Digital Declutter Challenge (1 hour!)

“Death by a thousand cuts” means that failure occurs from many small problems adding up. A single cut may not be noticeable, but a thousand? That’s where it gets hairy.

Clutter is a thousand cuts. You may not realize this, but clutter is putting a huge constraint on your productivity and can lead to continuous, major stress in your life.

When you think of the word “clutter”, you are probably thinking about your closet that is stuffed with clothes you never wear or your home office that has many piles of unorganized papers.

Yes, this is all clutter that needs your attention. But today, we’re going to focus on all that digital clutter that’s holding you back, what exactly it is, and how to eliminate it from your life.

I talk about this in Lasting Momentum: The (Mostly) Painless Way to Improve Your Life, but for now, I want to provide you with a little challenge to try yourself.

Then, I’ll provide you with a little challenge to try yourself.

Once you can get things cleaned up and organized, I promise you won’t want to go back to how it was before.

Digital clutter can be just as stressful and disturbing as actual physical clutter. Seeing your messy desktop, facing the pages and pages of apps on your phone, and seeing your inbox that is up in the thousands everyday can take a toll on your productivity and overall mental well-being.

Eliminating Emails

I know it can seem like a pain to scroll down to the bottom of a useless email, click an unsubscribe button, and whatever other steps the marketer makes you do. But it really doesn’t take that long.

But I challenge you to make “clicking the unsubscribe button” a simple, good habit of yours.

Going forward, make sure you always unsubscribe immediately from emails that do not interest you to avoid wasting your time in the future. This can also help you avoid making unwanted purchases.

If unsubscribing to all those emails is too big of a commitment for you, then at least make sure those emails are going into a different folder. For example, Gmail’s Promotions tab allows you to click and drag items from your inbox to the promotions tab. Future promotional messages will also automatically go into that tab.

Phone Distractions

Now, let’s talk about that phone of yours. Our phones can harbor tons of clutter, and we’re all constantly on our phones.

First, get rid of all of those unwanted (and not needed) notifications. And be honest with yourself, you probably do not need to be actively notified for app outside of your texts, calls, and your personal and work emails.

So go turn them off! You probably don’t need to be notified every time Amazon is having a sale on an item or that there are 11 new recipes on Pinterest.

The 1-Hour Digital Declutter Challenge

I challenge you to a 1-hour digital declutter. Set your timer and put on your favorite tunes. Be ruthless about what deserves your attention, and focus on making things simpler for future You. Good luck!

Task 1: Push Notifications — Time: 20 minutes

Task: Turn off the push alerts / notifications for every app on your phone that you do not need constant notifications for. You can do this by searching for “Notifications” in your settings.

Task 2: Computer Desktop— Time: 20 minutes

Task: It’s time to clean up that desktop. The goal is to get everything off your desktop except for working documents. You may need to create folders in your Documents folder to help you get organized.

Task 3: Break Time — Time: 5 minutes

Task: Give yourself a break, taskmaster.

Task 4: Open Tabs — Time: 15 minutes

Task: Now you want to close out all of the open tabs/windows, bookmarks, and the things you “plan to read.” You can utilize Pocket to save the articles you want to read later or compile them all in a Google doc.

If it’s an action item, add it to your to-do list. Do this for your phone’s browser tabs also.

Now you see, that wasn’t so hard after all!

Having a clean space, technology-wise, can really help you be more productive and reduce distraction, so I advise you to keep this up in the future.

Always be sure to close out tabs on your browser, keep your desktop team, and don’t allow notifications for when you download new apps. You will be surprised how this will help you out in the long run.

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Want more? Get mindsets, tips, and tricks to make lasting change happen for you: Lasting Momentum: The (mostly) painless way to improve your life and make it stick

Originally published at Lasting Momentum.