hey everyone in this video I will lead you step by step through a complete reset of your Digital Life I'm joined in the studio today by my dear friend Raphael cisa who will be our guinea pig and show you a real life example of what this looks [Music] like I have kind of a process here that we actually have other videos about but I wanted to start with getting a little bit of your story what's going on in life right now what's going on in your in your work life in your family life what brought
you to be with us here today I think that I've been kind of feeling this like Spiral of um just suck I think that's probably the best way to say it it's a spiral of suck I had all kinds of like oh my God is this like a midlife crisis cuz you know I turned 40 last year my dad uh passed away when he was uh 80 and then in July of 2024 I got laid off there's something that like my my dad uh shared with me before he passed which was um you know did
I make the the right choices did I did I teach you and you know my brother the right things there's something about that that for me really communicated um this need to to have a a meaningful life yeah I think that that's sort of like the the groundwork for for like for this wow thank you for being very open and transparent about what's going on in life life I think that's that's super important like we often dive straight into like the latest productivity tool or technique but I think what you're sharing with us which is
true for everyone is that there's a wider context Beyond or encompassing or transcending your productivity systems and your digital [Music] systems before you even think about the future and projects and goals you just have to like wipe the Slate clean otherwise it's just this like mess and this noise constantly cluttering your mind right so what I typically recommend is four steps the first one is very simple but sweeping which is to just archive everything I'm talking your unread emails the notes and your notes app inbox anything on your desktop everything where information has just accumulated
to just archive it away okay yeah second is to clear your inboxes but this could be we've already mentioned email but this could even be your slack inbox your text messages your WhatsApp messages like think of all the communication channels there might be some stuff kind of built up there third step is we need to get a handle on what you're currently committed to before we invent new projects we need to know what's already on your plate you're not starting from a blank slate so this is just like your current commitments home projects you're committed
to stuff with your son promises you've made to your wife uh side projects you have side gigs all those kind of things and then fourth we're going to turn off notifications this this word encompasses a lot because it's also in a way kind of like your relationship to your phone before we dive into the Hands-On portion check out this video where I lead you through these same exact four steps to digitally declutter and reset your own digital [Music] world all right let's get into it okay down and dirty uh so let's start according to our
checklist with archiving what are the existing repositories of information that you could uh oh Lord okay uh let's start with like the files iCloud I've got Dropbox I've got Google Docs there's so much in all of them uh that I'm like uh you know so uh you may want to consolidate or change which of those you use but that's a project so let's save that for the future okay what I would do now is just in each of those place this leave everything don't even try to move it uh except like into one folder so
that it's just a little cleaner okay I'll start with Dropbox I'll just do it new folder ooh archives and then I would put today's date 1325 okay bye-bye files all right done and I'll do the same with um iCloud that tool basically created multiple of the same folder in different places okay okay it's pretty free except for that that's quite clean yeah now Google Drive all right there we go new folder one 325 create and then I'm going to take a everything except for that move that in there you go okay what about a um
do you use a task manager any kind of digital to-do so is this is this a place uh I'm thinking of like the today area or the inbox area that you might want to kind of archive what's there yeah yeah I definitely think so I mean I've this is all stuff here that I'm very happy to like just stick in a uh in an archive in fact so there's a few things you can either delete them outright you can move them to Sunday which is just basically like yeah maybe someday eventually um or you could
uh check them off as done yeah I I'll just I'll put them in someday and then go back to that this one these are the reminders that come up are also quite nice so these ones I will also just stick into the Sunday get rid of that I hereby declare that our first step of archiving everything is now complete oh my gosh how do we celebrate we a little dance or something [Music] like okay so next we have clear my inboxes yeah so what does that look like all right well if you're like me you
have a millions of emails that have not been attended to and I will select everything oh gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh o wait what did I just do did I just do that oh you know what I did all and then archive is there oh you know what's really nice this is what I forgot about you go here so what I just did was I clicked into the actual this is like split up into priorities right select all 8,000 oh me what are the other communication tools you use I mean texts um okay
so at the top here you click select messages M and then read all done deal sweet the unicorn and the dut are going to be very disappointed very very very disappointed I think it's time to well clear your inbox not so hard huh I'm not even sure if I'm thinking about all the consequences of clearing out my inbox like all these emails that I might have to get to at some point or people that ain't to like turn their message honestly I think there's fewer consequences than you fear the people who are truly important will
reach out again the things that are truly that truly matter will Bubble Up in your in your awareness uh I mean that's kind of what the third step is about is it's almost like you have to lower the water level like across the board so then you can raise the mountains that [Music] matter let's start simpler okay which is just a single note okay and a list in be to even just identify what the projects are to start um should I put today's date yeah all right start with the easiest place to start always is
