilty about not doing the work. I'm not like sitting there doing something pleasurable, but not actually enjoying it because I'm thinking about the work that I need to do or the chores that.
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I need to do and so.
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Maybe bribing yourself or having a reward system for yourself is something that works for you.
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But I don't like looking at it that way because I'm like, oh, a reward or, oh, a bribe. Like, you know, oh, I can eat ice cream if I, like, go on a walk for this afternoon. Like, no, I'm just gonna go get the ice cream. Like, it has nothing to do with whether or not.
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I go take.
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A walk right? Like me wanting something is unrelated to the tasks that need to get done in my life.
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And that's why I don't think the bribing or the reward system thing works for me, and that might also be the case.
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For you so.
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Instead of bribing yourself in order to do your bookkeeping or any task or chore that you need to do for your business or your personal.
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The life think about why you want to do that task in the 1st place or why you actually need to do.
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That.
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Task. Now it can be said that, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs and all that ****, that there's things like tours don't like technically need to be done. Sometimes my house gets messy and like, that's a choice that I'm making to like not clean up certain things, right?
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It is a choice. It's not necessarily a need and you know, I could eat off of paper plates and with plastic cutlery instead of like worrying about ever doing the.
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Which is that would be a choice that I was making. So the dishes don't need to get done. I want them to get done because I want to reuse my dishes and not use plastic plates and forks all the time. It is something that I want to do and reframing it that way indicates to my brain like this is a choice that I'm making and I'm making it for a reason that I like.
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And that means that I don't have to bribe myself to do that thing, because I'm like, oh, right, I want to be doing that thing. Ohh, right. That is something that I've decided to do. So why don't I do it now so that I can?
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And get it done, and then I'll have plenty of activities or hobbies or things that I can do that, you know, I choose to do that don't necessarily that aren't like work, right. It's not like producing something. It's just something that I do, which is like what a hobby is y'all. It's just something that you enjoy doing that doesn't necessarily produce.
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Something or make you money, right? I don't know. Some people monetize their hobbies, and we're not going to get into that on this episode, but I just don't think that bribing yourself in order to get a chore done is going to work. And the same is true for your bookkeeping it. You're just not going to motivate yourself with.
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Like.
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Dangling a carrot, you know in front of your face to get something done. Like we're all adults here and nobody needs the freaking Gold Star you can give yourself a Gold Star, but I'm going to give myself a Gold Star before I even complete a task. Just because I want the Gold Star sticker. OK, so moving on, the next thing that I want to talk about that is not going to work for you. Getting your bookkeeping.
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Someone is telling yourself that you're not good enough, or that you're not smart enough.
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And I recently talked about this in a TikTok video. Because I I've done 2 webinars or like digital talks presentations basically in the month of June, one was a talk about business, financial organization to the National Association of Science Writers. These are science people.
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That are, you know, doing contract work or they're getting grants for stuff and and they are science writer people and obviously you know, that group of folks is really smart. They are first of all science geeks and baddies, just like me. You know, they're writing. They're.
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Taking scientific data or, you know, sociological data or whatever, and like writing it in a coherent way to like, express a thesis and prove a conclusion and all that stuff like these people are obviously smart enough, they're good enough to be doing science writing, and yet they still need help with their financial organization. They still need help.
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Understanding their business finances.
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And then I did a talk for my local Arts Council. So this is people who are artists. They are creatives. They are people that are quote UN quote, the right brain thinkers that are creative and you know, thing like flowery imagery and stuff. But, you know, not everybody paints flowers, but creative people are often the ones that.
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Say that they're not good with money, that they're not good with math and numbers, and that they failed out of algebra and all that. That doesn't necessarily mean.
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Mean that they're going to not do their bookkeeping, or they're not going to do it correctly because bookkeeping is a skill that anybody can learn, so no one is born knowing how to do bookkeeping. No one is born knowing how to quote, UN quote, properly manage their finances or their money. It is a skill that you have to learn. You have to be taught by somebody else.
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Or you have to.
