Offline, On Purpose #1: Digital Decluttering

A simple action plan to declutter your digital life

Welcome to the first edition of Offline, On Purpose, the weekly series to help you reclaim your time and attention, and build a life filled with creativity, meaning, connection, community, and purpose.

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First let me just address the elephant in the room, it’s kind of strange, maybe the better word is ironic, to have an online newsletter dedicated to being offline. I’m not here to villainize all technology or romanticize going completely offline (though I do occasionally fantasize). The lives we live are inherently connected by technology. Realistically it’s hard to avoid that, unless you’re moving to an off-the-grid cabin in the woods. There’s probably a Youtube channel for that, lol. But there are times when online spaces can also connect us and help create communities to foster collaboration and accountability. I hope this can serve as a tool for you.

What I’m here to do is help you create boundaries with tech, to make space for more in your life. I hope that each week brings you tangible actions to be less reliant on the devices and apps to which we’ve all become so tethered.

As I wrote last week:

Going analog isn’t about consumption, it’s about reclaiming the gift of being present. A shift from watching life go by behind a screen, to experiencing it in real time, with all of it’s joy, pain, mundanity, and wonder.

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This week, I want to give you a simple action plan for digital decluttering. Digital decluttering lays the groundwork for creating strong boundaries with tech. This is the stepping stone to creating a life where tech serves you, and not the other way around. Yes, the goal is to spend less time mindlessly scrolling on apps losing hours each day, but in order to do that, we need to be less reliant on our phones, and to simplify the role they play in our lives.

You can feel good about this too, digital decluttering is better for the environment, because every photo, video, email, document, and app stored in “the Cloud” is actually in a massive data center somewhere consuming energy.

I know that there are devices like the Brick to help cut back on screen time, and apps that promise the same, but I don’t love the idea of buying another piece of tech that may break or become obsolete. If it works for you great! But what you’ll find below are simple recommendations and guidance that do not involve buying anything, device, app or otherwise.

Here’s a simple action plan you can tackle over the next few days, and report back in week 2 when I share the best analog swaps for creating boundaries with tech.

4 Days of Digital Decluttering

Day 1 - Turn Off & Restrict Notifications

If you have an iPhone, open your Settings and go to Screen Time. Under the daily average, click “see All App & Website Activity.” Scroll down to Pickups to see how many times you check your phone each day. Below that, see Notifications, to see on average how many you get each day. Let’s how how much we can bring those numbers down (mine was 44 average pickups and 62 average notifications, YIKES).

Actions:

• Turn off non-essential notifications which could include: News apps, social media apps, shopping apps, email, photos, weather apps, calendar, etc.

• Mute: group chats or messages threads that aren’t urgent

• Keep notifications on for: calls/messages

• Create focus modes to use for working hours and overnight (my phone is on DND from 7pm-8am and in focus mode during the day).

Related Reading:

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Day 2 - Declutter and Delete Apps

Wow this was a fun one for me! I couldn’t believe how many random apps were on my phone.

Actions:

• Go through and delete any unused or unnecessary apps on your phone.

• Remove apps from your Home Screen (on iPhone you can delete an app or remove it from your home screen. If you remove it, it still exists but you have to search for it. It’s a great way to create some friction with your device, which will eventually help lead to using them less, or not at all!)

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Day 3 - Declutter Your Inbox

Two things I recommend for decluttering your inbox, get rid of everything unnecessary, and don’t overcomplicate it. Having 15 different folders to categorize your inbox is not, in my opinion, helpful.

Actions:

• Unsubscribe from anything that’s not urgent, important or relevant (brand email lists, unnecessary newsletters, social media, any additional emails clogging your inbox)

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Day 4 - Clean Up Your Photos

I am utterly horrified and embarrassed to report that I currently have 38,871 photos on my phone. I’m not proud of it, but I’m finally doing something about it. Because of the sheer volume of photos I used a few methods.

Actions:

• Delete all screenshots (iPhone creates this category under Photos> Collections> Media Types).

• Merge all duplicates (iPhone creates this under Photos > Utilities > Duplicates).

• Pick a time once a day or once a week to go through and delete unwanted photos from that period of time. For example, today I’ll go to January 6 (type it in the search bar) and delete all unwanted photos from that day.

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Digital decluttering is a great first step in setting boundaries with tech. By eliminating unnecessary distractions, it paves the way for being less chained to digital devices and screens in every day life. And it makes space in your brain and life for more creativity, focus, and intention.

Next week we’ll explore the best analog swaps for creating better boundaries, and eliminating unnecessary tech in day to day life.