Digital Minimalism & Social Media Wellness (Recording)

Would you like to create healthy habits to be more intentional and less distracted with your social media and digital life? In this session, you will learn practical strategies to reduce wasted time, endless scrolling, and feeling overwhelmed. Use social media and your digital world in your favor.

Transcript

Good morning,

Beautiful people.

Welcome to another session with me.

My name is Emilio Jose Garcia,

And I am so happy to be here with you again.

Today's topic is digital minimalism and social media wellness.

This is a topic that I'm pretty sure many of us can benefit from more of that because majority of us have a cell phone.

We have social media accounts.

We have email and a lot of our day-to-day stuff happens online.

I was looking at my life and reflecting and even to go to the gym,

You have to use your phone.

Even to go to play squash,

I need to book a call and I have to use my phone.

So everything these days,

Majority of the things are happening online.

So it's very important to think about self-care and mindfulness when it comes to your digital life.

And also looking at how that digital life enters your home.

How do you embrace that digital life in your home?

We're gonna be talking about those topics today.

So before getting started,

Let's just take a couple of deep breaths together and just bring some presence to the moment,

To this session because you guys chose to be here today and you have your reasons to be here and I just want you to be present and to set the intention.

Okay,

So let's take a couple of deep breaths together.

It's always a good time to stop and take a couple of deep breaths.

Anytime during your day that you remember,

Just do that.

It just takes like 10 or 15 seconds and it does make a huge difference in your mood,

In your energy,

In your presence.

So guys,

Before getting started I would like to ask you and you can use the chat.

What are some of the specific challenges that you are facing right now when it comes to to digital life,

To social media,

Emails,

Anything that has to do with your digital life?

What are some of the specific challenges that you are facing so that I can get this session into being more relevant to you?

Because I can talk for an hour about things and strategies and stories but I would like to know your specific challenges if you have some.

So Crystal says poor sleep hygiene due to being on the phone too late at night.

Beautiful.

Crystal,

I just want to celebrate your awareness.

Okay,

It's really really good that you are aware of it.

So now you have you have something to get started with.

So thank you so much for sharing.

Same with me.

Christine,

Thank you for for saying that.

I don't say it's good morning.

It's like an addiction.

It is an addiction guys.

Social media,

Using your phone.

It is an addiction.

It can become a real addiction and we are all addicted to notifications,

Likes,

New exciting emails,

Maybe taking something that we are excited about.

When you think about you have in your hand a device that can do pretty much anything about any topic.

So it's very difficult to disconnect sometimes.

That's why we need to be intentional and that's why we need to become aware of our specific challenges and the thing that we would like to change.

Okay,

Is there anything else that you guys are facing when it comes to digital life?

Something that you are challenged by,

Something you want to change?

Lee says my phone is currently water damaged and I notice how quiet it is mentally for me.

Beautiful.

Without it.

So Lee,

You are doing a digital cleanse.

A forced digital cleanse,

But you are noticing benefits here.

And that's another topic that I'm gonna be talking about today.

Doing a digital cleanse.

A digital detox and how you can include that in your diet,

In your life.

Christine says I have an opportunity to rent a cottage with no Wi-Fi and that doesn't sit well with me.

I will feel lost.

Christine,

That's again beautiful awareness of paying attention to those feelings and then I invite you to explore and you can share them here if you want.

What do you feel?

What's coming up for you when you are facing those feelings?

And are they really true?

Okay.

So just reflect about that and feel free to share,

Christine,

In the chat how you feel and why do you think you feel that way.

So Natalie says FOMO.

Fear of missing out.

From seeing everyone on Facebook,

Instagram,

Having more fun and a better life than me.

So true,

Natalie.

I just want to invite you to reflect about Do you think that everybody who is sharing their best moments on social media,

They don't have dark moments?

Do you think that everybody is always as happy as they show themselves on social media?

Just reflect about that.

Think if that's true.

Anon says,

I have to put my iPad in the garage in order to read again or keep going to it.

Inside Timer has also become addictive with all the lives.

Yeah,

Anon,

It's great.

You are placing your device in a different physical space in your garage so that it is not convenient and it is not sitting beside you so that you can engage in other activities without the distraction and without the temptation of checking that device.

So that's beautiful.

That's a great strategy that I always recommend.

Putting your phone in a different space at least for a period of time.

And there is a strategy that I share with you many times is the Pomodoro technique and it's basically using a timer.

I don't want you to use your phone as a timer.

I want you to use a separate timer,

A real timer.

That way you can avoid distractions.

You can avoid notifications.

So you set that timer for a specific time and then you focus your energy in that task and you choose for how long.

It can be five minutes,

Ten minutes,

Fifteen minutes,

Twenty minutes,

Forty minutes,

Whatever.

It's good for you.

When you do that,

The timer will beep at the end of that time and then you can choose to keep going or you can choose to take a break.

