Dr. Janel Anderson:

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Working Conversations podcast where we talk all things leadership, business communication, and the future of work.

Today we are tackling a topic that I know so many of you struggle with. Digital clutter. You know that feeling when your inbox is overflowing, your desktop is a chaotic mess of unnamed files, and your phone has more apps than you know what to do with? Yeah, we've all been there. That's why I am thrilled today to have Erika Connolly on the show. Erica is the founder of Sweet Relief Solutions, where she helps busy professionals and small business owners get their lives and their workspaces in order, both digitally and physically. And after nearly three decades in corporate America, specializing in leadership development and training, she made the bold decision to step away and start her own business earlier this year. And let me tell you, she's already making a huge impact helping people reclaim their focus, their time and their sanity, including yours truly. And on top of that, Erica is also a personal friend of mine, so I couldn't be more excited to introduce you to her and to help spread the word about her new venture. So if your digital life is a hot mess, stick around because Erica has some game changing strategies to help you get organized and take control. Erica, welcome to the show.

Erika Connelly:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
I am so glad to have you here. This is like you have personally and professionally helped me and I did an episode. Oh. A few months back about digital clutter and it was one of the most downloaded episodes that I've had. So I know that my listening audience has the same hot mess that I do.

Erika Connolly:
Yes, I think we all do.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yes.

Erika Connolly:
Myself included.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So for people who are like digital clutter. What is she even talking about? How do you define digital clutter and why is it a problem for us?

Erika Connolly:
I would define it as it's that large amount of unwanted, unorganized, unnecessary digital content that is on all of our devices and is all consuming in our world these days. And I think, you know, part of the things that are contributing it to be such a problem is just the sheer number of, you know, apps and digital publications and platforms that we. It's just skyrocketed in the last, you know, few years.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yeah.

Erika Connolly:
So that certainly is contributing to the amount of clutter that's coming at us and in, into our inboxes. And I think, you know, we just haven't necessarily taken the time to step back and have a, put a system in place for organizing all that information, whether it's, you know, emails or files or documents or publications or social media notifications. We just haven't taken the time to, you know, really put things in order.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yes.

Erika Connolly:
That's contributed to the clutter.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So how do you think that impacts our productivity, either in the workplace or at home, when we have all these things in all these different places and so much coming at us all the time? How does it impact our productivity?

Erika Connolly:
Well, I think it certainly decreases our productivity. I mean, you think of all the things coming at us that are coming for our attention and. And it's certainly. I know in your original podcast, you said an average individual spends two and a half hours of wasted time, I might say, trying to find a file or a document. And I'm like, wow, two and a half hours. Just think of what you could do, you know, with that extra two and a half hours.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yes. Oh, and if I could just give an example.

Erika Connolly:
Yes.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Okay. From between yesterday and earlier this morning, I have a program I'm delivering for a client tomorrow, and we're operating and recording this on a relatively new computer that I'm just getting set up on. And not only because of this reason. It's just like I needed a faster processor and all the things, but my other computer, which has two 1 terabyte hard drives in it, is full in generating the files that I needed to generate for them because I needed to spin off my slides as a PDF and put some notes on that PDF. My hard drive was so full that I could not write the PDF file from the PowerPoint file. And it was causing all of this, like, personal drama for me because I needed to get the files to the client.

Erika Connolly:
Right.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
And so it involved, like, putting files in Dropbox, but then in Dropbox, when I got it to the new computer, the images didn't come with it. And so then I had to put it on a thumb drive and move it. And it just like it took more than two and a half hours. So I can easily see that on average it takes two and a half hours because that one thing took like four hours for me.

Erika Connolly:
Right, right. Yep, exactly. Yeah. It's time that we could spend elsewhere on other priorities, with other people. So lately, yeah, it's greatly impacted our productivity and how we spend our time.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Well, so then when we think about, like, the drag on our productivity, how. What else happens? Just like emotionally, what. What's the result of all of that?

Erika Connolly:
Well, I think if anybody's like me, when you have all of that, you get overwhelmed, and overwhelmed leads to stress and anxiety. And then I know, for me that often makes me a little irritable and short fused with others. So yeah, it, it just psychologically can and emotionally take a toll on you. And certainly I think too because maybe we don't have an organized system for categorizing all of our digital assets. Self esteem can be impacted as well because we feel like, gosh, something's so easy, I should be able to organize this, but I'm not. Something that may seem so basic. I think people sometimes get down on themselves for not being able to handle it.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Oh, that is so true. Because, you know, I often find myself thinking when I can't find the file, whether it's a physical file or having the trouble with the electronic files yesterday and the hard drive being full, I find myself thinking like, you know, I'm a 50 something year old woman who runs a decent sized business. How is it that I can't. And I hadn't really like put that all together about the number, you know, it does a number on, on your mental health and on your. And your self concept.

