Special Episode - Declutter Your Digital Life with Shawn Lemon

Welcome to organizing with these, where we simplify and organize our lives for the better. I'm Deanna Ball, your host, here to guide you towards a more organized and enriching life. Together, let's explore practical strategies, inspiring stories, and expert advice to simplify every aspect of our lives. Are you ready to embark on this journey with ease? Let's start.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back if this is your first time tuning in while you are in for a special treat. Today, we have Sean Levin. He is the founder of The Digital Organizer and has spent the last 17 years helping individuals and businesses get better at using their technology. A teacher at heart, Sean believes the biggest reason people struggle with their tech is because of the lack of understanding of the tools, which isn't surprising because they're constantly changing as technology advances. When not helping businesses operate more efficiently, Sean loves making pottery, riding motorcycles, and spending time with his wife, Madeline, and their 2 year old son, Nico.

Welcome, Sean. Oh, man. Thank you so much for having me. Oh my goodness. Are you kidding me?

After the long, long time that we've been trying to get together, I this is, like, an honor to have actually have you here and see you live in person. So, Sean, thank you again so much for taking the time out. Can you just, for our listeners, can you just share a bit about your background and how you got actually into digital organizing and what inspired you to help individuals and businesses? Because we also, like, you know, our listeners are also, you know, entrepreneurs manage their digital spaces. Yeah.

So I worked at the Apple Store for 7 years. And I was that person that if you bought a new Mac, you could spend an extra $100 to get training from someone to teach you how to use your stuff. And that's where I got started, working in the Apple Store and helping people learn how to use their their stuff. So they would usually buy this new Mac and turn it into the Apple store with their old computer to get data transferred over, and then they would get it back and usually try and schedule their first session around the time that they picked up their Mac. And then they'd open it up and just see that the mess that was on their PC just got transferred over to the Mac.

And the look on their faces as they're trying to, like, learn how to use this fun stuff to make photo books and movies, and yet it's all just a mess and it feels really overwhelming. A lot of people were kind of paralyzed with, actually learning and getting things done because it was so cluttered and we weren't there to help people declutter. We were there to teach people how to use features of an app. Oh, okay. And that's completely different.

It's totally different. So understanding how to, how to use different functions and how to edit photos is totally different than deciding how you're going to purge all the duplicates from your computer or, how to create a folder structure that actually makes sense. And not everyone really thinks organizationally. They think about specific features and what they're trying to accomplish, but not really how to get you there. And no one was doing this like the tech support, IT support still, they don't want to touch your data.

They want to make sure your computer runs fast. And so, I was manipulating the schedule to try and get people to work with me so that I could help them with that. And eventually it's just like, you know, this isn't the right place to do it. I'm kind of breaking the system to try and help these clients. I need to go do it myself, and that's how I got started.

It's amazing that you actually just took it on by yourself, and here you are. That's amazing. That it actually that actually is. And I I actually have to thank you, because of the fact that digital clutter, I mean, for myself as well and also for my clients and probably for your clients too, do you agree that it actually contributes to stress and anxiety and overall mental overwhelm? Because I know sometimes it does with me when you look at your phone and it's all these, like, numbers off the side of all of, like, your digital, you know, all those digital apps.

Right? And then you're like, oh my gosh. And then you know that it's connected to your computer. So when you open up your computer, it's the same. Right?

Yeah. I think it affects people more than they realize. The amount of people who show up on a discovery call to see if we're a good fit for them that, that say that they have ADHD is just astounding. And a lot, some of it self diagnosis, some of it's they, they got an actual diagnosis from someone about it, but the, and I mean, when people hear what we do, everyone says, oh my gosh, I need that. Like the overwhelm and it is just so real and visceral.

And sometimes we don't realize how much it is. Like we know we're overwhelmed, but we don't realize until the problem goes away. I actually have an interesting story about that. It was actually my sister-in-law about 10 years ago when I was first getting started, she was having me help her overhaul her passwords. And I saw her email and she had like 30,000 unread emails or something like that in her inbox.

