10 Areas in Life that Need Garbage Collection

In computer science, Garbage Collection is a part of many modern languages that attempts to abstract the disposal and reallocation of memory (a limited resource) with less direct intervention by the developer.

We go through life accumulating things, beliefs, emotions, processes, and habits without checking in and questioning whether what we have accumulated is still valid and congruent with the current or future self.

We need to run garbage collection in our lives periodically to free our most precious resources like time, energy, and mind and reallocate them for better use, aligned with our future selves.

Here are 10 areas where I think running "garbage collection" will benefit.

1. Beliefs and habits

Sometimes we carry customs or beliefs that are no longer valid or do not serve us anymore. To evolve, we need to unlearn old ideas and thoughts that we may have developed out of fear or simply because there was no alternative.
These beliefs can be about ourselves, limiting beliefs, or the world.
"I am bad at math" or "I have a bad memory" are examples of limiting beliefs.

We need to Garbage Collect these old beliefs, thoughts, or habits and make room for new ones that are congruent with our current values and help us be our future selves.

2. Policies and Processes

When there is an outage or a failure, our immediate action is to create a policy or procedure to ensure the same mistake is not repeated. Learning from mistakes and making sure they are avoided is good, except that systems evolve, and people change. Yet, processes created a decade ago still govern how we do things in the new unpredictable environment. I have seen this in my previous roles.

We need to Garbage-collect these old policies, procedures, and "best practices" and make room for lightweight policies and practices that enable progress, not inhibit it.

3. Things like clothes, gadgets, etc.

I outsource this to Kondo Marie. The KonMari method.

We need to Garbage Collect old clothes that no longer serve us, make room for new ones.
Yes, throw those jeans from high school. You are no longer that person :)

4. Spends like subscriptions

How many newsletters, magazines, or services like music or dating do you subscribe to but never use or are non longer congruent with your future self.

Garbage collect those! You will clean your email box and kitchen table and also save money.

5. Connections & Relationships

We sometimes keep maintaining connections and relationships that our former selves built but are draining for our current selves and no longer aligned with our future selves.

We need to garbage collect those connections and relationships to spend more energy and time on relationships that matter and that are reminding us of our future selves.

6. Meetings, events, and meetups

Going out with the boys or girls just because you feel lonely, even though you get tired and don't like it, is what you need to garbage collect.

We are humans. We sometimes do things out of fear, not out of conviction. We say too many yes that we find it harder to say no.

It is time to Garbage Collect any meetups, Friday night drinks, etc. if they are not aligned with our future selves.

7. Emotions

Having grudges, being angry at someone, or living in the past is baggage that keeps a lot of space in our hearts and minds and inhibits our growth.

Letting go of grudges is a way to garbage collect them.
Garbage collecting these emotions means we no longer want to live in the past, and we are making spaces for great emotions that our future selves will feel and experience.

8. Roles or Responsibilities

We may cling to a role, responsibility, or identity that may have served us in the past but is no longer aligned with our future selves. A title that brings prestige and a sense of security, but it is not aligned with our heart and passion.

The big brother or sister role, the best friend role, the CXO role, that you assumed may no longer serve you.

Our identity is not fixed, but highly fluid.

Any assumed identity that serves us no more should be Garbage Collected to make room for new roles and experiences. You no longer assume the wingman role when you have a baby waiting to change their diapers. Or so I would think :)

9. Tabs & Apps

I am very guilty of this. I have about 50 tabs open as I write this. It is taxing my brain. I need to close everything and only keep Grammarly and NotePD open.

Opening many tabs and app is a terrible thing for our focus.

We need to Garbage collect all the apps and tabs and channel our focus on the one task at hand. Exhaustion from context switching is real.

10. Previous successes

It’s common for people who succeed to get stuck and stop innovating, from best-selling authors, musicians, entrepreneurs, you name it.

The solution is to garbage collect our previous success and never stop reinventing ourselves.

Younes