just what's on your mind what immediately comes to the surface oh my gosh uh well so I have this uh book club um season 3 finances and these are like what's coming up for me is like projects but they also could just be like like single task or so go up go clearly up a level from tasks cuz tasks if we truly listed it would probably be like hundreds yeah I mean even even so writing this like Book Club season 3 doesn't really like that's is that what's the project do you have any responsibility or
commitment toward it that you have to do yeah say until you wrote season 3 it was more like an area indefinite end dates but then when you add season 3 you add a time box so then it's more of a project okay so another project um is actually U an application that I need to do for for a thing called climate base that I had applied to um there's one for Creative mornings where I am uh again also an application of something and then um new public um there is this thing that I'm doing with
my story coach I guess those are just like top of mine at this moment so is there anywhere to kind of jog your memory is there anywhere else you would look like your projects and in your task manager or elsewhere to kind of like um if I if I look at things there are some things I could I could take from there so like there's an annual review that you know yeah there's like a vacation that's coming up that we're doing okay there's some things around that any like home projects yeah there definitely are can
I just tell you a project I've been putting off for like a while that we have to do like termite inspection stuff perfect any other trips you're contemplating yeah well Sumer it was like a summer vacation that we wanted to kind of do anything you thought of making or creating like a piece of writing or a piece of music anything like that any course that you're taking you have a couple here one of the things I mentioned earlier um was that I really want to have some creative Outlet like a hobby and like calligraphy is
actually something I'm really interested in oh gosh all right so now learning wise there is stuff that's coming up take some kind of like coding class there is my my uh website that I finally put together a like V1 of and i' love to like do a V2 of that so maybe that's one also great one like do do you typically like set a certain amount of time and it's like that's that's enough like 10 minutes I look more at the number I would say 10 to 15 is kind of a minimum that's almost everyone
tends to have for some reason between 10 or 15 projects and we're there okay great let's pause here for a second before we do our little celebration um how did this feel it felt really helpful I mean I definitely feel it allows me to feel more like relaxed so it's a nice way of just trying to catalog stuff that I I probably just have running in the background that doesn't really give me the space to show up like more fully because it's taking up a portion of the ram you know totally let's ceremoniously check off
step number [Music] three all right so um what are some of the notifications that you might want to adjust I will say that like I've done a pretty comprehensive job of going through every single app that I have deleting apps I don't use anymore and then making sure that I don't get notifications banners anything like that from my phone on my computer it's this similar story when I'm in a certain mode uh I will put the focus and do not disturb on the computer mhm what if we broaden the definition to uh distractions for example
the common one um sometimes people have social media apps uh logged in on their phone and they realize in order to achieve their goal going forward they need to not have that that's pretty fair yeah one thing that I I used that I really enjoyed uh for a bit was I think called opal you couldn't like log in or uh or actually use any of the apps it would kind of gray out okay well let's stick to our little checklist here and I would say that it's time for you to do the honors hey really
yes you've earned it oh my God Oh What a Feeling feels good right feel like I um I have a a sort ofle clear path to uh to look and see what I want to you know plant okay well let's plant some stuff okay these first four steps that we've covered were really focused on the past kind of like what's already happened now let's pivot and talk about the [Music] future let's start with the content you consume I don't know if this needs to be on your phone but like look at like Reddit LinkedIn podcasts
maybe books okay what kind of things do you look at on there's a few people Nick babit is someone that I follow um that does a really good job of posting these nice examples that he he finds and he puts together kind of summarizes so this one for instance awesome you okay so something like this I would take and I would put in readwise so this is a good this is a good starting point for your different sources of content how do you feel about your ability to capture like the best parts or excerpts or
highlights into a place for safekeeping I feel decent about like stuff that's text for things like a podcast I know there's apps where you can like take Clips I don't necessarily need that what I really need is just like what's the the main idea and maybe if I want to point someone to like there's this art of accomplishment uh podcast there was one on fighting well that I I've shared with all my friends and everyone's like been like wow this is incredible this has done with a lot for us there's like specific Parts where like
I'm like mentioning like hey you should listen to this a timestamp would be nice I'll do that for like YouTube cuz it's really easy there's an app called snipped that you can use for that that's really cool okay but generally how about for so so text is pretty good is that because also because you're using reader which is very text Centric it it is and also this is actually okay because I I have uh you know almost threeyear old and we spend a lot of time together I don't want necessarily be on my phone all
