Get Motivated and Organized: Easy Virtual Declutter

This Summer, 2019, I am trying to get organized, stay in routine and focused while taking a Steel Design Summer Class. With a lot of time on my hands this summer I decided to use it to get organized and declutter my life.

My “real-life” decluttering process either involves giving stuff away or throwing them out, but I decided to start organizing the virtual part of my life.That means organizing e-mails, pictures, documents, etc. Over the years, we tend to pile up so many email, pictures, and files and sometimes it is just clutter that distracts us and weighs us down.

It was time for me to get organized.

I started by:

1. Organizing pictures

Deleting old pictures in all my drives  (Dropbox, One Drive, etc)

If there were nights where I had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, I would start deleting some pictures.

If I woke up too early, but didn’t feel like getting up yet, I would start deleting some pictures. Soon my pictures in my One Drive went from 10,000 and change to 7,990.

I also made sure that I wasn’t saving any pictures double or in multiple accounts.

 

2. Then the emails…

Emails were a little easier because I just had to go through inbox and see which daily/ weekly/ monthly subscriptions I was receiving.

For the subscription I didn’t want anymore, I type them in the search bar, selected them all, and deleted them.

To receive less Spam, I also unsubscribed from websites that were not beneficial to me anymore at this point in my life.

If you think you might need their email subscription again, you can always re-subscribe.

This helped me to feel focused and organized because I had less distractions when I opened my Inbox and saw only the emails I needed.

 

3. Now the files/ documents

If you’re like me, you just save your file (Word document, Excel Sheets, Powerpoints, etc) at random locations. So, the next place to organize were the files on my Laptop and Drives.

Make a new folder for each subject or category. For example, I made new folders for each class and added all files pertaining that subject in the folder.

That class folder then went into another folder that states the Semester.

Delete files that you haven’t used over 3 years and/or do not plan on using it the future.

Starting your decluttering and organizing process with virtual, rather than real- life, first can help you get motivated to get started. It doesn’t require much energy. You can do it while music, laying down, on the train, etc. Another benefit to decluttering your virtual world is the fact that that you won’t have to keep buying extra storage space for any of your drives. It’s also good to let go of the past and make space for new memories!

Now I can move on to the next thing!

Stay tuned…

2020 and Tik Tok Is All I Needed

I’m not sure where to even start with this… Who knew that on Christmas Day 2020, I would be sitting in my 1-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, New York managing my own life and running an online business debating if I should go back to school next semester?

For some people 2020 has been a crazy year but for me it has opened up opportunities and connections.

2 years ago (Christmas 2018) I was in the Netherlands spending time with my family. It was my first time being there. I enjoyed it to the best of my ability because at that time I was suffering from heavy anxiety and would get random panic attacks during the day. I chose to go to the Netherlands because I needed to take a semester off. I left in September and came back to New York on New Years Eve. At that time, I was living with my ex- boyfriend. I thought I would find no way out. I did not want to be with him anymore, but he controlled everything including the finances because I was still in school. I was miserable, sick, depressed, and had disabling anxiety for most of my time with him.

To understand my 2020 better, here is my timeline:

2019

January – August: My semester started, and I was back in school after taking a break.

 I lived with my ex. I was seeing different doctors trying to figure out why I was so ill all the time. I lost over 20 lbs at this point from throwing up and being unable to eat. I started therapy and medications for depression, anxiety, and insomnia. I was desperately looking for solutions. This was the first time I ever felt like this. My ex was very controlling and invasive. I do not want to go too much in debt about the relationship, but at this point I was severely underweight and my medications were not helping. My therapist and doctors were advising me to leave that environment. I spent my summer seeing doctors trying to learn about what was wrong with me and how I could make this anxiety go away.

August – September: I found a way to leave.

I found a way out by requesting a private student loan and was waiting for funds to come through while looking for places around my school without my ex knowing. After one month of planning, I eventually left my ex on September 29^th. It took me 9 months of therapy and 3 different medications to have the courage, confidence, trust, and guts to walk away. While looking for places, I also found a gig, that needed me for child-care every Thursday after my classes were over. I knew I was going to need whatever extra money to start this journey alone.

October – December 2019 : Moved and settling into my new place.

My anxiety started drastically going down. Panic attacks happened very rarely (maybe 1 during those 3 months compared to having 5 in one day before). I was still on medication, living in an empty apartment with a bed and whatever I could afford to move from my ex’s place. Remember the family that asked me to watch their kid every Thursday? They asked me to go to out of town with them for the week to help out with the kids! This was perfect! It was right before the holidays and I needed the money to pay off my credit cards and other expenses. I accepted while still struggling with my anxiety and depression.

2020

January – March: COVID lockdown

At this point, I was still living of my student loan and that would soon end. I knew that I would need a job to cover the rest of the year’s rent. I could not request another loan because my credit was very poor. I had no idea what I was going to do. I was trying to make my online store on Etsy work, but it wasn’t going anywhere. In March, my campus decided to shut down and go online. I have been thinking about coming of my medications for a while and decided that this was the perfect time to do so. I used the lockdown as an opportunity to stop my antidepressants, anxiety, and sleeping meds cold turkey. I knew that I would have withdrawal symptoms because by March I was on them for 1 year and 3 months. My body was already used to the medication, so the lockdown was the perfect time to stay home and take care of the symptoms.

