I decluttered my house, but didn’t find true peace until I decluttered my digital life, too

The author, not pictured, found that decluttering her digital life helped her focus more.

Like most people, I have too much stuff. But it’s not just physical stuff; the amount of digital clutter I amass is nothing short of spectacular. Between bookmarking apps, “watch later” lists, and email newsletters, it all adds up to one big mess of distraction that lingers at the edge of my subconscious and calls for my attention — attention that could be better spent engaging with the real world.

I didn’t always know that my digital stuff was a problem, but I realized my physical stuff had gotten out of control when I (finally) read Marie Kondo’s, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” The book launched me into a love affair with minimalism, resulting in a complete declutter of clothing, books, old papers, and dozens of boxes of stored possessions I hadn’t touched in over a decade.

It felt amazing to wave goodbye to every load I donated, recycled, or threw away. But the invisible problem of digital clutter still weighed heavily in the back of my mind. I had to face reality: My digital life was a complete and total mess, and I was overwhelmed.

Tackling a physical declutter made me realize I had too much digital stuff

“Read later” apps were a big part of my problem. I’d been saving anything that looked even remotely interesting since my family first got a PC in 1998. As bookmarking options got more sophisticated, I tested several tools (and saved dozens of links) before settling on an organization app called Bublup.

The app’s engaging interface, handy browser extension, and catch-all “Review Later” folder made it easy to save all types of content with a few clicks or taps. Between Bublup, the “Your Episodes” list in Spotify, and YouTube’s “Watch Later” list, I managed to stockpile links to hundreds of articles, podcasts, and videos that I intended to look at — you guessed it — some nebulous later time that rarely materialized.

Things got worse when I briefly fell down the rabbit hole of second brains and Zettelkasten, systems that promised I could reclaim some of my attention by organizing digital clutter into a magical note taking app that would somehow free my brain to make new connections between the ideas contained in what I saved. But for that to work, I had to shoulder the task of taking detailed notes on every piece of content, categorizing them, and implementing an intricate cross-referencing system that would supposedly enable me to access entire hubs of externalized knowledge at a moment’s notice instead of scrolling through endless bookmarks.

It was exhausting.

I finally had to admit that I needed a digital declutter

I started to feel like I was going nuts — until books came to my rescue once again.

Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows,” Nir Eyal’s “Indistractable,” and Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism,” all opened my eyes to how my constant bouncing across content and tools was stealing attention from other, more important, areas of my life—things I truly enjoyed, like reading, knitting, and face-to-face interaction with friends. And the authors armed me with practical steps to refocus that attention on what mattered.

I dove into digital minimalism with enthusiasm, starting with Eyal’s suggestions for dumbing down my smartphone. I turned off the color, shut off notification tones and badges, and moved distracting apps to a second home screen I couldn’t access when the phone was in Focus mode. Then it was time to corral the collection of content that had run wild across my bookmarking and media apps.

It took days to go through the majority of my bookmarks, delete what I no longer wanted, and organize the rest with a system of subfolders and tags. As I had done during my physical declutter, I waved goodbye to content and apps that had long been taking up space and my fragmented attention started to unify for the first time in years. It was as if the brain I’d had when I was a kid was coming out of hibernation, the brain that could read an entire book in one sitting and had no problem staying focused on a game or craft for hours.

It felt like I was waking up.

I have to keep on top of my digital clutter every week

Is my system perfect? Of course not. But I’ve developed a weekly routine that helps me reign in digital clutter on a regular basis. Each week, I take about 30 minutes on Friday or Saturday to sort through anddelete saved content that no longer interests me. I turn the remaining content into reminders on my weekly schedule so I have something to read, watch, or listen to each day that’s actually worth my time.

I often get busy and miss a week or two of digital cleanout. But learning about digital minimalism and doing a digital declutter has helped me become more focused—and think more seriously about how I spend my time and attention.