EP 119: Clearing Digital Clutter & Lightening Your Mental Load

Hello. Hello, welcome back to the Think Happy Podcast. I am your host Kaitlin and I am just so happy to be here with you today. Today's episode is gonna be very, very good. Do I say that at the beginning of every episode? I wonder if I say that at the beginning of every episode? I it's, it really does come from my heart.

I don't just say that I really truly think that every episode of this show is fantastic, but this episode in particular was inspired by a recent episode that came out about physical and mental clutter. That episode has since turned into one of the most popular episodes of the show. So yeah, I had to give you just more of what you like, but first some updates we are gearing up for spring break over here at the Cuevas Household, Oakley and I have decided to take our first family of four vacation. 

And so there is a little city or a town that's a couple of hours away from Houston. It's called Fredericksburg. It is so cute. and there's a lot of wineries around Fredericksburg. Ok. A lot of places are in walking distance. A lot of the wineries have just wide open spaces and like food that you can order. And it's a great spot just for kids to run, run around and, parents to sit and sip on some wine.

And so we rented an Airbnb in Fredericksburg for two nights. One of the days we will go, like on some hikes and, you know, just spend time outside. Another one of the days. We'll, we'll go and visit some of the wineries and we're just really excited about it. We are really looking forward to it. I have used this trip as kind of like a, I like to prioritize tasks sometimes based off of timeline.

And one of the tasks that I have been putting off is getting James a new car seat, right? And so he still has been small enough to fit in his infant seat, but he's getting definitely too big for it now. And I know that it's not the most comfortable for him. So I told myself that I would just bite the bullet and get him a new car seat before we take this road trip.

So, yeah, I actually just ordered one today a little bit right before I started recording this episode for you. Speaking of James, he is a walking jabbering chatterbox. Oh, James he, he, he's saying a lot more words at this point in his life as compared to how many words Eleanor was saying at this point in her life. So he's not quite 18 months yet.

Eleanor didn't start really like talking and, and saying words until after she had a year and a half. But I know you're not supposed to compare them. I try my best not to compare them, but you know, I am just human and Eleanor is my only point of reference. But ok, so we have to give Eleanor some kudos also. She is sleeping in her big girl bed. Now, her big girl bed is kind of a fake big girl bed.

We just took off one of the like sides of her crib and so now her crib just has like three sides on it. If that makes sense, we took off one of the long sides and she's loving it. It's been the transition was not as tough as I had anticipated it to be, which actually I have found most transitions in motherhood or parenthood. The anticipation has actually been worse than the reality of the transition.

So yeah, those are your Cuevas updates. We're going on a trip for spring break with just the four of us, James is getting a new car seat, he's walking, jabbering and Eleanor is sleeping in a big girl bed. That is, those are all of our updates. Ok. So as I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago, today's episode is inspired by the physical and mental clutter episode that aired just a couple episodes ago.

Today, we're going to talk specifically about digital clutter and how it adds not only to mental clutter but also to our mental load. Ok. We're also going to cover how you can start tackling your own digital clutter. Ok. So let's get into it first and foremost, what the heck is digital clutter, right? Like what does that even mean? Like it's clutter that lives in the digital world, right?

Ok. So what is that? So it's just, it's all of the unnecessary disorganized digital files, emails, apps, photos, et cetera that have accumulated in your digital world ie on your phone, on your computer, your ipad, maybe even your TV, right? So some example of digital clutter would be an overloaded email inbox, right? Unread emails, promotional emails from places like Target, Old Navy, Gap, Pottery Barn, all those fun places and just any other emails that clog up your inbox?

Ok. Social media. Following so many accounts, some accounts that likely don't even serve you well, social media can turn into another form of digital clutter, unused apps on your phone. This is a big one, any app that you rarely, rarely use and takes up storage space on your phone, you know, the same could go for software or widgets or even apps on your computer depending on what type of computer you have for me.