And then you go and check your device if you want to.

But that's a great way for you to train your brain to start focusing more and to start controlling where your attention is going.

And when you are doing that,

If you put your phone away from you,

You can still hear if it's ringing and if it's something important,

But it's not beside you.

So you don't have the temptation of checking it.

It is not as convenient.

Crystal says,

I am trying not to be on my phone when I am visiting and trying to spend quality time with my family.

Amazing,

Crystal.

I love that.

How do you guys feel when you are in conversations with someone,

When you are trying to spend quality time with someone,

And then you see them do this?

Or maybe they put the phone in front of them and then every now and then they are picking.

How do you feel?

Do you feel hurt?

Do you feel that you are spending quality time with that person?

Do you feel like they are respecting you,

That they are interested in you?

Or do you feel that their attention is more on the device than on you?

And again,

There are rules and boundaries.

Sometimes if you are working and you have to be there,

If you are expecting a call from someone,

If there are cases that it makes sense and you can let them know,

Hey,

So that you know,

I am expecting a call from the doctor or I am expecting a call from my husband or I am currently working right now.

I'm supposed to be working.

So if I get interrupted,

I have to take that call because I'm working right now.

So you can set those boundaries and clearly communicate.

But when that's not necessary,

I love the idea of putting the phone away and it really eliminates the distractions.

So thank you for sharing that,

Krista.

Jasmine says,

Sometimes I get stuck looking at stuff on my phone when I truly want to be focused on more meaningful activity.

Amazing Janine,

I love your awareness.

You are becoming aware.

You are noticing.

Now I invite you to think what strategies could you test?

Could you try to change that habit?

What can you do to make that not the norm for you?

OK,

It's almost essential.

People seem to have forgotten how to stay connected without it.

Yeah,

That's the thing,

Guys,

That we are we are so connected to it that we have a hard time letting it go.

We have a hard time doing something that doesn't involve having our phone beside us.

And that's why we have to retrain ourselves if we want to,

To do it differently.

Amy says,

I hate that I am old school.

Yeah,

Many people are old school and they don't want to rely on their faults for so many things.

But convenience is trumping intention so many times in so many activities.

That's why like being a monk and not having a phone,

It is not a reality for the majority of the people.

Like in my case,

For example,

My daughter goes to daycare,

So I have to be available if something happens to her.

So daycare can call me anytime and that happens sometimes and we have to go and get her.

So the reality for me of not having a phone is not doable.

Right.

It's very difficult,

But you can still be intentional and create strategies to separate yourself from your phone every now and then.

So,

Anon says,

If anyone is on their phone when we meet or visit,

I tell them not not OK and I leave.

So that's a that's a boundary that you are setting,

Anon.

And that's that's good that you are aware of that boundary and you communicate that clearly so that people know.

Yeah,

So.

So,

Guys,

Let's talk about some strategies and thank you so much for sharing.

Thank you so much for sharing some of these challenges that I think we all face in more or less degree.

We all face all those things.

I myself relate to pretty much everything that you guys said.

And I have days that I'm very intentional and I have days that I'm not.

And majority of the times when I am tired,

When I am lacking intention,

When I don't plan my day like with things that I'm I'm excited about,

I tend to spend more time on my phone.

I tend to like waste more time,

Scroll the air.

So it's this is why being intentional is so important.

Right.

Best says I was trying to silence my phone for morning meditation,

But in December my teenager had a car accident.

He's fine,

But I'm not comfortable being totally disconnected.

Yeah,

Beth,

Of course,

Things can happen and it's OK.

It's OK to be able to to be connected.

OK,

But you can still set some boundaries,

Some boundaries that feel good to you.

OK,

For example,

In our case,

A few years ago,

We were noticing that we were not able to connect.

We were noticing that we were sleeping with our phones beside us in the bedroom,

My wife and I.

And we started to notice that we are always the phone was the last thing we looked at at nighttime and the first thing we were looking at in the morning,

Even before we said good night,

Even before we said good morning and give each other a kiss.

So we were noticing that that was becoming a pattern.

And so many times we didn't need the phone there,

But we were using the phone as an alarm.

So the excuse was,

Oh,

I need an alarm.

OK,

So I need to have my phone here.

But then we were distracted.

We were scrolling more.

We were like so we didn't like that.

So we went back to the old fashioned school.

We got an alarm clock,

Old fashioned alarm clock each of us.

And then that's the only thing that we have on our bedside table.

And then we have a charging station here in the living room.

And then we put our phones away at nighttime.

Why?

Because honestly,

A major things can can happen.

Absolutely.

They can.

But how likely is that to happen?

And how important it is your sleep?

How important it is for you to be disconnected a little bit every day for us is important.

And so far in all these years,

We have not missed anything important.

OK,

Everything could wait until we got up.

So,

Of course,

Something can happen.

But the likelihood of that happening often,

It's not real.

Right.

