We're continuing with the topic of Baby Steps in the second week of August. Last week, I explained why baby steps are essential for most of us: we got into our messy data predicament a little at a time, and getting out of it won't happen overnight. Our task is like turning a cruise ship around (remember wanting the Maldives instead of East Cleveland?), and realizing this truth gives us the freedom to take small actions over time. Trying to do the whole job all at once will result in burnout.
The first week's task was simply to delete something. Anything. Maybe multiple things, if you felt up for the challenge. The goal was to practice doing the opposite of the basic activity that brought you into the situation you want to escape.
I hope you had a chance to do that this past week because this week, it's time to do...nothing! (Well, sort of.)
Baby Steps Week 2: Pause
In addition to getting comfortable deleting stuff, another step will, over time, have a massive impact on your digital mess: stop collecting it.
We constantly have data flying at us from all directions. Everyone wants our attention. Everyone needs us to believe that their thing is more important than everyone else's, or at least that it's important enough for us to keep, or to look at for at least 30 seconds, or, or...or at least 5 seconds! Something! ANYTHING!
It's understandable, as many businesses compete for ever-smaller slivers of attention. Advertising is cranked up to 11. Have you seen the sea of YouTube video thumbnails lately? I've reached the point of seeking out boring thumbnails because they promise authenticity instead of eye candy and marketing.
But I digress.
Some of the information really is what you want, even if they use crazy advertising tricks to get it in front of your eyeballs. But are you good at identifying what you really want among the firehose of information--the bits that actually add value to your life? This week's baby step is to pause to give yourself time to reconsider.
I said "reconsider," not just "consider," because I know you're not blindly accepting everything. Each of you is a thinking, rational person, not a data vacuum cleaner; I know you already consider whether some new email, document, photo, bookmark, or PDF is necessary to keep—but maybe not as much as you could or should.
Do you sign up for newsletters, buy another ebook, pull out your phone for another photo or video, or hang onto that "GREAT SALE!" email because you think you might need, want, or use it sometime in the future? Do you occasionally see those same digital items days or weeks later and realize you didn't need them after all?
Over the next week, see if you can catch yourself keeping something without a definite purpose and timeframe for action. When you do, before you click that "Save" button (or neglect to click that "Delete" button), reconsider.
- Will you really be better off with this email? Or would you even notice if it hadn't arrived?
- Do you need to take all 87 photos of this party? Or could you get by with just two or three...or even zero?
- Will you read this free ebook PDF that a marketing guru wants you to download? Or is it just going to get lost on your hard drive?
Maybe you'll still save it, and that's fine. I just want you interrupt the process and make really sure before you do.
Information we collect without a good plan for how we'll use it in the future usually becomes digital dust. Give yourself the freedom to avoid collecting it in the first place, and practice saying "no" this week.
Happy data-taming!