Get It Together, Weirdo

Declutter Your Digital Life: Simple Steps to Clear Clutter and Achieve Digital Minimalism

• Sarah Bowser, That Weird Nerdy Mom • Episode 12

Share episode

Hey, weirdo! Has your digital world become chaotic? Overwhelming? A mess? Does your downloads folder look like a digital junk drawer, with random screenshots, oddly named files, and memes you swore you needed all buried in there somewhere? 

In this episode of Get It Together, Weirdo, host and coach Sarah Bowser shares strategies for decluttering and organizing digital spaces to reduce overwhelm and improve productivity. She covers assessing your digital devices to identify unnecessary files and apps, methods for organizing digital files and managing email overload, and the importance of adopting mindful, personalized habits and systems to prevent future digital chaos. 

All of your digital clutter is impacting your mental well being. For Sarah, getting all nerdy about digital organization was a game changer. It reduced so much of the overwhelm she’d been carrying and made her work life manageable. 

So tune in and let’s get your digital shit together! 

If you want to stay in the loop on new episodes, posts, and other tidbits that Sarah shares, go to thatweirdnerdymom.com to hop on her email list, or join her for weekly coworking on Mondays. 

What you’ll learn in this episode: 

- How digital clutter can overwhelm us, affecting our mental well-being 

- Practical tips and steps to organize digital files and overcome email overload 

- That starting small is key to long-term success 

- The importance of adopting mindful habits to prevent future clutter 

- The benefits of creating a personalized system that supports rather than overwhelms 

Links and resources mentioned in this episode: 

- Llama Life: llamalife.co 

- Flora: flora.appfinca.com/en 

- Dubbii: dubbii.app 

- Brain.fm: brain.fm 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode: 

“Digital clutter can quickly overwhelm even those of us who think we have it all together.” 

“The inconvenient truth is that we can't automate our way out of digital clutter. If we don't address the root of the mess, even our best automations will just result in us collecting more clutter along the way.” 

“Work on developing a more mindful approach to consuming digital content. Set limits on screen time. Really think about whether you really need to download that file or app. Take some digital detoxes and work on creating healthier habits around your tech use.” 

“Identify those hotspots of digital chaos, and then ask yourself—and dig deep here because we're not looking for surface-level, meh answers—how do these areas make you feel? Are they stressing you out? Making you anxious? Maybe you feel a little embarrassed about how out of control it's gotten? Whatever you're feeling, name it. Allow yourself to fully unders

Join the Get It Together, Weirdo community

Ep. 12. Declutter Your Digital Life: Simple Steps to Clear Clutter and Achieve Digital Minimalism

Welcome to Get It Together, Weirdo, the podcast where we dive into ways to help you figure out how you can tackle your to do's, keep track of your side quests, and manage your time in a way that works for your brain, so you can focus on nerding out on the things that make you do a happy dance. I'm Sarah Bowser, your Get Your Shit Together coach and resident weirdo, here to guide you on your journey.

So, let's get it together, weirdo.

Hey there, my wonderfully weird friend. Welcome back to another episode of Get It Together, Weirdo, where we figure out how to get organized without losing our minds. And today, we're diving into something that can quickly overwhelm even those of us who think we have it all together. Digital clutter. So let's be honest with ourselves here.

Sometimes, even when we're trying our best to stay on top of things, [00:01:00] our digital world becomes chaotic, overwhelming, a mess. Our downloads folder looks like a digital junk drawer. Random screenshots, oddly named files, memes we swore we needed at some point, all buried in there somewhere. We're convinced we'll need all of these at some point.

I mean, we downloaded and saved them for a reason, right? But there's no way to figure out 

what each one actually is and what we want to use it for. And I'm guessing that sounds familiar, right? The inconvenient truth is that we can't automate our way out of digital clutter. If we don't address the root of the mess, even our best automations will just result in us collecting more clutter along the way.

And so the cycle will continue, and continue, in a vicious circle. But don't worry, we're gonna go through some different strategies that you can [00:02:00] adapt to your own needs, so you'll know exactly how to tackle that digital chaos and make your tech world work for you. So, let's dive in. Let me tell you a bit about how my desktop looked in the olden days.

Back when I had my very first Gateway laptop. Yeah, I'm old. That old laptop was nowhere near the fancy, modern laptop and organization system that I have now. It was an absolute disaster of a disorganized mess back when I was in high school and college. My documents and pictures folders were complete free for alls.

Every file I saved, every picture I downloaded, every assignment I worked on was just dumped in there haphazardly. There were no folders, no naming conventions, no rhyme or reason. Google Drive wasn't even a thing yet, so everything lived in this messy digital abyss of my hard drive, and God forbid [00:03:00] my computer crashed, I would lose all files.

I would lose files all over the place. Versions weren't saved the way I needed them to be, I lost tons of pictures over the years, it was a mess. Fast forward to my first real job out of college. Suddenly, I had to manage complex projects and keep track of countless documents and emails. Everything had to be kept straight depending on what audit I was working on and what objective within that audit was the focus for that day.

That's when I finally started using the magic of folders and labels and naming conventions. I became a bit, well, we'll call it nerdy about my digital organization. It was a game changer. It reduced so much of the overwhelm I'd been carrying and made my work life manageable. I quickly began implementing similar systems for all of my home documents and files and pictures, too.

Then, when Google Drive came about, that was it. I dialed in my [00:04:00] system, figured out where my shit would live, and created a synced, organized ecosystem to keep track of everything. And that's what I want for you, too. So, let's talk about how to declutter your digital world and create a system that works for your chaotic brain.

