7 Things I Did to Declutter My Life and How They Helped Me

I run behind the shiny new object. Always.

So, consistency has never been my forte. Yes, it’s human to slip sometimes and come back. But I am used to this “guilt-zone” some much so that I feel lazy to make a change. I wanted to change this.

I took one good look at my life and implemented few small changes in the last one year by giving up habits and activities that were not helping me and adding a few. The results are promising. I have space today to do what I want and better clarity compared to last year.

Here’s what I did for cutting out the excess noise I was consuming:

#1 I Stopped Following Celebrity Gossip

Oh, how much I love Twitter banters and celebrity opinions on current issues (they have no deep understanding about, mostly).

Keeping up with celebrity updates has always been my guilty pleasure. The number of times I Googled “Deepika Padukone “, “Meghan Markle” , “Emma Watson”, “Irina Shayk” , “Hugh Jackman” is scary.

How I recovered from this:

1. I removed all Google trends from showing up in my browser

I cleared my search history and my Google browser settings looks like this:

3. I ask myself -”is it even worth it?” when I want to go on a gossip spree and mostly it works.

This saved me a lot of time.

#2 I Decluttered my Social Media

I started with Instagram.

Here is my rule book for Instagram decluttering:

No celebrities in my following list, unless they have four legs and communicate with a bark or meow.

I unfollowed all fashion, lifestyle influencers or stunning girls with no specific niche except looking like goddesses (hello, insecurities!)

No watercolour artists (I am little dumb to paint from reels alone, I prefer YouTube), sarcasm posts, inspirational quotes (lot were meaningless like some robot writes them) or how to get rich writing (I have Medium for that)

No accounts of my classmates who were leading a different lifestyle (read people posting couple photos thrice a day)

My Twitter looks better too.

I have feeds from writing communities only and “#writerslift” helps me a lot with gaining new followers and exposure for my articles. In addition to no celebrity rule , I don’t follow any news too.

#3 I uninstalled Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hotstar

Yes I did it and lived to tell the tale.

I was never a huge OTT platform fan till I saw Grey’s Anatomy. Till today it’s been my favourite. It was followed by Suits, Killing Eve and The baker and the beauty series. I am the OTT algorithm’s best lab rat if it wants to test on it’s viewer’s bingeability.

I just.Can’t.Stop.With.One.Episode.

To introduce productivity, I tried watching when I was in the kitchen. The results were disastrous. I was cooking pancake for a good 1 hour, just rice and curry took 2 hours (I chopped onions for 45 minutes). Only good thing — my kitchen was sparking clean.

I was sleep deprived and looked demented. I know people jumping to tell me that I have no self-control. Yes, that’s why I need to take the drastic step.

There are of course some downside to this — I give a pikachu face everytime someone asks “Have you seen Money Heist”, I got ghosted because I don’t get a lot of Friends reference ( I love Phoebe though) and I have to manage with Harvey Specter quotes on my dates.

Yet, my sleep is close to perfect and I make pancakes in 15 minutes.

Good for me.

#4 I said No to Past Conversations

I never enjoy “good old days” conversations. Seriously.

I loved my school life, college had its ups and downs but I am much happier person today and work life is my best phase. I am loving the amazing friends I have ,the independence and financial security I have today. Maybe my answer would differ few years down the line.

For years, I am not part of any WhatsApp group, never had a Facebook account. People ask me why I am running way from it all or even worse:

“But how will you have contacts to invite for your wedding“

Buddy, if you are asking me this then we both the know you are not going to be invited.

Why I did it:

Talking about my past gives me a feeling like “I had achieved something already” which is far from true.

Most of these people honestly did not care about my existence and neither they do now except looking for gossips.

My emotions associated with those memories are be painful.

Our friends, career choices, personal losses have shaped us into a different person we are today (whom we don’t recognise sometimes) so the statement “ I can’t believe how you are now, you were so different back then” is pointless.

Of course, I changed and so did you.

#5 I reduced the junk foods from my daily meals

I am a takeaway queen given a chance. A meeting at 2 pm or a workout at 9 pm were all were excuses to binge on chicken biryanis and desserts for me.

How I overcame this:

1. By getting up early and planning the meal for the day looking at my refrigerator.
2. Cooking my lunch the same time I make breakfast and food for my puppy.
3. Preparing dinner the same time I make evening snacks.
4. Introducing green smoothie and a homemade gooseberry Juice to handle my cravings (warning, acquired taste).

I successfully kept away from white sugar, all-purpose flour and bread. Maple syrup is my go-to sweetener. I do enjoy an occasional ice cream or some desserts with one rule — I prepare them.

These small changes are helped me maintain my weight I had lost (10 kgs) and gave me better skin with less breakouts and a good gut health.

#6 I stopped wasting my time on checking my article stats and notifications

It’s a huge addiction.

Just days after I publish an article in Vocal, I start checking stats for earnings and reads.

I would wake up every morning to recheck my earnings and hoping my article featured in Top Stories atleast this time (it did, twice)

That dopamine rush was heady . If I ccalculated the time wasted per week it would easily hit 3–4 hours. I could have written another article or taken a good nap.

Now, I publish atleast article 4 times and week ( I am aiming for one every day) and set aside an hour every weekend to analyse my stats.

#7 No more Aesthetic Goals Oriented workouts

I was running after every channel promising me a figure to envy with no “love handles” and “fixing hanging belly” fat and later realised it was body shaming posing as fitness.

My body has certain limits to the way it can be shaped — based on my genes (I am Indian), age, my metabolism, calories I consume and my laziness.

I do strength training, take a walk and follow Youtube channels with no huge promises and “before and after” results these days.

I enjoy my workouts and happy with the realistic progress.

Final Thoughts

From 2020, it’a been a combination of breaking old habits and bringing new ones. There is always going to be so much noise and only way to sanity is choosing wisely.

Here are the takeaways for you :

1. Avoid Celebrity gossips and Twitter banters
2. Save time by decluttering Instagram and Twitter
3. No OTT platforms
4. No past conversations
5. Cleaning the junk food
6. Avoid checking my stats on Medium and Vocal
7. No more aspirational workouts

Thank you for reading!

Article edited and was first published in Medium.