Lauren Miller 🥉

The thing that finally stuck was one 'Follow-up' label and ruthless archiving. If it needs attention, I star it and snooze for a realistic day & then archive everything else immediately. Weekly review of that label catches stragglers without me re-reading the same stuff ten times.

Pick one app to be your home base and let the other be a safety net. If you choose Apple Photos, on iPhone go to Settings > Photos, turn on iCloud Photos and Optimize iPhone Storage, then in Google Photos tap your profile > Photos settings > Backup and turn Back up off to stop double uploads. If you choose Google Photos, do the reverse and turn off iCloud Photos so you are not managing two masters. On a Mac or PC keep a full resolution copy by downloading everything to one machine. on a Mac open Photos > Settings > iCloud and choose Download Originals to this Mac, then back that machine up with Time Machine to an external drive and a second cloud backup. Do one 20 minute session on the first weekend of each month and ignore it the rest of the time. Start with quick wins in Albums > Media Types like Screenshots, Screen Recordings, and Bursts. In a burst tap Select and Keep Only 1, then delete the rest. Then open Recents for last month and make one pass only. Tap Favorite on keepers, delete obvious junk, and move receipts or manuals to Archive in Google Photos or to the Hidden album in Apple Photos so they stop cluttering memories. Use built in cleanup tools. In Apple Photos go to Albums > Utilities > Duplicates and Merge, and in Google Photos open Library > Utilities and use the storage tools to review duplicates and blurry photos. Keep tagging minimal so it sticks and lean on what the apps already do like People, Places, dates, and search. Make a few evergreen albums such as Family, Travel, House, and Work, and add only your Favorites to them so they self curate. If you have a Mac, batch add simple keywords a few times a year by selecting photos, pressing Command I, and typing a keyword like 2024 Travel, then make Smart Albums that auto gather those. If you ever want an exit plan, export by year with File > Export > Export Unmodified Originals and choose subfolders by year or month, and keep that export on the same external drive as your backup.

I also work remotely and the only thing that stuck was treating the end of work like landing a plane. I block 10 minutes to close tabs, jot tomorrow's top three, and then a scheduled Focus/Do Not Disturb kicks in at 8:30 that hides social, email, and news and flips my phone to grayscale. Then I do a quick transition ritual (short walk, stretch, shower) so my brain gets a new cue that the day is over. The phone goes on a charger in the kitchen and stays there; I use an alarm clock, and I whitelist family in case of emergencies. That one bit of distance makes it annoying enough that I don't drift into doomscrolling by accident. The other piece was replacing, not just removing. I pre-stage a wind-down kit on the couch: paper book or e-ink reader, a puzzle or knitting, a foam roller, and sleepy tea, so there's zero friction when I sit down. Audio is my bridge when my brain still wants content — podcast or audiobook with the screen off and a 30-minute sleep timer. I add tiny speed bumps: hide social apps from the home screen, require search to open them, set app timers after 9, and use a one-breath blocker that makes me pause 10 seconds before they open. If I really want screen comfort, I use a two-screen rule: TV from across the room, phone in another room, which is way less sticky than vertical scrolling. I track wins as phone parked by 9 nights per week; hitting 4–5 nights already improved my sleep a lot.

The only thing that stopped my late night doomscrolling was adding friction and a ritual. I plug my phone in across the room and use a cheap alarm clock, so getting to it requires getting out of bed. I also made the phone boring at night using the built in settings. On iPhone, go to Settings > Focus > Sleep and schedule it for an hour before bed with no people or apps allowed, then in Settings > Screen Time turn on Downtime for the same window and set Always Allowed to just Phone and Clock and give Social and News strict App Limits. On Android, open Settings > Digital Wellbeing > Bedtime mode, schedule it nightly, turn on grayscale and Do Not Disturb, and set App timers for your problem apps. Grayscale helps a lot because the feeds stop looking rewarding, and the taps feel pointless after a few minutes. I also moved the worst apps off my home screen and logged out of them after 9 pm, so I have to type a password if I want in. I set a 10 minute timer labeled last scroll, and when it goes off I swap to a paper book and a small warm lamp, or I put on a sleep podcast with a 15 minute auto stop and face the phone down. If my brain keeps grabbing for the phone, I scribble tomorrow worries in a notebook, take three slow breaths, and tell myself I can check in the morning. It took about a week for the urge to fade, but once the routine stuck I fell asleep faster and stopped waking up tired.