Something that comes to mind here are apps that I've downloaded in the past that like came with a free trial. But then I ended up not wanting to continue using that app and upgrading to the paid version. So I just stopped using the app. Specifically for me, those have been like photo editing apps. I don't know why. I just feel like I've downloaded a lot of those over the years and then just ended up not using them.

OK? Another example, unused or duplicated files. OK? So these are files that are just no longer needed, such as old documents, photos, downloads and even just duplicate files that exist maybe in multiple locations but could be consolidated just to one file in one location. OK? For, for this, something else that falls into this category would be like all the photos that you have on your phone of like your kids in the same exact position, but you just had to take like 50 photos to get one of them all looking at the camera. 

So you really just need one of those photos, but you saved all 50. I know, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't have kids, then think about it for your dog or for your cat or a selfie that you were trying to take while you were out on a run, you know, something like that. Am I the only one that takes selfies on runs?

I don't always take selfies on runs. I'm just thinking of this one particular, this is such a rabbit trail. I'm thinking of this one particular selfie that I was trying to take of myself while I was running. when I was in Miami a couple of weeks ago and it took me like 15 tries to get one that didn't look like I was just absolutely dying. But anyway, I digress one more example of digital clutter is gonna be just unorganized documents that you stored digitally.

OK? So any document spreadsheet presentation, you know, this, this includes work stuff also. So personal and work and just any other file that you have stored, but that they just aren't stored properly, they aren't organized. And so be because of that when you're looking for something you like can't find the document that you need or like maybe you don't even know what is all included inside of that document or inside of a particular folder that you have a couple of documents stored in, you know what I mean? 

So just unorganized this digital documents. And so just like physical clutter and mental clutter, our digital clutter can quickly accumulate and start to snowball. This is something that we talked about a couple of episodes ago when we dove into physical and mental clutter is that snowball that starts to grow and grow and when that snowball starts to grow, you run the risk of decreasing your productivity, increasing your stress and adding to the weight of your mental load and just so on and so on and so on. 

Nothing good comes from this snowball of clutter starting to grow, whether it's digital, physical mental. And so this brings me to the second part of today's topic, which is how our digital clutter adds to our mental clutter. Ok. There, when I was putting this episode together, I really realized that there are just so many parallels with digital and physical clutter.

They, they are just two peas in a pod. OK. So I'm so glad that we're doing this episode because it almost seems silly to have a conversation about physical clutter without also covering digital clutter. So here we are now. Anyway. So when we have so much digital clutter or physical or mental, it creates an overloaded environment, right? So something unique with digital clutter is the influx of notifications and emails and messages and reminders that we're just constantly bombarded with, right?

It creates this constant stream of information and that constant stream of information not only is distracting and hinders productivity, hinders your focus, but it also leads to mental fatigue. And similarly digital clutter also provides endless opportunities for procrastination, right? You've heard me talk about unproductive or wasted time.

Hello, digital clutter is such a form of unproductive and wasted time. I can guarantee that your digital clutter adds to some of your wasted time in some form or fashion, social media, online shopping searching through files that you have saved on your family's cloud. Only to realize the document you're looking for was never even scanned and never saved to your cloud.

And you just realize that you like wasted 30 minutes looking for something that's not even there. Talk about mental clutter you guys. Oh my gosh. And then the cherry on top is the fact that if we reach mental fatigue or if we procrastinate to the point of feeling guilty for not doing XYZ on our to do list. All of this has the tendency to lead us to increased stress.

And the last thing that any of us needs is another reason to feel stressed. Oh My gosh. Like, have I inspired you yet to start tackling your digital clutter? I like digital clutter is not something that I personally struggle a lot with. But right now, all I can think about are the areas that I do have digital clutter. And all I want to do is go tackle it right now specifically the camera roll on my phone.

I don't know for some reason that one is just like screaming at me right now, like come tackle me, come get rid of all these duplicates. Ok. So before we get to the tactical part of this conversation, the what we can do about this, I want to address specifically how or how do I want to say this? I want to address the, the additional layer of digital clutter that comes with parenthood.