And like, can we do something about that? And she really didn't want to. She's like, I can find what I'm looking for. Like, I just search for it and it's no big deal. I said, can you just let me help you with this?

And, she did. We got her to inbox 0. We unsubscribed from tons of stuff. We really did a nice overhaul, not nearly to the level that we she did. We got her to inbox 0.

We unsubscribed from tons of stuff. We really did a nice overhaul, not nearly to the level that we do now. And 2 days later, she came back and was like, Sean, you have I had no idea how stressed out I was from my email, you know, and she was the one arguing with me that she, that it was fine, but once it went away, it's like, woah, I've the, the, when I sit down in my computer, I don't feel overwhelmed. It's a totally different feeling. Totally different.

And that's, you know, now we've got Dropbox, OneDrive, multiple Google drives, you know, all of the different platforms and different places that you can save. And even though you got all the Mac products, the downloads folder on your iPad is different from the downloads folder on your Mac. And where is all of this stuff we're redoing work and everything is marketed to us as it's easy. And yet everyone is struggling with this. What's going on?

Well, and I mean and if if the listeners can and I know, Sean, you can totally see me on this one, but my face has just been like smiles the entire time that you've just been talking because my clients have that. I've actually done that. I've gone through that as well, but I've actually, like, limited all my emails and things of that nature. But I'm still going to take a lot of tips away from this from you as well because it is actually, for me personally, it's seeing that number next to that little icon of the email. You know?

And that number actually is like, oh my gosh, that means I have to address it right away. And then you have to kind of like mentally program yourself to kind of address it because you want that number to be 0. You don't want to have that little red little thing there because it is, as you mentioned, it is stress because you know that there's something there that you have to answer. And if you don't answer it right away, then it could be something, especially in the business world, right? It could be a client where you need to reply right away.

And so that's just one of those resonating factors. But, your sister-in-law is not alone because I have friends that actually have more than 30,000. And they almost blew up their computer because the computer couldn't hold all of those emails. So something that also to think about, right? The memory space.

It's the memory space as well, right? Yeah. Check this out. This guy hired me to help him with his email and his computer was running slow and all this stuff was going on. And, he had a massive amount of email, but he went out before my, you know, before we got to talking, he thought he was going to solve the problem himself and thought that he needed to buy a more powerful computer.

And he went out and bought a $10,000 Mac. Like he upgraded everything. It was insane how powerful this machine was. And it ran exactly the same way as the old one, because you're not going to believe this. He had a million emails.

A million. A million in his Gmail account. And it's like, I'm sorry, Robert. There's no way that you can have all this email on your computer and it run okay. That, that the mail app cannot handle it.

Right. And you know what the fix was? In Gmail, there's this setting that you can say, don't sync more than this many emails per folder. So we just went in, made a couple of clicks and then it removed most of the mail off of his machine so he could have the most recent stuff. And then just open up gmail.com when he needed to, search the archive for things that he was looking for specifically.

And then his computer ran beautifully. Look at that. A small fix for Yeah. Something like that. Wow.

Now does he still have that, that computer? Has he upgraded since then? It's been a long time. So these are some of the early ones, and then it's that was you know, I started this 10 years ago. Right.

And so it's, like, those are some of the early ones. And then all the stories after, it's wild. It is wild. Right? Well, actually, you know what?

It's more of, like, the before and now the after. Right? One of those stories. Right? Mhmm.

The before and the after. Right? But do you what are the biggest mental roadblocks that you have, seen from your clients that face actually digital clutter? Like, what is one of the biggest ones that you've seen over all these years? Like, is there, like, a common denominator of 1, or is it just, like, multifaceted?

It's buying in to the notion that an app is going to fix the problem. Right. Like, so if we're talking physical space, you know, buying a new container, isn't going to solve the problem. You actually have to use it and you have to sit and think about how am I going to use this? Where am I going to put it?

