ditchthat

Ditchthat is a term used in productivity, personal finance, and digital decluttering to describe a systematic effort to identify and eliminate nonessential expenses, commitments, and possessions. The goal is to reduce decision fatigue, lower costs, and reclaim time and mental bandwidth by choosing to “ditch that” which no longer adds value.

Practitioners typically follow a structured process: inventory of items and obligations; assessment of value and relevance; elimination, substitution, or outsourcing; and ongoing monitoring to ensure sustainability. Common tools include subscription trackers, spending audits, habit questionnaires, and unsubscribe workflows. The approach emphasizes measurable criteria, such as cost per use, time saved, or net benefit, rather than moral judgments about possessions or duties.

It is applied across domains, including digital subscriptions, consumer goods, work tasks, social commitments, and digital clutter. Proponents argue that ditchthat helps individuals reclaim time and money, while critics warn that excessive elimination can reduce opportunities, overlook intangible value, or erode flexibility.

Origin and usage of the term vary by community, with the concept appearing in productivity and minimalist circles in the 2010s and 2020s. As a flexible framework, ditchthat is defined differently by practitioners and is not tied to a single standardized methodology.