Imagine you are a person who loves shoes. Sure, some people are able to get along fine with, say, 3-5 pairs of shoes. They have some sneakers, a few dressy pairs for work, and some sandals. They keep them in the bottom of their closet. They don’t think about them much.
But not you. You LOVE shoes. You have more than 50 pairs of shoes. You are always on the lookout for the newest styles. You see other people wearing interesting shoes and you ask them where they bought them so you can get a pair for yourself. And everyone in your life knows you love shoes, so people are always telling you about shoe sales or wanting your advice on what’s in style.
You have a problem, though. You have tons of shoes but no way to organize them. You certainly don’t want to get rid of any, but you also don’t want to be the kind of crazy person who has a dedicated walk-in closet for shoes. That seems over-indulgent, too cumbersome, too complicated. So instead, you keep a mountain of boxes in the corner of your bedroom. Every day, you pull a pair out from the middle and the whole tower collapses. You curse the shoes. They are always in the way! But what can you do? You’re stuck. You don’t want to limit yourself to five pairs of shoes, but it seems like so much trouble to create an organized home for the shoes. You’re in the gap, and it’s painful. If you can just accept that you are the kind of person who wants a fancy shoe closet (and why not?!), you can put things in order and enjoy all those wonderful shoes to the fullest.
Now, let’s rewind our story and replace those beautiful shoes with delightful new technologies.
You are a person who likes to be connected. Sure, some people have a Yahoo email address and a Facebook account and they call it a day. They don’t think about it too much.
But not you. You want it all! Beautiful photos, apps that track your workout or your goals or books you’ve ready. You need Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram (oh, HE-llo old high school frenemies)! You take photos of your fancy dinner out and your dog while he’s sleeping. You read blogs (Jenna’s Workshop every day, of course!). You write reminders in note apps and start to-do lists and make lists of books to read and articles you want to circle back to because you haven’t had the time to read them and on and on and on. The possibilities are endless!
But you have a problem. You have 1,000 photos on your phone and can never figure out how to organize them. You have so many apps vying for space that you have to conduct a monthly Hunger Games-style culling to keep from running out of storage. You have accounts on over 100 apps and websites, and you try to remember as many passwords as possible (or use the same one for all of them, YIKES!). But you don’t want to have a photo organization system, or use a password app, or have a process to keep your email under control. That seems like overkill, too cumbersome, too complicated. You have so many apps already, you don’t need MORE! But you also don’t want to jump on the minimalism bandwagon and miss out on all the great things technology has to offer. You are stressed out!
You’re in the gap, my friend.
But don’t despair! I’ve got some ideas that will help you bridge the gap and make your way to the other side, where a little bit more of the RIGHT technology can make a world of difference. And I’ll be sharing some of these ideas with you over the next few weeks!
In the meantime, sign up for my inaugural (and occasional) newsletter so you never miss a post! I’ll also include some fun extras that aren’t on my blog!
– Jenna