Why am I putting this here? So different apps will are creating a different container system, but you still have to learn how that container system works or, or how, you know, yeah. How would you are going to use it? And that's where people stop and they feel intimidated about actually learning it. And, and, and there's a race in the software world to create the most amount of features and the all of the different things that it can do.

And so then we're obsessed with this idea of I'm looking for the one tool that will do it all. And yet a lot of those features don't actually matter. We should be using something else for it instead. So it's, it's thinking through how am I going to use this and what do I like using? And so to solve that, what we're trying to do is say, what are you trying to do?

What do you like using? And, and how do you like to do it? And then we help them navigate which app to choose. And then from there, take them through a process of understanding what they have and how they need to set it up and, and try and teach them the things that actually matter about the app. Because there's so much like even I only use 10% of the features of most apps because I don't need all the rest.

It's them. You don't you don't realize it. Right? Like you just sometimes you just don't realize it. It's all about the marketing and or if a friend of yours suggested, oh, no, use this app.

This clears out all the duplicates. You just have to download it and then it just clears out all the duplicates. Also, duplicate photos, right? Have you have you right? I mean, that's just I mean, I actually tried it and it didn't work and I was like, Well, there goes that.

So deleted that off my phone because I'm just like, why would I even use something that doesn't really work? But, you know, just you try it. You try it to see if it works. And you just kind of try to see what else is out there. So for a quick win for our listeners, can you that they can implement actually today to start clearing digital clutter, what would it be?

So I would say, let's start with your email and decide that we're going to declare email bankruptcy. That doesn't mean we have to delete all of our emails. It just means we need to get them out of the inbox. So if you've got a Gmail account, you can, you actually word of advice, just when clearing out email in general, if you're going to be deleting or archiving a lot of step at once, like 100 or 1000 of emails at once, you don't actually want to use an app to do that. The apps aren't really great at handling many thousands of actions all at once for some reason.

I don't know why. So whenever we're clearing things out, we just go to the website. So that'll save you a lot of heartache. A lot of Mac users can be in tears. I deleted thousands and thousands of emails.

I spent 3 days doing it and then they all came back. So go straight to gmail.com and you really don't need to empty the trash either. It'll empty itself. So just go in and, and archive everything that's older than 30 days. And if you I've got a little, download that I'm gonna give you of how you can organize your files for your household.

And if you've got a significant other, we'll talk about that at the end. But, when you sign up for that, I'm gonna give you some tips and the actual technical steps of how you can do this clearing out. And so that way you've only got about 30 days or whatever you choose the cutoff point is to go through and process and say, I'm going to unsubscribe from the last 30 days worth of stuff. I'm going to delete the last 30 days worth of junk email. And then I'm going to go ahead and look for anything that hasn't been taken care of within the last 30 days.

I'm going to take care of that. So you've created a, a doable project, an accomplishable project instead of trying to, I'm going to sort through and delete all those 30,000 emails, you really, it's not the juice. Isn't worth the squeeze people. Just clear it out and move forward from today on because you got enough stuff to do than to just sit there deleting and sorting emails. Oh, no kidding.

And I like how you just, highlighted a deadline because it's always good for us to have to have a starting point, but it's also very important to give ourselves a mental deadline to be able to get that accomplished because then you get to see the results. Absolutely. Yes. It's you have to pick that and and make it more accomplishable. Because the thing is, if we're archiving everything after 30 days, anything older than 30 days, if you wanna go through and find this, you can still find them.

And so there's some search terms in in Gmail and and some of the other apps out there. They can just show you a date range. So if you chose your cutoff point as October 1st and you're gonna process everything after October 1st, Great. Then you can just look for emails before October 1st and go see if you can find anything that you missed, and that's okay. But we have to we have to have a stopping point, and same thing goes with organizing your files.