So we have the charging station.

We put our phones away and then we don't look at our phones first thing in the morning.

We get up,

We wash our face,

We get dressed.

We maybe spend time with Eva and then we look at the phone.

We check really quickly.

There is something important and then we put it away.

And then after we set intention on checking emails,

Looking at social media,

Stuff like that.

But that's the intention.

Phones don't live in our bedroom.

Phones do not disturb our sleep.

There are no notifications ringing.

Our phones are in silence.

And if you are concerned about emergencies,

What we do is we have everything silence except for phone calls and in my case,

Text messages.

But because those are the only two things that people when people text me or call me,

I know that is something probably important.

OK,

Otherwise.

It's not because social media,

Email,

Stuff like that is not important.

It can't wait a few hours.

It can't wait.

It's not something it's not an emergency.

OK,

So that's how we do it.

That's one strategy.

You can find a way for you to make this work in a different way.

But again,

It's important to have keep in mind what is your intention?

What do you want to change?

What do you want?

What habit is not working for you now and you want to tweak?

And then I will invite you to start testing ideas.

OK,

Start testing approaches,

Different things to do.

Place your phone in a different environment.

Create a charging station.

Change the notifications in your phone.

Maybe you don't get sound notifications and your phone doesn't vibrate.

You actively check out the phone when you want to,

Instead of the phone telling you when to check it.

OK,

And again,

Looking at these things in a way that fits your needs too.

OK,

And in a way that you enjoy the experience.

It's not something that is imposed on you.

You choose that with intention.

You choose to do it because you want to change something that is important to you.

OK.

So,

Arnold says,

I charge my devices in my kitchen and I put it automatically on silent from 8 p.

M.

To 7 a.

M.

So amazing.

I love that idea.

We do something similar too.

We put it away when we go to bed and then we don't check that until the morning.

OK.

But again,

Every person is going to be different.

Every situation is going to be unique.

And at the end of the day,

It's important that you notice the behaviors and the habits that you don't like that are disrupting your sleep,

Your mood,

Your mental health,

Your productivity,

And then start doing something different.

Another idea that I want to share with you today is the idea of doing a digital detox.

OK,

And this again,

Don't go to the extreme,

Guys.

Don't go to the extreme of now I have to go to a place with no Wi-Fi.

I won't have any connectivity with anyone for like a month.

You don't have to go to the extreme.

OK,

But I want you to have an open mind.

I want you to be curious.

I want you to be willing to try something different.

And I know that there is resistance there.

We all face resistance when we are trying something different,

But just be curious about it.

A digital detox can mean that maybe one day a week for five hours,

You don't have a phone.

A digital detox can mean that maybe for every three hours of your time,

45 minutes you have no phone with you or you don't check your phone.

So you can create any combination of digital detox.

And the true intention here is that you are in the present moment for at least 20 minutes or 30 minutes at least without distractions,

Without you looking at your phone,

Without you engaging in social media,

Scrolling any other activity.

Is you being really fully immersed in the present moment doing the activity that you are doing right now?

OK,

That can be I am 20 minutes cooking now.

I am going to meditate for 20 minutes.

I am going to go for a walk for 20 minutes.

And that's the only thing that you are doing.

OK,

So I will invite you to explore this idea and find your combination.

Find the amount of time that makes sense to you.

Some people I have heard that they they have a wonderful day a week where they don't have they don't carry their devices.

And normally that happens in the weekend,

Maybe.

And they plan an activity.

Maybe they go for a hike or they and then they just don't check the phone.

Right.

Some other people,

They do a period of I do three hours and then I do one hour with no phone.

And then I do three hours and then one hour with no phones.

Again,

Find your edge.

Find the thing that challenges you a little bit,

But doesn't overwhelm you.

OK,

And then you get started by implementing that change and you start noticing what's going on and what happens.

OK.

Back in the day,

Probably a couple of years ago,

I did that.

My wife challenged me to do a full week without my phone.

OK,

So a full week without my phone.

It didn't mean I still had my computer.

OK,

I still had my computer.

And I still was connected,

But I didn't have my phone with me.

I could not use my phone for one full week.

OK,

And she challenged me to do that and I did it.

And I spent one full week not using my phone.

My phone was off and I didn't turn it on a single time.

Of course,

My wife had had her phone on.

So daycare,

Stuff like that was taken care of because she was available by phone.

But I couldn't have my phone.

And that week was very interesting because there were things that I enjoyed.

And there were other things that frustrated me.

So it was interesting to pay attention to the good and the bad,

The convenient and the inconvenient.

And then after doing that experiment for a week,

I went back to using my phone with way more intention.

I tried to keep the positives and I removed the negatives.

So for me,

Some of the positives were way more productivity,

Way more focus,

Focus,

Less distractions and more intention.

Because if I had to think about I need to take my email,

I had to actually go to my computer,

Open my Gmail and then check my email.

