All month I’ve been focused on getting things tidy and organized. From rearranging furniture to cleaning up files, I’ve gotten a lot done. It’s no wonder that spring cleaning became a widespread practice. This of course isn’t a completed task, but one that needs to be periodically maintained.
Digital Decluttering
During this month I’ve been able to get a number of tasks done. A big push towards the end was managing digital apps and files.
Reorganizing my Google Drive was surprisingly extremely satisfying. I’ve been looking into this “second brain” and PARA organization structure, and while it took some time to click, I’m thrilled with how I have my files set up now. My files were set up in a way were I knew where things were, but not in a way that felt clean.
Setting up folders for the “Areas” in my life, to use the PARA terminology, give me the high level folders. With each Area having a respective Archive location. The system also uses “Resources” and “Projects” that can be tied to the areas or completely separate. With shortcuts, I can put the appropriate folders in different areas as needed.
I also began a similar process for other apps, but the progress is going a bit slower as the organization wasn’t there in the first place. Pocket, an app I use for collecting articles and websites to read later, is mess of tags and collected articles. I have no notes or highlights on the articles, so if I need a refresher have to skim, or worse re-read, the whole article.
My browser bookmarks are in a similar mess. I have folders with a bunch of pages I saved for one reason or another. The folders help with some organization, but even those can only tell me a loose idea of what the site may be.
Room Rearrangements
Something I hadn’t planned to do at all until getting into the swing of spring cleaning was changing some of the arrangement of my bedroom. For a while now, I’ve been starting to feel cramped spending time in my room. I spend a considerable time at my desk for work, personal projects, and entertainment. The space was previously set up to where my chair was tightly packed between my bed and desk.
By pivoting the desk and some shelves, I was able to make a lot more space. There’s something that is liberating about time in an open space and not just physically, but mentally too.
Another huge success was the cleanup of junk drawers I mentioned last week. Cleaning those out by simply rearranging them or getting rid of the unneeded junk was easy enough. Condensing some of the drawers too opened up shelf space which addressed a small bother of mine, the prior layout of shelves.
In the long run, adding the small task to tidy up as part of my weekly review process should help to keep things organized. As days go by and items fall out of their place, I am at least returning them once a week. The review also includes tidying up my “inboxes” which consist of a physical inbox for various tasks, my whiteboard which may have notes that need to be saved, and of course my email inbox.
With the future in mind, the next trial is a tough one to decide. With summer here, I have several trips coming up, not to mention the simple desire to spend more time outside. This is of course where the year’s theme and now the areas of the PARA system can serve as a guide. Early in this trial, I had wanted to better organize my schedule and that ended up getting pushed to the wayside. For the next month, I’ll be utilizing the planning dashboard that came with the Second Brain template I had mentioned previously. I’ll be digging in to see how to use it, as well as any personal tweaks that may be needed to have it work better for me.
Trying Out Before Buying In 