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You do it a bunch of times and understand what mistakes you made and why, and then correct those mistakes in order to develop that skill. So just like no one is taught how to clean house? No. Oh, I'm sorry you're taught how to clean house, usually by maybe a parent or, you know, you watch videos online or something because we're in that day and age.
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Now usually.
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Actually 100% of the time, no one is born knowing how to organize or clean house, right? It's something that you're taught. I don't think it's true that, you know, you should indulge in telling yourself that you're not good at math or you're not good at numbers or you're bad with money, blah, blah, blah, because that line of thinking is going to wind up with you procrastinating.
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On the work with you not focusing on your business finances, not looking at your numbers and data and figuring out what's going on and you know not setting goals for yourself because you're like, well, I can't even set a revenue goal for myself because I'm just not good with monies and I'm terrible at sales.
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And so all of this is not good enough. Not smart enough. Talk this self talk is not going to work for home organization or home cleanliness or hygiene and it's not going to work for your bookkeeping either. And that's not like nobody said nobody provided that as a tip for home organization just.
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Tell yourself that you're not good enough.
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Or smart enough to.
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But telling yourself or believing that you're not capable of doing something.
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Is blocking you from learning how to do the thing, so we have to kind of do away with that thinking 1st and then the last thing that I want to talk about is this concept of like throw away culture or quote UN quote cancel culture, which I know is not a thing that exists. But we see it happen in discourse a lot. Oh, somebody said this thing and that was the wrong thing to say.
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And so they need to apologize. But then after they apologize, we should just never speak to them again or interact with them again or give them any more money, blah blah blah.
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That is just not how I want to be living my life. I don't know about you all, but I don't want to participate in that kind of culture that is punitive and, like, throw away culture and the same is true for your books. It's also true for your health, right? We see. I mean, you might be into, like, the deep cleaning. Tik toks.
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Where somebody has like a disaster cleaning in.
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A home.
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And they, you know, film like a time lapse of themselves cleaning it. And it's very satisfying to watch. Right. But like, you can't just pick up a home and throw it in the trash. Yes, there are buildings that get condemned because they're deemed, like, the amount of money that would go into, like, repairing and fixing up and cleaning a building and making it habitable again.
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Exceeds the uh like value or worth of the building. And so you know that is a physical object. It's not a human being. So it's a little bit different from like.
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Like the concept of canceling someone or throwing away somebody or not dealing with somebody over again just because they said something you don't like, it's not the same thing, but you can't just pick away, pick up your house and, like, throw it into the garbage, right. Most people would move if they considered their home beyond the repairs that they want to pay to.
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Bring it back up to a habitable space.
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But for the most part, people try to fix things in their home or their living spaces, or they try to clean. They try to organize, they try to decorate to make it somewhere that they want to live, you know, and not thinking that it's beyond repair. But I often. Well, not often. Sometimes I come across.
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A bookkeeping account or a business, that is, you know, believing that their books are beyond repair. It is just simply too much of a mess to be.
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Fixed and therefore it's not worth fixing and it's better to just start from scratch now. I don't think this is going to work for your bookkeeping because first of all, in my experience there is no set of books that I've come across that is like so ****** beyond repair that like I'm not even interested in working with the client. It is just a problem that needs to be solved.
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And also bookkeeping is a set of data. It's just numbers.
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It's just numbers, it's just data and we can manipulate the data and change the data to be correct and then move on and continue working with that data. Have that historical data that is correct to run comparison reports and things. There is nothing that I've come across in my 10 years of doing bookkeeping that is literally beyond.
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Repair it is all fixable, and I'm not afraid of a set of.
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That needs a good bit of like elbow grease to get fixed up to get updated and accurate, and there have been times where someone comes to me and it's just like I just honestly think that it would be better to like start over fresh. And the problem with that is that you wind up literally starting from square one. You have to recreate a chart of accounts.
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You have to import your clients and customer lists and data you need to update all of your products and services again and all of your income categories and expense categories and on top of that.
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Yeah, if you had any automation in the quote UN quote wrong set of books, those won't carry over. You'd have to set up your automations all over again.
