Real Talk: Digital Clutter

Clutter and chaos get to me; when things are out of whack, it’s like my head gets clogged up and I’m distracted.  Keeping my non-digital clutter, like my laundry and dirty dishes, in check is one thing.  I can make sure everything lands in the hamper and the dishwasher gets run before I go to bed, but handling my digital clutter is another battle altogether.

It’s easy to minimize the effect digital clutter can have because it’s not right in front of us, taking up space in our living rooms.  But we spend so much time in digital spaces that keeping those spaces clean should be a priority.  The things that bog me down the most are my social media feeds (specifically Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest) — I routinely clean up my feeds, unfollowing accounts and hiding updates, because having feeds full of things in which I’m not interested defeats the purpose.  Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist has a great list of digital clutter (from social media to emails to TMP files) to minimize.

Attack one cluttered digital area on Becker’s list and see how you feel.  I bet you’ll be surprised at how nice it is to keep your email inbox at zero and to know that your hard drive has been defragged.  Keeping my digital spaces a little less cluttered has lifted weights off my shoulders that I didn’t even know were there.

Real Talk: Listen to Your Body

Hands down, the best thing about not being in school anymore is not having homework.  A few times I have had to bring work home with me, but for the most part the end of my work day means the end of work.  So I’m free to spend my evenings doing all kinds of things.  Sometimes that means I go straight to hot yoga, sometimes that means I have to spend an hour or so grocery shopping and filling my car up with gas, and sometimes that means that I get to go home and do nothing.  The other night it meant that I was in bed by 9 and fast asleep by 10, after eating way too much for dinner and watching Gilmore Girls.

Keep in mind that being in bed at 9 was not the plan.  I had a 10K training run and strength exercises scheduled.  I meant to deep clean my apartment.  None of that happened.  I was tired, really sad that it was Thursday night instead of Friday night, and I didn’t want to do anything.  In fact, more than that, my body was not having it and was silently begging me to just go to bed.  I heard it and so into bed I climbed.

That’s a new approach for me.  I’m a go-go-go kind of person and once something is on my schedule, it’s almost always going to happen.  But I’m trying to be kinder to myself.  You know, ~!*self-love*!~ and all that.  So I went to bed at 9 and slept until 6 the next morning, and it was the first time in a while that I didn’t have to clumsily roll out of bed and move through the morning like a zombie.

I needed to go to bed early.  I needed to skip my run.  I needed to eat too much in one sitting.  I needed to sleep for almost 9 consecutive hours.  It didn’t matter what was on my “to do” list.  I needed a break and when my body asked for it, for once, I listened.  I share all this to remind you to do the same.

Dragging yourself through every day is not fun.  So when you need to go to bed at 9 (or whenever, really), do it.  And if you want to run 6 miles after work, please go ahead.  Listen to what you need and be nice enough to let yourself have it.  Trust me, it’s nice.