So that was very intentional.

If I wanted to go to a social media,

It was me choosing to go to the social media platform to check it,

Not my phone ringing or showing me a message or whatever.

So I started to notice like,

Wow,

Like there are not a thousand things claiming my attention at the same time.

It is me actually thinking,

What do I need or want to do now?

And then I was going to my computer and doing that.

The frustration was that it was a lot of work because notifications,

I like notifications because when you when I want to,

I go to my phone and I just update myself really quickly.

I see what updates notifications are on my social media or on my inside timer or student feedback or whatever emails.

I know what's new very quickly.

OK,

In my computer,

I have to go platform by platform because I didn't have notifications set up.

And that was frustrating for me.

So again,

This is an observation of my experience doing this.

And I will invite you to try this idea.

And you don't have to do a full week if that feels overwhelming and anxiety provoking to you.

You can start with,

As I say,

One hour,

Two hours,

Three hours,

One day,

Two days,

Three days,

Whatever.

Find your edge.

OK,

Find the amount of time again that makes you feel uncomfortable.

But it's not anxiety provoking and it doesn't it won't freeze you to the point that I don't know how to do it.

I don't know how to operate.

OK.

So I don't say I saw when I listen to IT or other things on my iPad.

Can watch,

Of course,

But I'm doing something creative.

Yeah.

So listening to content and again,

This is something that always comes up.

OK,

Christine says I use my phone for the camera too.

I am always snapping photos during my walks.

Also a bit of an addiction.

So as I was saying,

Guys,

The devices these days,

They provide so much convenience.

I use my phone for camera,

For videos,

To record,

To listen to my self-care meditations,

To watch videos,

To watch Netflix,

To do video calls with my family.

It's so convenient.

I'm not going to deny that.

It's so convenient.

But it's also it can take over.

From you,

It can drain you.

And that's what we are trying to find a strategy here to help you use the technology with more intention.

OK.

I heard that setting your phone to great scale helps eliminate the compulsive checking and scrolling.

Crystal.

Thank you,

Crystal.

Yeah.

So let's dive into more strategies.

OK.

And guys,

If you have a strategy,

If you have a strategy that is working for you.

Please share it in the chat so that people can read it.

And they can learn from each other because it's good to know what's working,

Too,

Because we have changed.

We have shared challenges.

But I would like to know what is working for you now with social media.

What are strategies that you are implementing that are making you use social media and your digital life with more intention?

OK.

Amy says this whole topic makes me sad.

I miss the days when you went out.

Life was the focus and the people you were with.

Yeah,

Amy,

I agree with you.

Those days were really nice.

Again,

There are pros and there are cons.

Like in those days,

I will not be able to do what I'm doing right now.

OK,

So I will not be able to to be doing this and I probably wouldn't have a job the way I have it now.

So for me,

I see lots of benefits.

Of course,

You guys wouldn't have access to insight timer.

So there are a lot of pros and a lot of cons.

And again,

It's not better or worse.

It's just different.

OK.

Anor says it unfortunately takes away from me making plans with others.

The iPad fills the gap often.

Yeah,

And that's why that's why we have to look for strategies.

OK,

On iPhone,

I can set limits for the time I spend on particular apps.

So that's a strategy like setting boundaries and time limits for your usage.

Set my notifications off from 11 p.

M.

To 5 a.

M.

Amazing,

Julie.

So you turn your notifications off so that the phone is not is not disrupting you.

Most social media apps I don't have installed on my phone.

I use them through the browser.

Yeah,

Lee,

That's a great idea.

You don't need to have the apps.

You can actually when you feel like it,

You go to the browser and you can go to Facebook,

Twitter,

Instagram,

Whatever,

And then you have to log in.

It's it's less convenient and that will make you use it less.

And when you use it,

It's going to be more intentional.

My wife,

Samantha,

She is not on social media anymore,

But what she did,

She was noticing that she was craving simplicity.

And then the first thing that she did was she remove all the apps from her phone and she was using the browser.

That's what she was doing for a period of time.

But she still found herself wanted even less than that.

And that's when she decided to she wiped everything.

And she's not on social media anymore.

So I'm managing the social media for the business,

But she doesn't have any social media anymore.

That's what she wanted.

That's extreme.

But again,

Everybody will know what feels good to them.

And you can always do that for a period of time.

And then you can always go back if you want to.

Okay.

Yeah,

All those apps.

Yeah,

I agree.

Liz says all those apps are like cocaine,

Very addictive.

They are really,

Really well designed,

Guys.

There are full teams of people designing an application that is going to keep you hooked because the way they make money,

All the social media apps and Google and all the companies around digital world,

The way they make money is by providing ads,

By showing you ads and then you clicking on them.

That's how they make the money,

Right?

So the more time you spend in that platform,

The more likely you are to see ads and to hopefully click on one of them.

So that's the reality of it.

So they create apps that keep you hooked.

