time spent offline

Digital declutter is a personal journey. For some, it’s their email that is cluttered and stressful. For others, it’s their desktop overflowing with files and documents. Here are three ideas to determine if digital declutter is for you.

1. Pay Attention

Ask: What, if any, area of your digital space is overflowing and stressful? Is it the unread emails? Is it the to-read, to-watch, to-listen bookmarked pages? Is it your social media feed? What about your cluttered desktop?

Make a list.

2. Identify Top Offenders

What areas of your digital space is the most cluttered or stressful? While it could be one or ten, I advise you pick 1 to 2 areas to start with. Digital decluttering can be burdensome because it’s easy to hoard stuff in the digital space because we don’t see the clutter piled up around us: It exists in the cyber space. But it still creates mental burden. Once you declutter one area and see how rewarding it is to keep your digital space clutter-free, you can use that as motivation to move forward with the rest of your digital space.

3. Visualize It

Close your eyes. Visualize your day with less email to sift thorough when you open you inbox. How about only a handful of apps on your phone? Imagine your desktop super organized with a few folders and you always know exactly where to look for important documents? Whatever your ideal is, visualize it and feel it. Does it feel good? It’s easier to take action when we are emotionally invested in the outcome.

If you have determined digital declutter is for you, and I hope it is, I have a tip to make the experience a breeze— okay, less painful— for you. Give yourself time, but also put a date on it. (oh, oh, oh!) Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Rome was built. #periodtttt Give yourself enough time to tackle decluttering your digital space, but also set a clear time frame. If you are a tomorrow-junkie like me, postponing everything to tomorrow that never comes, setting a specified period of time to tackle a project can be useful. Personally, I’ve dedicated this month to simplify my digital clutter, and have titled it Digital Declutter December to motivate myself.

Next week, I will be sharing what areas of my digital clutter I’m simplifying.