Digital Stuff | STUFFology 101

Digital Clutter Creep

June 7, 2021/in Digital Stuff/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

How do you spend your time?

Time is an interesting concept. We can spend it, save it, or waste it.

My recent computer issues forced me to spend a great deal of time fixing my mistake. But also offered me the opportunity to examine how much time I was in front of a computer screen for work and leisure.

Your desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phone all count as a computer screen for my purposes/definition. Turns out it was quite a bit of time each day.

For me that is a combination of digital and temporal clutter. How often have you gone on Facebook to do a quick check on a friend or family member and realize an hour has passed when you log off? Or maybe clicked a link your friend sent you of a YouTube video and are still watching related content a half hour later? The examples are endless across social media platforms. Even checking your email can be a giant time suck from your day.

I mention these examples not to be judgmental. I mention them because I have done them myself without really thinking about it. If you value your time like I do, it is important to review where the hours go each day.

Email is one of my clutter issues. I would sign up for a newsletter on a topic of interest and continue with it even after losing interest over time. The delete key easily removing the newsletter from my inbox. Consider that over multiple newsletters and many months equals wasted time. Part of my solution to my digital clutter when migrating information over to my newer laptop was to ruthlessly unsubscribe from newsletters to clear up my inbox. Simple I know. Yet it took a computer device failure to look critically at my email and how much time I spent with it. Digital clutter creep if you will.

I challenge you to take a step back and examine where your time goes each day.

Less TV for More of What Matters

January 25, 2021/in Digital Stuff/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Being a mindful user of the abundant digital offerings, including the vast choices of streaming TV, enables us to reduce the digital clutter in our lives.

These days, while we wait for the vaccine to take effect via lower-reported numbers of COVID-infected people, we remain homebound. TV is the go-to escape to fill our hours yearning for outside activities.

If we choose consciously, we can find things that matter more than spending hours binge-watching Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Roku, and more.

If we take time to consider how we fill the hours of our lives, we will find other activities that provide more meaning. We can start doing those things we always wanted to do but never had time for. In focusing our attention on these other activities, we will rid ourselves of the mental clutter crowding our minds and make space for the things that matter.

Consider the books you want to read. Spend more time talking with family members without being distracted by TV or your smartphone. If family and friends are not near, take time to call them or have a ZOOM chat.

It will be almost six years since I gave up my DIRECTTV television subscription. Netflix would have gone the way of Blockbuster with customers like me.

Times Change

How do I feel today about what I wrote in Letting Go to Welcome In, six years ago?

With travel plans cancelled during COVID, I spend more time at home doing the things I had planned to do… later.

Beyond reading and writing a LOT, I watch some TV.

When someone recommends a movie, I’ll watch the trailer and ask myself: Is two hours of my life worth giving up for this? What will the message be? What will I gain?

Sometimes, I enjoy a couple hours of laugh-aloud escape watching an animated film for children. Other times, I’m interested in more mature offerings that are closer to my life story.

A friend introduced me to a Netflix series that I began watching. Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, two women, now in their 80s. They were filming these 25-minute episodes while in their mid-70s. Hurray for aging women and their male co-stars, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. They inspire us to age gracefully and if not, with humble humor. I am not a binge watcher; so, I’ll usually view two episodes at a time.

The older we grow the faster time passes. We have less time to do all the things we want to. By being conscious of how we spend our time with digital temptations we can fill our lives with meaning.

What digital habit can you let go for an activity that better serves you?

ICYMI: “When I get rid of this stuff, then I will…”

Most THINGS don’t Matter Unexpected Gifts Do

June 24, 2015/1 Comment/in Digital Stuff/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Life Lesson: Most THINGS don’t Matter Unexpected Gifts Do

Oftentimes, we are caught up with THINGS.

We collect things. We clean, organize, and display them. We feel a loss when things go missing.

Yet, if we let go of some of these things or even better, don’t bring them into our homes, we’ll receive unexpected gifts that may surprise us.

While on a trip to Mexico, my husband and I lived high on the hog, we also lived along the middle of the hog, and under the hog. Okay, I’m stretching the cliché a little.

We returned home appreciating that we had a shelter even though it was a fixer-upper. We questioned if we should proceed with remodeling.

Even now, in our information-rich world, the more things we acquire, we run the risk of creating physical clutter, which soon grows into toxic mental clutter that takes time away from what matters in our lives.

Ever ask a person a question and not get a straight answer?

C’mon, what is it? Yes or No?

It’s hard to decide with a clutter-filled mind.

