204 Decluttering Your Digital Life with Lydia Martin
Tired of the chaos in your digital world? Fear not, we've got you covered with some remarkable takeaways you'd get from my chat with Lydia Martin, the brain behind Banish Business Clutter.
Lydia, known for her profound understanding of the human brain and its operations, shares her wisdom on organizing your digital space. Together, we explore the benefits of digital decluttering and the remarkable transformation one can achieve by establishing a confident system.
Brace yourself as Lydia guides us through her two-step process to conquer eight major online systems and turn that digital dread into digital prowess. So, consider this your golden ticket to a cleaner, more effective tech space.
Connect with Lydia:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lydiamartinbiz/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lydiamartinbiz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiamartin1/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LydiaMartin117
Mentioned in the episode:
Free bookmark folder system: https://msumrell--banishbusinessclutter.thrivecart.com/digital-clutter-cure/6475e64a67f44/
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Megan
00:00 All right, guys, I have an amazing new guest for you here today on the show to discuss all things decluttering. But wait for it. Not physical, digital. So think about it. When you sit down and either open your phone, your computer, your tablet, do you get anxious or stressed because you can't find what you're looking for? You can't remember what that website was, or where did that photo go? Where the heck is that file? Friends, you are going to love Lydia and I'm extra excited to have her on today because I want you to get to know her a little bit, because she is one of our guest expert trainers inside of the annual planning event, planapalooza, which we have our early bird tickets going on now. And stay tuned because Lydia has a free gift for you guys today to help you get one part of your digital life declutter. So I can go on and on, but Lydia talked for herself. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and kick things off.
00:57 Welcome to the Work + Life Harmony podcast. I'm your Megan Sumrell. I'm the creator of the top program and top planner teaching all things time management, organization and productivity for women. I'm also a mom and wife and, just like you, I'm juggling, hashtag all the things while running multiple businesses and a family. Guess what? You don't have to feel constantly overwhelmed, exhausted and stressed out. There is another way. When you have the right systems and tools to plan and manage your time, you can live a life of harmony. This is your show to learn from me and other amazing women how to master your time, planning an organization to skyrocket your productivity so you can have work life harmony. If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed, this is the show for you, and if you're new here, I'd love to get you started with my work life harmony assessment. All you have to do is DM me on Instagram @MeganSumrell, with the word harmony, and my team will send it right over.
01:51 Hey everyone. Oh, my goodness. Lydia, I am thrilled that you are here today. I'm going to let you introduce yourself here in a quick minute, but, guys, I want to tell you the backstory of how Lydia and I met because it's like the universe doing all of its glory and why I have Lydia here on the show today. So, as you know, it is the month of August, which means we are doing our early bird ticket sales for my epic annual plan, a Palooza event in October. If you don't have your ticket, go to MeganSommerlecom forward slash plan. Grab it, because it's half off right now. And Lydia is here because she is one of the amazing guest experts that is going to be joining us in plan a Palooza to help declutter your life digitally, which is so amazing. So actually, lydia, I'm going to let you introduce yourself, then we can tell the back funny backstory of how we met and then we're going to start diving into what does a declutter digital life look like and how do we get there.
Lydia
02:49 I love it. Thank you for having me, megan, thrilled to be here. And yes, I'm Lydia Martin with Banish Business Clutter and I really basically help people organize their digital life and simplify overwhelming tech. Right, because technology is something that was supposed to make our lives easier and yet somehow it has created a lot of chaos, confusion and clutter for people, because we're very busy people and most of us don't have time to learn all the digital systems and all the digital tools, and digital tech is something I fell in love with early on. But the reason why I'm so passionate about this is because I was not good digital clutter for a long time, so I finally got my systems together and now I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to teach it to others. So thank you so much for having me. I love this topic.
Megan
03:43 No, and it's so timely. So women inside of my Plano Plusa community from 2023, this is a topic that comes up a lot, right, you guys on the podcast here have met Katie Wells. I bring her in to help us with all things physical clutter but people are like, what about all the digital stuff, right? And so we were actively here with my team looking for finding, like, the best expert we could find to bring into this space, and a few months back I was at the Kajabi Conference in Austin, Texas.