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And, you know, starting from scratch.
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Is.
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In my opinion, worse than starting with a set of books that's like really messed up. And so I just don't think that it's helpful and it I just don't think it's going to work for you if you're insistent that your bookkeeping is beyond repair, that your business.
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Chances are just so bad. Or maybe it's your financial habits. You know, the way you spend money and deal with money and manage your money and your business or in your personal life. Maybe you just think that it is so bad that it's like you're.
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Not worth fixing.
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And that is the crux of it, right you are. You see it as a more.
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Plausible outcome to just simply throw it all away, but how do you throw away like a bad habit, right? You can't just.
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Stop doing a habit. Most of us and come up with a whole new set of habits that isn't informed by the things that you were doing before, and especially when it comes to your business finances like the way you spend money is habitual. It is routine even if you have a new set of books.
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You're still going to be managing your money the same way unless you fix those habits. Unless you get some better routines and some better habits. So I don't think it's helpful.
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To sit there and think about ohh my bookkeeping is so beyond repair. Oh, my business finances are so bad. My habits with money, my spending habits are just so bad that like I don't know how I'm ever going to get out of this hole or this rut or whatever. I just don't think that's helpful. And I don't think that's going to work for you. Getting your bookkeeping system to where it needs.
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To be and that is why that's.
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The crux of it right. Like, are you fixable? Are you redeemable? Are you so wrong in what you're doing that you should just give up entirely and go work for somebody else again? And that is not a position that I want anybody to feel like they are in. It's not helpful. It's not a fun place to be.
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And you started your business for a reason. You started your business to help other people to do something a unique way to provide a unique product or service to the world that I think is needed. And in that way.
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I want to tell you that there's no set of books or no business owner that I have come into contact with that I think is beyond repair or is beyond redemption. So if you needed to hear it from somebody, please hear it from me. Your books is not.
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Are not as.
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Bad as you think they are, and it's not something that we can't fix. And I always tell my clients that.
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You cannot do anything in your bookkeeping that we can't fix in some form or fashion like it will get fixed. It will be OK and it's not good enough for like a bad set of books is not a good enough reason to close business. You'll point blank. Period. OK, those are what I don't think.
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It's going to.
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Work when it comes to your bookkeeping and your financial organization. And just like I talked about last week, I want you to think about if you're already good at organizing another part of your life, maybe it's one area of your home or the junk drawer is actually kind of organized, or your car stays relatively clean and organized. I promise that you can apply the same tools.
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That got you to that level of organization and that one area.
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To your books to keeping your books up to date for your business. So once again, please ask yourself, what does my process look like for organizing that part of my life? Or that part of my home? What does that process look like? If you have a Pinterest worthy pantry or your bathroom cabinets are so organized?
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And lovely, I guess it all comes down to things being Pinterest Worthy, right? What does that process look like for me to not only get it to that level of organization, but to keep?
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Up with it.
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And then you're going to break that process down into its most basic steps. So you also need to be able to pay attention to what happens in your environment when you are successfully organizing or keeping up with the organization in that area of your life. What does your environment look like? Do you have to listen to a podcast? Maybe you're listening to this podcast while you're organizing?
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Do you listen to audio?
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Books.
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Do you have to have noise cancelling headphones on? Do you have to work on that project only while the kids are at school? Because otherwise you're getting interrupted every five seconds. This is what we call a system y'all and it's what I teach you in part three of the bookkeeping foundation kit. So after you learn in the kit how to set up your books, how to do the data.
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Country how to reconcile your?
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Accounts. You'll then establish the system that you need to keep coming back and doing this work regularly, so consistency is key. It's what prevents you from feeling overwhelmed and behind at tax time. A good set of books that's accurate and accessible means that you can actually look at your reports and make good business.
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Decisions based on that.
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So if you not only want to learn my system for bookkeeping, but also to organize your financial life in general, you need to start with the bookkeeping foundation kit. And remember, you'll get 30 days free inside my private community, where me and my clients are ready to help you through this curriculum. Thanks so much for listening to money through Easter Day.
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I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your week.