Instead, when we declutter the various cluttergories in our lives, we feel lighter, more focused, and are more decisive.

At around 7 minutes in the video, you’re invited to do an exercise. Click on link for an overview of the STUFFology 101 Cluttergories. Print a copy and then write your notes (from the video) on the reverse.

And the hog?

We finally ate the hog, but carnitas are not part of this story except for an unexpected gift.

I crossed one item off my Bucket List—a goal I’d had since I read stories in the 5th or 6th grade recounting family gatherings in Mexico.

What was it?

Watch the end of the video for my unexpected gift.

Yours will be different, and that’s what makes these gifts unexpected.

ENJOY.

If the embedded video does not display below, click on http://youtu.be/ViA9Xdsvz2g

Who has time to read?

May 7, 2015/1 Comment/in Digital Stuff/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Who has time to read? You do, despite the temporal clutter in your life. I like to read for pleasure, for personal development, and so forth. With all the demands on our time, it is a good idea to have a plan for your reading.

When preparing STUFFology 101: Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter, I read and subscribed to many newsletters and articles about clutter, some of which we reference in the Additional Resources section of the book. I continue to read and watch videos from other experts; you never know what will trigger a fresh idea.

One such expert is Maria Gracia from Get Organized Now! She has wonderful stuff on her website to help you control your clutter. In one of the videos on her YouTube channel she explains how to organize your reading. As someone who loves to read and is still building my personal library, I really appreciated her perspective.

Remember too that you can always read from your smartphone or tablet through one of the popular reading apps like Kindle or Nook.

You do have time to read when you follow Maria’s advice.

Pick up that book or magazine and enjoy a good read today!

Freeing Ourselves from the Shackles of Clutter to Work Happy

March 26, 2015/1 Comment/in Digital Stuff/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Friend and colleague, Ann Vanino of Moving Forward Coaching & Consulting writes in her monthly Working Happy Newsletter, “Clear away the noise and listen to what your heart is saying about your happiness.”

Sometimes we need to clear the clutter—the obstacles to unencumbered living to release us.

As we clear the areas of clutter in our lives, we feel lighter and even happy. We feel FREE!

Every month, I write a reply to Ann. Her newsletters seem to address a challenge I’m having in my life. Is it a coincidence? Or is it proof that we’re following a common path?

Dear Ann,

After the last few days of TOO MUCH STUFF—digital clutter–I keep returning to your subject line: Working Happy.

When I am backlogged with emails, even valued correspondence, I keep asking myself, Brenda, are you working happy, right now?

Recently, the answer’s been, I could do better.

What better time to digest and apply your newsletter nuggets in my life.

Clear the noise of clutter–in my case, an excess of emails, which cause me stress.

My goal is to reduce them further until I only have to deal with a manageable number each day.

THANK YOU.

I would be disingenuous as a STUFFologist, if I said you can deal with your clutter once and for all. The truth is, it’s an ongoing process.

Any inspiration we find that will keep us on the path will free us from the shackles of clutter and help us work happy.

One person’s message about being happy has been viewed over 612,000,000 times around the world.

Try a little dose of happiness right now, click on the video below or click to visit Pharrell’s Happy video on YouTube.

Hear what’s calling you is a path to Working Happy, Vanino writes.

I’m listening, Ann!

What are you waiting for?

What shackles of clutter must you release in order to work happy?

Stuff Happens!

February 24, 2015/1 Comment/in Digital Stuff/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

A man’s home is his castle, unless his wife says otherwise.

Does stuff matter? Consider the question in the context of relationships like marriage. What is important to you may not be important to your spouse, and vice versa. Rather than argue, it is sometimes easier to let clutter encroach on a space you consider your own. My garage is such a space.

If a man’s home isn’t his castle, at least his garage is.

My Castle

Is that true? You decide after viewing my garage story (apologies for the video quality).

We share more stories of how stuff matters in Part II of STUFFology 101: Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter. Does stuff matter to you? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Letting Go is Hard to Do

June 28, 2014/1 Comment/in Digital Stuff/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

“Letting GO is hard to do,” says STUFFologist, Eric Riddle as he relates three distinctly different experiences he’s had with each of his three daughters.

View Daddy’s tug-of-war of emotions as he learns to let go. Video taken at Toastmasters Division Contest April 2014.

“What does that mean, at the end of the day, is it harder to let go of things or … people?”

Watch Eric Riddle’s presentation about Letting Go, by either clicking in box below or clicking on the text link at the end of this post.

Eric Riddle on Letting Go – STUFFology 101 Video