the time cuz it's not I don't want him to just like see me addicted to this thing if I go to the bathroom and you're you're a dad you know this stay 45 minutes hour you kidding me a vacation like it's an Airbnb so I'll take my phone with me I don't have my headphones I can't listen to something mm you know so I'll I'll specifically read yeah and I will get in as much as I possibly can before I have to before there's like and you know I to get out absolutely bathroom reading it's
bathro reading I grew up with bathroom reading by the way I like I remember it was the quietest place in my house growing up I finished whole sets of The Chronicles of naria in the bathroom so it's a Time tested tradition absolutely yeah can we see your reader your reader app sure yeah thank you for asking so this is kind of your reading list M and so when you when you sit down on that toilet what's the your go-to place to find something to well it depends if I'm uh not necessarily I'm mostly capturing stuff
from uh from like from Kindle so I might be like actually highlighting on the app on your phone on my phone app on your phone yeah because it's it's really smooth M I don't like I'll read uh with my the Kindle scribe at night mhm it's next to my bed and I even use it to like write down some you know drop down some stuff before I go to bed M um but this so the Kindle device is for the bed sitting there by the on the nightand your phone since you always have it with
you in the bathroom or other places the phone is on me it's like basically an organ yeah so it sounds like for the most part you're pretty happy with your capturing habits I think so you're you are able to to to get to gather save most of the like the most valuable insights that you're gaining from from this yeah I think so I think so okay well that's good news hey [Music] great let's talk about outputs now so what's coming in inputs what's going out outputs and let's just stay on the level of goals so
you mentioned when we first started talking your three kind of highle intentions remind us what those are yeah it's to build community it is to uh be a great dad and like role model and then uh the third one connections yeah building deep connections that's right okay so those are like your three like North Stars like the the the biggest highest level intentions that you have yeah so let's go down one level to more specific goals you wrote your your three intentions at the top your current projects so that we're being realistic below that let's
do let's just say Goals how about goals for 2025 oo okay so one um it's this thing of uh quality time with my son on um some fun adventures how about let's say health I want to be um more fit so definitely definitely stronger and I think uh more like pliable one of the the goals that I have for this year is actually to get into boxing yeah it was like boxing and you know at some point like bra Brazilian Jitsu like all those kind of things that are more like physical that to get out
of my head you know there's a backyard project it's it's really it's a gift for my wife too because she loves to cook and to bake and we she got me a pizza oven for her father's day and have I used this this thing once no my wife has actually been incredible she will get the dough we'll make pizza together you know as a family and I want to make a space in the backyard where like this pizza oven lives that we can go and and have people over and you know entertain mhm you know
they have Gatherings absolutely do you want to is that another one to have more Gatherings yeah it definitely is yeah what about in uh your career with work uh I mean definitely a a new job would be amazing uh and not just a new job but a new job that um feels meaningful yeah and where I can be valued yeah I mean there's you know I mentioned before like just a deeper connection with my wife and and son like in general I had this idea that when my my dad passed I started collecting all these
like photographs and like you know VHS tapes and I bought this thing off Amazon to like basically digitize them any learning goals yeah definitely so one of the ones was uh is learning coding to you know bridge the gap between design and execution perfect I'm sure we could go on but that's a great starting point I think we can now put a line through [Music] this now let's talk about projects so we've did intentions goals and now let's go one more level down one level more specific one level more concrete and talk about projects which
I think of as like the specific vehicle that is going to take you from here where you are to this new place you want to go which is your goals it's just the vehicle it's just like the car that you get in and you drive it there another way to think of projects is the thing the vehicle again that connects these to these so this is what's coming in this is what you want to go out mhm so the RW material the fuel for these goals that we've just identified has to be these inputs right
information is the main input you know what let's actually make a new heading right between these two okay I just say content sources okay uh let's write down some of those ones that we looked at previously Reddit LinkedIn Instagram ebooks and paper books uh YouTube courses in general podcasts is there any content you're consuming that has no relationship to to any of your goals and this takes some some honesty some yeah I mean a lot of these have great stuff but it's just to be more choosy within them I think that's an excellent point it's
not that Instagram is evil and Linkedin is righteous it's like within each platform almost on a post by post basis sometimes for sure there there's garbage everywhere you know yeah yeah all right so that's something to consider is changing your interaction with some of these these feeds my other question is when you look at these goals are there any for which you don't have any sources of information H that's a great question and don't just think information or content think motivation accountability guidance coaching uh Community these are not just content consumption sources they are literally
your whole psychological environment that you're creating through these different things okay so when you put the term psychological environment that does make me think that like launching a side project I've got information but the accountability part is not there what that might look like is signing up for some kind of a course or uh like getting other people in a group that are also doing the same kind of thing I know there's there's tons of them out there like I know for writing there's things like Foster I think that's definitely something there's no accountability for
