Spring Audit: What to Toss Out, Develop, and Sow in Your Career and Personal Life

Spring affects me the same way every year: first comes a sense of lightness, and then—a very clear feeling that I’ve suddenly outgrown my space. Not in the sense of “everything is bad,” but the opposite: life goes on, tasks change, and plans shift. At some point, I catch myself thinking that too much unnecessary stuff has stockpiled around me (and inside me): unfinished articles, unanswered messages, or projects I got involved in on autopilot that don’t really feel like something I’d do. Spring knows how to gently spotlight the places that need to be cleared out. It’s like a beam of sunlight that suddenly makes the dust on the glass visible. And what do we do with dust? Exactly—we wipe it off!

March 8 is coming up soon, which means it’s time to let more fresh air into your life. It’s best to do this in a targeted wayrather than attempting to tackle everything at once. Personally, I like to divide spring into three steps—three months, each of which is best suited to specific goals.

March: throw out the excess so something new can emerge

March is a month when nature has not yet fully awakened, but one unshakable rule is already evident: the old always gets in the way of the new, which means it needs to go. It’s the same with us, people. Shed it like faded, dried leaves. And what “fades” and makes us feel tired most often? Not the number of tasks at all—no—but the fact that we keep everything open, whether it’s a thought, a promise, a dialogue, or our anxiety.

So, the first thing you should toss out is your constant availability. It doesn’t make you strong. It makes you convenient. The constant stream of messages and being yanked around creates the feeling that you haven’t finished something and have “failed” somewhere, even when that isn’t true. And the worst part is—you get used to living in that noise, which makes you go deaf to many other, more important and valuable things. I’m not suggesting you disappear into the woods without any connection. I’m suggesting you close at least some of the “tabs”—and feel the difference literally the same day.

Leave notifications only where they are truly needed (calls, family, and bank). All other features should remain disabled, including push notifications.
Specify two windows a day when you reply to messages (for example, at lunch and in the evening) and stop checking your phone “just in case” every ten minutes.
Stick to one communication channel at a time and switch no more than twice a day: either email, messengers, or social media—not all at once!

The second March cleanup is subscriptions and commitments you won’t fulfill anyway. It’s that same “mess in the closet,” only in your calendar and in your bank withdrawals. We are all familiar with it: a membership you don’t use; a service that charges you because “it might come in handy someday”; a course you “will definitely watch on the weekend” for the third month in a row; a promise to go somewhere with someone that you keep in mind only out of guilt. The more honestly you deal with all of this in March, the more energy you’ll have in April for real growth rather than imitation. So:

Open your list of subscriptions/recurring charges and cancel the ones you haven’t used in the last month.
Cross one “mandatory” item out of your calendar—something held together only by “but I promised,” and that brings neither results nor joy.
Close an annoying “loose end” with a short message: “I’m not taking this / I won’t make it / I’ll come back later”—and no self-flagellation.

And the third—the hardest and the most important: people who drain your energy and don’t restore it. I’m not talking about dramatic labels like “toxic,” but about familiar situations where, after talking to certain people, you do something… not quite right. You save someone, though you weren’t going to; you lie about something, though you weren’t going to; you make excuses, though you weren’t going to. In spring, it’s especially noticeable that our resources aren’t infinite. And if you are constantly rescuing the same person, constantly “picking up” other people’s tasks, constantly taking responsibility for someone else’s adulthood—that isn’t kindness. It’s a habit. Here’s what I usually tell such people:

“I can’t take this on right now.”
“I can give you advice, but I won’t do the task for you.”
“Let’s do it this way: you decide, and I support.”

At this point, you usually wonder: “What if they get offended?” Well, let them be offended. Real spring won’t arrive until you start taking better care of yourself than of others.

April: develop and build up to increase your value

April is the month when it’s time to move from cleaning mode into accumulation mode. You don’t just preserve what’s good—you turn it into something regular and systematic. That is, for now, we aren’t adding new habits; we are reinforcing the ones that already exist. And here I have three directions: learning, recovery anchors, and documenting results. These are three things that give a woman inner backbone and confidence.

