Start your journey to Digital Decluttering by relying on these two techniques. Achieve peace of mind and productivity, at the same time!
The concept here is very simple:
- Start something.
- Complete it.
- Close it.
However, the simplest things in life are often the most difficult to achieve. So, follow me on this post and let’s explore the Open-Complete-Close technique.
What is Digital Decluttering?
Digital Decluttering is about adopting a minimalist approach in the digital world. It’s about achieving peace of mind through intentionality and focus. More than just getting things done, it involves training yourself to remove distractions and cultivating strong willpower to concentrate on what truly matters. This method not only cleanses your digital space but also enhances your mental clarity and effectiveness in daily tasks.
Step by Step to Simplicity: The Incremental Path to Digital Decluttering
Digital decluttering, much like its physical counterpart, is an incremental journey towards a minimalist lifestyle. It’s not merely about the act of decluttering itself but more importantly, about sustaining a clutter-free environment over time.
If you find yourself with hundreds of browser tabs open—a situation far too common in today’s digital age—the goal extends beyond just closing these tabs. Similarly, if your email inbox is overflowing with thousands of unread messages, the solution isn’t merely to archive or delete them en masse.
The essence of digital decluttering lies in cultivating habits that prevent clutter from accumulating in the first place. Achieving and maintaining a browser with zero tabs is a testament to a disciplined, intentional approach to digital space management, reflecting a broader commitment to simplicity and focus in all aspects of life.
The “Open-Complete-Close” Technique
I love techniques, methodologies, or frameworks that I can easily remember and incorporate in my life. They are game-changer habits that produce long-lasting positive results. Some people dismiss them on the grounds that they’re too simple, but it’s indeed their simplicity that make them so transformative.
Closing All tabs from your browser could be a great challenge. But if you practice this technique and make small improvements each day, you’ll end up with no tabs open. That’s 0.
The “Open-Complete-Close” (or OCC for the acronym lovers) technique is as simple as it sounds:
- Open the app (or page) you need.
- Complete whatever you need to do with it.
- Close it.
That’s simple, right?
Let’s look at an example. You’ve got to send an email to a client. You’ve been avoiding it because it could take you 20 minutes to write it appropiately. So that task chased you for a week.
Using the OCC technique you can:
- Open your email. Click on “Compose”.
- Write the email. You’ll need to focus, so make sure you are prepared for this task and eliminate all distractions.
- Send the email. You’re now done. That heavy item of your list is gone.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
One Thing at a Time: The Full Screen Mode
Full Screen Mode is more than just a way to view your work; it’s a commitment to dedicate your full attention to a single task, be it a meeting, an email, or coding. This mode encourages you to eliminate distractions, urging you not to switch tabs or check social media until your current task is completely done.
Adopting Full Screen Mode is about choosing depth over breadth in your work. It helps you complete tasks more thoroughly and efficiently by fostering a habit of deep focus.
Consequently, you get accustomed to entering “focus mode,” and tackle your tasks like a ninja, quickly and efficiently. This leads us to the next effect: you start to crave focus time and get bothered by things or people that derail you. Don’t panic, take a deep breath, that frustration is a really good sign. You can simply set aside some time in your calendar for your focus time and let people know about it.
You can simply explain that you’ll be doing things that are very important to you and that you won’t be responding to messages or calls during that time.
Benefits of the Open-Complete-Close technique
By doing this, you’ll find that:
- You will be more intentional with the things you do — After launching an app or visiting a website to do something, you’re now driven by intention and are ready to ignore distractions.
- Your laptop and phone batteries will last longer — By closing apps or pages the second you’re done with them, you free up that memory and processing power, and therefore use less energy.
- You’ll apply OCC to other areas in your life — Once you discover the power of resetting once you’re done with something (starting from an organized and clean space every time you start something), you’ll be keen on how you can apply it to other areas in your life. Here’s a few examples: if you make your bed after you wake up, you’ll have a tidy bed waiting for you after your exhausting day; if you clean up your desk after you finish a task, you’ll start your next task in a clean and organized space, which is a beautiful way to achieve a state of flow; and so on.
- You’ll put more trust in your to-do list — Sometimes we just keep things open so we don’t lose them or forget about them. That’s why to-do lists exist in the first place. Trust in the organization tool you’ve chosen and really base your work on it. Your fear of losing or forgetting about things could be baseless.
- You (and others) will be surprised by your performance at basic daily activities — You’ll be more active in team meetings, proofreading emails or reports, planning, etc. Imagine that you’ve already gotten a lot done today, and you’ve finished and closed those tasks.
Less is, indeed, More
All of this sounds pretty nice if you ask me. Not to mention, one of the best consequences of this one-at-a-time approach is that you get things done but also free up a lot of time in your calendar. Yes. Contrary to what some people think, doing one thing at a time but dedicating all your attention, creativity, and energy to it enables you to get things done. Period. Simple as that. Moreover, things are not just “done,” they are done properly. And it’s actually easy to explain and understand: you have an amazing capacity to deliver great work, truly! So when you focus strongly on something, you use your full capacity for it and the results are shockingly good.
As a matter of fact: you will do fewer things.
Jeff Bezos once said:
“If I make, like, three good decisions a day, that’s enough, and they should just be as high quality as I can make them.”how to close all tabs
Jeff Bezos
That’s how this uber-successful entrepreneur delivers the greatest value to his company. Managing your time means being conscious about what you do, which requires systematic and creative planning prior to jumping into the nitty-gritty of the day. At the same time, a key aspect of planning is asking yourself about your goals. What exactly are the top 3 things you want to achieve this week? Ask yourself how you can deliver the greatest value to your job, your venture, or whatever causes motivate you.
The result of that work is a radical re-prioritization of your activities that forces you to review your previous weeks’ performance to find out that you haven’t brought yourself any closer to your goals because they’ve been delayed for later.
You subsequently become more picky with the tasks you decide to do, and finally discover that by doing fewer but more impactful things, you get closer to your goals.
Digital Decluttering: Final words
“Going full” is not just about being intentional with activities themselves, but with the prioritization of all of your work. It’s about choosing which things you’ll do, therefore giving all of your attention to them, before actually working on them. This means you’ll stop doing things randomly and start doing them with intention and purpose.
Try it out. Set up your devices so that they don’t trigger distractions and go full screen for each app you use. It’s a game changer.
I hope you liked this post. This technique is very simple but profound. It has had an immense effect on my work and results, and on my life in general.
If you love focus time as much as I do, please tell me about your experiences in the comments. And feel free to leave me any comments or suggestions. They’re always appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
