With spring upon the Midwest, it’s time to clean out everything that’s been piling up over the last year. Winter clothes are put away and piles of dust are wiped clean. While the practice is often done in our physical spaces, I want to share that time with my digital spaces and my routines. As mentioned in the last post, adding things to a clustered schedule is always more difficult than finding what to remove.
Physical space
After a year of my current living arrangement, I’ve finally decided to take steps of getting more settled. When I first moved in with my friend, I didn’t have a plan for what was next. In the midst of the pandemic, I didn’t know if I wanted to stay in the Chicago area or head out of state somewhere. With proximity to family, friends, and a lot of great activities, I plan on staying for the foreseeable future.
With that in mind, I started to unpack a bit more as well as take in bigger items that would make moving more difficult, such as a bed and desk. Because of these additions, I’ve had to completely rearrange the room. So far, it’s been pretty successful setup, but I want to explore changes that might improve things even more.
There are also a lot of items I’ve been holding for far too long. I have some items intended for small projects, like an old book found for free at the library, though its cover is completely torn and broken. I wanted to take time restoring it, but never got around to it. This is one of a handful of these items and I need to either plan a specific time to execute these plans or move on.
While there are items in this limbo stage, I also have a slew of items from various homes before that haven’t been needed with roommates but make sense to hold on to, kitchenware, furniture, and more.
In the past, I gave a shot at the “minimalist’s challenge” to get rid of an item every day with an additional items each subsequent day. It helped me part with a lot of things I no longer needed or used. While I don’t plan on following a specific challenge, I’ve already donated some clothes and some other things I no longer use.
Beyond the Physical
Many of us know how important it is to keep our physical spaces clean and organized, but when opening our devices we have cluttered work spaces and files all over the place. Along with cleaning, unpacking, and organizing my room, I want to clean up my devices and apps.
I’m pretty happy with how I’ve set up my files and how I use things like Google Drive and Notion, the primary place I store notes, ideas, and information. However, I think there is room for optimizing some things. Coming up with clearer organization and workflows for getting information in can offer a better experience. I recently bought a whole Notion system from a productivity creator that I’m excited to break into more.
Thomas Frank’s Ultimate Brain series of templates takes the “second brain” concept and productivity workflows and makes them work incredibly well in Notion. I’ve been using the system since it launched and I know there’s a lot of ground that I still need to cover. As of now, I’ve done some work with projects, including these blog posts, but haven’t really worked into the task processing end of things. I’m excited to see if it improves how much I get done.
I also want to better organize how I set up my days. As mentioned in last post and others in the past, I have a hard time adding things to my life. Trials where I’m adding a new habit or practice can become more and more challenging as I settle into routine. I want to take a look at the ways I’m spending my time, remove what isn’t adding value, and encourage what is.
Trying Out Before Buying In 