I Don't Need Better Habits. I Need Fewer Things.

Deleting > optimizing.

I want to start the year feeling fresh—not just physically, but mentally.

When we talk about decluttering, we usually jump straight to our stuff: cleaning out drawers, donating clothes, clearing the freezer. That can be satisfying, but I’ve noticed the things that overwhelm me most aren’t what’s in my home but what’s taking up space in my brain.

The thing about digital and mental clutter is that it can stealthily build until you finally reach the point of utter overwhelm. Open tabs, crowded inboxes, bloated camera rolls, emails you marked “important” in October and never opened again.

So today I’m sharing a few small resets to help clear some of that noise - simple ways to start the year feeling lighter and make things easier for your future self.

1. Get your open tabs under control.

Or just delete them all? It will be okay, I promise. I use the free OneTab extension when things pile up, and the built-in “tab groups” feature in Google Chrome to help me monotask vs. have a gazillion tabs open.

2. Clear out your Downloads and Screenshots folders.

If you’re anything like me, there are hundreds or thousands of unnecessary files taking up storage space. It will free up so much storage space and you’ll feel so much better. You can sort by file size or file type, if needed.

bye

To future-proof this task:

• Set a reminder to do a monthly cleanup. It’ll take five minutes, tops.

• Examine what you’re typically screenshotting and set up a better system. Can you send them to a specific folder, Pinterest, or a specific album if you find that you’re typically screenshotting visual inspiration?

• If you screenshot a lot on your phone, I like the trick of sending your screenshot straight into a Note. That way, it’s not clogging up your camera roll, and you can type in any additional context so you can search for it later

  

  1) after you screenshot, tap the share arrow and select the Notes app. 2) type any context about what you just screenshotted. 3) go back to your screenshot and delete it.

Extra cred:

• Clean out your Bookmarks folder and your Bookmarks Bar. Chances are, you don’t need half the links anymore. Delete, delete, delete.

• Clear out your Desktop. While you’re at it, create a fresh background for your Desktop. What mood are you hoping to bring into 2026?

3. Edit down your camera roll.

If you’re overwhelmed by this task (I am), the GetSorted app has been recommended by many readers.

I like the “search today’s date” method: Open the Photos app, search for today’s date (i.e., “January 14”), and delete all the photos over the years taken on that date that you don’t need to keep. An easy, daily task that usually takes about ten minutes. Again, a daily recurring reminder can help here. It’s usually a quick, mindless task.

4. Centralize and share your household’s to-do list.

Dumping it all onto this list means we don’t have to store the info in our brains. Sharing it with your spouse or someone else in your household means you’re not dealing with the full mental load alone. I recommend a shared:

• Household shopping list. This can get overwhelming, so write down what you need right now, and everything else can go to the “paused” section.

  

  The Reminders app rules my life…

• Home admin list. This is where recurring stuff goes, like “wash bedsheets” or “change out the air filter.” You can add seasonal reminders too, like “time to sign up for summer camps” or “time to book family photos.” Don’t try to remember this stuff yourself; make the robots remember it!

• Grocery list. More on this below.

• Household calendar. Because calendars are basically to-do lists, right?

5. Outsource the annoying little life admin tasks.

I recently re-downloaded the “executive assistant for your personal life” app Duckbill because there were a few tasks I was dreading, and I realized I could simply…not do them myself.

For example, the app helped me arrange a furniture pickup + donation last week (to empty out the new nursery) and called local dance studios to confirm scheduling and availability for our toddler. No research, no phone calls, no follow-ups on my end.

It’s hands-down one of the easiest ways I’ve found to get life admin off my plate. The app’s mix of AI and real human support is so smart and makes handling your tasks that much faster. You can try Duckbill for free for a month with code DOWNTIME, plus get 50 free credits ($300+ value) to start getting that sh*t off your plate!*

on my 2026 vision board: caregiving and carefree

6. Clear your to-do list. Yes, really.

Oh, do you also have an ongoing to-do list filled with well-meaning things you know you’ll never get to? Be honest with yourself. Are you ever going to “Go antiquing for a new accent chair?” Delete delete delete. The important stuff will float back up. Try to keep your frequently visited to-do list to short-term, high-priority tasks only.

