The Digital Reset: Organizing for Clarity and Calm
I am working on a project this summer, and since I have received questions from some of you about this topic, too, I am sharing!
I recently completed a Productivity Coaching Course, and two areas we look at, for ourselves and for our clients, are “Resources” and “Organizing Objects and Data”. I am strong in both of these areas, AND I still need to complete projects in these areas to keep them strong and functioning!
I have been working on a digital organizing project for a few months now. I have heard it called a digital de-clutter or a digital detox. You can call it whatever you want. Let me start with my “Why?”.
I’ve had many transitions in the past few months. Most notably, from January to May, I was a Student Success Coach for a cohort of students at Moraine Valley Community College, I started and completed a Productivity Coaching Course towards my Certified Productivity Coach certification, and I ended my 8 years on the Board of Education with Evergreen Park Elementary School District 124. Whew.
All of these roles came with their own tasks and projects and also paper of course! I have made room for these roles in my office and calendar, and as they have ended, it is time to gently close out these roles and the associated paper, text books, files etc. All of these roles have digital information attached to them as well, so wrapping up means reviewing and purging the digital stuff, too.
The books and papers are complete, and that was easy and straightforward. I undertook this project to take care of the same in digital form but it is also an opportunity to review and purge and reorganize my digital office work as well. Once I decided to tackle this project and scheduled the time for it, I recognized some other good reasons to do this! So, I have lots of “Why?”s!
For example, every once in a while, I get notifications from my laptop that my available memory is down to x% and that soon that may negatively impact performance. And doesn't that say it all!
Periodic scheduled review and decision making on items, whether it is a file or a sweater or an email newsletter subscription, keeps my systems in good working order. Scheduling and completing maintenance reduces emergencies and outages. Scheduled maintenance can be done on my own terms, on my own schedule, and is drama free.
Bigger picture goals:
I want to be less reliant on my physical office and laptop, and able to access my information anywhere.
I want to save money and make money, making the most of the storage options I have without buying more.
As always, a guiding principle for any organizing project, can I find what I need when I need it?
Helping others help me - like my assistant and my spouse, so I can share personal or professional information more easily.
I just realized these strategies are for my digital clutter, but they really transcend all our organizing projects!
As we tackle any organizing project, closet or computer, we need to get an idea of what we have. In my presentations, I reference Julie Morgenstern's system in her book “Organizing From The Inside Out". She calls the first step the Sort step.
Sorting My Data:
I am satisfied with how I store most of my data. Knowing my focus areas (see this article: https://www.peaceofmindpo.com/blog/focus-areas-how-do-you-spend-your-resources), my C:Drive on my laptop and my professional and personal google drives all share similar organizational structures and subcategories. I decided long ago what to name my files and how to store them to be able to find them again, and I continue to use those rubrics for naming, a.k.a. naming conventions.
For example, I have my Speaking subdirectory on my laptop, with a folder for contracts and invoices, and a folder for each Speaking Topic I have containing notes and handouts, etc. I have the same on my google business drive as I move documents over there, and also the same on my Evernote, for ideas for new topics. And my Client subdirectory is set up similarly, with a folder for contracts and invoices, and a folder for each client. Once you figure out what works for you, stick with it!
Sorting my email:
Similarly to my data, I have personal and business email accounts, and they, too, are organized along my focus areas (Speaking, Clients, Coaching, Ministries, etc.).
One of my first steps in this project was to move personal business to my personal email accounts, and any company specific emails to my company emails. Lines had blurred over time! Those steps are complete.
Once I know what I have, it is time for what Julie Morgenstern would call Purge!
Purging my Data:
I start with remembering those Focus areas and what is important to me, to help me make decisions on what I want to purge.
Having my drives organized makes it easy to purge old documents. For example, an impetus for this project was finishing my time on the Board of Education. I began this project earlier in 2025 as I slowly cleaned off my D124 google drive, deleted old and obsolete files - there were many after 8 years of board work! - and methodically moved any useful files to a new Presidential Google drive to leave for the new president.
After a quick review, deleting entire subdirectories for past projects felt great! Sorting chronologically in reverse makes it easy to delete past versions of updated documents, leaving only the most recent and most useful versions.
I have recently undertaken similar steps to review and clean up my laptop subdirectories, and seeing those now makes my heart happy (and my brain can breathe a sigh of relief, figuratively speaking).
Purging unneeded emails:
To reduce the new information coming in, I have also unsubscribed from dozens of subscriptions in all my email accounts.
What I like about gmail is the "promotions" tab, to drag solicitation and retailer emails. I can keep receiving the email messages but I don’t have to be bothered by them unless I am actively looking to shop for something specific.
In addition, I have deleted thousands of old email messages and entire now obsolete subfolders in my email accounts. So satisfying!
“Assigning a Home” and “Containerizing” are the 3rd and 4th step for Julie Morgenstern, and they certainly go together when it comes to digital storage.
What are the homes and containers for my digital information?
This is a question to ask yourself, too! For me, the answers are my laptop, my evernote account, my email accounts, my personal google account and drive, my business google suite and drive, my Apple storage.
What are the homes and containers for your digital information, and what is stored there?
I am clear on what is stored where. And I am consistent about putting the information there. And I am frugal, so I am going to make sure that I am not paying to store anything that doesn't need to be stored.
Wow, just like actual physical items, right?!
The last step of the organizing process according to Julie Morgenstern is “Equalize”, which is a fancy word for maintenance. I have mentioned many maintenance tasks and routines today that we can add to our routines to maintain our digital systems.
“Regularly Scheduled” - how many times did I say “regularly scheduled” today?!
Have a list and keep it updated of your various accounts, email and otherwise. Later this summer, we will look at accounts and passwords.
Regularly check your email spam folders. Twice a week, I check my email spam folders to make sure nothing important has been directed there incorrectly, and I also delete old promotions emails from my gmail acct. I could likely change a setting for that to happen automatically, but I like to review those for myself. Or
Mid month every month, I delete old recordings that have been published as blog articles and podcast episodes. Or
When we travel, I spend time deleting old, bad or duplicate photos from my phone.
Check in regularly on your bank or credit card statements for no longer wanted subscriptions, memberships, etc.
Make an appointment for yourself - next January, if you want an annual? Or make this a summer project every year, your choice! Again, then WHEN is your personal choice, just make this a regularly scheduled occurrence! And the best news is that when you have already done the organizing steps like setting up your focus areas and your drives and storage, maintenance gets easier and easier!
Thanks for diving into this project with me!