You know, usually this specifically is going to be for moms, not always, but a lot of the times this is for moms, the extra things that moms get to carry around, you know, managing our family schedules, that is definitely a a form of digital clutter, right? Like you have like a whatsapp thread with the soccer team and then you're getting emails or, or like you're getting messages from the app that your kids' school uses and like just managing the soccer practice and the early pickup and the weekend trips and the dentist appointments and the haircuts and just all of the moving parts that consist of the family schedule. 

Also being the chief communication director, right? With school childcare, your extended family, the doctor's offices, the list goes on and on and then also managing just the household tasks and all of the organization that goes into the meal planning and the grocery lists and the home maintenance needs and the kids chores.

And just all of that is just a whole other layer of digital clutter that could have its whole unique individual podcast episode on Lordy. Oh my gosh, this is a lot. Ok. So let's get tactical. What can we do about this? How can we stop the snowball of digital clutter from growing and leading us to not only increased mental clutter but also a heavier mental load.

Ok. I have a couple of suggestions for you. I have 1 2 3 4 5 suggestions for you, I guess kind of, it's four with like a bonus. Ok. So first suggestion, declutter. Yeah, that's my first suggestion. Go through your unused apps. The duplicates the old outdated, unused documents and folders. If you have a hard time deleting things like this, I have a loophole for you.

I will say that you can save them on an external hard drive. So long as you label that hard drive with what is included on it. Ok. So that's your loophole. Number two, this one, piggybacks on the first one, decluttering number two is to organize. So whatever you have left after your declutter, that everything that's left gets to be organized in a way that is going to make sense to you and is going to allow you to find what you're looking for in the future, right?

I don't want you to do a declutter without following it up with an organization. because that's kind of like you've done all of the work. But then you don't get to reap the benefits from it down the road, right? Ok. So tip number three, clean up your notifications and your apps. Ok. Get rid of those red bubbles on your phone telling you how many notifications you have if you need to turn off the notifications feature on many of my apps I have that turned off or you can flat out delete the app, right? 

You can even take it a step further. This is kind of like the organized part. And actually, no, I was getting ahead of myself. You can even take it a step further and review the apps that you have installed on your phone or computer or ipad, whatever, go under settings and uninstall the apps that you rarely use or just like, don't need anymore bonus points for if you organize the remaining apps into folders or categories on your home screen, just to reduce that like visual clutter that you would be feeling. 

Ok? Tip number four is to clean up your inbox. OK? So this is specific to your email. The tip number three was like mostly specific to your phone and to your apps. Tip number four is specific to your email. OK? So sort through your inbox and unsubscribe from the emails that you just don't read anymore or maybe they're not relevant to you.

Maybe you subscribed to an email about baby led weaning and like maybe you have kids in elementary school now, right? Like you don't need to know about baby led weaning anymore because your kids are past that point. Unsubscribe from those and then again, do a little organization create folders in your inbox or labels is I think what it's called inside of gmail to help you organize like certain emails into certain groups.

Ok. So the the bonus tip that I have for you. So I guess this is like tip number five or bonus tip, whatever you want to call it, I'll call it tip number five, set, a reoccurring reminder so that you do these things every quarter. Ok. And what this is going to do is this is going to prevent your digital clutter from building up and it's going to prevent the snowball from starting to grow again, right?

So this is not one of those things just like physical clutter. This is not one of those things where you can just do it once, check it off your list and you don't have to go back to it. No, no, no, no. This is going to become an ongoing thing in order to keep that snowball from growing. Ok. Wow. I feel on a roll. I just like feel very gung ho about digital clutter right now.

But that's all that I have planned for you today, but we have covered so much. Goodness, we talked about what digital clutter is, how it leads to mental clutter, how it adds to the weight of mom's mental load and how to start tackling this clutter. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend who might enjoy it too.

That would just put such a huge smile on my face. And as always, I am so darn thankful for you for this whole community and here's to clearing our digital clutter. I'll be back in your ears next week with another episode of the Think Happy Podcast.