That's why another strategy that I always invite people to do is do an inventory of all the apps that you have in your phone.

Question each of them.

Do I need it?

Yes or no.

If you don't need it,

Remove it.

If you need it,

Go to the settings and change the notifications because the default is the phone is going to ring.

The phone is going to make noises.

It's going to vibrate.

It's going to show you something on the screen.

Every single time you receive something and your phone is going to be PPP,

PPP,

PPP,

PPP all the time.

And that drives me crazy.

Honestly,

It does.

So I will invite you to change the settings to something that you feel comfortable with.

Again,

It is your choice how you do it,

But be intentional about how those settings are set up.

Do you want to receive a noise?

Do you want your phone to vibrate?

Do you want your phone to blink?

Do you want to just show you something on the phone?

That's how I have it.

I have some notifications that it shows up on the screen,

But it doesn't bother me.

It doesn't make a noise.

It doesn't vibrate.

It doesn't blink like nothing.

So I have to actively open my phone and look at that.

But when I open my phone,

I will see it.

So when I choose to see notifications,

I will go and look at them.

But my phone is not making noises every single second because it's very destructive for me.

Okay,

So find what works for you.

Becca says I have closed all my apps.

They are still there,

But not active.

And I find I don't use them.

Great,

Becca.

So you have found out that you don't use them.

So now you can remove them with confidence.

Because if there is something important,

You are going to remember and you are going to take action with it.

And if that's the truth,

Then you can get the app back.

And then you can set those settings and those notifications in a different way.

One of the strategies about doing a digital detox also is to remove everything from your phone and start from scratch.

And this may sound daunting for some of you.

But honestly,

When you do that,

Or at least take the time to do an inventory of what do I have in my phone right now?

Do I really need it?

How do I use this?

Is this an emergency or not?

Are people going to rely on me responding fast here?

Yes or no.

And you can also start educating people on how you function,

How you best want to be reached.

Because in my case,

Majority of the people know that if they text me,

I'm going to be pretty fast.

If they don't text me and they send me an email or they go to social media,

I may take a few hours to get back to them.

But they know that because that's what I told them to like.

If you want me to reply fast,

You have to either call me and leave a voicemail or text me.

If you don't do any of those two things,

Then just be patient.

And then I will expect that you don't expect me to be fast.

OK,

So that's an expectation that I set for myself and for the people.

You can set whatever expectation you want.

Maybe your expectation is this email address is going to be the one that I take all the time.

And the rest is not a priority for me anymore.

OK.

And this takes me to the email.

Email is another source of frustration for so many people.

Having thousands and thousands of emails that they need to go through,

They need to process and they don't have the time.

And then that email monster is getting bigger and bigger and bigger every day.

And you have less and less and less time.

And then it gets to the point that you don't even know what to how to do that.

How do you do it?

OK,

So when it comes to email,

How do you guys feel about email,

By the way?

Is email a problem for you guys?

Do you want me to cover some strategies for email?

Yes,

Yes.

OK,

So a quick few strategies,

OK,

That I see working really well.

One strategy is to divide your email overwhelmed in three in three stages.

OK,

So three parts.

One part is the past is what happened that you cannot change.

OK,

That's one part you cannot change.

If you have thousands of emails in your inbox,

You cannot change that.

They are there already.

OK.

The present moment.

OK,

So what are you planning on doing from now?

And then the future is going to depend on what you do now.

So those are the three,

I would say maybe two stages,

The past and the future.

OK,

And the present moment is the opportunity that you have now to start doing something different.

So that the future looks different for you.

So what I mean with this with email is that majority of the people are overwhelmed and they don't know how to move forward because they have thousands and thousands of emails.

Sometimes I heard the concept of email bankruptcy.

And I don't know if you guys have heard of that concept,

But the same way that sometimes financially speaking,

Some people declare bankruptcy,

Meaning that they are in crisis,

They don't know what to do.

They declare bankruptcy.

And then they get a fresh start somehow.

And then from there,

They start creating something new from scratch.

So sometimes I have heard that idea and some people have done that.

They have done an email bankruptcy,

Meaning I let go of the past.

And then I start from scratch now.

OK,

And again,

You can do a combination of these things.

OK,

I see some faces of like,

Oh,

My God,

What are you doing?

What are you talking about?

And this is this is really good,

Guys,

Because,

Again,

I am going to the extreme and then I'm going to give further ideas and I want to I want to evoke emotions in you.

I want you to notice how you feel,

Because when you are feeling that,

You know what's going to be right to you.

OK,

So the extreme is to forget about everything and start from scratch now.

The other option is to start from scratch right now with new strategies and then carve some time every day,

Every week to go through your backlog.

OK,

But the strategies that I mean starting now,

These are some ideas.

Having different email addresses for different purposes.

Huge one for me,

Huge one.

When I started doing that,

The overwhelm disappeared in my email life.