04:12 Kajabi is a platform I run my business on and thankfully, out of the blue I hear a Megan and I turn around and Lydia's there. Only we have not met. And Lydia came up and introduced herself to me because we actually happened to live here in the same town and so we got to talking and then she was telling me about her business. I was like, oh my goodness, I have literally been actively pursuing finding someone that we could bring into the community with your exact zone of genius. So the fact that you went the extra mile to come up and introduce yourself to me that day because you saw there was an opportunity, in North Carolina.
Lydia
04:49 It was awesome Because I've been following you for a long time because time management is not my expertise, and so I've always followed you and the wonderful things you bring into the world, so I was very excited to meet you in person. So that was awesome.
Megan
05:04 It was meant to be meant to be All right. So I know that you, Lydia is planning an amazing I think we're calling it the cyber cleanse training that's going to be living inside of our plant a palooza event in October. But we wanted to give people a little sneak peek about what they can expect and share some stuff that they can get started on today. So I thought it'd be interesting to start our conversation by first just asking, like how do we know we are at a point in our life where we need to do a digital declutter? Like, what are the signs for that?
Lydia
05:38 It's really the things that are getting you stuck each and every day, and a lot of times we don't realize how many millions of microseconds we are losing every day from digital clutter. And so a few examples of that is how many times are you resetting your passwords because you don't have a system for passwords? How many times do you have You'll see, okay, I mean it. Just it's amazing to me. I mean, think about it. If you added up all of those seconds, how much time and stress and frustration have you wasted simply because you don't either know how to create a system, you don't know what tool to use, you don't know what's available to you, you just know it's tripping you up every day.
06:25 Another example is finding links to things. In fact, how many of you have? 50? 100? I've seen as many as hundreds of tabs open, hundreds, okay, I thought I was 100. I was coaching someone and I was like what is that up there? And it was the tiniest little tabs, because she was so afraid of losing things or forgetting where things are and she just would keep tabs open, thinking she would go back. And I thought how much time is wasted trying to find things, trying to find files, trying to share information, trying to get to those photos that you want to share with your family. There's just so much time, money and opportunities I feel wasted when we don't have a smooth workflow online. It doesn't matter if you're working in your job, a business, your personal life, with your grandkids, right? None of us want to be tripped up all day when we sit down at our computer to do something.
Megan
07:23 So good and I'd be curious to know your thoughts of this. One of the things I'll always when we're talking more on the physical side or even someone I've taught people on Waste, Organized Email people will come to me and say, okay, I was thinking of organizing it this way, what do you think? And my answer back is typically can you find what you're looking for quickly with? If you're organizing that way, and if the answer is yes, then don't change it. So I'm curious for you what your thoughts are when it comes to organization. Is it a one size fits all, or are there flavors, and is the goal to really save time ultimately?
Lydia
08:01 That's a good question. There definitely is not a one size fits all Because, if you think about it, if I were to teach you my digital system in the way my brain works, but it doesn't make sense to you, you're not going to stick with it. I'm sure you believe the same with physical organization. It has to be a system that you can adopt, understand, and everyone's brain works so differently. I work with a lot of people that have ADHD. I have a lot of people that have limited time. I have all different age ranges, backgrounds, technical experience and willingness to learn a new tool. Not everybody wants to dig into something robust. They just want simple what's going to work for me. I totally agree with you. You don't fix what isn't broken. You just improve and optimize your system to make it work for you. Believe it or not, I'm not a big preacher of inbox zero. It's not for everybody.
Megan
08:55 It really isn't.
Lydia
08:56 That would stress me out if I had to focus every day on deleting my emails. I actually love being able to go back and view past conversations. I teach people how to become a master's searcher inside their email system so they can find what they need, reply to what they need and they feel confident with the system that they have. That's really what it's all about is them feeling confident about their system.