Like, we have to choose where we're going to just start archiving some things and say, okay, it's not really worth going in and renaming and checking out what all of this stuff is from 14 years ago. If you're not willing to delete it, I do you really need to go in and rename every single one of those files? You're going to be doing it for a long time. And I think that's what stops a lot of people from organizing is they feel like they've hit a point that it's just too much. It's going to take forever.

And it doesn't take nearly as long as you think. It's just an unfamiliar process. And we've got processes that we can help you, you know, take you through, whether it's a guide or working with us to get through it. But it's, that's that can be a great tool to help you actually accomplish and say, okay. I know I'm doing it in an efficient order.

I have to ask you, so you did mention the Mac. Does this also apply to an HP? 100%. Same steps. Same steps.

But really what we're talking about is how we use tools, not what tools we use. So we're pretty much platform agnostic. You know, you can use Google Drive, OneDrive, Outlook for email or Apple Mail. It doesn't matter. It's how you use these tools because at the core of what every email app does or what every cloud storage app does, 10, 90% of them do the exact same thing, and then they've just, they're wrapping it up a little different way, or they've got this special thing that sets them apart.

That's their unique selling proposition that makes sets them aside and above everyone else when really it's all the same core functionality. So how do we use that and do it in a smart way? And then, honestly, we don't need a lot of the fancy stuff. No. Keeping it simple, it basically will get the same job done.

Right? And it's less stress if you only have, like, 1 or 2 tools that really and you get the job done correctly the way that you want efficiently. Mhmm. I think that's kind of a win win. Totally.

I see it that way. Right? Right? Because you can get overwhelmed with that. Right?

I mean, I know that for some of my clients, they look at the same things in their homes, and it's the same concept, except digital I do think, and you mentioned it and you highlighted it in the beginning, how digital is one of those monsters that people really are afraid to tackle because they're just afraid that it's not they're not going to be able to get the end result that they want to because they don't know where to start. And it's it right? That's I mean, that's same thing, like, when you do your home organizing. When I work with clients, it's like where to start that first step and initial step. But I think that you have built on some really key points throughout right now.

But if there is something that someone can create that's an easy, sustainable routine for maintaining it, because that's the last part. The first step and the last part are always the hardest. The in between is like the, you know, like you're making that magic happen, right, so that your end result is where but then it's that after part, that sustainable part. Do you have a routine or something that someone can think about, like thinking for like, what we all wanna hear is that clutter free inbox. Yes.

And those organized files. Totally. So, you know Yeah. I wanna give you 22 different examples. So for email, unsubscribing is the biggest thing because the majority of the email that you're receiving are not from humans asking you specific questions that you need to respond to.

And and those are the important emails that we need to see and do something with, but they get lost in the midst of all of the marketing emails out there. So what we need to be is absolutely ruthless in our subscriptions. And if we're not reading them and they're not contributing value to your life, you need to get rid of them and having a discount every once while is some value, but you can always sign up for those when you're ready to go shopping and then you can unsubscribe from them later. So I would encourage you not to have those or if so, then you need to use some sort of filter to automatically sort some emails for you. And I talk about that too in in this, email tips if you want to sign up for that.

But so unsubscribing helps to slow the tide so that you can see what needs to be done. And then the second thing is understanding and just spending a few minutes to think about what types of emails do I get and how do I need to respond to them? Do they need to be responded to immediately by the end of the day or by a certain time of the week? And do you set aside some time to just deal with certain things like that? If you were to set aside maybe Thursday morning to, deal with, any sort of administrative things that are not time sensitive, then you can choose to use the snooze function in your email app to snooze an email until Thursday morning or until the end of the day.

This is how you achieve inbox 0 without spending all of your day replying to emails. You snooze the emails for when it's a better time to actually respond to that. And then you can actually clear things out and say, I'm done for now. Everything isn't taken care of. We're never going to accomplish everything on our to do list because we can always add more.

