Something new every day · Free to read, no account and no sign-up
Read, listen & watch
Practical guidance for your digital life.
Short, specific pieces about organizing your accounts and files, protecting what matters, and getting ready for the things that come. A new one every day. Nothing here asks you to hand over an email address before you are allowed to read it.
Start here
Three to read first.
If you have never read anything of ours, these three do the most good in the least time.
01
Digital Organization
Every Important File Needs One Home, Not Five Copies
The habit that makes every other kind of organizing possible. Read this one first if your files are spread across a laptop, a phone and three cloud accounts.
Read it →02
Family and Life Events
Build a Family Digital Emergency File Before You Need It
What the people you love would need to find in a hurry, what to leave out of it, and where to put it so they can reach it without you.
Read it →03
Digital Legacy and Estate Planning
Your Executor Needs a Digital Map, Not a Password List
The difference between handing someone your passwords and giving them something they can lawfully use. Most people are doing the first one.
Read it →Not sure which of these you need?
Nine questions, two minutes. You get your level, the whole ladder, and the one specific thing to do next.
Browse
By topic.
Seven subjects. Each one opens a page of every piece we have written on it.
Digital Organization
Files, folders, photographs, tabs, and the short resets that put them back in order.
Digital Safety
Scams, fake pages, sponsored ads, and the checks that take one minute.
Digital Legacy & Estate Planning
What happens to your accounts and files when that day comes, and what to set up now.
Family & Life Events
School apps, emergency files, and the invisible digital work that keeps a household running.
Professionals, Business & Organizations
Offboarding, continuity, backups you have tested, and what cannot live in one person’s head.
Seasonal Guides
The right thing to sort out at the right time of year, before the season gets busy.
Digital Life Management Weekly
Six lessons from the week, gathered in one place, every Sunday.
Every day
This topic
The latest.
Everything on this subject.
Newest first. When you reach the bottom of the page, Older Posts carries on.
Search 100+ posts
Looking for anything in particular?
Type in a word and you will get back every piece that mentions it. Try passwords, executor, scam, or photographs.
What a Trusted Person Should Know Before You Leave Town
A Practical Guide to Sharing the Right Information, Access, Contacts, and Instructions Before You Travel
The Complete Holiday Season Digital Preparation Checklist
Use this complete holiday digital checklist to organize calendars, contacts, shopping accounts, travel, devices, records, photos, and family responsibilities.
How to Prepare Your Digital Life for Emergencies, Incapacity, and the Future
Learn how to prepare your accounts, records, devices, information, and digital property for emergencies, incapacity, family needs, and the future.
Listen & watch
Not everything is reading.
The same guidance in the other two forms, and an open door if you make a show of your own.
Listen
The Haven Smith & Company podcast
The same guidance, read aloud, for the days when reading is not on offer.
Watch
Courses on LearnFormula
Longer, structured teaching for people who would rather be walked through it.
Talk
Come on your show
We talk about fraud aimed at small business owners, digital estate planning, and the digital work families carry without naming it.
Series
Two things we do every week.
If you like a rhythm, these are the two to follow.
Organize With Me
Twenty minutes, one drawer of your digital life, done together. No app to install and nothing to buy.
Read the series →Digital Life Management Weekly
Every Sunday, six things worth knowing from the week, each with the one action that follows from it.
Read the series →Reading is the easy part.
Nine questions tell you where you actually stand and which one thing to do about it this week.
Take the two-minute quizFree · Nine questions · Nothing to install