Ok before I start this conversation I
want to play a quick game with you and
in order for us to do this I have to
give you the rules of the game. Rule
number one, is forget the title of this
video. Pretend that you didn't see it, you
didn't read it or anything. Right rule
number two, is have something to write on;
a piece of paper, or a notebook, your laptop or even in the
comments section of this video. Rule number three is be honest and right
the first thing that comes to mind and
I'm actually gonna play this game with
you to make it fun. So first thing is
write down the first thing that comes to
mind when you hear the word "clutter." Ok,
now write down the first thing that
comes to mind when you hear the word
"declutter."
Alright, now write down the first thing
that comes to mind when you hear the
word "minimalism." Ok, now what are the
odds that all three things you wrote
down have something to do or everything
to do with your physical space? Pretty
high right if you were being honest. I
mean I wrote down messy home, donate and
goodwill, and then living it with less.
See you may have heard me mentioned
before how we tend to only focus on the
physical aspect of minimalism and
decluttering on our journeys right
naturally and we tend to forget about
the mental and emotional clutter that we
have as well but there's one other area
that I've yet to talk about and that is
our digital space so here's how you can
declutter your digital space to ensure
that all aspects of your life are fully
within your control alright so I'm going
to break this video down into four
categories email photos and apps social
media and entertainment and lastly
notifications and as we're walking
through these categories I'm going to
share some tips and tactics with you to
help you keep these areas decluttered
and under control but first I want you
to keep in mind that your minimalist
journey is going to be unique to you in
your lifestyle so as I'm sharing these
tips with you take them and use them as
a starting point towards managing the
digital clutter in your life what I said
the first category we're going to talk
about is email now when it comes to
email the first tip that I want to share
with you you may have heard before but I
still feel it's important to mention and
it's unsubscribing from any and all
email lists that you don't find value in
now why am i sharing this even though
you may have heard it before see it has
something to do with the idea of our
emails being out of sight out of mind
see to be honest most of the time we
sign up to receive emails with every
intention to read them or to use the
discount codes we receive from my
favorite store but we actually don't do
this as much as we think we do and in a
few times we do open an email to read it
or as we're scrolling through our inbox
there's a question our mind is
constantly
be processing when the heck did I sign
up for this or Hawaiian that has crossed
my mind most often is I don't even
remember giving them or this person my
email right and then we wonder why we're
sitting here confused and overwhelmed by
the fact that our inbox is filled with
messages that we don't read don't use or
don't find a value in the second tip I
have for you regarding your email is to
create filters now keeping your inbox
and the messages you receive and read
and find value in under control is an
art in itself and creating filters is an
easy way to keep these things organized
prioritized and cluttered free and
here's how you do it
okay personally I use Gmail as my email
provider however I'm sure the steps are
similar to create filters regardless of
which email provider you use so just do
a quick search online and I'm sure
you'll find the directions you need but
here's how it works for Gmail right so
here's an email that i received from
buzzsprout who i used to host my podcast
where do i start and let's say I want to
create a filter for these emails so that
way their flag every time I receive an
email from them regarding my podcast
right so the first thing you want to do
is you want to open up the email you
want to create the filter for and you
want to click this three-dot menu here
at the top or hamburger menu I think
it's called and once you click that you
want to scroll down to filter messages
like these you click that and then this
window here is going to pop up you have
a few different ways that you can filter
your email you can do a by email address
by subject line or words that are in a
body of the email personally I like to
just do it by the email address so we're
gonna leave that there we're gonna go
down to create filter now two things you
want to do first thing is you want to
apply a label so then we're going to
create a new label here we're just gonna
say buzzsprout and then podcast right
alright then we're going to create the
second thing you want to do is you want
to go down to the last box here and
check apply filters or however many
messages or conversations Gmail has
recognized based on the selected filter
you choose so because I chose the email
address there are 29 messages that match
that email address so I want to add all
of those to this filter then we're going
to create filter