When you finish one thing, then we want to add something else. So we have to create it, make it accomplishable. So for email, there's these two strategies, which is unsubscribe and be ruthless about it, and then snooze emails to a time that is most, aligned with what that activity is. And so that you've got the energy and you're kind of ready to do that thing. And I would encourage you to set aside a certain certain day to take care of, certain types of requests.

And I've got one for files too because that's another big one, but I'll put another big one. No. No. That that is actually a really big one, because a lot of people I think a lot of people also thank you so much for that because those those are 2 key important ideas that probably no one has really well, they probably know about it. But actually, now that you have just explained it, it makes it makes it the process a lot easier to to actually tackle.

Now what about, like, spam and junk? Do you just, like, literally just go in and delete that whole file all at the same time? Or how do you handle that? I click on spam. Whenever I think about it, I look through and see, is there anything that isn't supposed to be here?

If so, I rescue it and tell it it's not spam or drag it back into the inbox, and then I empty. And if there's too much, I just hit empty, you know, and it's like, how long am I gonna search through this? If somebody really needed something, they can call me, they can text me, they can email again. It's not There's always another avenue to get to get ahold of you. Right, Shonda?

That's right. That's right. Yes. Mhmm. I've got one more.

Yes, please tell me. You're talking about business and feeling the need to respond right away. And there's that can actually we can avoid that feeling of, of I have to check my email in case of emergencies. If we set the expectations with our clients or vendors, that if you have something important, I'd like you to call me or I'd like you to reach out to me in some other way and set the expectation on the on the front end that email is not the way to get a hold of me in a very time sensitive way because I'm intentional about when I check by email. I check it a few times a day.

So it's not something that if you if you just need it by the end of the day, it's fine to email me. But if it's something immediate, you really need to call. And this way we can let go because we've set the expectation with other people that it's that this is not an effective form of communications, a communication for emergencies. And now I don't have to have my fireman's hat on all day long, constantly checking email. We need to stop the the compulsive checking of our devices and, an email can be one of those, especially for business people.

Oh, no. No. No. It's absolutely true. And I actually like how you just you just literally outlined boundaries and expectations.

And I do that actually with my clients as well, because it is. It's true. And it's actually well received because it's where they know, oh, you know what? Oh, Deanna no. Wait.

Wait. Hold on. Wait. Deanna told me I can get a hold of her this way, and I need it like 911 this way. So then they go and they you know, because we already laid out a plan.

Mhmm. Figured it out, and it works. Yeah. And it's nice because there's boundaries. And there's also you know, there's not like that one AM email of 911, right, of expectations to have that reply to immediately.

So which has happened. That's the only reason why I said that one. But that has happened. So since then, boundaries have been set. But do you have any favorite tools or systems to actually have an easier way of staying organized digitally without making it become a chore?

Yes. This one is one that a lot of people are a little intimidated about. But if you just take a few minutes on the front end to learn a little bit how it works, it can be totally life changing. And that is 1 password. It's an app called 1 password.

It's not using fluffy 123 for everything. That is not a safe way to go. What was the other one instead of 1, 2, 3? I think there was one that was like, like pasta, something or another. I mean, I don't know.

Like they use like a food thing and then something else. I thought that was actually kind of fun. So you said And so what? Okay. So the app, the app is called what again?

I'm so sorry. It's called 1 password. It's the number 1 in the word password, and there's no space in between. There's a lot of different password management apps out there. It's my favorite.

It works for Windows and Mac. And why password managers are so important is because if you use Chrome on your desktop and you use an iPhone and you've got Safari, then your passwords aren't syncing. So then if you don't if you saved it in Chrome, but not on your phone that are in Safari, then you've got to reset passwords. And then you're in this total loop over and over again. And so by using a third party app, like 1password, you can install that and then they call it an extension.

And so it's, it just augments what, an app can normally do. And so it just adds that extra feature in there. And so it links in one password with all of your different browsers. So no matter what device you're using or what app, you always have access to the same set of passwords. And then when you trust it, you can say, actually, 1 password, I want you to generate a nice strong password for me.