Erika Connolly:
Right, exactly.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
I'm like, yeah, I can, I can do $100,000 project, but I can't find the file.

Erika Connolly:
It is very aggravating. And I think too, just even from a mindfulness perspective, you know, it takes us out of the present moment if we've got, you know, notifications coming in on our phone or we're distracted by the amount of emails in our inbox. And you know, I find myself when I'm having a conversation with somebody else, sometimes my mind is, you know, going elsewhere and taking you out of that present moment. And if it's, you know, with a loved one, that's really, you're trying to.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Spend time with your kids or your spouse or whatever and you can't stop thinking about the full hard drive.

Erika Connolly:
Right, exactly.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Or where is the Acme file or whatever it is that you can't find. Okay, so let's then talk about some strategies. So one of my favorite strategies that you help me with. So I'll just go specific in detail on what you helped me with already and then we'll see what other strategies you have. So for those of you listening along, a couple months ago I reached out to Erica and I was like, my personal inbox is a hot, hot, hot mess. And, and, and so I had her do an inbox audit on it. And it was just fascinating how just the perspective of somebody who's not like deep in it in all those emails like you saw trends and you saw things like you saw, oh, when you moved in 2021, there's a bunch of files you're going to want to make sure you have downloaded and kept from banks and real estate agents and closing companies and stuff like that. But everything else from 2021, just delete.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
And I was like, really? And that made it so freeing for me because literally when I started doing that inbox clean out, I went straight to 2021. I found all the files related to the move, all the important documents, made sure I had them stored somewhere safe. And then I just set about. I mean, I like looked at, I did a quick scan page by page of what was on that, and then delete the whole page of emails, delete the whole next page and the whole next page. And it was just so, just absolutely liberating to have that advice and have that strategy.

Erika Connolly:
Yeah.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So. And I just went year by year.

Erika Connolly:
Right.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
And cleaned everything out.

Erika Connolly:
Good.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So for you. Yes. So what other strategies do you have for managing digital clutter? Whether it's email, because you maybe have other strategies for email too, or just other things. What. What strategies do you have for us?

Erika Connolly:
So I think as it relates to email and you talk.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Can we just pause for one second? Somebody is knocking at my door, which never happens. We're going to keep this running and we're going to come back to my question of what strategy, what other strategies do you have? So I'm just going to go see what the blazes is happening here.

Erika Connolly:
Things.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Fine, Good. I will just get situated again.

Erika Connolly:
Okay.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So in addition to the great advice that you gave me so far, what other strategies do you have? Whether it be for your inbox or anything else digital.

Erika Connolly:
Sure. So as it relates to email and kind of goes back to your earlier podcast, I love the two minute rule. Absolutely love it.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
And if they didn't catch the earlier one, tell them what the two minutes rule is.

Erika Connolly:
So when you have an email, if you can respond to it in less than two minutes or deal with it in two minutes, take care of it right then and there, don't put it off. And I have been notorious for like wanting to go in in the morning and read every email and then go back and deal with it, I'm like, that's just not efficient. So if you can take two minutes and deal with it, do it right then and there.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Okay. So and when we deal with it, we can reply to it.

Erika Connolly:
Right.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
We could delegate it to somebody else and forward it off to them. We could maybe it's just for reference and put it In a folder, like there's a bunch of different things we can do with it. But what if it is going to take longer than two minutes?

Erika Connolly:
Then I would suggest creating kind of a folder structure in your email and maybe it's, you know, titled to read later and then or to deal with later and then file it over there and then mark it maybe as unread so it captures your attention. So you'll go back and really read it and deal with it then. So that would be one suggestion I would have.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
And then would you also say, because I could see my like to deal with folder getting bulging full. So then I suppose we need to put some time on our calendar to actually deal with that folder.

Erika Connolly:
Yes, exactly. I recommend, you know, even if you can set aside, you know, 15, 30 minutes a day just to deal with your email, you know, kind of inbox and take time to respond, but. Or, you know, block out time in your calendar. I mean, I'll respond to X number of emails, you know, in this. Within this 30 minutes.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yeah.

Erika Connolly:
So you can gradually kind of put it into more manageable chunks and deal with it then and there.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Okay. And let's, let's talk about some other digital strategy strategies. Photos.

Erika Connolly:
We all use our phones for taking photos and we are really taking multiple photos of the same person seen, whatever. And so we're probably looking at them pretty quickly right after we've taken that photo. And so one thing I would suggest is rather than if you are looking at the photo and somebody's got their eyes shut or it's blurry, just go ahead and delete it right then and there versus, you know, scrolling through it to see all the other ones because you probably have a better one later in the pile.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yeah.

