Useful Resources Proven to Reduce Digital Clutter Right Now: Rec. Reading v10
We recognize that habit-building and good mental health can’t be isolated to just one corner of the internet. Myrth is our favorite tool, but it’s not our only tool. In our regular Recommended Reading series, we’ll share links to articles, books, and other tools that we think you’ll find helpful in your journey.
Clutter seems to build up faster than usual during the holiday season, doesn’t it? Leftover food from parties fills the fridge. Small trinkets and gifts litter your shelves. Decorations pile up in corners.
But it’s not just the physical clutter that can get to us. The holidays, back to school bring extra pressure to stay connected to our digital devices, too. Whether you’re traveling a lot and constantly checking for flight status updates (“Please, please, don’t let me be snowed in,” you might be thinking) or feeling pressure to check in with all the social newness that a new school year brings, these times place extra demands on our digital lives.
We’ve talked here before about digital minimalism, but with the holiday and fall season in full swing, we thought it would be helpful to check in on the latest stories about one of our favorite topics - reducing digital clutter.
1. 7 Tips for Cutting Down on Digital Clutter
Explaining the concept of digital minimalism is nice and all, but if you’re the type who needs more concrete action plans, this post is a great starting point. We especially loved this tip:
(4) Unfollow people. Stop following people you don’t know, don’t care about or don’t make you happy. The interwebz are full of hilarious nonsense and, if you’re not careful, it’s easy to spend hours upon hours of scrolling through memes, political rants, outfit inspirations, Crossfit videos, former Bachelorette contestants promoting skin care products and the like.
So many people feel the need to follow others out of a sense of obligation or inertia. It’s okay to stop. You’ll save yourself time and energy, too.
2. Digital Minimalism’s Cognitive Benefits
We read this article from a college senior with great interest. He talks about his experience doing a digital detox- digital decluttering - after listening to an interview with Cal Newport, and how he noticed that his thought processes became clearer once he was no longer constantly distracted by the pings and buzzes of social media.
My thoughts have no doubt become clearer and my memory more far-reaching. The various quotes from various writers I could not remember previously flash in my mind, unsolicited, with the appropriate stimuli from class, life or work. Though writing can never be finished, or absolute, my cognition has returned to more controlled state of flow and recall, instead of thin and antic darting. It is this development that I find most vital (and interesting).
If you’re looking to improve your focus, especially during this time of year that is so full of distractions, cutting down on digital clutter might be the right call for you.
3. Digital Clutter is Causing You Stress
Just like physical clutter can stress you out, digital clutter can apparently have the same effects. We thought this article was a fascinating look at how our brains store information and how that affects emotional well-being.
Dr Jessie Chua, a senior clinical psychologist with the Resilienz Clinic, compares digital clutter to physical clutter: Both can cause a similar amount of stress on one’s mind. “It takes up that same amount of space that you can use for, say, creativity or for focus on work,” she explained. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s visible or not visible; it’s still in the brain.”
The holiday season is stressful enough without our adding to it unnecessarily. Take some time today, even just five or ten minutes, to toss out some digital clutter.
4. Having a Healthy Relationship with Tech When Your Job Depends on Tech
Digital minimalism may be harder to implement in the workplace, but it’s not impossible. We liked this thoughtful, practical analysis of ways to declutter your dependence on digital input even when you can’t cut it out entirely:
There is no way to provide a list of apps that will fall under the umbrella of minimalism. The answer will be different for everyone. Instead of tech itself, your agency over them is what makes digital minimalism sing. In our personal lives, it’s a straightforward task to identify intrusive tech. Of course, we don’t have quite so much freedom in a professional context. You can’t tell your boss, “This accounting software doesn’t strongly support the thing I value, so I’m not going to use it.” Having to make concessions to the reality of the workplace, though, doesn’t preclude a minimalist approach.
Ultimately, minimalism is about eliminating the things that are unnecessarily causing your stress, frustration, or unhappiness. Sometimes, the things we have to use for work cause negative emotions, but they’re still necessary to do our jobs. Finding the balance there is what really matters and that is the key to reducing digital clutter.
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