Kate Fehr - Clear & Simple

Your Bedside Table

It’s the last thing you see before you close your eyes and the first thing you see when you open them.

What’s on yours right now?

For a lot of us, the bedside table becomes a catch-all: books we mean to read, glasses, chargers, a water glass (or three), hand cream, receipts, lip balm, a notebook, something we set down ‘just for a second’ six weeks ago.

The energy of that surface follows you into sleep and greets you in the morning. A little clarity there has an outsized effect on how your day begins and ends.

Try this:

Clear everything off your bedside table.
Wipe it down.
Now ask: what do I actually want here? What supports a good night’s sleep and a calm morning?
Put back only those things. Intentionally. One by one.

For most people, that’s: something to drink, a book or journal, glasses, and maybe one small thing that brings comfort. That’s it.

Ten minutes. Better mornings.

Here’s to peaceful nights and easy mornings,

Clear & Simple, Kate Fehr, Bedside Table

The Subscription You Forgot You Have

by Kate Fehr

Somewhere in your bank statement or email inbox, there’s something quietly charging you, and quietly taking up space, that you completely forgot about.

A streaming service you signed up for during a free trial. A newsletter you haven’t opened in a year. An app subscription that auto-renewed. A box delivery that made sense six months ago and doesn’t anymore.

Digital clutter has a financial cost too. And one cancellation today is a small win that keeps paying off.

Try this:

Pick one place to look:

Your bank or credit card statement: search for recurring charges
Your email: search “your subscription” or “billing”
Your phone settings: check active subscriptions under your Apple or Google account

Find one thing you’re no longer using. Cancel it, unsubscribe from it.

One less thing quietly draining your money, your attention, your energy. That matters.

Say “No” to energy leaks,

One Thing You’ve Been Meaning to Return

by Kate Fehr

It’s been sitting there for weeks. Maybe months.

The library book. The item you borrowed from a friend. The online order in its original box, waiting to go back. The thing you keep moving from one surface to another because it doesn’t quite live anywhere.

These small undones have a quiet cost. They’re open loops. And every time you walk past them, some part of your brain registers: unfinished. Not done yet. Still waiting.

Today, just one of them gets handled.

Try this:

Identify one thing you’ve been meaning to return — to a store, a friend, a library, a neighbor. Just one.

Outline on the DO IT.© steps on a post-it. My one thing is to drop an item off to a client. Here are my steps.

Send the text asking when I can drop it off.
Schedule it on my calendar
Put it in my car
Drop it off
Celebrate it’s done!

You don’t have to complete the whole thing today. Just move it forward. One step closes the loop enough to quiet that background hum. I just sent the text.

What’s your next step? Email me and let me know.

We’re in this together,

Your Desk Surface Right Now

by Kate Fehr

Not the whole office. Not the filing. Not the inbox. Just the surface.

The place where you work, create, think… it sets the tone for everything that happens there. When it’s cluttered, your brain registers it as unfinished business before you’ve even started. When it’s clear, you can breathe. You can think. You can begin.

Ten minutes is all it takes.

Try this:

Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Clear everything off the surface into a basket or box.
Give it a good wipe.
Now put back only what you use daily, and only what belongs on a desk.
Everything else finds a real home, or gets dealt with later.

You’re not organizing your whole office today. You’re clearing one surface. That’s enough.

A clear desk at the start of a day is a quiet act of self-care. Some of you know that my desk is an ongoing challenge for me. I’m doing this one myself as soon as I hit send.

With you every step,

The To-Do List That Never Ends

by Kate Fehr

Most of us have items that have been on our list for so long they’ve become part of the furniture.

We move them from week to week. We rewrite them on fresh pages. We feel vaguely guilty every time we see them. And yet: they never get done.

Here’s a thought: what if some of them just… aren’t going to happen? And what if that’s okay?

A to-do list is supposed to help you. When it becomes a running record of everything you haven’t done, it’s working against you.

Try this:

Look at your list, wherever it lives (paper or digital, or both) and find three things that have been there longer than a month. For each one, honestly answer:

Is this still relevant to my life right now?
Am I actually going to do this, or am I just keeping it out of guilt?
What happens if I simply let this one go?

Cross off anything that no longer belongs. Not everything deserves a permanent spot on your list. Some things need a quiet release.

A shorter list you trust beats a long list you dread.

To building self-trust,