Araz Gholami

A few years back, I was in a rut. My life felt stuck in the mud, and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t find a way out. Every day felt like the same loop of half-finished tasks, distractions, and a general sense of being overwhelmed. I was frustrated, unproductive, and lost.

Ironically, the straw that broke the camel’s back was my computer. I’d been grinding away on an old GNOME desktop setup that ran like molasses. It felt like an annoying metaphor for my life: slow, clunky, and stuck. I thought, Maybe if I fix this, I’ll start fixing myself too.

So, I downloaded Kubuntu, a Linux distro with the freedom to customize everything. Once it was installed, I couldn’t stop. I tweaked and polished every corner of my digital world—the menus, the widgets, the colors, the desktop layout. Somehow, this simple act of creating order on my screen sparked something bigger. It was like breaking the first link in a chain that had been holding me down.

The Chain Reaction

The very next morning, I powered up my laptop, and the sight of an organized, customized desktop made me feel something I hadn’t felt in a long time: control. For the first time in ages, my virtual life was orderly. I felt lighter and more capable. I went on a digital spring cleaning spree: I cleaned out my YouTube subscriptions, dumped my useless Feedly feeds, trashed all my unread “Watch Later” videos and “Read Later” articles, organized my downloads folder, and tossed the bookmarks I’d been hoarding for years.

Once my laptop felt right, I turned to my physical space. I started tidying up, room by room. My bookshelf was next, then every drawer, every closet. I trashed anything that had outlived its purpose. By the end, I had a home that felt as fresh and functional as my new OS.

Cutting Out the Noise

With this newfound clarity, I started eliminating other sources of clutter in my life. I deactivated most of my social media accounts. They had become bottomless distractions, sucking up time and energy I could spend on things that actually mattered to me. My phone was next—I ruthlessly deleted anyone from my contacts who didn’t add something meaningful to my life.

This wave of clarity kept rolling. The next day, I decided to go for a walk and ended up running instead. My body felt alive again, like a friend I hadn’t visited in ages. It felt like I’d been powering down, and now I was rebooting.

Breaking One Link Can Change Everything

I kept at it. I cleaned out my fridge. I kept paring down my belongings, my digital clutter, even my mental load. And with each step, I could feel things shifting. This little act of installing Kubuntu—a Linux distro—had cracked something open in me.

With less noise in my life, I found space for new things. I started writing on Medium. I picked up old side projects I had abandoned. I even called the girl I’d been meaning to ask out for ages. One by one, I was fixing parts of my life that I hadn’t even realized were broken.

The point is, If you feel trapped or bogged down, don’t try to tackle everything at once. Find the easiest ring in the chain and break it. That first small step can make every other step easier. It might be as simple as customizing your laptop, cleaning a drawer, or calling an old friend. Find it. Break it. And let the chain reaction unfold.