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How should we think about digital decluttering?

Clayton J. Hester
3 min readFeb 21, 2022

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Photo by Ady TeenagerInRO on Unsplash

The story of my use of to-do list apps is not a good one.

It was like fighting an unvanquishable foe: I would cut heads off the Hydra and more would grow.

This is not a good standard for productivity.

In fact, less is more.

It’s a hard pill for me to swallow too.

To focus in on one thing feels like I’m neglecting a million other possibilities.

We’re supposed to seize the day, but the only thing that seems to seize us with is an infinite amount of anxiety.

But if we look at each day as “having enough trouble of its own,” we can look to make a difference by starting with each moment.

Tackling one thing at a time, we can help to declutter our minds.

But what about the tools we use? And the backflow of clutter from our tools to our minds?

Computers aren’t like other tools. Our physical workspaces can only contain so much before we have a mountain of crap on our desk.

Instinctually, we know we have to clean things up.

But computers can become incredibly cluttered, and we have to take the time to be particular with what folders we save our content to.

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Clayton J. Hester
Clayton J. Hester

Written by Clayton J. Hester

Country boy. Explorer of the creative process & life, the arts, storytelling, innovation and history of ideas. Omnia in gloriam Dei facite — claytonjhester.com

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