6 Simple Ways to Declutter Your Digital Space
Marie Kondo would be proud.
If you are currently reading this, then you most likely have a phone, a laptop or a computer — so you have digital “things”: files, documents, photos, videos, music, etc.
A clear space means a clear mind.
As a kid, I was often told that phrase. Though that was probably solely so that I would tidy my room, I have to admit from experience that there is some truth to that statement. But what about your digital space? In the same way that your physical space can be really cluttered, disorganised and overwhelmingly untidy, I believe that your digital space can be a nuisance too if not cleared. In recent years, I have loved the idea of optimising my digital space and use, and finding ways to make it tidier and less overwhelming. So here are my top five, simple things you can start with to do a Digital Declutter.
1. Clear your desktop.
This is the first thing you see when you turn on your computer, and you look at your desktop so many times a day without necessarily paying attention to it! So having a clear desktop can make a huge difference to your mood, creativity and focus.
Five years ago, my desktop was full of stuff: there were so many photographs, texts, documents, and I had to use the search bar to look for things even though they were right in front of me.
Now, my desktop is clear. It is something I am really proud of and I really do notice the difference.
2. Clear your downloads folder and windows.
There is all sorts of stuff there, and a lot of it. Sort everything into folders (e.g. photos and videos, work documents, screenshots, bills, memes) and delete the items you don’t use.
My downloads folder is always a mess, and things pile up very quickly. So I recommend going through it every couple of weeks and clearing it out. It will take a couple minutes max.
3. Sort through your windows and tabs.
Are you one of those people who have a million tabs open across different windows, and instead of finding the page you’re looking for, you open a new one? That was me every time I had to write an essay in law school.
I still do it sometimes when I’m working on a project and need to do lots of research, but I try my best to keep it minimal by creating a specific Bookmarks folder and putting everything there. No more unfindable tabs.
4. Find a system for your photos.
The amount of notifications I received over the years saying “your storage is full”… it’s the worst.
Fortunately, there is a very simple solution to this problem. I can’t believe it took me over six years of owning a smartphone to learn about this, but it has changed my life: Google Photos. Why?
- it’s very simple to install. You download the app onto your phone and/or computer, you log in to your google account and it starts syncing. Now you can go to www.photos.google.com from anywhere and see everything in one place.
- it’s so effortless. Once you install it, you won’t think about it again. If you accidentally delete photographs from your camera roll, you can rest assured that they’ll be saved in the cloud. This also means that you can delete a lot of photos and avoid the cannot-take-photo notification. As long as you have an internet connection, every picture you take will be saved to your account automatically.
- it’s free of charge.
- it has unlimited storage. These last two are the main reasons why I chose Google over iCloud. And I have experienced issues with Apple’s cloud storage in the past, so I would rather not take a risk and loose everything.
Pro Tip: always keep a backup on a hard drive. At least one. Trust me on this one.
5. Go through other categories.
Go through your documents folder and sort everything into sub-categories. And don’t forget your apps. Whether on your phone or computer, you probably have apps that you don’t use anymore. Delete them. If you ever find the need for them again, you can simply re-download them.
Less is better.
The less apps you have, the more you reduce the friction to actually use the apps you like by making them more accessible. Since I removed the apps I don’t use every day from my dock at the bottom of my laptop screen, I’ve gravitated towards the ones I want to use a lot more! For example my Calendar and Notes apps. If you look at the screenshot of my screensaver toward the top of this article, you’ll notice that I have very few applications readily accessible.
6. Emails
The same goes for emails. The less emails you have in your inbox, the more manageable they will be and the idea of checking your emails will be less overwhelming.
Here’s an analogy that really helps me: think of your physical, home address, would you simply give it away to anyone and everyone? No.
Then why are we doing the same with our virtual address? By signing up to lots of newsletters etc. you are giving precious access to your time and attention to all sorts of people who will use it.
The less emails you have in your inbox, the more manageable they will be and the idea of checking your emails will be less overwhelming. Sort through your email: unsubscribe from newsletters, from online stores! Spend some time sorting through these and it it’s overwhelming, start from today onwards: take some time every day sorting through all incoming emails! If you notice spam/ad email, unsubscribe from that letter there and then.
I have a lot more to say about Emails. I’m going to publish a separate article soon on how to optimise your Gmail account, so please stay tuned if you’re into that!