Megan
09:19 I love that, guys, for those of you listening that have avoided any leaning into tech or organization because you're worried about having to learn something that doesn't work for you. This is why I think having Lydia come in is so magical for all of us, because we believe that there is no one-size-fits-all. She's not going to force you into a specific tech stack and exact ways of doing it. It's around tapping into how your brain operates and then getting the right stuff in place. So once we start working on this digital declutter, what's on the other side of that Paint the picture for us of what does a declutter digital life look or feel like? How do we know we're there?
Lydia
09:59 We always say that it turns clutter and confusion into clarity, confidence and calm, calm especially around tech.
10:08 Who wants calm around tech and confidence around tech. We've seen people who have come to us and been self-proclaimed tech challenged people. They're like I don't like tech, I don't understand tech, I don't really want to spend time in tech, but they want to spend time in what tech will give them. And so how do I get to that point? And just by showing them some simple steps and teaching them what's available to them so that they can choose. This is the right system for me. This is the system I'm going to implement the confidence that comes. It changes everything.
10:41 It's just like walking into a decluttered workspace or a decluttered living room or a bedroom where it's peaceful and calm. It's the same thing. When you open up your desktop and it's clean, it's clear, you know where your files are going. You're not looking at a desktop. I've seen desktops that were so cluttered you couldn't even see the image behind all the screenshots and files, and that would make me feel so stressed. And they're stressed, but they don't know how to fix it. And just by a few simple tweaks. It's actually simpler than people think when somebody can come alongside and say what devices are you using? Here are your options. Let's pick one. Here's those first getting started steps and like all the light bulbs go off. We actually call it a celestial angel singing moment, when you're online and something works smoothly and you go oh, like so yes, we say that a lot in our world. It's like, oh, I had a celestial angel singing moment today and it just feels so good.
Megan
11:45 And I think it's important for people to know I have a tech background, I like tech, I like learning it not hardware but software-sized yes, me too. So people assume, oh well, you like tech, that's why your stuff can be organized. And what I think is so important for people to recognize is not all tech is hard. Anytime they hear tech they picture somebody who is a computer programmer. That's not the same thing as learning a simple tool to help us organize. It's just taking. I like to think of the traditional file cabinet. You got your file cabinet with your folders, with your Minilla folders in there. It is as simple as that. If you are willing to open your mind and just say, hey, let me just learn a little bit about this, I think this is where you come in. You help people take that first step. So with that, where is for somebody who's interested in dipping their toe in the water of feeling very in control of their tech and digital life? Where do you typically start people with this?
Lydia
12:51 So I love giving people the experience of how a small change can make a big difference, and one of the things we teach is a bookmark folder system. It's actually a system I implemented years before I even launched my business. I honestly assumed everyone used bookmark folders.
Megan
13:11 Okay, first let's talk about what is a bookmark, so everyone knows what you mean with bookmark folders.
Lydia
13:16 Right? So when you're online on your browser whether it's Chrome, safari, internet Explorer, microsoft Edge you have the opportunity to save the webpage that you're on with something called a bookmark. Now, depending on the browser you use, it might be called a favorite. Okay, same thing a favorite, a bookmark. It's basically a way to quickly get back to that page so that you don't have to keep 50 tabs open. Right, you could seriously just go to your bookmarks bar, click a button and it would take you back to that page.
13:47 But a lot of people will save bookmarks and favorites all day long, but without a system, and as soon as you have so many, it falls off the bar. And now you just have a completely cluttered bookmark system and I teach a folder system so you can actually create folders on your browser where you organize your bookmarks. So I have a bookmark for home, I have ones for work, I have ones for my family, so it could be anything that you're. Maybe you're going on a trip and you're like I want to save links to these popular sites. You have a vacation folder. Well, you save your links in the vacation folder and now you're on your browser and you click vacation and there's all the things that you had saved and you don't have to open a new tab. You don't have 50 tabs, you just clicking around and going to everything you need in a click. So I actually have a free 10 minute video tutorial on this exact topic OK, this exact system.