April – August: Full- time Job and Business  

Around April / May the same family needed childcare full time since their other nanny was a high risk for COVID and could not come in. Of course, I jumped on this right away.  Aside from my non- performing Etsy store and my full-time nanny job, I had very little entertainment, so I decided to make a Tik Tok account. I remember scrolling through my For You Page and seeing a Tik Tok of someone making a T shirt at home and that idea inspired me to look into T shirt businesses. As I was researching, I realized that there is a whole industry and business behind selling T shirts online. This idea evolved to different things. I was now learning about making websites, Facebook Advertising, traffic, audiences, and many more things that involve running an online business. I was investing some of the money I was making into my business and paying my rent with the rest. I was barely making ends meet, but I was surviving. The stimulus check also helped out and I was also selling some handmade masks for some pocket money. In May, I decided to change up my Etsy store and try out some new products to sell. In late August, after trying and uploading endless products, my store started bringing in some profit so I kept growing it. I was also looking for a new job because the family I was working for their needs changed.

September -December 2020: I found a new full-time job

The first week of September I started a new job with a new mother who was suffering with her own mental challenges. This made my job very intense and I started noticing that I was unhappy and needed something else. The semester had just started again and I was also working on my online business but this full-time job drained me and I did not have enough time to maintain school, a needy and helicoptering boss, and an online business. I wanted to quit but I was scared that I would not find another job so I stayed for 2-3 months.

At this point it was 5 months after I started on Etsy, and it brought in 2000$ in revenue that month. So in November, I switched gears from Etsy to my own website (that I had started in May but wasn’t using). I did not want to be limited by Etsy and wanted to build my own brand. Etsy gave me an advantage because now I had an idea of the type of products that were selling and what type of audience to market it too. I started looking into Facebook advertisements even more. In mid-November, I started focusing on my own website and spent about a month learning and experimenting with my store. The profits were not that big, but I was testing products, testing audiences, and investing the money back into my store to build a store that can function on a long-term basis. Also, I forgot to mention, I ended up quitting my job during finals week while going through a burnout. After finals week was over (December 18), things started taking off. I quit my job, so I focused full- time on my store, while looking a part-time job. I found a part time job about 2 weeks after quitting and in a matter of 2 (focused) weeks my store was getting traffic and sales and by Christmas (today) my store made over $3k in revenue sales. I grew my online business in a matter of 6 months to make a revenue average of more than my full- time monthly salary.

So how am I starting my new year?

I am starting by letting go. Because I am on my own with no support to lean on, it is automatic for me to worry sick and plan with detail. However, if it is one thing that 2020 has taught me is that you can only plan for so much. This is coming from a person that is obsessed with making lists, plans, organization, and routine. I think 2020 has knocked me off that throne and showed me how things can turn out if you just let things flow.

In the beginning of 2020, I just moved on my own after leaving my ex with 0 dollars in my pocket. I was worried about how I was going to pay my rent this year while in college. But who knew that by the end of the year, I would be debating if I even need a job while running a business? Who knew COVID would happen, and I would get a full – time job offer as a nanny while being able to take my classes online (now I could work full – time while still going to school)?  Who knew that my anxiety would disappear, and I would be off medication with zero panic attacks? Who knew that a Tik Tok would be inspire me to run my own online store and learn so much about e-commerce? Who knew I would leave my nerve wrecking boss just to find another one in 2 weeks? No one would have known or guessed. No amount of planning could have done that. It was all a flow and time. I let things flow while adapting to whatever was going on. There are certain things that do not unfold until it’s the right time. Once I understood that, a big portion of my anxiety that was triggered by worries about the future, disappeared.  

Do I have the job and house I dreamed of at 25 years old?

No. But at 25, I have experience, knowledge, my own apartment, I am paying my own bills, I am running a business from home, working, trying to finish my education, and paying of my debts, all while living through a global pandemic. And I noticed that I am doing way more than I could have ever imagined or dream of doing.

So, I will be starting 2021 with a new part-time job and by hawking data to scale and grow my business. I am kind of upset that I did not know this was possible sooner, but that’s a story for another time.

And oh yeah, Happy Holidays!

Enjoy your holidays and stop worrying because everything will work itself out.

My Fight

I do not seek for your approval

I do not need you to understand

You can’t know what I feel

You will never know who I am

You will surely judge me,

But it’s just the false-self that you see

My true-self I lost before I even became “me”

Stop pretending to comprehend my struggle

For I see your ignorance, and it only creates more trouble

I accepted the fact that it’s me against the world

Therefore, I do not need your sympathy or advice

Trust me, I’ll just let it burn

I know too much to let go

Something none of you will ever know

How can you claim to understand,

When you can’t even see through my mask?