We're gonna start with the basics. Understanding our digital clutter. Take a moment to think about your digital space. What areas or tools make you feel the most overwhelmed? Is it your computer, your phone, your email? Maybe it's your photo gallery or the endless apps you've downloaded. Whatever it is, identify those hotspots of digital chaos, and then ask yourself--and dig deep here because we're not looking for surface level meh answers--how do these areas make you feel? Are they stressing you out? Making you anxious? Maybe you feel a little embarrassed about how out of control it's [00:05:00] gotten? Whatever you're feeling, name it. Allow yourself to fully understand what feelings are coming up for you. That's the first step to finally understanding how All of your digital clutter is impacting your mental well being.

Make a mental or physical note of the digital areas that stress you out the most. Jot down what emotions they're bringing up and what's contributing to those feelings. For example, does your email inbox make you anxious because it's overflowing with unread messages and you feel like a failure for not addressing or replying to any of them?

It's time to shine a light on that. A bright light on those digital monsters so we can deal with them and break their hold over us. Next up, we need to assess your digital spaces, and this is where we'll do a high level audit of your devices. So take a look at your computer, your phone, tablet, whatever digital tools you use, and identify what do you [00:06:00] have on them.

What apps, files, or pictures are taking up space? Don't judge yourself here. We're just building an awareness of what we actually have. Try your best to be objective, too. Just identifying what you have and not assigning any thoughts or feelings or blame to those things. So here's your step by step. Note down the apps you're using, check where your files and pictures are stored, and identify the key or important items you actually need to keep versus what can go.

Think of this as being similar to sorting your closet into piles of keep, donate, trash. You're creating your own digital piles. You'll have your necessities, your nice to haves, or maybe I'll still use this, and your why is this still here items. And once you've got a handle on what's there, you'll be ready to organize.

And how will you go about organizing your digital files? You've got your digital pile sorted, so how can we break things down further? Start thinking about how [00:07:00] you want to organize everything. Do you prefer categories? Tasks? File types? For example, do you want all your work documents in one folder, and personal documents in another?

Would it make sense to group items by project or topic? Do you need to get super granular or super broad for your brain to be able to understand where things are? Take a moment and ask yourself, where does your brain naturally go when you're looking for something? If you are starting completely from scratch, where would your brain instinctively look for certain files?

And use that insight to create a system that's intuitive for you. And please, if there's one thing I can't stress enough, use naming conventions, consistent naming conventions. And I'm not saying we all need to use the same conventions, that there's a template to naming your files that you absolutely have to use.

I'm talking about figuring out what naming convention makes sense to your brain. That you can be [00:08:00] consistent with throughout all of your files. Something as simple as including dates or keywords and file names can make a world of difference when you're trying to find something later. Now, let's tackle something that may just be a universal pain point.

Email overload. Many of us have thousands of emails just sitting in our inboxes. Sound about right? It's the epitome of overwhelming. A three or four digit number of emails just sitting there, waiting for you to do something with them. It's Where do you even start? Well, we start by doing a quick audit. Who are these emails from?

Friends? Family? Coworkers? Spammy companies? Once you've identified the culprits, it's time to declutter. Take your list of unnecessary newsletters or company emails and unsubscribe from them. But be cautious, because some spammy emails use the unsub links to install malware. So if you have it, use tools like [00:09:00] Google or Gmail's built in unsubscribe feature to help keep you safe.

So if you're on your promotions or updates tab, If you hover over an email, you'll see an unsubscribe button pop up, so you don't actually have to open the email to hit the unsubscribe button. Then, you can set up filters. Use rules to automatically file emails into folders or apply labels that make sense to your brain, so you can come back to those emails when you're ready to actually address them.

Then, just archive or delete what you don't need. You'll free up space in both your inbox and in your brain. Without losing anything important and as we start to wrap up here, let's talk about streamlining your tech habits, managing digital clutter. Isn't just about cleaning up the mess you already have, both in your digital world and in your mind.

It's about keeping things manageable moving forward. So, what can you do? You could try out focus tools like LlamaLife, [00:10:00] Flora, Dubby, or Brain. fm to help stay on track when you're wanting to focus on a task, on getting things saved to where they need to go, or when you just want to stop the doom scrolling because, let's be honest, we've been doing that a lot lately.

You could also try co working or body doubling to stay focused and accountable to the things you want to get done by a certain time. And, maybe most importantly, Work on developing a more mindful approach to consuming digital content. Set limits on screen time. Really think about whether you really need to download that file or app.

Take some digital detoxes and work on creating healthier habits around your tech use. Remember, this is about optimizing your tech to support your life, not overwhelm your life. So, where do we go from here? We start small. Pick one area of your digital life to declutter. Maybe organizing your desktop or unsubscribing from a handful of [00:11:00] newsletters.

Every small action you take is a step toward a more streamlined and focused digital world that works for you, not overwhelms you. Remember, with a little effort and a system tailored to your brain, you can clear out the clutter and create a digital life that actually feels good. And if you found today's episode helpful Share it with a friend who might need some digital decluttering inspiration.

And if you want to dive deeper into these ideas, join us for our weekly coworking sessions on Mondays. You can find all of the details in the show notes. Until next time, my wonderfully weird friend, stay organized, stay weird, and let's get our digital shit together. 

Thanks so much for listening today. You can find complete show notes, links to resources mentioned, as well as a link to our coworking community on our website, thatweirdnerdymom.com. Be sure to leave a rating or review, and check me out on Instagram, at that underscore weird nerdy mom. Feel free to shoot me a DM. [00:12:00] I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, my wonderful weirdo, you've got this. Bring out your weird.