All of it is mine and I want more
Everything I've already forgotten
There’s something I’ve been sitting on for a while, sort of like laying a Drafting egg. Today it hatches. I have named him, ‘thoughts about digital cluttering’. Not sure I’ll find that on a keyring.
Christ. I mean it’s the very foundation all of this *gesticulates furiously* rests upon. By this, I mean Drafting. When I first launched a Substack of my very own back in October and wrote a “coming soon” post, I wrote a little something to myself about the difficulty I had in committing. In part, this was your run-of-the-mill fear of failure. But also, an inability to grasp the bigger picture. I struggled to see the full scope of everything I had to offer creatively. All my ideas were floating around my head and I genuinely didn’t know where to find it all or how to piece it together in its existing digital format.
I have ummed, ahhed, deliberated and agonised over it. Especially the “plan” and the “strategy” of it all. I’ve actually ended up getting a little too caught up. Hiding behind the pretence of preparation. It’s a classic move of mine. The fear takes hold and subtly prevents me from just doing it.
I’ve convinced myself that all the snippets, ideas and topics I’ve been mulling over for months should have some kind of order or be better before they can be shared. Now, that goes against everything “Drafting” stands for.
I have “stuff” everywhere. I am bound to the to-do lists I type out for myself each morning and struggle to think clearly when I have too many thoughts whizzing around my brain. So, I write things down on my notes phone app, on Word, on Google Docs. I have screenshots I don’t remember the relevance of. Every year, I need to buy more iCloud storage because of all the photos and videos I’ve accumulated. I haven’t looked at them since they were taken but I just can't get rid. I cannot bear the thought of deleting FaceBook despite never using it. I am hellbent on preserving my personal online archive. Including, but not limited to, reems of cringe-worthy teenage messages and too many embarrassing photos to count. I am by all accounts a digital hoarder.
We are in the age of information overload. We are a society of doomscrollers. Faces glued to screens and phones attached to hands like an extra limb. We’re more stressed, anxious and sleep deprived than ever before. I often get completely overwhelmed with the amount of digital “stuff” I have cluttering up my mind. If all the digital assets I owned turned into tangible objects I would drown in them. Then need to rent an entire storage unit or ten to stuff it all in. It goes against human nature to have so many possessions to think and worry about. I desperately need to Marie Kondo my laptop before I fling it out the window.
I read the
newsletter and a few weeks ago, talked about reading Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain. A book dedicated to helping you organise your most valued ideas, notes and creative work in more efficient and inspiring ways. Marlee has since felt incentivised by the idea of building “a garden of knowledge”.We have so many ideas that we don’t know if they should be stickers, classes, books, or something else entirely. We can start anywhere. We can begin again. The willingness to begin is not a miracle though. It is an act of faith in ourselves and the service of our art, writing, objects, and work.
Eureka. This is exactly how I feel. I get blocked creatively at times because I don’t know how to build and nurture my garden of digital knowledge. I struggle to locate where I’ve stored away all my inspiration. But, I also sometimes use this as an excuse if I’m feeling scared about the work I’m creating…
In the newsletter, Marlee goes on to say:
If we wait until we are ready, we will never fully give in to the mystery of creation.
This was such beautiful validation for the whole concept of Drafting. A reminder that things can’t and shouldn’t always be perfect or neat and tidy. But it’s no use to be so disorganised to the point of losing your creativity entirely.
So herein lies my homework. To digitally declutter and cultivate a second brain that’s easy to draw upon, doesn’t overwhelm me and has an open invitation to big magical ideas.
In what ways have you found that digital clutter and information overload have impacted your life?