7. Clean up your books-to-read list.

I have the same rationale as the above: be so real with yourself. Are you really going to read all those books? Edit the list down or start fresh. Declare TBR bankruptcy. It will be okay!

I recently restarted and consolidated mine into one Notion database, added the source for each rec, and split the list into this month vs. someday. Choosing my next book feels manageable again.

I could add book cover images to make this look more exciting.

8. Automate your grocery shopping and meal planning.

Keep a master list of:

• the recipes you’ve cooked and liked

• recipes you want to try

• and a standard grocery list template of all the stuff you typically buy every week.-

Not a perfect system, but I like to give star ratings to "recipes we like" and "Lily approved recipes"

I like to keep a separate “this week’s meals” list in my Reminders app, where I pull the meals I’m cooking that week:

Extra cred: I’ve started ordering my groceries. We live five minutes from the store, which feels mildly embarrassing, but in my third trimester—with work, OB appointments, and a toddler—this is a task I’m happily outsourcing for now. The service fee is worth the hour it gives me back.

9. Clear off your desk.

I strongly believe that a clear space means a clear mind.

Mine looked like a tornado hit it until January 1st. After the Q4 chaos ended, I cleared everything out—packages, PR mailers, stray paperwork—bought a new desk (as a motivating factor, ofc), and vowed not to let it get that out of hand again. My brain is grateful.

My oak desk is from here, bought during a holiday sale. This is my laptop stand.

10. Streamline your inbox.

I could write a whole post about this, but here are a few tips:

• Unsubscribe from everything you possibly can. Try this for a week and see how it feels. As soon as an email from a mailing list hits your inbox this week, make a decision: keep getting emails from them or unsubscribe?

• Set up filters to send anything you know is non-urgent to the Archives with a label (in Gmail). I do this for my Substack newsletters. That way, rather than being bombarded by a gazillion letters on Tuesday morning in my Inbox, I can go to my Archives, filter by my “Substack” label, and read emails when I’m ready. Intentionality > immediacy.

  

  I mark new newsletters as “to read.” Any newsletters I love and want to reference later get a “to keep” label. Newsletters I want to share with you get a “link out” label. :)

• Use email templates. This is a baked-in feature in Gmail. I use these all the time for saving my mailing address, requesting book galleys…and on and on.

• Use the snooze button with abandon. Anything that requires action, but I know I won’t get to that day, gets snoozed.

11. Write stuff down and go analog.

I write down my to-do list each day with a pen and paper. Yes, I have a copy of my to-do list on my laptop/in the cloud, but things feel so much better and clearer in my head when I simply write things down. Plus, it’s fun to cross things off. (Erika Veurink just wrote a helpful post on this.)

12. Buy less shit!

Politely say “no” to more stuff entering your home, even if it’s free (a concept recently written about by Laura Fenton here.) The less stuff that’s flowing in, the less stuff you have to mentally manage to eventually get out.

For me, this also means less shopping, less picking up random things from Target when I’m there, not buying back-up beauty products “just in case” I run out of my current supply, saying no to most PR gifts, and generally just being more mindful of what enters our space.

13. Turn off your notifications.

Set up a “Work” or similar do-not-disturb mode that lets only important people contact you (like your spouse, parents, etc.) or any specific apps you need for work (Slack, email, etc.). You can also go into your Settings per app and turn off unnecessary notifications.

14. Make one central shopping wishlist for yourself.

When something makes your brain go ooh, drop the link there. I don’t treat mine as a to-buy list—it’s a place to park impulses and revisit them later. Most of the time, the urge passes. Money, time, and mental space, saved.

15. Boss Siri around.

When I’m on a walk, and I suddenly remember a to-do, I ask Siri to remind me to X by Y date. I’ve also leaned more into voice dictation for notes and other things that pop up that I want to get out of my brain → onto a page.

Endnotes & Links

• Some past Downtime letters that are relevant: How we split up household chores in our household. And the very freeing “just get rid of it” method.

• I just popped this onto my to-read list: What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life by Allison Daminger.

pretty much (source: The New Yorker)

*Thank you to Duckbill for supporting today’s letter.

Subscribe to Downtime here. Email me at hi@alisharamos.com to work together.