My wife and I,

We hit zero inbox every day if we want to.

It's beautiful.

But of course,

We don't hit zero email like zero inbox in all our email accounts because we have one email is for work.

One email is for personal and another email is for spam,

Subscriptions and stuff that is not important and we don't have to take or take action on.

OK,

So every time someone is asking for my email address,

The first thing that I do is what is this?

What is my intention behind this?

Is this business?

Yes or no?

Yes.

OK,

I'm going to give them my email business email account.

Is this personal?

Yes.

I'm going to give them my personal email account.

Is this just a subscription?

Something I want to learn more about?

Is this someone that is asking me to give them my email so that I can get something that I need?

But I'm not interested in receiving emails.

Is this something that I may refer to,

But it doesn't have to carry my inbox?

Yes,

It goes to my spam or the email address.

I have all those email addresses on my email.

So switching from one to the other,

It's painless.

I can even see all the inboxes together if I want to or separate it.

So by doing this this strategy,

If I am now on working mode,

I will open my work email address.

I will go through those emails.

I will hit inbox zero.

I will reply to everything I need to and it will be gone.

OK,

When I am on personal time,

I will go to my personal email address and I will just do my personal emails.

And when I am on curious about learning more about something I subscribe to,

I will go to that email address that right now it has over 10,

000 emails that I've read.

And I don't care because I don't need them.

I just subscribe to staff and they start sending me emails and emails and emails and emails.

When I want to,

I will go there.

I will search for what I'm looking for and I will just read the emails that I'm interested in.

And that's it.

So that's one strategy,

Having different email addresses for different intentions.

Another strategy is to create folders inside your email address.

You can do that if you don't want to have different email addresses.

You could create different folders.

One folder is business,

One folder is personal and one folder is spam.

And then every time you get emails,

You just move those emails to those folders.

That's another idea,

OK,

That some people use.

You can use the search function very easily by person,

By email address,

By topic.

And you can find things very easily.

So you don't need to create a very complicated folder system that you will forget where the email is because you have like a hundred different folders.

So use the search option more often too.

And subscribing from things that you don't need is a huge one.

If you are subscribed to email marketing,

Emails from companies,

Sometimes you will get several emails a day for each email address.

And when that happens,

Your inbox is going to increase dramatically fast.

And then you are going to lose important emails between emails that are not important.

That you can then create a filter that all the emails coming from that email address,

It just goes automatically to your promotion folder.

When you start doing this,

If you don't want to unsubscribe,

You can just create the rule in your email address and then you say every email coming from this email address,

I want you to automatically move it away to this folder so that it doesn't sit on the inbox.

OK,

That's another idea that you can implement.

OK,

Any other ideas that you guys are using for email that I didn't share here?

There are a thousand other different ones,

But I want to know what's working for you so that you guys can learn from each other.

I delete all the time.

And of course,

You have to delete everything that is taken care of,

Deleted,

Unless you need to reference back to it.

If that's the case,

Then you can move it to the all the rest folder or to whatever folder you have.

But it's important to have a clean inbox.

You can either,

If you want to simplify the process,

What I have in my email,

Because I don't have a thousand folders,

I only have one folder that is called all the rest.

Or you can also have an archive folder and everything that I have taken care of,

I move it there so that it doesn't sit on my inbox anymore.

OK,

So let me see.

Emilio,

I would love if you designated a 10-day course on digital detox.

In 10 days,

I could implement all of these strategies.

Good idea,

Amy.

Anon says,

And don't give out your phone numbers to just any place.

They set it for spam.

Yeah,

Again,

Be very intentional about who do you give your contact information to and always have a contact information.

And I'm not going to give you any information about who you are.

But if you give your contact information to and always have an email address that you don't care about so that when you have to give them an email address because you need a service,

But you don't want their email so you don't need them,

Then give them that email address that you don't care about.

You sign up and then if you have to do something,

You can go and check the emails.

But if you don't,

They sit there and you don't have to waste your time processing those emails.

Becca says we can use the flag function to highlight the priorities.

Yeah,

That's another idea.

Some people flag emails with different colors or different priority levels.

And again,

Every person functions differently.

In my case,

That will be an extra step that I don't need because I don't have a lot of emails on the inbox and I am taking action immediately.

If you have projects or staff and your emails are sitting there and then you need to somehow prioritize them,

That can be a good idea for you.

Crystal says I am feeling motivated to unsubscribe from a bunch of newsletters.

Yeah,

Crystal,

Do that.

If you don't use them,

Start transitioning into either having a separate email address and then you can subscribe to the ones that you like with that new email address or unsubscribe from the ones that you no longer need because that's going to be way less emails coming into your inbox.

Ano says I give them fake info sometimes if I really need to to get a discount or something like that.

Yeah,

You can do that.

Majority of the times if you need an email address,

They will send you an email that you have to accept or confirm.