14:48 So I work in. Folks get that. How to implement this. So if they just go to Lydia Martin dot info forward, slash bookmarks, they will get access to this free tutorial. It's life changing. People learn instantly. Oh my goodness, just by deciding for bookmarks. This one thing I do on my computer. If I create a system, I can get to what I need faster and more easily. And that's where I encourage people to start to get that experience of what digital declutter really does for them.
Megan
15:19 Yeah, and this is not learning any new software. We browse the internet. So whatever piece of software you use to browse the internet, we're going to be able to get that experience organized in just a 10 minute video. I'm excited to be a video because I I leverage bookmarks a lot, but I'll be honest, I haven't added the layer of folders. I like when I add them I go through and make sure I know where they are, but I have a lot, so I'm actually going to be going to be checking this out for myself.
Lydia
15:43 I love the folders because when you click on the folder it brings down this beautiful vertical drop down list of all your bookmarks. So instead of looking at them just as one massive list, you're looking at them in a category and it's almost like a virtual filing cabinet, in a way.
Megan
15:59 Yes, and I mean, and I do that with my files, so it makes sense to do that there.
16:02 Oh, you guys, this is even like extra freebie goodies before we even get to play a polluza. So one of the questions that we get a lot any time it involves learning a new system to organize anything, whether it's your time, whether it's your physical stuff, whether it's paper, digital is. People are hesitant to jump into something because they're worried about what is the long term time commitment to keep this going. So how much time, would you say? Once someone has gone through decluttering parts of their digital lives? What does the maintenance for this look like?
Lydia
16:38 So, in any system you're implementing, whether it's for email or bookmarks or your files I always say mastery comes with consistency, so you do need to implement whatever system you're now using, and I always say, from today, right, I never tell people, please don't go back to three, five, 10, 20 years of digital content and start organizing.
17:02 From today, what are you going to do differently? Because you need to own your system before you're going to find a rainy day to start cleaning up old content. But after you've kind of gotten into your system, it is important to schedule those we call them those refresh times. So, depending on the system let's say it's email I recommend scheduling like something in your calendar once a quarter. So once a quarter you're basically doing a check-in of your email system. Is it still working for you? Are you utilizing the system you started with? There are things working, clearly. Do you need to add another layer to it? So certain things I say do quarterly, certain things I do monthly and certain things I do annually. Right, it really kind of depends on the system. It's one of the things we do teach, like even in our digital clutter crew program and all our worksheets. The last question is how often will you do a check-in of this system?
Megan
18:00 But then on your calendar.
18:01 If you're in the top program, you are already familiar with the concept of tools that we create in there our weekly checklist, our monthly, and then quarterly and annual. What you're going to be learning from Lydia means you're going to just have some new things to add to those checklists to aid in your planning. Now, for those of you that are like I have no idea what Megan is talking about, let me paint the picture for you here. When you come to our plan of Paluzzo annual planning workshop, with your price of admission which, again August early bird it's only $47. You get all the live training plus the recording, so if you miss something live you'll be able to go back and do it. But along with it you get the digital workbook.
18:39 It's over 100 pages and we're going to be walking through it over the course of these three days, so that you're going to be creating what I call your annual one pager, your annual year in review. But then you are also going to be creating the worksheets of your what are the things I want to be focused on weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually across all parts of your life. So when you get to experience everything that Lydia is going to be teaching, just as she already mentioned, you're going to be adding some stuff to. Hey, maybe once a month I want to go in and tag or label my digital photos, or once a quarter I need to be reviewing this digital system. So this is why we're so thoughtful about what topics and who we bring into this workshop, because it all ties in together to just put us back in the driver's seat of our life, whether it's time and your worksheets are perfect because like you said we all have those things we've got to refresh and relook at.
Lydia
19:37 So, in the physical world, the digital world, even your mental clutter, those things are to-do lists, all the things that you're teaching. It is just as valuable for your physical as it is for your digital, because so many of us work online. I mean, even if you don't have a job or a business, we're online. We want to connect with our family, you know. We want to learn new things, we want to travel and all of this if we're working smoothly, we're working more efficiently.
