Imagine having someone in your life who, during
your entire day, distracts you around every
6-7 minutes, fills up your mental space with
all kinds of clutter and to-do’s, disrupts
your sleep, and forces you to compare yourself
to hundreds of other people every day.
If you have a smartphone, you might actually
have something like that in your life.
The digital world offers us many amazing,
positive things.
But it’s also an area of minimalism that
a lot of people tackle last, if at all.
In this video I share 8 tips to help you simplify
your digital life as much as possible, so
you can focus on what matters.
Our brain hasn’t evolved much in the last
50,000 years, from the time when people were
still foragers.
But even though our brains haven’t changed
much, our environment certainly has.
The artificial blue light from our screens
are everywhere.
It’s a big difference from the natural environment
of our foraging ancestors.
Getting sucked into your phone, letting your
files get disorganized, these things can be
a constant source of stress for our brain.
So take care of your inner cave person by
limiting your screen time.
Especially the first hour after
waking up, and the hour before going to bed,
as this can greatly improve your sleep.
A big help is to turn down your screen brightness,
especially in the morning and the evening.
Your eyes will thank you for this one as well.
Oh, group chats.
Before you know it, you’re in 10 different
ones.
You get messages all the time, and half of
them will probably not interest you much.
I’m always very mindful of which group chats
I join, because it’s a commitment.
You can’t really leave a group chat that
easily, without worrying if people will think
you don’t like them anymore.
And before you know it, you’re stuck.
So think twice before joining a group chat
and try to gauge whether or not it will add
value to your life.
Another thing you can do is turn off notifications
for all group chats.
And if someone else adds you without letting
you know, it’s okay to bite the bullet and
leave if you don’t really want to be in
it.
Which brings me to number three, switch off notifications.
Notifications really serve to distract us
and keep us from being focussed.
There are tons of studies that show this.
A great way to protect yourself from this,
is to turn off notifications.
This way you will be in charge of when you
want to look at your phone, and when you want
to leave it alone for a while.
Tip number 4 is making sure you set your own
rules and boundaries.
This will greatly help you to
keep your digital life under control.
Make a few simple guidelines for yourself,
that are easy to stick to and that you won’t forget.
For example, I always have at least one moment
in the day where I place my phone in another
room or in a drawer, and I leave
it there for at least an hour.
When it’s not within reach, I’m not temped
to look at it and see if something came in.
If you notice you’re spending more time
on your smartphone than you would like to,
then watch this video where I explain how
smartphone addiction works and give you ten
tips to beat yours.
Decluttering your home can be amazing and
it’s something that a lot of people like
to do.
And there’s another area that can really
benefit from some decluttering, and that’s
your digital life.
An example can be deleting all apps you haven’t
used in the last three months from your phone.
Or cleaning up your desktop on your laptop,
to keep only the icons you frequently use.
I find it especially helpful to delete files
regularly and not let them pile up, and create folders for everything
from the start.
This goes for your phone, laptop, tablet,
anything you keep files on.
And don’t forget to delete your download
folders every once in a while too.
Lastly, keep your email organized by unsubscribing
from newsletters you don't want to read anymore.
Instead of deleting them every time, take
one minute to open the email and click unsubscribe.
If you do that, your email will get more manageable
every time.
If you are using multiple social media platforms,
decide on which ones you want to keep using.
If there’s a platform that’s causing you
any negativity in any way, see if you can
let it go.
Also be mindful of who you’re following.
Think about how you feel initially when you see that they post something
Does it make you feel happy, inspired, or
does it make you feel anxious and inadequate.
If it’s at all negative, it might be a good
idea to click unfollow.
When we take a picture of something, we usually
take a couple to make sure we have at least
one that comes out right.
The part that most people skip however, is
deleting all the others.
If you have 7 pictures of yourself standing
in front of a mountain, keep 1 or 2 and delete
the others.
If you do that every time, your picture folder
will never get disorganized.
Go for quality over quantity.
You’ll thank yourself later on.
Are you using any digital services that you’re
paying for?
For example storage in the cloud, apps like
spotify or netflix, or software licenses.
If you are, go over your list and see if you’re
actually using these services.
If you’re not using them regularly, save
yourself the money and cancel your subscription.
Simplifying your life can be one of the most
rewarding thing you’ve ever done for yourself.
If you want more inspiration, click here for
my simplify your life playlist.
What are some of the things that you do to
keep your screens from going out of control?
Share them in the comments.
Share this video wihth someone who might enjoy
it.
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Thanks for watching, have a great week and I'll see you next Saturday.
Byebye.