Erika Connolly:
So I think. And then, you know, just with photos and files and even emails coming up with some type of systematic, you know, kind of folder structure that makes sense to you. So your full. Like if we take photos for an example, maybe you have. You're using Google Photos and you can create a folder for travel or school or family events or work, you know, events. And then gradually, you know, move all of your folders into the respective.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Okay.

Erika Connolly:
Move all your photos into the respect.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Sure. And you could even have subfolders. So if you have a folder called travel and then you take a specific vacation or if it's 20, 25, spring break or whatever, and then you just have all of your photos from that trip in that.

Erika Connolly:
Right, yeah.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Folder.

Erika Connolly:
Yeah. Another suggestion for, you know, like all the text messages that we get And I don't know if you're like me.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
But are you supposed to delete them? Because I can scroll back and tell you every text message I've had with my husband.

Erika Connolly:
The history, delete those.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
But no, but it's like, you know, we need bananas, right? I don't need that text message.

Erika Connolly:
But just even, like, from a sender, you know, perspective, like, if you get an email for, you know, 20% off at, let's say, Lands End, and they always say, you know, if you sign up for text messages, you know, you can get that 20% off. And so here, me and Dick's Sporting.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Goods were like this because of that. And they text me, like, on the daily.

Erika Connolly:
So my recommendation is, especially if it's a store that you don't frequent often, you know, sign up for the text messages, get the code, use it, and then on the text message, the next time they send you a text message, just type stop, and then it'll stop. And you can always resubscribe.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
That's so true. Well, and would you say that goes for our emails as well that are coming from stores and things like that?

Erika Connolly:
Right, yeah, you can always unsubscribe from those. Or another example, like if publications, if you have a professional publication that you receive, or you can often go into the unsubscribe area and decide, you know, what is the frequency that I want to receive that publication? Is it daily or is it, you know, do I want a summary at the end of the week? So you can make some of those choices as well as, you know, you can unsubscribe from all of them.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Right. Right now I can definitely think of some that, I mean, I just unsubscribed from Major League Baseball this morning. I bought, you know, when I go buy Twins tick how I get on Major League Baseball, and they send me, like, you know, Monday morning update every week. And I don't really need that.

Erika Connolly:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
But then there are other publications that I've subscribed to, like Harvard Business Review, and they send me multiple things per week, but I could probably go into those settings and just have it send me once a week. Now, could we even. Well, I don't know if it gets this granular, but otherwise, maybe I just do this. If I want to read my Harvard Business Review stuff on Friday afternoons.

Erika Connolly:
Mm.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Could I automatically have it go into a folder called Friday Afternoons, like, when it comes in?

Erika Connolly:
I think you could, yeah. On email, you can set up filters to just automatically have it filter into.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
A particular file and like, this is something that you could do for your. For clients.

Erika Connolly:
Sure.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
If they didn't know how to do this or they just didn't have time to do this, or they just said, erica, I want to read all these things on Friday afternoons and make it happen.

Erika Connolly:
Yep, I could do that for you. Oh, sweet.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
That's why it's called sweet Relief Solution. I'm already feeling the relief.

Erika Connolly:
Awesome. Very good.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So are there any other specific, like, habits or routines that people can get into to help them manage their digital.

Erika Connolly:
Clutter in terms of, like, maybe just some, you know, initial steps? First, I think it's acknowledging that, yeah, I do have kind of a digital mess going on here. And then figure out, you know, what is your goal? Do you want to reduce the number of emails? Do you get? Do you want to just overall create a calmer digital environment for yourself? So figure out what your goals are. And then it is kind of what I like to call assess the mess. Where does all that clutter live? Is it emails, is it photos, is it applications, unused applications or publications or social media notifications? And then what I would suggest once you then figure out where it all lives, is, you know, break it into manageable chunks and say, okay, maybe in the next 30 days I'm going to tackle my email and declutter it by category. So email, photos, files, etc. And I think, you know, some other habits too. Just to. Is to set aside that 30 minutes a day, maybe to declutter on a daily basis, and then maybe weekly you spend an hour, you know, kind of revisiting the week prior as well as maybe quarterly, you do a deeper dive into.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yeah, declutter. Well, so two things I want to comment on there. One is you said this great phrase, if you want to create a calmer digital environment. And as you said that, I was just like, yes, I want a calmer digital environment. So that is just like a beautiful turn of phrase that just like it. That inspires me to take action because I go, I hear that phrase and I say, I want that.

Erika Connolly:
Yeah.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Yes, I want that. That's worth it to me. Okay, so there's that. And then as you were talking about some of these habits, like, do this for 15 minutes a day, 30, you know, 30 minutes a week, whatever, all these things, it's just reminding me a little bit about of just like how we take care of the other parts of our lives. So, like, I don't like to do housework, I don't like to do laundry, but it has to get done. And I don't usually let laundry get to such a total breaking point. Like, there is not a single thing to wear because I'm going to do the laundry after my favorites are dirty so that I can continue to wear my favorites or likewise, I don't wait until every dish in the house is dirty before I run the dishwasher. The dishwasher gets run when it's full or when there's dishes in the sink.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
They get washed by hand or whatever. So it seems like the habits happen in the rest of our lives, but they're not necessarily happening in our digital environments yet because we just haven't caught up with creating those routines.

