22 Ways to Reduce your digital clutter
Let’s face it, we are now living a digitally dominated lifestyle and it would take a very strong and deliberate effort to live in any other way.
With the efforts to digitise most of our systems to make our lives easier and more efficient, we are just as cluttered as ever, but with the extra layer of digital clutter.
Alongside our digital lifestyle, social media brings its issues too. Recently, I watched “The Social Dilemma” a documentary movie on Netflix. I learned the damaging ways of social media and the personal data mining and how it instantaneously ascertains our preferences and interests. It has become the most powerful and wealthiest resource for sales. You are now considered to be the ‘product’ as your personal information is sold on to corporations. Managing your subscriptions and your time on social media may be the best way of bringing back some personal control and reclaiming your life based upon reality.
You know that a physically uncluttered space helps save time, money, and stress. It also brings an aesthetic that is more conducive to contentment, relaxation and happiness. Here are some tips to help you manage your digital lifestyle and the new clutter that comes with it.
1. Internet Bookmarks and Reading
Bookmarks are great for storing information for something that we are learning about or applying; however, we tend to keep them well past their use-by date. Go through them and delete those that you no longer have foreseen use for.
2. Cables
Find ways to limit or organise your cable clutter as cables can be a pretty ugly affair to look at. Cable tidies or monitor stand storage in which you can tuck in or tie you cables, helps.
3. Cloud Storage
Gone are the days when you have to rely on having external storage drives. With cloud services such as google drive, dropbox and iCloud, you can get free or paid for storage and upload your documents, images and even media files off of your device and stream them directly through an internet connection. Admittedly, it does take longer to upload to cloud than to a dedicated external drive, but you can be guaranteed safe storage with a miniscule chance of data loss. A quick tip, it is best to upload larger files overnight.
4. Contact Information
Delete your old contacts. When I first did this, I found that I had no clue as to who an eighth of the people in my contacts were. Update contact information as soon as you hear of a change.
5. Cookies and internet history
Clean up your internet search history items, plus the hidden advertising and marketing cookies that have saved to your browser on your visits to websites. The quickest way is to go into your browser settings and clear internet history and cookies. Check your specific browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc.) for more directions.
6. Desktop Background
Desktop backgrounds look great and reflect your personality and interests, but they tend to create a visual distraction. It is simpler to go with a minimal background where you can easily see any icons, folders or documents against the image. However, if your image is visually busy and brings you good feelings, keep it.
7. Email Inbox
This takes a Do, Delegate, Delay or Delete approach to manage the overwhelming number of emails that sneak into your inbox each day.
- If it is a DO email, complete the task straight away or transfer it to your ‘to do’ list and then delete the email.
- If it is a task or request you can DELEGATE to another, forward it to them and delete the original email.
- If you can DELAY the demand of the email, set up an email folder and label it as ‘Later’ and pop the email in there.
- If it is an information email, either read it and then delete it or set up and put it into an ‘Important Information’ folder.
- Any other email – DELETE!
8. Email Marketing
Consciously ‘Unsubscribe’ to newsletters and sites that bombard you with messaging in your email inbox. A majority of emails that come into inboxes are not from friends, family or work, but from marketing. If you can’t find a way to unsubscribe, redirect the messages to spam.
9. Facebook
If you are an adult, it is time to grow up and not indulge in the representations of other’s lifestyles which often results in your comparison of your life with others. Remember, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”
If the connections have true meaning such as family and friend connections, and it is a way that you share, keep them.
10. Folder System
In your devices Documents, have a folder for the main areas of your life and then create subfolders inside that main folder. It will help with your search for documents when you have forgotten their names. For example, a main folder ‘Photos’ can have subfolders, such as ‘My family’, ‘My friends’, ‘Holiday to Egypt’ etc.
11. Icons
When you face many icons on your device, they add to the visual clutter of your desktop. Delete them. The software will remain if you just delete the icon and you can do a quick search for it using ‘spotlight’ on apple or the ‘search’ bar located next to the window icon on Windows. You can also use voice commands using ‘Siri’ on apple or ‘Cortana’ on Windows, just say ‘open (name of app/software)’.
12. Music
This too is a process for folder management. If you are not using a dedicated music app such as Apple Music (once iTunes) or Spotify, create genre folders and subfolders on your device, e.g. ‘Lo-fi’ and then the subgenres ‘Hip-hop’ and then the artist ‘Ocha’.
13. Movies
Do the same as with your music or store them on an external media drive to plug and play on your laptop, computer, tablet or tv.
14. Old Apps and Software
Uninstall anything that is now outdated with no update, replaced by another tool or you simply just do not use. The thing about an app or software is that if you have purchased it, you can always reload it if you really need it, in minutes! Apps and software take up memory and adds another icon to the pile already on your device.
15. Outdated media storage and manuals
CD’s, DVD’s and physical product manuals are pretty much outdated and unnecessary these days. You can reduce clutter through storing your DVD’s or CD’s digitally or subscribing to streaming services. Manuals can pretty much be found for free electronically. Just go direct to the manufacturer’s website or do an internet search for the electronic manual.
16. Passwords and Login information
Often difficult to remember and I am sure you have them written down somewhere. If electronic, make sure that they are stored securely, and password protected (You will have to remember this password as well of course). This may not deter the most determined of hackers; however, most note apps have a password lock you can put on them, or you can use dedicated apps like 1Password, which are highly encrypted.
17. Past Documents
Just like holding onto paperwork, old documents fill up space, digitally and mentally. It is highly unlikely that you will need them again, so it is probably wise to just delete them. If you don’t, you will soon begin to find it difficult to see the digital ‘wood for the trees.’ If they have a real hold on you, transfer them to an archiving device and get them off your computer. Either onto a memory stick or device or onto the cloud, (if you really must have them).
18. Photos
Delete photographs that serve no purpose. My dad always said that if there is no person or subject interest, such as an animal, why will anyone else want to look at it? The more photos you have, the more difficulty you will have finding the good shots. You can always play them in a dedicated photo frame or as your screensaver, so at the very least they are seen. There is nothing more overwhelming on a device that trying to find a photo amongst 100’s of thumbnail images.
19. RSS Subscriptions
Don’t feel obliged to keep subscribed to feeds that you have outgrown or learned enough from, use your power to unsubscribe as soon as you have moved on. Our interests and knowledge grow all the time. See feeds as tools for information and knowledge and once learned, move on.
20. Social Media Life-Squandering
If you find that when you are about to step out the house and you are delayed by poking someone, responding to a message or having an emotional response to what someone has posted, have a good think about your life. If you walk with your head buried in your phone, oblivious to what’s around you, then you have completely lost the moment and are living in a fantasy where life will pass you by.
21. Twitter and Instagram
These are both tools that you should use to be productive, rather than being unproductive by being distracted by everything else out there. You can’t keep up with it all, so limit your focus.
22. Electronic Books, Magazines and Comics
I understand that people love the feeling and smell of physical books and enjoy displaying them. However, you have already read many of your books or held onto unread books for years. You can store thousands of books electronically on your device using apps such as Kindle, Apple Books and Calibre and carry them around with you everywhere. You can even get cases that make your kindle, Nook or other eBook appear more like a real book. The technology for eBook readers is advancing all the time; now with little strain on your eyes and the ability to change colours, brightness and type size. With the knowledge that printed ink books, magazines and comics are detrimental to the environment, they are a great choice for the environmentalist.
Want to learn more about Mindfulness, Minimalism and Self-Development? Click This Link!