DETOX YOUR INBOX

It seems like every time you buy something online, you are also agreeing to getting daily emails. I hate it. Take a few minutes to either unsubscribe or change the settings to get fewer emails from companies that you really don’t want or need to hear from that often. Or set up a separate email to use for all of your online
purchases so these are not cluttered your main inbox. Also, I don’t know who needs to hear this but: it’s time to mark all those unread emails as read and move on!

SLIM YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a lot of fun, but it can be toxic. If these past two years have taught us anything with everything that has been going on, it’s to hold on to what makes you happy and feel good. It took me awhile to give myself permission to do this, but if a person you are following is causing you to feel anything negative, unfollow them, mute them, remove that negativity from your view. I do it all the time now. Think about the goal you have when you use social media: do you want to laugh, connect, learn, be inspired? If an account you are following doesn’t meet one of the categories that you list for yourself, let it go.

UNSUBSCRIBE

Are you really using all of those TV subscription services ? In our house the answer is YES lol, but if you are not using one, there is no need to be paying monthly for it. The same goes for magazine or app subscriptions. Because so many services automatically renew monthly, it can be easy to forget about them. If you have lost track, take a look at your bank statement (and the list of apps on your phone and TV) and see which ones you can let go of.

PHONE EDIT

On that note….let’s talk about your phone. Remove those apps that you never use.  I do this every few months….games I tried and then didn’t like, recently: real estate apps because they just make me sad looking at all these homes I can’t afford, etc.

I like to have my most-used apps on the home page, to easily access, but some people find it more useful to organize apps into folders by category.

This is also a good time to remove distracting notifications that pop up on your phone from apps. And, I take it a step further and set my phone to ‘do not disturb’ so I get no notifications between 7am – 10pm. Because my kids are not with me all the time, I have another setting that allows their calls or texts to come through even when my phone is set to not disturb.

Organize and/or delete photos and videos. You can upload them to the cloud or other online storage and free up space to take more photos and videos. You can organize the ones you keep into folders to make them easier to find when you need them. This works for personal or work use.

DECLUTTER YOUR COMPUTER

Do the same with your computer.  Organize files for work, delete anything that is taking up valuable storage space. Empty trash on a regular basis. Delete movies, shows and podcasts once you watch or listen to them.

TAKE BACK YOUR TIME

This one is the hardest one for so many people, me included. Especially right now when it feels like, in many places across the country, there is not much else to do. But limiting time on your devices is so important for everyone in the family. In our house, during the pandemic, I started Forced Family Fun time. I literally make everyone in the family pull themselves from their screens and hang out together. Usually to play a board game or go for a walk. I may get resistance at first, but we all always have fun.