Many people talk about managing the clutter in your home. Cleaning up your desk when you work or study is more often the focus than digital clutter. Keeping your entire room or apartment decluttered so that you feel free, less stressed, and anxious. This helps you be more productive, sleep better, and also take care of your health. As, for example, having a dusty house can lead to the development of asthma or other breathing conditions. While many understand decluttering is essential, they do it only in their houses.
However, digital decluttering is equally essential. In today’s digital age, where we spend a lot of time online, interacting with distinct apps and platforms, we accumulate a vast amount of digital content. So, organizing digital files is essential. Wondering how to declutter your digital life? Or how to reduce clutter? Read on to find out more about this and some tips and tricks you can apply.
Regular Decluttering
Just like you may have a regular declutter for your house, you should have one for your devices and the digital environment too. If you don’t have it, maybe it would be a good idea to set a weekly or monthly day when you do it. At first, it may feel challenging or tiring. But sorting through your files, emails, and applications will help you tremendously.
Besides making space on your device or online storage, you also get rid of apps and files you no longer need. Delete or archive things you are not going to use and declutter your online space. You can learn how to reduce video file size to not fill up your hard drive on your Mac with the videos and photos you do not need right now. There are many articles that share tips and tricks on video compression.
Organize Files and Folders
If you are among the people who just save stuff on their laptops without keeping it organized, you may want to do it. It would be easier to access your files and search for them when you need them. You can create your own structure, with color labels if you have this option. Create a logical and intuitive folder structure to keep your files organized. Name your folders in a descriptive and clear way so that you can easily find what you are looking for.
Delete Unnecessary Files
When it comes to sorting the files you still need and the ones you don’t, you should be ruthless. You may have old documents, files, duplicate photos, and videos. Some of them might take up a lot of space, so aim to either add them to your hard drive or virtual storage or even delete them. Ask yourself if you really need all of them.
Cloud Storage and Backup
As mentioned above, you can store some of your documents and photos you do not need right now online. You could consider online storage such as Google Drive, DropBox, or One Drive to store files you do not access frequently. You will have more space available on your devices. On top of this, you can access them from anywhere, anytime.
Email Management
Not only are your devices full of files, photos, and videos, but also your email can become cluttered. You could implement a robust email organization. You can create folders, email labels, or filters so that your email app does the sorting automatically.
This would make your digital declutter session easier. Once you implement this system, all your incoming messages will be automatically sorted. Also, if you have subscribed to newsletters you no longer read, consider unsubscribing. This would make some space on your email and decluttering and sorting will be easier.
Desktop Cleanup
There are two types of people: those who have their desktop empty or those who have it full. You may need instant access to some files or folders. You can create a few essential shortcuts and clean up your desktop if you fall in the latter category. If you keep your desktop cluttered, you might be distracted and it might be challenging to find what you are looking for.
App Management
You may have lots of apps on your devices that you no longer use. They take up space and make your device cluttered, so consider removing them. Review and uninstall apps you no longer need or use. Besides making more space available on your devices, you also reduce the visual clutter on your screen.
Final Thoughts
Just as you may declutter your working space or house, this is what you should do with your digital one too. At first, it might seem a challenge and it can become tiring. However, if you implement a clear system of sorting through your files, labeling them, naming your folders, and getting rid of what you no longer need, you will start feeling the benefits of having a decluttered digital space.