Spring clean: Refresh your online life, screens, and screen time

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Hello Edu Magicians, welcome to
the Edu Magic podcast with your

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host, Doctor Sam Fesich.
Doctor Sam is a professor of

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education, author of Edu Magic,
and a Pumpkin Spice Latte fan.

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This podcast is designed for pre
service teachers.

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Remember friends, teaching
doesn't begin at graduation, but

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during that first class at 8:00
AM.

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Let's get this party started.
This podcast is a proud member

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of the Teach Better Podcast
Network, Better Today, Better

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Tomorrow, and a podcast to get
you there.

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Explore more podcasts at
www.teachbetterpodcastnetwork.com.

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Now let's get on to the episode.
Hello there, Edge magicians, and

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welcome back to another episode
of the Edge Magic Podcast.

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My name is Doctor Sam Fasich,
and today we're going to be

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talking about spring cleaning
our digital content.

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Whether we're spring cleaning
your browser, spring cleaning

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your desktop, or maybe your
inbox.

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Let's go ahead and talk about
why it's important to clean out

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and take time to really reset
these things as you move into

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the second part of the semester.
Well, first, we know when we

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start to clean out stuff just
like we do on our desks or in

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our living spaces, it really
starts to reduce space and

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reduce clutter.
That can help us with efficiency

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and effectiveness.
It can help making us find our

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content a little bit easier and
it can also help us with our

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well-being.
So this segment is designed in

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three different areas.
We're going to look at spring

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cleaning our online content on
screen and our screen time.

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So let's go ahead and start
about start talking about spring

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cleaning our online line.
So if you're an educator and you

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have lots of classes maybe on
your D2L or Google Classroom or

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Schoology classes you have not
looked at in a while, let's say

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the past year or six months, you
might want to consider going

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through and archiving those
classes so you can get to them

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later.
But you don't need them on your

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screen right now.
Go through and look and see what

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the grades are in your classes.
Fill in any empty grades or

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maybe something that you would
have skipped.

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Look at how you're naming your
content.

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So for me, sometimes I'll name
my content whatever the topic is

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instead of maybe the week or the
module.

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So I might want to add that into
my naming of presentations and

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things like that so I can find
it easier because I don't know

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what I'm looking for.
But I might not have named it

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what I thought I did back then.
So naming it, for example,

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module one week, one day, one
presentation, Getting to know

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you instead of just getting to
know you.

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Now let's go ahead and look at
our storage online, whether

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that's OneDrive or Google Drive,
maybe think about creating

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folders.
So for my future teachers, my

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students in the crowd, think
about creating some folders in

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your OneDrive or Google Drive.
They can be semester folders

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like Fall 25 classes and then
you put all the folders with the

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content in there for your
classes from last semester.

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If you don't have a folder for
this semester yet, it's OK, you

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can create 1.
So create a Spring 26 folder,

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but all create a folder for each
of your classer classes into

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that folder so you can organize
a little bit better.

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You might want to include in
each of your class folders

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assignments, papers,
presentations, and then you can

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organize that as well.
So grouping similar items

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together, remove any deleted
items or duplicated items in

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your folders.
And if you want to get fancy,

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you can totally rock out with
some color coding.

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Next, let's go ahead.
Open up that inbox.

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If you're a person that likes
Inbox zero, that is a goal I

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have, but I haven't reached it
in a while.

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So go ahead and look for and
create some filters, maybe

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filter out emails.
You can have filters for advice

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from your advisor, certain
professors, clubs and

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organizations or classes.
You can also unsubscribe from

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those mailings that you get,
perhaps if you're getting a lot

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of them, or unsubscribe or work
on Google Alerts, you can change

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those up or delete them.
And then you might also want to

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think about what are some emails
that you're writing a lot of

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repetitively and maybe create a
little template for that e-mail.

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So for example, I have a little
template of an e-mail for

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students who might miss class
because they're sick.

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So instead of me like retyping
something similar each time, I

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have a little template that I
have in OneNote that I'll just

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go ahead and pull and put it in
there.

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I'll address it with some
personal things as well.

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But now, like the meat of the
e-mail is already written for

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me, which is really nice.
So what I recommend is going

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through your e-mail, deleting
anything that's not needed,

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archiving content, filtering,
unsubscribing, and maybe

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creating a template for content
that you no longer or creating a

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template for content that you
don't need to spend the time

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writing it each time, but you
can reuse.

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All right, let's go ahead and
talk about decluttering our

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device screens.
And let's start with our with

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our laptop, right with our
desktop screens.

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Maybe you're one of those
students that like to save

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everything to the desktop.
Well, there's a better way.

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Consider looking at the tools
and the icons that you use most

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often.
Look to see what's all of your

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to help you have just random
pictures or files, group them

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together or put them into your
OneDrive folders.