So I don't know any of my passwords anymore. Maybe 2 that are, you know, it would be absolutely critical that I need to get into, but they're long and I've had to memorize them. But all of the rest are randomly generated and it's easier and faster than typing in fluffy 123 star. Oh, wait. No.

Was it star or did I use 1 star? Because the last site made me use a special character and then the one before didn't let me use a special character. And now my one password for everything doesn't work. Right. So now with this one password app, can it be shared with other family members?

Totally. And it works for business too. It does work for businesses. Okay. So, some people will just share one account.

So my wife and I early on, we just shared one account so that we would have the same set of passwords in case something were to happen to us or, you know, she gets locked out of her bank account for some reason and it just doesn't like her computer. She can get into my account. But then when we upgraded it for business, then I created it's called a vault, but basically a folder that we share. So we share a few folders and then there's some other folders that she has on there all related to the business. And so, those are only in my account and they've got password or family ones so that you can have like all the Netflix and Hulu logins and all of that stuff in one vault that shared with the entire family.

And yet mom and dad have a set of passwords just for themselves? That is actually very key because passwords and I've shared this. My listeners are probably laughing because they're like, Deanna, this is this is right up my alley Because, my husband likes to squirrel passwords. And so, you know, I can't keep track of, like, where he keeps them. So I'm now going to recommend this one because I think this might be one that he might be able to actually work with.

So that in the event of an emergency, right, like a family emergency or whatever it might be, especially if there's documents of some things that you need to get a hold of, this actually seems to be able to Yeah, and to be able to find it, have access to it. And that's what we want because in times of an emergency, you don't want to have to think about, wait a second, what was that password? What did you just say, fluffy? No, no, no. I think I changed that to the pasta or something like that, right?

Like you don't want to have that anxiety and stress of trying to find something. It should be readily available. Doctor. Totally. Doctor.

So what strategies could you suggest for those that, so that they can avoid falling back into these old habits and accumulating digital clutter? Are they are there some way, like, strategies on that one? Because of the fact that, yes, this is great. We're talking about this. We're maintaining it.

We're talking about maintaining it. But then there's sometimes where you're just kinda like, I don't know about this. I think I'm just gonna go back to because it's easier. It's easier if I just go back to how I used to do it. Yes.

So this brings us back to setting a deadline or setting an endpoint. So the most effective way that we have found digitally to help people stay organized is making sure that they complete the process. So if we're going through in organizing email, we wanna organize after the 3rd you know, archive, maybe after the 30 days, do the ruthless unsubscribing and then, well, yeah, keep unsubscribing from everything. And then when new emails come in, we always unsubscribe immediately. If we see a new offender, we don't let them slip by.

So we kind of need to change our mindsets around it of, attacking it. And this is someone who has violated my boundaries. I did not sign up for this newsletter and now I'm on it. No. And so we're going to say no over and over again.

But if we haven't finished the process of unsubscribing from all of those things and in approached it as a project at the beginning that we're completing, then it's a lot of work every day to keep on subscribing and that is not sustainable to keep up with. We need only very small actions to keep up with them every day so that we're not having this big lift. If you're spending 10 minutes every day unsubscribing, you're not going to want to do that after a while. But if just a new one slips in today and you say, Hey, I unsubscribed from that. How'd they get back in my inbox and unsubscribe?

It's just one quick little side trip while you're working in email. Now, when it comes to files, this is where archiving becomes really important. We need to say whatever isn't relevant to our lives anymore that we're not willing to delete, we need to move it out of the main filing system so that it's very clean and it's and it's minimal. And I want it minimal because I also want you to rename your files so that you can actually know what's in what that file is without having to open it. And if you leave too much stuff in your main filing system, you're never going to rename all of those files.