So you do need to have majority of the times like an email address that you can have access to.

So yeah,

I never subscribe anymore.

I never read the stuff.

Yeah,

Sometimes again,

This is personal priority,

Guys.

In my case,

Sometimes I am interested in learning something or maybe someone is offering a nice like 10-day email course or and I enjoy the information.

So I will subscribe to that and I will receive the emails and I will read them.

Sometimes some other companies,

I don't read all the emails that they send.

But again,

It's personal personal preference.

Becca says for newsletters,

Maybe current and past ones are available at the sender's website.

Becca,

Sometimes they are not.

Okay,

Sometimes they don't have everything that they send in their email marketing campaigns.

It is not hosted on the website.

Majority of the time it is not available.

So that's why sometimes that's the pair that you get when you subscribe.

You are giving them your email address and in exchange they are sending you information that hopefully is helpful and every now and then they will try and offer something.

If you are interested.

So that's how email marketing works.

That's the idea behind it.

That you will get something special if you subscribe.

Perhaps I should sort by conversation so to keep just the most recent one.

That's another strategy.

Some people do that.

Some people read,

Sort it by conversation or by person or by email address and then you can very quickly find maybe all the emails coming from this email address.

I know that I don't care anymore.

So you can filter by that email address and just delete all of those.

So you can do that filter.

You can filter by topic or like a keyword.

You can filter by the name of the person.

You can filter by the company name.

Okay.

So Lisa is one of my favorite clothing brands.

Was so aggressive with the email marketing.

I had to unsubscribe.

They were emailing me every day with not a lot of options.

Yeah.

So this is the thing about email marketing that sometimes you give them your email,

But they don't tell you what they are going to be sending you.

And sometimes it's a lot.

Sometimes it's not enough.

Sometimes it's so you never know.

That's why in my personal opinion,

I don't want to be bothered by that.

I don't want my inbox to be clarified by that.

So that's why I have a separate email address that I don't care about.

And then if there is a company I want to learn more about,

I will subscribe using that email address and then they will start sending me emails.

And then instead of me reading email by email,

What I do,

I wait maybe a week and then I go back to that.

I filter by the company name and then I read all the emails all at once.

And then that's for me to way more efficient than reading one email today,

Five minutes,

Another email tomorrow.

I would rather wait for them to send me all the information all at once.

And then I will read it all at once.

That's really good for email sequences that are value based,

For example,

That they have like a concept,

Strategies,

A little course,

And they spread it in 10 days,

For example.

I don't like just reading one day and then waiting for the next one.

Sometimes I want to do the whole thing all at once.

It really helps my brain to understand the whole picture.

And then I can go back and do it again if I need to.

So that's why I wait and then I do everything all at once.

So I am a firm believer that some form of detox is necessary for awareness,

A physical sensation craving kicks in that reveals how addicted you are.

Amy,

I completely and 100% agree with you.

Some sort of digital detox,

It is necessary for you to be able to detach yourself from those devices,

From those apps and notice how you feel.

Notice what's happening.

And again,

The amount of time is going to be different for each of you.

I was able to do a week because I set my intention and I was really strong about it.

And my wife was supporting me and I was going to be sharing in my life.

So I had a lot of motivation behind doing this.

Sometimes I will not be able to do a whole week because maybe I don't want to,

But maybe I can do two hours or maybe I can say this Sunday morning,

I am going to go with my daughter.

We're going to go to the bakery.

We're going to go to the park.

And I am not bringing the phone with me.

And I will do that and I will just leave the home at home.

Or sometimes I will put my phone in silence or on airplane mode and I will have it in my pocket so that I can still snap photos.

I can still make videos,

But I don't have access to internet.

I don't have access to anything.

So that the phone is there.

If I need to make a phone call,

I can,

But I'm not reachable.

I'm not distracted and I don't have the access to it.

So that's another way.

So just try to test again.

Be curious,

Guys.

Be flexible.

Start testing different ideas,

Different strategies,

Different approaches,

And then notice how you feel.

Notice your behaviors,

Your habits.

Are you feeling better?

Are you noticing your behaviors changing?

And then you will start noticing what's working and what's not for you.

Okay.

Yeah.

So Amy says Matthew and I took a course for entrepreneurs.

They had a full section.

They wanted to hook in people with strategies to get,

To get them to give your,

The email address is manipulative.

Yeah.

Amy,

It can be manipulation.

Ideally what companies will do is like,

They will have a really nice offering that is also helpful.

And then you will subscribe to the emails and then you will receive value from those emails.

And then for those people who want to take it to the next level,

Then those people may pay for extra stuff.

Okay.

That's the idea.

Majority of the time,

That's not the true.

Majority of the time,

Some companies are going to use psychology.

I cannot use any strategy they can to make you buy and spend money in something that maybe you don't even need,

But they will play with psychology,

With triggers,

With emotions,

With so many things that they know work and they will start testing stuff and see what's work,

What's working and what's not.

