Shrinking Google Storage with Atomic Habits: My Data Diet Journey
Welcome to the world of strategic decluttering, where I wield the wisdom of Atomic Habits to trim my bloated (free) Google storage from a hefty 14GB to a sleek 5GB. Let’s explore how each principle from James Clear’s Atomic Habits is guiding my digital cleanup crusade.
Background: I was using nearly 14GB of storage on Google, mostly on Gmail. I knew that a large portion of this is unwanted email that I should delete. So the prompts from Google to pay for storage felt like extortion — I was going to pay for storing junk. I wanted to delete all the junk, but going through 15+ years of email to delete junk just wasn’t exciting.
Having recently read (or, technically, listened to) the Atomic Habits book by James Clear, I thought about taking a leaf from it to take charge of my storage use on Google. My Google storage is now down to 11GB, and I have a habit of reducing it by at least 100MB every day. The annoying prompts from Google to buy storage have gone away — and I feel better about reducing old clutter.
I am sharing here what I am doing. This also serves as a pubic contract for me — I aim to bring my storage down to below 5GB, and I am committing to writing a follow up to this when that does happen.
Making It Obvious: The Trigger for Action. In Atomic Habits, the first step is to make the cue for the desired habit obvious. My digital equivalent was setting up a pinned tab on Chrome, pointing to storage manager on Google, displaying large emails needing deletion. This tab acted as a constant, in-my-face reminder each time I booted up my laptop, ensuring I couldn’t ignore my mission to declutter.
Make It Attractive: The Daily Deletion Deal. Every day, I deleted at least 100MB worth of unwanted emails. Making a habit attractive ensures you’ll want to perform it. For me, breaking down the daunting task into daily bites of 100MB deletions transformed the process from a Herculean challenge into an achievable daily goal. This bite-sized approach made the habit appealing and manageable, turning a tedious task into a satisfying daily achievement.
Make It Easy: The Seamless Integration. Before I do anything else on my laptop when I first open it in the morning, I first go to the pinned tab on the browser, and do my daily deletion. The book emphasizes the importance of making habits easy to adopt. Integrating the email purge into my existing routine of starting my workday was my way of simplifying the task. Opening my laptop and immediately tackling the pinned tab became a no-brainer part of my daily workflow, exemplifying the principle of reducing friction to make habits stick.
Make It Satisfying: Tracking Progress. Gmail shows me the total storage used at the bottom of the page. That number has slowly gone down as I’ve kept up my daily habit. The reward, or making the habit satisfying, is crucial for its long-term adoption. The decreasing number on Gmail’s storage meter provided instant gratification and a visual representation of my progress. This visible reduction in clutter was my daily pat on the back, encouraging me to continue.
Public Accountability: The Unspoken Contract. Though not explicitly outlined in Atomic Habits, public accountability can reinforce commitment to habit change. Sharing my goal with friends, family, and my blog readers created a sense of responsibility and external expectation, much like a habit contract, pushing me to stay on track and reach my storage goal.
Why Bother? The Value Beyond the Gigabytes
You might wonder, “Why go through the hassle for a mere $24/year?” Here’s the crux of the matter: it’s not just about the money or the storage — it’s about control and the slippery slope of dependency.
Taking Charge of Digital Clutter Spending just 3–4 minutes daily to manage my Google storage isn’t a chore; it’s my assertion of control over my digital life. Every email deleted, every file cleared, reinforces my command over my digital footprint, rather than it controlling me. This daily act of decluttering goes beyond mere tidiness; it’s a ritual of empowerment, ensuring I remain the master of my digital domain.
Avoiding the Slippery Slope. The decision to not upgrade my storage is also a stand against a potential slippery slope. Today it’s 100GB for $2/month, but what about tomorrow? Once you start paying for convenience, it’s easy to keep justifying more and more expenses, leading to a potential trap of never-ending upgrades. By keeping my storage in check, I avoid becoming hostage to a system where I’m perpetually buying more to accommodate excess.
In essence, these daily minutes spent managing my storage are an investment in my digital autonomy. They remind me that in a world where we are constantly nudged towards more consumption, choosing to streamline and manage what I have is a powerful stand. This routine is not just about saving dollars or data; it’s about maintaining personal integrity and freedom in the digital age.