Megan
20:04 It makes such a difference in our outlook when we're online and also imagine the feeling of sitting down, even just for personal use, at your tablet, your phone, your computer or whatever, and for a lot of people the mere act of turning it on starts to create anxiety because they're stressed about. I don't know how to do this, I don't feel confident. Imagine sitting down and knowing it's almost like that you've just cleaned out your like linen closet or whatever right, and then you walk down the hall and you open the door just to look at it because it feels so good. I can imagine that's the experience people get to open to their technology once they've gone through and set up all these systems that you do.
Lydia
20:47 It is, in fact, one of my favorite testimonies from one of our students. She said you've helped me turn digital dread into feeling like I'm a digital diva. I love that, and I thought for her to own such confidence when she was like I don't want to do this digital. It all scares me or overwhelms me. All those feelings we all feel, and even I feel them as a techie person. Believe me, I get frustrated when technology and my systems aren't smooth either. But once you've implemented some of those things to have that confidence, it just quickens your staff and you just have so much more energy and excitement and I just feel like it is such a valuable use of your time. I'm so glad you had me on here today to talk about digital clutter and I love that.
Megan
21:34 Like, let's all embrace this idea of being digital divas. So can you give us a little sneak peek of some of the things that you're going to be teaching here in Planned Pallusa?
Lydia
21:43 So in our cyber cleanse workshop it's basically a half hour kickstart to having a clutter-free digital life, and so I'm going to go over kind of my signature two-step process to eight major systems that you should think about when you're online. It's not going to be overwhelming, but some people don't even realize what they can declutter on their computer, so I'm going to reveal to them eight areas that are potentially tripping them up each day, or that they could potentially add a new idea to a new tool to make it work more seamless, smoother.
Megan
22:21 Guys, that alone is worth the price of admission, like I mean, it's how I feel about every single guest expert, just those workshops alone. They're going to change your life All right. So in the meantime because I know everybody listening that is ready to become a digital diva, your first course of action is to go get that free bookmark training I've got the link down below for everybody there Obviously grab your plan, a Palooza ticket. And then, third, where can people start following you right now, to kind of start getting into your world and getting excited about all this?
Lydia
22:51 I would love that. So. Banishbusinesscluttercom is my website. You'll find links to all of our social media platforms as well. We're on Instagram, youtube, pinterest all of them. Most of our handles are Lydia Martin, biz B-I-Z.
Megan
23:06 Perfect and friends, if you're listening, even though it says banishbusinessclutter, you don't have to run an online business to get value out of this. It's just if you are running an online business, it usually means there's a lot more areas for a lot of clutter digitally. So again, the bookmarks. Everything that Lydia is going to be teaching in the workshop is relevant to anybody that is using.
Lydia
23:28 I mean truthfully, I wish that they taught this more in schools. These are things that everyone should learn. In fact, there's a meme out there with Chris Pratt and it says I love Chris Pratt. At this point, I don't know what the cloud is and I'm too afraid to ask. And it's just a good example of like we only know what we know. But if nobody actually came alongside you and said here's what the cloud does for you, here's what it means by that, here's the choices you have, here's where to save things so you never have to worry about a computer crash or if your laptop's stolen, oh well, because everything's saved in the cloud, like just different things that would help everyone. They do not have to have a business. It's for anyone that is working online, absolutely.
Megan
24:13 Oh, I could talk to you forever. I'm excited. I'm going to go check out the bookmark folder.
24:17 You'll love it, megan I know I can level mine up, and we are just so thrilled to have you joining us in October for April Real to be here. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Getting on top of all things time management, organization and productivity doesn't have to stop just because this episode is over. If you want one-tap access to all of my training and current top podcasts, go to the App Store or Google Play and download the Pink Bee app. It's one word, the Pink Bee. It is jam-packed with simple yet powerful tips and strategies to get you out of overwhelm and end to harmony. And if you have a question you want me to cover on a future episode, go to iTunes and ask your question in the podcast review section. And while you're there, don't forget to leave a five-star review.
