We spend an average of 7 hours a day online. Yet how often do we organise our digital lives? Taking the time to better streamline and arrange our digital lives can make us feel more together and save us hours of time. In the same way that decluttering a room makes your head feel clearer, wading through your digital life can give you the opportunity for a much needed spring clean. Here’s how to become more organised in your digital life.
By Team Savant
Image: Jenny Ueberberg
Avoid Duplication
Digital folders and files can slow up your ability to locate items and make your digital life more cluttered. Fortunately, there is duplicate finder software for both Windows and Macs that can help identify, merge or eliminate duplicate files from your library. As a rule, when saving files, unless you need a history of different versions, you should overwrite the previous file to avoid having multiple versions floating around. Make sure your files are clearly labelled to avoid any confusion with what their purpose is.
Organise Your Emails
Your personal email account might be full of spam, old subscriptions, and emails you eventually delete. But your work email usually has folders galore, with some sort of filing system and logic in place. Put some time aside and apply the same clean up to your personal emails. Create folders for emails you want to save, delete the reams of spam you have, and most importantly, unsubscribe from anything that you no longer want to receive.
Eliminate Unnecessary Apps
Is your mobile or Mac saturated with tons of apps you no longer use? Browse through your app collection and be brutal with the ones you don’t need any more. Once you’ve deleted the ones that didn’t make the cut, you could consider downloading or investing in time-saving apps like shopping lists or internet blockers to be more productive and save you time trying to find the app you need.
Delete Your Downloads Folder And Recycle Bin
If your PC or Mac is running painfully slowly, this may be because your downloads folder is filling up. Free up some space on your laptop by clearing your downloads folder, and the resulting items that end up in the recycle bin. Have a quick check before you do run rampant on items you are permanently deleting, just in case there’s something essential you need in there.
Take A Break From The Digital
In today’s fast paced digital life, it’s important to take a break from your screen and actually enjoy some time doing something else. There are apps that can help you achieve this, like the Forest app. For each half an hour away from your screen you can grow a digital tree, incentivizing breaks from your mobile. You could also block some pop-up notifications on your phone, to prevent you from distractions while you are detoxing from a screen. The more breaks you take from your digital life, the more organised and clear-headed you’ll feel when you return.