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That way you'll have access to
it everywhere, not just on your

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device.
If you're like, oh, I don't know

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where to put this, create a
little folder and I have a

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little folder on my desktop that
says organize later, and I have

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a lot of stuff in there.
When I have time, I'll be able

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to organize it another time, but
it's not cluttering up my

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desktop.
You're also going to want to

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look at your Downloads folder in
your browser.

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Delete anything that's
duplicated or stuff that you

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don't need anymore.
Clean up your bookmarks.

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Is this something you can maybe
organize into folders, or do you

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have like a whole string of tabs
up?

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Think about how you might want
to organize your browser

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bookmarks.
Maybe remove any unused

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extensions, or for tabs that use
often, consider pinning those

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tabs.
Organize your bookmarks by

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category.
Maybe you can organize them by

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classes or class resources or
content.

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When you're looking at the apps
on your phone, go ahead and go

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into unused apps and see what
you haven't used in a while and

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get rid of those.
That'll also help you free up

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some space on your device.
So that'll be really helpful.

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Try to keep your apps updated.
So look to see what apps need

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updated and go ahead and update
those just so that they are

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running at their best
efficiency.

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All right, our next one is a
little bit of a habit and we're

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going to look at spring cleaning
our screen time habits.

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So let's really go ahead and
look at how are you using your

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device?
Where is your time going when

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you open up your device?
How many opens do you have?

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How long are you spending on
different apps?

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Is this are the apps helping you
towards your goals, whether they

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are personal or professional
goals?

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Consider setting up some
boundaries like maybe no screen

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meals or taking a break from the
screen one hour before you go to

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bed, or setting time boundaries,
or I don't know, maybe even

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uninstalling an app that you
might find is you're using a lot

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during your time.
So go ahead and open up your

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device and look to see how often
you're using your phone, how

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long you're using your phone,
what apps are taking most of

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your time and how can you set
some healthy boundaries around

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those.
It's really important that in

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this in this current day, that
you are really balancing your

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screen time with actual spending
time with people around you.

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So make sure you make time with
friends and family and get out

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and move around your
neighborhood or move around your

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campus.
Make connections with those.

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Don't just always have your
earbuds in or your headphones

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on.
Try to engage with others

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outside of your device.
Build routines into your day

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where you maybe instead of
checking your phone first thing,

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maybe it says you get ready for
the day, have breakfast and then

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check your phone.
So try to build in those healthy

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habits where you're really being
mindful of the time that you're

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using on your screen.
And if you're a freshman or a

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sophomore or a junior student,
you know, thinking about your

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screen time use when you're in
block or fields or student

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teaching, this is something that
you might need to work on

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keeping your device in your bag
or keeping your device somewhere

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else so it's not a distraction
and you're not tempted to pull

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out your phone as soon as you're
bored.

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It's OK to get bored.
It's OK to maybe pick up a book

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that you actually turn the pages
instead of scrolling.

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So I challenge you to try to set
some new boundaries around

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screen time to help you prepare
for your field placements for

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your student teaching.
So you have those healthy

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boundaries in place now so
they're not so hard whenever

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your student teaching too.
All right, so let's talk about

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some tools that can help you to
with your spring cleaning.

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Think about digital organizers
like your Google Calendar or

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your Outlook calendar.
Think about tools to help you

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get organized like Google Keep
or OneNote to help you keep all

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your tasks in mind.
Right to do is also another one.

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Consider a password managers.
So if you're that person who had

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uses the same two or three
passwords, we know that that's

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not a good rule to have as a
digital citizen, right?

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You want to differentiate our
passwords, You might want to try

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a tool called LastPass where it
keeps all of your passwords

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different.
You don't have to remember, you

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just remember 1 password, the
password to your LastPass

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account.
Consider using tools like Calm

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or Stay Focused to help you
focus in and listen to

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instrumental music.
So that could also help you when

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it comes to whenever you're
actually spring cleaning to

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focus in and get it done.
All right, so let's recap.

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We're going to clean up our
online desktop digital clutter.

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We're going to organize our on
screen tools on our icons and

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our files.
And we're going to refresh some

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of our digital habits as we move
into the next part of the

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semester.
Try these habits out now so you

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can feel, try them on, see how
they feel, tweak them, get

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better and keep, keep improving.
So I want you to pick one area

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to start this week.
Go ahead and share out those

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resources that you're doing the
the strategies that you're

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using.
I'd love to see what you're

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doing over on social and tag me
on Instagram at S festish.

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That's SFECICH and I'll see you
in the next episode.

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All right, let's start fresh and
stay fresh.

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You got this.
Bye for now.

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And there you have it, Edu
Magicians.

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If you enjoyed this episode,
please subscribe and share it

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with your friends.
For more Edu Magic, check out S

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fessage.com and follow Doctor
Sam on Twitter and Instagram at

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S fessage.
Until next time you have the Edu

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Magic within you.