Digital Spring Cleaning: Deepening Our GRIT Journey

Digital Spring Cleaning: Deepening Our GRIT Journey

Hey there,

Last week, we began our April journey through Digital Spring Cleaning with the Monthly GRIT Framework—exploring how passion, perseverance, growth, and resilience can transform our relationship with technology. Today, I want to weave these concepts together more deeply, offering practical approaches that honor both your technical brilliance and your body's wisdom as we continue this journey.

Spring Special: Feeling overwhelmed by your current tech stack? I'm offering 30-minute Tech Stack Audit calls for just $55 (regular price $70) until April 30th. We'll review your current digital tools, identify redundancies, and create a streamlined system that works with your brain instead of against it. Book your session here.

Main Feature: Systems That Serve Your Brain

Building on our Passion Pulse discussion from last week, let's explore how to create digital environments that truly align with your neurodivergent thinking patterns.

Traditional file hierarchies rarely match how our brains naturally categorize information. When we examined your software subscriptions last week, we focused on which tools bring you joy. Now, let's take it deeper by exploring how these tools can be organized to support your unique cognitive style:

• Context Containers: Create separate digital environments for different areas of your life using different browsers or user profiles. This reduces the cognitive load of context-switching, which can be particularly taxing for neurodivergent brains.

  • Personal Example: I use Firefox for my focused work tasks, DuckDuckGo browser for exploring less grounded projects I want to play with first, and Firefox Developer Edition exclusively for development work. This browser-based separation creates distinct "workspaces" that help my brain immediately understand which context I'm operating in, significantly reducing the mental effort needed to transition between different types of work.

• Energy-Based Organization: Rather than organizing by project or category, try sorting digital tasks by the energy they require. Create folders or tags for "low executive function days," "creative energy," or "deep focus work" to match your fluctuating capacity.

  • Personal Example: I typically have similar energy levels week by week, so I divide my week into energy-centered tasks: Mondays for writing and drafting content (high creative energy), Wednesdays for "on camera" days (high social energy), Thursdays for checking in on finances (high analytical energy), and mandatory rest/catch-up periods on Tuesdays and Fridays. This prevents weekend burnout and ensures I get regular recharging periods. You can apply this same principle to your digital organization by grouping tasks and files based on the type of energy they require.

• Visual Clarity Systems: Use color-coding extensively across apps and folders to create intuitive visual patterns that your brain can recognize instantly.

  • Personal Example: I've created custom themes for my main "work" browser (Firefox) and my digital second brain in Obsidian using my Pythoness Programmer brand colors. Having my brand's color palette consistently present across these tools helps me get into the flow state significantly faster, as the visual cues immediately prime my brain for Pythoness Programmer work. The consistent visual identity creates an environmental trigger that helps me transition into the right mindset without conscious effort.

This approach connects directly to last week's journal prompt about which tools bring you joy—because true joy comes not just from having the right tools, but from organizing them in ways that feel intuitive to your unique brain.

In our Perseverance Points section last week, we discussed creating contingency plans for tech challenges like the Next.js security concerns. A powerful way to extend this resilience is through thoughtful automation—creating systems that work for you rather than creating more demands.

Automation can be especially valuable for neurodivergent individuals who experience time blindness or hyperfocus. Consider these approaches that build on last week's contingency planning:

• Use apps like Freedom to block distracting websites during focused work periods

• Set up automatic shutdown timers on devices to support work/life boundaries

• Use Momentum Dash to create a consistent "new tab" experience across all chromium-based browsers with to-do lists, favorite links, and focus features. Their newer Google Calendar sync automatically puts you in focus mode until your next appointment without any additional effort. It's one of my favorite paid browser extensions and has been transformative for maintaining focus across different workspaces.

• Create email filters that sort messages by urgency or topic

• Implement text expanders for frequently typed information

The "Focus" feature on Apple devices allows you to create customized modes that automatically filter notifications based on what you're doing. Similar features are available on Android through Digital Wellbeing.

