We are hustling
around our house to get some spring cleaning done. My in-laws visited a couple weeks ago, which is always good motivation to get fans and baseboards dusted. Plus we’re making videos to send to Joel (who we are in the process of adopting) so he can see what his new home looks like. And we’re decluttering to prepare for him to come home at the end of the summer (apparently, adoptive moms get the urge to nest too!).
But as I do all this cleaning around the house, I’m also finding I want to get rid of the clutter in other parts of my life, specifically my online life. Here are a few steps I’m taking:
- Unfollowing or hiding people on Facebook. People who complain too much. People who post pictures and words I don’t want my boys to see or read. People who just aren’t part of our lives anymore. Now, getting on Facebook is more fun and encouraging. I don’t get sucked in to any drama.
- Unliking pages on Facebook. With the ever-changing algorithms on Facebook, it’s getting harder to see what I really want to see from pages I like. So when an update pops up from a page I really don’t read or relate to anymore, I unlike it.
- Narrowing my focus on Twitter and cleaning up my timeline. I’ve been on Twitter since 2009 and my life has changed a lot since then. Because I’ve gone through changes, my audience has changed. Having a focus in mind helps me know what to post and who to follow (and unfollow).
- Streamlining my inbox(es). I have more than ten email addresses for personal use, editing clients, my websites, and one just for signing up for coupons and mailing lists. I’ve got them all forwarding into one of two main accounts so I don’t miss any important ones. And, I’m trying really hard to answer emails as soon as they come in. I’m so bad about reading an email on my phone and replying in my head, but not actually replying. Then when I get on the computer it’s so far down in my inbox I forget about it! So if it isn’t a good time to read and reply to emails, I wait to do both at the same time. I also use Unroll to get all the coupons and notifications once a day in one email instead of spread out.
- Organizing my Pinterest boards (and taking advantage of private boards). At the beginning, I thought Pinterest was all about me and what I was into. But, it’s also about your followers and what’s helpful for them. So I’m deleting boards that may be too specific or narrow and being more purposeful with the ones left. If I’m still interested in something I don’t think my followers want all over their Pinterest page, I’ll make a private board. Pinterest is the #1 referring site for my editing site and one of the tops referring sites for Not Alone. I want to keep our pages useful for people.