now one thing you're going to notice is
here on the left-hand side of your email
account you'll see a new folder right
and this is the buzzsprout podcast voted
I just created and something that I want
to do first or that you may want to do
is you want to change the color of that
folder right so again you'll click the
three men you here you're at a label
color and let's say let's just do purple
for the sake of demonstrations right so
one thing you'll notice now is when you
go back to your main inbox every email
that you receive from that email address
that you filtered is now going to have
this color call-out here so next time
you check your emails you're gonna
recognize where the email is from who
it's from and it's also going to filter
in this folder you created so it's gonna
keep things organized easy for you to
respond to easy for you to delete easy
for you to archive all right
the second category we're going to talk
about is photos and apps now when it
comes to digital clutter in general I
think it's safe to say that our phones
hold the bulk of this clutter I mean
it's very easy to fill these things up
with unnecessary apps we don't use or
only download because we're bored or
because it was trending across every ad
or video we watched and not to mention
if you're anything like me you probably
snap photos every time you go somewhere
new and before you know it your phone is
filled with thousands of photos so how
do we manage this area of our digital
space two things number one is by having
an honest conversation with ourselves
and understanding what triggers us to
download these apps we don't truly need
like I said earlier it could be boredom
right and if it is why are you bored or
what can you do to be more active
instead or to stimulate your mind
without your phone in front of you right
or number two is when it comes to photos
and videos on your phone you can simply
delete the duplicates that you don't
need and then transfer everything else
that you want to keep to a separate
storage system you can use an external
hard drive as an example like I do
connect to my laptop or you can save
everything to the cloud using something
like iCloud or Dropbox just getting
these things off for your phone is gonna
help your phone feel less cluttered but
you can still keep those photos you
truly enjoy okay the third category
we're going to talk
is social media and entertainment I've
shared a few videos here on the channel
talking about ways to declutter and
things to avoid when decluttering and
one thing I've mentioned that I still
actively do on my journey today is i
declutter as I live meaning whenever I
come across an item that I don't need or
don't use or a thought that I want to
clear I deal with it right away in that
moment and this tactic can be applied to
any area of our life including social
media and entertainment as an example
for you the other day Lexi and I were
training our bodies or in other words
working out and we were listening to
music and a few songs started to play
that we no longer found joy in that we
didn't really want to hear right and we
noticed that we would just continue to
skip over these songs every time they
played so instead of skipping them we
decided to just remove them from our
phone completely the same thing can be
said for social media every time I'm
scrolling through the platforms that I
use every so often I'll scroll through
my friends list or the people I follow
or the people I'm subscribed to right
and I'll either unfriend unfollow
unsubscribe to those that are no longer
interact with or find value in watching
so the next time you're scrolling for
the sake of scrolling take a moment to
look through who you're following or
what you're listening to if you come
across anything or anyone that you no
longer find value in in this chapter of
your journey then remove them all right
the fourth category we're going to talk
about is notifications and I'm going to
keep this tip simple indirect now when
it comes to social media or any other
apps that you're trying to limit your
time on turn off the notifications
period right if you're not notified
every time someone likes this or shares
that then you're less likely to open the
app now when it comes to everything else
like your email or other notifications
that are helpful to you customize when
how often and where those notifications
appear right as an example I have very
few notifications that show on the lock
screen of my phone because personally I
don't want to feel overwhelmed every
time I check the time or plug my phone
in to charge hey I'm very intentional
with what and how often I'm notified on
my phone and I really want to encourage
you to do the same if you haven't I hope
you enjoyed this video
and if you did and make sure their
thumbs up for me if there's something
that you do to manage the digital
clutter in your life that I did not
mention let me know in a comment section
down below this your first time tuning
in welcome I'm really glad to have you
here I hope you enjoyed this video and
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drop a new video and always remember to
stay true to you I've seen the next one
peace