And the reason why I want to rename them is when you want to save something new and you're putting it in the new folder and it's not named like everything else, it sticks out like a sore thumb and you're going to, your brain is going to want to keep it uniform and not have this one unnamed file sticking out. It's just going to take me a couple of seconds to just rename it real quick. And so then you're, you're pulled toward keeping things neat instead of, oh, it's no big deal. If you leave, if you rename some, but not all of them, then it's okay to, to just drop something in and get back to it later that you're probably not going to actually do. So finish that process and make it as accomplishable as possible.

And then the second thing is changing your settings. And I've got a couple of tips on that. Yes. It's the finishing of the of of actually the project that you just started, which was the unsubscribing, which can be overwhelming, especially if you get, like, a 100 emails plus a day. Yeah.

Right? And then it just right. It's yeah. We gotta we gotta get it down. So we've only get a few.

We respond to them. We snooze the ones that we don't need. Now for files, there's actually a really simple thing. And that is in your web browser, there's a setting that if you go into Preferences and it's each web browser has its own way of getting here, but you need to go into Preferences and you find the spot where it asks where you download files, where should it download files to. And instead of downloading directly to the Downloads folder or to the desktop, I want you to change it so that it says, ask me where to download.

So if we've created a new folder structure, then we wanna use it, and we don't wanna have to organize later. We want it so that when it asks you or when it downloads something, instead of just putting it somewhere that you have to do it later, you have to organize or deal with it later. Let's deal with it right then. Let's rename the file and put it in the right spot the first time. And then we don't have to organize.

No. It's just part of the process of downloading a file. I don't want you organizing. I want you using your stuff. And when it asks you where to put something, you know right where it goes so that we don't have a project every week of having to clear out our downloads folder or creating routines.

Right. And that's where we go back to the first where we just talked about where the stress comes into play, where the it gets overwhelming. Uh-huh. Because if right? Because we're back we're back to that.

Because otherwise, we're gonna start all over again. Yeah. And it doesn't serve its purpose. Most people don't like organizing. They don't like doing routine work.

Some do, and they're probably not seeing it. Right. Right. So, you know, but but if so, then now you you've got some routines and some things that you have less and you can you can use your time for other more important routines. I was gonna say it's more of like a quality of life because, I mean, I don't know about you, but, I mean, you know, we're both entrepreneurs.

We're business owners. We're also you know, we're we're we're busy parents. Right? We wear many hats. We multitask.

And some of these things that are digital, they actually can be organized and streamlined so that we can better serve our other hats that we do wear. It's very important that we do take these steps so that we can better ourselves to actually have a better quality of life and not have that stress because the digital technology is always is now going to be with us now forever, just in different aspects and different stages of technology. But if we handle it the way that you've just laid it out for us and for the listeners, this actually makes it doable. So there is no there's not that excuse now. Like, Oh my gosh, I can't do that.

Because now you just literally and I have to say thank you. And I think my listeners are saying thank you to you as well, Shawn. You're welcome. That you literally have outlined that. And I think that that's really important that it's okay to start small.

Right? You did switch you just had mentioned. You start small, and then it just increasingly gets to the point where you want to be. Is that how you work with your clients as well? You start small.

You look at the project at hand, and then you work with them on 1 on 1 small. Yeah. So it's, it's one thing at a time. If you can say, I want help with email files, passwords, and task management, and you want to do all of the things. Well, cool.

Let's do let's start with 1. Which one is going to, when we do take care of that, it's going to give us leverage and momentum to get into the next thing. What gives you the most time back and reduces overwhelm now? Let's focus on that. Now let's break those into very accomplishable milestones where today's task is to unsubscribe from stuff.

We're not doing anything else. We're just going to work through unsubscribing and get that done. Great. Now we did that. Now let's go in and do this next part.

And then we're just focusing on this one thing and we can just relax into one thing at a time and not trying to tackle the whole huge picture. We know what the process should be and and and it is building into the entire vision, but really there are just some things that we just have to execute and let's just focus on doing that right now. Let's not worry about what any of this stuff is or so. Yeah. It's breaking it down into these small little chunks.