Let’s start with learning. Many people read, listen, and watch content only when they have time. And time, as you know, doesn’t magically appear—it only keeps slipping away. So, in April, I suggest not “starting to learn,” but accelerating your efforts where you already have momentum. If you listen to one podcast a week—make it two. If you read one book a month, set the bar to two. If you learn in fragments, just assign it one fixed slot in your schedule. And oh—April would be the perfect time to read my new book, “Act, Sister!” I put it together as a practical guide for women who choose leadership, career growth, and financial independence in a world where only “male” success scripts are still loudly heard. I’ll say one thing right away: the book doesn’t promise an easy path and doesn’t urge you to “become someone else,” but it does contain working strategies—what helps close the gap between who we are and who we want to be.

To ensure learning becomes more than just a beautiful decoration, consider using the following framework in April (or choose just one element):

Podcasts: two per week, but short ones, “on the go”—not as a separate project.
Books: two per month, but don’t stay up late reading—15–20 pages a day is fine.
Courses/videos: one fixed slot in your schedule (for example, Tuesdays and Thursdays)—like a date you don’t reschedule “because I’m tired” (that happened, right?).

The second thing to strengthen in April is something called “one anchor a day.” An anchor is what brings you back to yourself and stops you from being just a function. For some people, it’s a walk; for others, it’s a sport. Some enjoy 10 minutes of silence, while others prefer listening to music and dancing while they clean. In April, it’s important not just to “have an anchor,” but to expand it: make it so you have a choice—a short, medium, and long option. And “anchor yourself” as often as possible. For example:

A short 10-minute anchor: go outside and walk around the house without your phone.
A medium 30-minute anchor: a light workout with a video.
A long one-hour anchor: a trip to the pool, sauna, or maybe a museum (if you’re already sick of sports).

Third—documenting results. Many people underestimate this until the moment negotiations arrive: a promotion, a new project, a client, or a move to a new role. And then it suddenly turns out that in your head, you’re such an irreplaceable person, but where is the visible proof of your value? Where were you at moment X? What can you use to support your request to management for “more”? That’s why I love a very simple backing: a folder (or document) called “My Results.” You can add to it, updating once a month:

Screenshots of gratitude, reviews, successful emails, and numbers.
Short case descriptions: what it was → what we did → what the result was.

May: plant “seeds” so you can harvest the fruits in autumn

May is a special month: it’s already warm, you’re already fully enjoying the sun and living—and precisely because of that, you waste energy to the right and left with no return. I like to think of May as planting: everything you start now will give a noticeable result by autumn. Not as a miracle, but as a cumulative effect.

The first seed is business connections and activity in the office (or in your professional environment if you work remotely). Opportunities rarely come only from your close circle. More often, they’re brought by people you interact with “tangentially”: colleagues from neighboring departments, friends of friends, and people from events. This is even supported by research on the value of “weak ties” for career mobility and finding opportunities. Make May a month of “human reputation”:

Once a week—a short conversation with someone outside your usual circle (another department/new employee/project lead).
Once a week—coffee/lunch with someone you usually only say hello to.
Once a month—one event: a meetup, a lecture, or a community gathering (even an internal one at the company).

The second seed is seasonal physical activity. Take movement outside! In spring, exercise outdoors comes more easily because your body itself asks for air. And if you want to reach autumn not squeezed dry but collected and strong, May is the ideal start. This doesn’t have to be “the gym and discipline.” It can be a brisk walk, a bicycle ride, a run without a goal, morning exercises on the balcony, or long weekends in nature. And again—light and movement are connected to maintaining vitamin D levels and overall well-being—especially after winter.

And the third seed—my favorite—is trips and travel. I’ve said many times: a person who stays in one place quickly starts thinking in circles. New cities, new streets, and new impressions shake the brain up: novelty and a change of context are linked to how we learn, remember, and rebuild attention. Travel isn’t always a two-week vacation. Sometimes it’s two days in a neighboring city. Sometimes it’s a business trip you could have “not gone on,” but you decided to go. And yes, business trips are also travel. Just with a work task. Here are my suggestions:

Plan at least one short trip before autumn (even if it’s just for the weekend).
If you have the option to go on a business trip, volunteer more often yourself.
Even in your own city, once a week, change your route: a different district, a different place, or a different space.

Spring is good because it reminds us that everything in life is cyclical and requires renewal. And if I had to make you one spring wish for March 8 for all women, it would be this: may you shift away from a mindset of constant waiting and self-criticism this year, and start living as if you and your dreams are the most valuable thing in the world. Because that’s exactly what they are!