18 Spring Cleaning Tasks to Refresh and Refocus Your Business

Digital and physical clutter can quietly derail focus and productivity. This season, take some time to “spring clean” your work environment.

From outdated tools to bloated workflows, the buildup of unnecessary tasks and information can make it harder to prioritize what really moves the business forward. A thorough, thoughtful spring cleaning routine helps leaders streamline operations, sharpen team focus, and create space for more intentional, high-impact work.

Below, 18 members of Fast Company Executive Board share some must-do spring cleaning tasks for the workplace. From cleaning up your tech stack to auditing your workflows, these activities can set your business up for success for the rest of the year.

1. Clearing Software Waste

Cleaning out expensive software waste is a great way to uncover cost savings that can be redirected to strategic priorities. You need visibility across your IT estate to see what is there and, more importantly, whether it’s being used. Working with a global bank for this type of spring cleaning, we uncovered a savings opportunity of $5M by eliminating more than 66,000 unused software licenses. – David Keil, Lakeside Software

2. Revisiting and Refreshing Your Vision

Revisit your purpose—declutter outdated goals, refocus on strategic objectives, remind yourself of what makes you different, and ensure your team’s efforts align. Use this time to streamline processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and reinforce what truly drives success in your business. A refreshed vision fosters clarity, motivation, and productivity, keeping everyone engaged in meaningful work. – Eric Schurke, Moneypenny

3. Updating Core Processes

As head of a remote product management team, I know an annual digital spring clean is vital. We review and update core processes, like product launch checklists and scrum practices, to ensure they’re still relevant. We trim outdated steps and refine them to meet current company goals. The focus is on efficiency in removing process roadblocks. – Sheila Karns-Gierek, TrueDialog

4. Level-Setting Activities Against External Factors

Regularly assessing progress against goals and desired outcomes keeps execution strategies relevant and effective. Leaders and teams should engage in level-setting exercises to align activities with shifting business and geopolitical landscapes. Execution cannot happen in a vacuum—success depends on adapting strategies to external realities while maintaining focus on core objectives. – Eddy Azad, Parsec Automation Corp.

5. Auditing Your Materials and Workflows

Each spring, we streamline our PR and branding workflow by auditing media lists, refining content strategies, and optimizing our proprietary frameworks. Digitally, we declutter outdated assets and update pitch materials, ensuring every strategy aligns with current trends. This refresh keeps our clients ahead of the competition. – Kristin Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

6. Consolidating Digital Files

Keep company resources lean by periodically consolidating things, updating files, removing duplicates, and even removing any nonessential information that just takes up unnecessary space. Cleaning up your digital workspace not only makes your project management software work better but also minimizes the amount of data everyone needs to sift through to locate the essentials. – Misty Larkins, Relevance

7. Deleting Outdated Data

Delete the digital clutter. We force ourselves to Marie Kondo old workflows, useless reports, and “just in case” spreadsheets every quarter. The result? A team that actually focuses on impact instead of drowning in outdated data. – Stephanie Harris, PartnerCentric

8. Clearing Out Email Inboxes

Email is not a data repository. Get the data you’re hanging on to into an area where your team, or you, can access it readily. If you need to hang on to it for governance, risk management, and compliance purposes, have IT archive it. Email has three functions: do something with it, delegate it, or defer it to a task to be completed at a specific time. Inboxes should go to zero or close at the end of the day or week. – Dawn Sizer, 3rd Element Consulting Inc.

9. Conducting a “Stop Doing” Review

Spring clean your meetings, reports, and tasks. Set a quarterly “Stop Doing” review—cut redundant meetings, ditch outdated reports, and trim unnecessary workflows. Less clutter means more focus. Leaders who regularly audit and eliminate low-value tasks create space for real priorities, driving clarity, efficiency, and better results. – Chris Dyer, Leadership Speaker

10. Reviewing Paid Bills

It’s tedious and time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort to annually review every paid bill and determine whether it’s necessary. With recurring software expenses, expense creep is a real risk. – Arar Han, Sabot Family Companies

11. Refreshing or Removing Stale Content

Remove content that is outdated or unused by client-facing teams. Many enablement platforms reveal which assets are actually being used. If they aren’t, improve them—or remove them entirely. – Irina Soriano, Seismic

12. Running a Complete Internal Audit

Review standing meetings and workflows to identify redundancies and streamline approvals. This ensures you remove waste and focus on high-impact work. – Jeff Sprau, Legence

13. Decluttering Shared Drives and Tools

Declutter shared drives and project management tools quarterly. Archive outdated files, organize key documents, and streamline workflows to improve collaboration. – Maria Alonso, Fortune 206

14. Assessing Your Billing and Collections Habits

Review billing and collections practices to ensure invoices are sent and collected promptly. Banking tools can streamline the process and reveal cost-saving opportunities. – Mark Valentino, Citizens

15. Consolidating Old Data Into Summarized Reports

Feed old documents into an LLM to generate summarized reports, then discard what’s unnecessary. This preserves institutional knowledge while reducing clutter. – Sean Adler, SWN

16. Cutting Unnecessary KPIs

Strip out vanity metrics and focus on KPIs that drive real outcomes. Clear data sharpens focus and improves execution. – Gabriel Lopez-Bernal, Icomera

17. Following Up on Your 2025 Plan

Track and revisit your 2025 marketing plan quarterly to identify needed pivots and ensure year-long success. – Monica Hickey, The Evoke Agency

18. Organizing Physical and Digital Desktops

Clear desktops, close unused tools, and reduce notification overload quarterly. Fewer distractions lead to sharper focus and better execution. – Hope Horner, <a h_

‍