These automation strategies directly address the tech disappointments we reflected on last week by creating systems that continue functioning smoothly even when individual tools present challenges.

Quick Tip: Permission-Based Organization

Remember last week's Growth Gauge where I encouraged you to play with your software settings? Many of you shared that while this felt liberating, you still experienced anxiety about "doing it wrong." Today, I want to offer you a concept that's been game-changing for my neurodivergent clients: permission-based organization.

This approach acknowledges that executive function fluctuates and builds flexibility into your systems:

• Create an "executive function pending" folder for files you can't organize right now

• Use voice memos when writing feels too demanding (tools like Otter.ai can transcribe these later)

• Set up "future you" systems with detailed notes for when you return to projects

  Personal Example: I use the Plaud Note app to capture all my long-form thoughts, favorite quotes, ideas, and meeting notes via voice. The app allows me to keep voice notes unprocessed on my device for days until I have the energy to classify and organize them. This creates a perfect "future me" system where I can brain dump whenever inspiration strikes, without the immediate cognitive load of having to categorize or transcribe the information. Plus the app will use AI to create mind maps and more of your voice note for you.

Tool Spotlight: Digital Spring Cleaning Toolkit

To support the Grit Goals you set last week, here are some neurodivergent-friendly tools that expand on the organization strategies we've discussed:

For Visual Thinkers:

• Canva Whiteboard: Create visual plans and maps directly within Canva, which many of you already use for other design tasks

• Mermaid.js: Generate beautiful flowcharts and diagrams with simple JavaScript code (AI tools can help create these even if you're not a coder)

• Arc Browser: Customize the CSS of websites you visit regularly to create a consistent, joy-sparking visual experience across the web

For Auditory Processors:

• Plaud.ai: AI-powered voice note app that creates mindmaps and organized transcriptions

• Otter.ai: Automatically transcribe spoken notes and conversations

• Loom: Create and share quick video messages with screen recording for visual communication without meetings

For Pattern Thinkers:

• Obsidian: Connect notes through concept linking and visualization

• Make.com or N8N: Create powerful automated workflows between apps with more flexibility and control than traditional automation tools

• Home Assistant: Open-source home automation that gives you full control

Community Corner: Future Connections

In my research on digital spaces that energize rather than deplete, I've found some fascinating patterns emerging!

The most effective digital communities tend to be focused around specific interests rather than broad social platforms. Micro-communities with fewer than 100 active members often feel more manageable and meaningful, while spaces with clear community guidelines and active moderation create the psychological safety needed to participate authentically.

This research has inspired me to begin planning a Pythoness Network Slack Community with specialized interest channels, which I'm aiming to launch this fall. I envision a space where we can share digital organization strategies, workflow tips, and support one another's GRIT journeys in a more interactive way.

In the meantime, I'd love to see how you're applying the GRIT Framework to your digital spring cleaning!

Personal Update: Digital Organization Reality Check

I've been experimenting with my own digital spring cleaning this week, and let me be honest—it's been a mixed bag! While I'd love to say I've created the perfect system, the truth is that I'm still figuring it out alongside you.

One approach that's been surprisingly helpful is simply paying attention to how different digital environments make me feel. Some apps and websites instantly create a sense of overwhelm (hello, Gmail inbox with 1,000+ messages!), while others somehow make tasks feel more manageable.

I'm working on using these reactions as signals, though I don't always listen to them right away. I've found that I often need to experience the friction multiple times before I finally make changes. For example, I kept using a project management tool that stressed me out for months before finally switching to something simpler—and the relief was immediate.

If you're also navigating this digital organization journey, remember that perfect systems don't exist, but better ones do. Start by noticing which digital spaces drain your energy and which ones support your flow, then make small adjustments accordingly.

Next month, we'll explore Mindful Automation—setting up systems that work for you rather than creating more demands. Until then, remember that your unique brain deserves digital spaces designed with its strengths in mind.

With digital care,

Pythoness Programmer