Over the holidays, I wanted to look at the infrastructure of my business.
This is the set of digital tools connected to run my business – on my computer and on my phone.
Things like website platform, hosting company, CRM system, payment gateways, and more.
As I did this, I realized the need to review my “life infrastructure”.
Financial Institutions. Utility Companies. Communities.
Apps on my phone.
Bookmarks on my computer.
And so on.
My Perspective
I believe we can free up space and time in the new year with a cleanse of our infrastructure.
Reviewing our current situation.
Deleting what we don’t need.
Organizing what remains.
We will find space on our computers.
On our Phones.
And in our minds.
The Process
We could do our infrastructure organization in a day or over multiple days.
There are two steps involved in the process – declutter and organize.
Declutter
The first step is to declutter.
Our goal here is to determine the apps (phone) and bookmarks (computer) we can delete or remove.
Consider the 9 categories below and the questions to help you decide the steps to take.
Financial – Bank accounts, Paypal, Venmo, etc. Are you using all these accounts? Do you have apps all in one location on your phone? Are they bookmarked on your computer for ease of access? How could you streamline?
Streaming – Internet provider, cable, YouTube TV, Netflix, Apple+, Hulu, and the list could go on. What does your streaming portfolio look like? How much does the infrastructure cost each month? Are there subscriptions you no longer use? If so, cancel and delete the apps/bookmarks.
Travel – Airline, rental car, Uber, hotel, and other travel resources. Do you still need the apps on your phone or were they downloaded for just one trip? What will you use in the year ahead? Should they be bookmarked on your computer?
Work – Zoom, Teams, Dropbox, Slack, Google Drive, Evernote, etc. Do you use these on a regular basis? Are some out of date? Are links to work subscriptions (ie. Harvard Business Review) located near other work infrastructure?
Social – LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. Do you use all of them or can some be removed? Are you spending too much time on one or two? If so, how could you set timers or limits? Should you remove some from your phone or your laptop?
Subscriptions – Many things we subscribe to have apps for the phone and an ongoing charge to our bank account. I couple examples for me include Pandora for music, Cook Smarts for recipes, and Photoshop for photo editing. What subscriptions do you have? Are you using them? Would the free (vs. paid) version work for you? Which ones can you remove? Are there any you would like to add for this year?
Following – Music playlists, podcasts, email newsletters, brands via email or social media, etc. Each year we subscribe to content that we want to follow. Over time, these may no longer be relevant or interesting to us. Which music playlists or podcasts have you outgrown? What newsletters or emails do you delete before reading? Is it time to unsubscribe?
Hobbies – This will be different for everyone, but we often have subscriptions and apps that support our passions and pursuits outside of work. This might include gaming, photography, book clubs, etc. Are you using all the ones you have downloaded or bookmarked? Are there others you would add instead?
Other – After going through the main categories above, look through your remaining bookmarks and apps. Just like the other categories, ask questions: Do you still use this? Could it be deleted? Is anything missing?
Organize
After we have deleted as much as possible, we move to organization.
We will each have different approaches to this step.
Below is one structure idea, but we should explore different solutions to find what works best.
Phone Organization: We could consider putting apps for the categories above on individual screens. The home screen could be used for just the 5-10 apps we use on a regular basis. Since we see the home screen the most over the course of a day, the less “stressful & cluttered” we can make that screen, the better.
Computer Organization: Here are two thoughts. First, leverage logos (no words) on the bookmarks bar to keep as many quick bookmarks in sight as possible. You can group bookmarks for the same category (i.e. financial) together. The second idea is to leverage folders inside of bookmarks to keep like areas together and easy to find.
Your Turn
Have you done a review of your life infrastructure?
Does your phone and/or computer structure cause some anxiety?
Could you tackle an area each day for a couple weeks to get your digital infrastructure organized?