Erika Connolly:
Right? Yep, yep, definitely. So I think, yeah, important to start to create that routine. You know, when am I going to spend that 30 minutes looking at my emails or, you know, organizing my photos or whatever. But then also I think, as you know, we come across reading different things. I always like the, the one in, one out rule. So if you bought a new sweater, you should get rid of an old one that you're not wearing anymore. So if you are downloading a new app, maybe you look at an app that you haven't used forever and you uninstall that or, you know, whatever the case may be. And then I think too, just, you know, being really more aware of what you are saving to your desktop, if it's a file, et cetera, you know, do I really need this? What's the value in this? So being a little bit more purposeful in what you save and where you save it.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So for people who are fans of, you know, Marie Kondo and her process of, like, does it spark joy?

Erika Connolly:
Right.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Well, so if it's your work files, they're not necessarily. I was going to Joy. But do they have some practical utility? Do I have. Do I have to keep all 17 versions of this document? Or am I okay with just keeping the latest version or the latest two versions?

Erika Connolly:
Exactly. Yep. Yeah, I was. When I was in corporate America, I was notorious for having eight versions of the same document, you know, saved until I got to the final one. And then it's like, oh, I don't even remember what, you know, version two contained. So again, you know, you can delete as you go or delete once you have the final version and go from there.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
And if this all sounds too overwhelming, people can just hire you to do it, right?

Erika Connolly:
They could. Yes, yes, yes, definitely. Yeah. I would love to help people digital declutter their lives. And so folks can certainly contact me through my website, sweetreliefsolutions.com and I got.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
I just got to tell you how much I love the name Sweet Relief Solutions because just, just like declutter your digital, you know, a calmer digital environment. Sweet Relief Solutions. It's just like, oh, I need me some of that. I need that. Yeah, yeah.

Erika Connolly:
I think we're all, we live in a world where we're so overwhelmed with so many different things and I just, just absolutely love to help people. And if I can give you two and a half, three hours back in your day, your week, well, it's satisfying for me.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Oh, well, that and which is why you're in this business. But when you think about the two and a half or three hours that it might take you to set up systems for somebody, that's not just going to save them two and a half or three hours now that's going to be money back in their time bank or time back in their time bank like every single week, every single day. Because they're not searching for files or trying to figure out what, where that photo of whatever it is that they're looking for is. Yeah, yeah.

Erika Connolly:
So I can certainly help people come up with a plan to declutter or, and, or I can actually do the decluttering for you and give you a process to maintain it going forward.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Priceless. All right, so you already told us your website, but say it again and tell us also where do we go to learn more about you and find what you can do to help us?

Erika Connolly:
So you can go to my website, sweetreliefsolutions.com and I have a little background on there about me, but I also have a services page that is just a sample of the services that I offer, but it's pretty extensive.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
So and so and if they're in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, you will even come to their house and do this, right?

Erika Connolly:
Yes.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
But you can also work with anybody anywhere when you're working on the digital stuff, right?

Erika Connolly:
Yeah. If you need, you know, physical organization in your home and your local and happy to come to your home and help with that or whatever may be on your to do list.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Nice. And as this airs in mid February, it's like spring cleaning. It's just right around the corner and like with spring cleaning comes organizing and. Oh, all the things.

Erika Connolly:
That's right. Yeah.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much, Erica for coming on the show today and helping us get a little sweet relief from our digital clutter. Thanks for joining Erica and I on the Podcast podcast today. And if this topic resonated with you or if you have ideas for future episodes, I would love to hear from you. And you can share this episode with, I think, probably at least three people in your life who have digital clutter, because quite honestly, who does not have digital clutter? And they will be so happy that you shared this episode with them because then they are going to get a little sweet relief themselves. You want to be the person who gives somebody else a little sweet relief? I think so. Oh, and people could, like, buy you as a gift for somebody else, couldn't they? You know, you don't even have to wait till Mother's Day comes up in, you know, coming up in May.

Dr. Janel Anderson:
You could just buy a gift certificate from Sweet Relief Solutions for anybody you want. All right, so one small act like that will win you the favor of your friends and colleagues, I'm telling you. All right, so don't forget to check out our show Notes page where we will link up all the information we just talked about as well as Erica's website, sweetreliefsolutions.com and you'll find that at janelleanderson.com 2,03 for episode 203. So until next time, my friends, keep thriving, keep working toward the future that we all want and deserve. Thank you again, Erica. It was great having you on.

Erika Connolly:
Thank you.