like launching a side project there's no accountability for digitizing photos and videos I I could that could go on forever I could push that off till 2029 I don't know if the the thing for me is to like put it something on the calendar to say I'm having a screening on this date and now I have to build the plane while we're in flight so you miss a number of great observations you notice that in some cases what's missing in many cases what's missing is not more information there's so much information out there it's accountability
but you also noted that you have the ability to create accountability for example by putting a group together is there any of these that putting a group together might help yeah definitely definitely more um I mean having more gatherings that's something that I could bring uh to have a group around for accountability so some of these goals that you've written down are already essentially projects they're very clear very specific very concrete but are there any that are a little vague that you would like to make into projects well backyard project doesn't really tell me much
like later on and to get a little more clear on it is like building a space for my wife and I to like cook outdoor and and host things outdoor perfect so cooking and hosting space which might just be like one corner of the it's not necessarily the whole yard you have to exactly yeah and in fact limiting it limiting it makes it feel less overwhelming maybe even possibly doable yeah you could put that you could either reword it or put it like in parenthesis this one feels really vague launch a side project around what
but that's part of it is like an exploration so maybe it's launch a discovery amazing any others that that call out for that um uh if it's a project the boxing of Brazilian jiu-jitsu I'd say uh the project is one day a week I want to do some boxing with a coach mhm I would put it put a time limit on it so like my first four boxing classes or something like that yeah okay something that's so that there's an achievement moment yeah I'd probably do that so we can continue but this is kind of
a good first pass one thing I want you to notice is there's two lists here that are kind of wanting or needing to be merged which is things you're already committed to which is not minor right and then things that are about the future you want to create this is outside the scope of our process but if you were to continue this one thing I would look at is out of let's see 12 + 9 21 projects if you had to choose 10 if you had to choose eight if you had to choose six like
could you sort of force yourself to narrow down so that your attention and your resources are not being spread this way but they're more focused that's one of the hardest things to do is to basically Kill Your Darlings kill things that you've said are important to you or that you're already doing in order to maximize the chances that the ones you do commit to actually are successful I think we're done with number three okay our final task is to revisit your habits so we looked previously at your habits around or even just your your settings
around notifications which was kind of specific broadening that to all of your consumption habits the things you read watch listen to when you consume those things on what device whether you take notes how you take notes looking let's Maybe look at this list to kind of jog your memory is there anything you want to change about your relationship to information or to the digital world yeah I mean so so when you talked about when um I don't have a clear sense of like Borders or boundaries uh in in like my day you know like I
feel this this uh tug of like things could just go on forever all day and then it's like I didn't get around to the things I I you know I wanted so just having boundaries M of like when I do some of this stuff like right now I don't get a ton of emails that are really valuable for me so like I don't need to spend a lot of time there and I don't need to like the same with Instagram like if I want to go on there for specific things like a cooking uh recipe
or DIY I should set some some limits for myself because like I again I don't need a ton of like information related to like recipes you know just a few a week or maybe even a few every month might be fine we have tons of recipes already we have tons of cookbooks I don't need more I need more time so that's something I think the boundary is really important here for me especially because of the ADHD so so one boundary you mentioned do you want to set aside certain hours of the day that are no
device hours or something yeah I definitely do during the day like I looked at my screen time thing with my wife over the weekend I was like 6 and a half hours a day on average I was like Blown Away by that because I thought like oh no I I you know second brain I've read all these things there's no way that I got caught up in the uh the cycle that I did and um it's it was like H that's brutal I definitely want to have no screen time during the day and then at
night I don't really want to use my my device either because I want to spend quality time with my wife and and my son like I don't want to have that just interrupt my attention when I want to be present with them you know and I don't know maybe there's like a thing about like when am I in the mood to look for like cooking or diy things in general am I looking at them because I want to distract myself from something else or am I looking at them because I'm really interested in like wow
excellent questions yeah I think often times we're consuming content or doing something on our phones or whatever to fulfill some deeper psychological need that or emotional need or bodily somatic need that we either aren't aware of don't even know about don't even realize that that's the need we're fulfilling right and the first step is just bring that into awareness non-judgmentally that's an excellent place to end thank you Raphael for being so incredibly open and honest and transparent and walking us through your digital world I deeply appreciate it and I hope you've gained some clarity from
this definitely have man thank you appreciate you [Music]