How long does it typically take? Does it does it I guess it really all depends on the client and the volume. Or is there anything else that's contributing to to, to the to the outcome, like the end result, like 3 months, 6 months, 2 weeks, a month? I would say, a month to 3, kind of depending on how much time you wanna spend with us, how fast do you wanna go? Yeah.

You know, you work with some clients that they need a lot more time to think about things, and then you have some are just like, get rid of it. I'm done. Get rid of it. And it makes decisions really fast. So that kind of plays into it.

And then it's just, how deep do you wanna go? And, so usually people are working with us for a month. We want to just give people unlimited time with, with, with our organizers to say, you know, let's, you can meet with us as much as you want during this month and let's go at it And you stay on with us for as long as you want to. That's amazing. I really like that.

So before we wrap up, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about your work? Do you have any resources or any tips that they can access right away to get started on their on their digital? I like you know how you know, I have to throw this word in there. Decluttering journey. Yes.

So, you can find us at thedigitalorganizer.com. We're of course on all the socials and stuff, but the digital organizer.com will help you get an idea of what we do. But I wanted to give you an organization guide. So it's, it's our household file organization guide and actually deals with the calendar as well, because most of us who've got a family or a significant other in our household, we have to share certain things and have important files. And so how do we create an environment that, or a digital environment that we can easily share important information and stay on the same page when it comes to the calendar and everything.

So I've got a great guide for that. That's a combination of, text instructions and videos kind of explaining things that'll take you through, yeah, organizing your stuff and giving you some examples of something that you can follow along with and adapt. And then, and then you'll get a few emails from us just kind of introducing the digital organizer and give you some email tips as well. And that'll kind of start you off. Then you'll get an email every Sunday if you want us if our newsletter is actually adding value, otherwise you need to get off of it.

So, yeah, go ahead. I'm gonna be one of the I'm gonna be one of your subscribers, Sean, because I want to have more value added onto my onto my digital world. Thank you. And, but yes. And so I really thank you for that.

I really, really, really do. Are there any last minute words to our listeners on their journey of decluttering on their digital route there? Yeah. So I'd say keep it simple. The, and just focus on one thing at a time and completing it.

The biggest thing is we got to consolidate everything to one place, first. And then once we've got it all in one place, then we can start purging and going through that process. So focus on that. I've really just trying to get things together in one spot and use some of the resources and realize it doesn't have to be overcomplicated. And there's some helpful, helpful people out there who can, who can get you to the finish line if you need it.

But I forgot to tell you the actual website to get that guide. It's thedigitalorganizer.com/organize, with ease. So So one more time. One more time, Sean. Yeah.

You keep the website one more time. Thedigitalorganizer.com/organizingwithease. Okay. Sounds good. Cool.

Until next time. And so hopefully I can have you back on, especially if you have launched anything new in your digital organizing world. I would love to have you come back. Fantastic. I would love to come back.

I appreciate you having me on today. Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, And if you're anything like me, you want to be ahead of the game, organized and stress free so you can actually enjoy the holiday with your loved ones. This month on Organizing with Eve, I've got something extra special just for you.

We're all about preparing for Thanksgiving in the most efficient and fun possible way. And to make it easier, I've created an exclusive Thanksgiving meal prep checklist. All you have to do is click the link in the show notes to get a copy of it for yourself. This guide walks you through everything from making your guest list to planning your menu, decorating your space, and even for some last minute reminders like defrosting the turkey, prepping for the appetizers. So whether you're hosting for the first time or you're a seasoned pro, this checklist will keep you on track and stress free.

So what are you waiting for? Tap the link in the show notes, download the checklist, and start planning your perfect Thanksgiving. Share it, please, with your friends and family as well so that everyone can stay organized and have an amazing holiday. Happy prepping. And remember, step by step, little by little, we'll make this your best Thanksgiving yet.

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