Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋 -

Happy Wednesday. I've been thinking a lot lately about "things that take up space in our brains" — and how we can preserve mental energy. When I'm anxious, I find that I flip back and forth through different apps or projects, rather than just settling into one thing.

Spoiler: that does not help with anxiety and tends to make me more anxious because I go to an app, think of something I need to do... go to another app, think of something I need to do... repeat. My brain gets overloaded quicky.

So today, I want to talk about things that reduce the overload — even if I'm still a work-in-progress myself.

1) Reflection:

There are two things that I know help my brain energy a lot: a morning routine and various "brain dumps" throughout the day.

I don't think a routine has to exist in the morning, but you should set aside a small amount of time when you follow the exact same routine, no matter what. It can help you feel like you're in control, even if your life feels chaotic. For me, that's coffee, Wordle, and sitting down at my desk to think about my upcoming day.

I also need to get everything out of my brain, usually through a combination of things throughout the day. I rely heavily on voice dictation and adding things to my to-do list because if they're written down somewhere, I don't have to think about them anymore.

2) Tip:

Recently, I saw a suggestion that people will feel "so much better" if they clean out their Downloads folder, Google Drive, or other storage resources.

My suggestion? Don't waste your time doing this. We all have far too much to do and too little time. I got a new computer this year and I backed up my downloads folder and moved it to an external hard drive, just in case I need something. I never remove anything from my Google Drive or iCloud, because storage is cheap. It makes more sense to pay for more storage than to waste your precious time and energy combing through files you may or may not need.

3) Product:

Sometimes, I need more organization than Google Drive can handle on its own. In that case, I connect a GDrive folder to Airtable. The sync is seamless, and then I can use Airtable to add more details to files, like add categories or connect interrelated projects.

Want more ideas?

→ If you're a solopreneur or small business owner like me, a virtual assistant is a GREAT way to free up additional brain energy (and time!). Check out this article I wrote about finding and hiring a VA.

→ In some cases, you might have too many tools and they're hurting your brain energy more than helping. My friend Sara Norton has a free tech tools audit template you should check out.

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That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

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