Do not give me your selfish advice

Just to make yourself look nice

I do not need your empty opinion

Since this is, indeed, my fight

Find Yourself

People forget that we can basically be whoever we want to be in life. You don’t have to be a specific way in order to be part of this world. Although they want us to believe that we have to act or think a certain way in order to fit in, people crave diversity and change. Humans are becoming like robots, and we just do what we have to do because we feel like that’s what needs to be done. Like a robot, we try to fit in society; we get up every morning, go to school, go to work, chit-chat with a couple people, go home, eat, sleep, and the next day we repeat because we think that’s who we’re supposed to be. There is no variety in that, and when all of us start doing the same thing, just because we feel like we need to in order to fit in, it creates a mindless and lost society.

People often look to find themselves but, what if you could create yourself? You can only look or find something when it already exists, but you can always create something new, different, and unique. The future does not exist yet, so how can you find yourself in the future? You can create yourself for the future. We do not exist yet in the future, which gives us the opportunity to create whoever we want to be in the future. For example, we do not exist yet tomorrow (we can only hope to exist), so we can create who we want to be tomorrow. We can teach ourselves as many skills as we’d like, gain as much knowledge we’d like, and become whoever we want to be. Who would you like to be in this life? Look at yourself like an empty canvas, and create whatever you want, express however you want to express. Like the different colors you would use on a painting to express different ideas and feelings, use different things in life to create and express yourself. Don’t get caught up in the mindless routine society wants you to be part of; think independently. Unfortunately, the 99% is part of the mindless society, and the 1% creates, rebel, and step out of the box.

It’s easy to get caught in something that seems like the normal thing to do. I tried being part of the mainstream for three months, and I felt empty. It felt like being stuck in an automatic life where all you had to do is go with the flow. It was a place without excitement, and it was boring. My mind is not programmed like that; I like originality, I like creating, I like thinking, I like diversity. This is one of the reasons why I need solitude; in solitude my great ideas arise and my imagination runs wild. In this society, it’s hard to be alone because people constantly expect you to be involved. If you’re not involved, they think you’re unfriendly, rude, etc. but they don’t understand that some people need to be alone in order to thrive in this crazy world. Some people, and most creative people, are introverted like me, and we need our own time and space to cope with ourselves and the world around us (ex. Einstein). We need time and space to create ourselves because in solitude is where we can unmask.

“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone—that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.” ~ Nikola Tesla

Why Did I Stop Writing?

The reason why I haven’t been writing lately is because I have a lot going on and everything is moving pretty fast. Sometimes I feel like I miss out on certain days because the days go by so fast and before you know it, it’s the end of the year. Like always, thing were so different compared to last year; they changed for the better and worse. I wanted to do a lot of things, and I had a lot of ideas, but nothing really worked out because somewhere on the road, I lost my inspiration and motivation. I had too many things on my mind, and I was busy with too many things at once, but now I finally settled down and I can focus on my own things again.

One of the things I missed the most was writing because it is the best way of expressing other than art. Writing inspires me and gives me ideas. It challenges me to think about certain topic and ideas and motivates me to use my critical thinking skills. It allows me to be myself and be free without feeling limited or trapped in box. I feel complete when I get to express myself because all we really want in the end is to be understood and heard. When I don’t get to express myself in the right way, I feel trapped and misunderstood, which leads to depression.

This leads to another incident that happened during the time that I stopped writing. I went to see a personal counselor, and I was diagnosed with depression. I still cannot figure out what my specific reason for being depressed was, but in short, I would say that life, itself, made me sink into depression. I do not want to go into a lot of details about this, but I do want to say that going to a counselor and talking about certain stuff helped somewhere and made me feel less alone while dealing with my problems. I finally feel like myself again, so I am back. I am back to writing, researching, and publishing my ideas and reasoning. I am back to supporting logic, reasoning, and the science community. I am back to spreading knowledge.

Good Without God (Absence of Clothing)

For a while now, I have been looking for cool science t-shirts, and I have had difficulty finding them. They were either too goofy and just too expensive. However, I came across this site called Absence of Clothing, and found their stuff pretty interesting. Since there is a limited amount of science and atheist accessories and clothes out there, I contacted them and decided to support and help promote their products. I think a clothing line to spread an idea or message is one of the best ways to do it because people never stop buying fashion. Our society is so focused on outer appearances, and we put so much energy into looking good that there is no way that one could miss a message on a nice looking shirt, hat, wristband, etc. Absence of Clothing is a great way to raise awareness and fight for equality in our society. It reminds us that we are free to express our ideas and opinions, and that we are not limited to one idea and dogma. It can also help in the closet atheists realize that it is perfectly okay not to be part of a dogma and think independently. Furthermore, it also emphasizes the importance of science in the world and raises awareness to the different and educating religious and scientific debates going on. We have the right to speak up, and we should not be afraid to show our logic an reasoning to the world.

If you want one of the cool t-shirts or other accessories, go to AbsenceofClothing.com, and if you use the promo code: Czigany08, you get 10% off the entire purchase!

Let’s support reasoning and science for a better and educated future!