I was trained by Marie Kondo to help people declutter their homes. The results with my clients were dramatic, but there was always an elephant in the room: their digital clutter.
So two years ago, I pivoted my business to focus exclusively on digital clutter. Now, high-achieving women reach out because they share a dirty little secret: their digital lives are in chaos.
Their email inboxes are out of control. They grimace when I see their desktop. They’re resetting passwords daily. And don’t even get them started on their photo library.
As a tech and productivity coach, I work with them to clear out digital chaos and turn everyday tech into personal assistants.
Here are five game-changing hidden features I teach them:
Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature can help you organize your emails
Gmail has a powerful, little-known feature called Priority Inbox, which divides your email into four clear sections: Important and Unread, Starred, Action Needed, and Everything Else.
Use Gmail’s important flags to train it on what’s important and what isn’t. Now, your most important emails will always rise to the top, while promotional emails sink to the bottom, making it much easier to unsubscribe and delete.
My clients’ favorite part? Adding colors and emojis to their newly organized inbox. Checking email begins to feel, dare I say … joyful?
Your bookmarks bar can help you organize your tabs
Gone are the days when we need to keep 67 tabs open because we’re afraid of losing something. With a drag-and-drop, your active projects and most frequently visited sites can be at your fingertips.
The trick: bookmark folders. Create folders on your browser’s bookmark bar for things like: Italy Trip, Budget Proposal, Summer Camp, and put all of the relevant sites into that folder.
Pro tip: Maximize precious bookmark bar real estate by deleting the text in the name of the bookmark and leaving just the logo.
Siri and ChatGPT can be effective personal assistants
I boss Siri around all day like she’s my personal assistant, because she is. “Siri, remind me to take the chicken out to defrost when I get home. Siri, what’s the weather going to be today? Siri, text Dad that I’m on my way.”
My other assistant? ChatGPT. Ask it things like “Help me plan a weekend in the Lower East Side with two toddlers. I’d like a hotel with a pool and free breakfast that’s near a playground. Please provide recommendations for family-friendly restaurants.” You will be amazed.
Use Apple’s Groceries list feature and share it with others
Apple’s little-known Groceries list feature takes the mental load out of grocery shopping.
Go to the Reminders app and create a list. For List Type, choose Groceries. Now, when you say “Siri, add apples to the Grocery List,” it will magically put apples on the list and auto-categorize them!
Share the list with everyone who does the shopping, and be surprised and elated when they come home with something you took five seconds to add to the list a week ago.
Try an app to declutter your photos
Your phone has a few built-in tools for decluttering photos, but they’re lackluster at best. To supercharge your photo organizing, try the CleanerKit app. It will scan your photo library and then suggest what to clear out, including blurry photos, landscapes, and even similar photos.
Plus, the Cleaner Kit allows you to declutter month by month, eliminating the overwhelm that keeps most of us stuck staring down 18,000 photos at once.
It’s time to take advantage of all that our tech has to offer, and these five tips are the perfect place to start.
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