That's why I feel that you don't have to be a slave of that.

You don't have to be a victim of that.

And if you give them an email address that you don't check every day and you don't care about,

Your attention is not going to be theirs.

Okay.

You are choosing when you are connecting to that email and when you are looking at their emails.

It's not them interrupting you in your inbox when you are working or when you are trying to plan stuff with friends.

See,

That's the huge difference.

That's you are,

You are winning this battle by being more intentional than them.

That's the,

That's the whole idea here.

Intention,

Becoming aware of what you want and then being intentional,

Way more intentional to make the changes that you require.

Okay.

So Becca says how to set up multiple email addresses.

I have just one always.

So how do I get my subscriptions to go to other addresses?

So Becca,

In my case,

I use Gmail,

For example,

You can use any other platform.

Okay.

I go to Gmail and I find a name that is available.

And then I open a new email account.

And then after I will go to the subscriptions that I want,

And I will just subscribe with that email address.

And I will have subscribed from my old email address.

So what I will do,

I will go to your current email address and I will start looking at subscriptions that you have.

And then you will see one.

And then you ask yourself,

Do I want this?

Yes or no?

No.

I'll subscribe and forget about it.

Yes,

I want this.

You will go to the website,

Subscribe with a new email address and unsubscribe from the current one.

Or you can check on that on the preferences and you can change your email address.

Okay.

That's another idea that you can do.

I hope that was helpful.

Okay.

So Alexa says I work yesterday without my phone.

I take my working time on the oven before I left the house and after I returned.

Amazing,

Alexa.

So you were very mindful and you were in the present moment.

And this is the secret,

Guys.

The phone doesn't have to be your enemy.

Technology doesn't have to be your enemy.

It can be your friend and it can actually help you thrive more in life if you are intentional.

If you are intentional,

If you recognize what's working,

What's not,

And you can be more intentional that the people designing the apps,

The people designing the emails and the people trying to get your attention when you don't want to give it.

So that's why you have to start becoming more aware of the things that are bothering you,

The habits that are no longer working for you.

Start questioning everything that you use in your digital world and start being more intentional.

Start asking better questions.

How can I hit inbox zero?

How can I be more intentional with my email?

How can I spend less time scrolling when I don't want to do it?

And then start being curious,

Implementing,

Testing,

Tweaking,

And then doing digital detoxes in a way that feels good to you.

I think that's really important.

Even if you spend 45 minutes without the phone,

That's already a huge amount of time for some people that they are constantly checking,

Checking,

Checking.

Being able to do that,

It's going to help you start recognizing like,

Wow,

Like I don't have to be connected all every single minute.

OK.

Yeah,

So Becca says helpful.

Yes,

Thank you.

It will be time consuming.

So I need to decide how much time I want to invest.

Yeah,

Of course,

Guys,

Every change that you are making is going to take time.

And this is not something that is going to be short term.

Like if you have 10,

000 emails to check,

It's going to take time for you to go through this.

But if you start implementing something new now,

The future is going to be easier for you.

That's the that's the that's what we're trying to do here.

Create a new strategy that will serve you better in the future.

OK,

So guys,

Thank you so much for for attending today.

Thank you so much for all your ideas,

For sharing all the challenges,

For being so aware of your situation.

I always find that when you are aware,

When you start noticing things,

Then you have an opportunity to start changing them.

But so many times we don't even allow ourselves the time to become aware,

To notice.

And that's why sessions like this one.

That's why doing a small digital detox,

Separating yourself from those devices and noticing what's going on,

That's going to help you start recognizing those toxic habits that you may have that are affecting your life and your mental health and your relationships and your efficiency.

OK,

And then you will start taking action with more intention and with more motivation.

Always keeping in mind what you are looking for,

The goal,

The outcome that is going to be rewarding,

It's going to be beneficial for you.

OK,

That's what's going to keep you motivated and engaged in keeping that intention when it gets hard and the addiction kind of kicks in.

OK,

Yeah.

So,

Guys,

Thank you so much.

Let's do a couple of deep breaths to check out today.

I invite you to just sit comfortably if you can and close your eyes.

OK,

And then just take a couple of deep breaths with me.

Thank you so much.

I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and I will see you next week on Tuesday,

Where we are going to be talking about executive functioning skills in action.

We're going to be talking about several examples on how these skills work,

How they interact with each other and how sometimes when we are facing a challenge,

We can have different angles to look at it so that we can start implementing different strategies and changing the way we do things in different ways,

Depending on what skill we are being challenged with.

It's going to be really good.

I know it's going to be helpful and I hope to see you guys then.

OK,

Have a beautiful weekend.

Adios.

Reviews

Brilliant thank you so much. Am sharing with clients and friends 😊 Much Love

Wonderful talk! Thank you. Trying to get this under control and you provide great tips 🙏🏻❤️🌺.