HOW TO MANAGE DIGITAL CLUTTER
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Now that we've discussed the Bad Home Habits to Break, let's continue the series with Bad Digital Habits that we need to break and more specifically, How to Manage Digital Clutter from our daily lives. You may not even realize how much digital clutter there is and how it affects you. The reality is, our lives are digital in more ways than we even realize. We are attached to our phones, just look up and you'll see the addiction. Whether you're walking down the street, standing in line at the grocery store or sitting in a restaurant, it's crazy how addicted we are to our devices and truth be told, I'm right there with you. Like it or not, technology is a huge part of our daily lives and new technology just keeps rolling out. That then creates a new issue that we all need to learn to manage before it gets out of control...it may very well already be. Let's talk about how to handle all the digital clutter that we are all surrounded by.
1. Desktop Clutter: This is the distracting wallpaper on your desktop screen and the hundreds of icons for files and shortcuts that greet you when you turn on your computer. Just looking at this example makes me anxious. It's visual clutter that affects your brain's ability to concentrate and process information. It's proven that ridding clutter from your life can make you more focused, relaxed and productive. Your computer, where you are likely sitting down to work, is in desperate need of your full attention so do yourself a favor and gain control of this madness!
Immediately delete any shortcuts that are not absolutely necessary
Delete files that are no longer needed
Create folders and file away documents that belong together and move them off the desktop
Empty your recycle bin
Doesn't that already make you feel so much lighter and more at ease? I bet your computer runs more efficiently too!
2. Email Clutter: This is a challenge for many people. I don't want to diminish your role at work or your status in any way, but honestly, no one is that important that they should have tens of thousands of emails in their inbox unless you're a support hotline. When I glance over at people's phone screens and see that red bubble with the notification of how many emails they have, I'm apalled. Why do you have 13,678 or even 148 emails? It's ridiculous! I'm guessing most of that is junk so get rid of it! I say DELETE ALL! You're clearly not reading your mail so what's the point of having email? I'm going to guess the important stuff is falling through the cracks too because you don't have a handle on that insanity.
Let's deal with this head on!
Immediately go to your phone settings and turn off the notification. Showing how many emails you have is clearly not motivating you to read them so why have the constant reminder? It's added stress you don't need!
I highly recommend you sign up for unroll.me. It's an amazing FREE program that you can log onto from your computer and when you sign on to your various email accounts, it'll instantly show you a list of all your subscription emails and you can easily unsubscribe to anything and everything you're no longer interested in. It's awesome. You can download the app on your mobile devices as well. Every once in awhile, log in and just do a quick clean up. It's so easy and your inbox will thank you!
3. Phone Clutter: This is very similar to Desktop clutter since our phones are our mobile computers. Do you have a million icons on your phone screen? What about those red bubbles with the notifications? Are you constantly being distracted by every ping, ding and buzz coming from your phone? I remember when I first switched to an iPhone. It would make noises and I had no idea what it was trying to tell me. It drove me nuts and it was very distracting. I'm going to guess that most of you know how your phone works so that's not the issue. Here's how to tame all the distractions...
Go through your apps and delete anything you don't use. Don't forget to check those games your kids downloaded...that can get out of control really quickly!
Turn off the notifications on I'd say 95% of the apps. I only allow notifications for text messages and maybe a handful of apps where it's important for me to see a message right away. Everything else I check on an ongoing basis so it's not necessary to have instant notification.
Create folders and consolidate like apps together. On an iPhone you just just hold your finger down on an icon and drag like ones together and it automatically creates folders. Great example is Games, keep them all together so they're not taking up individual space on your screen. I keep all Social Media together, video apps together, photography apps together, you get the idea.
Photos. Have you ever found yourself in a position where you can't take anymore photos because your phone has run out of memory? Why? Because you have thousands of images stored on it! I'm so afraid of losing my photos for any reason - phone crashes or is lost or stolen - that I'm pretty consistent with off loading photos to my external hard drive. Photos are important memories and if I lost them, I would be heartbroken. Make it a habit to move your photos off your device regularly and either store it in the cloud, on your computer or on an external hard drive. It's just smart and you won't kick yourself when something happens...
4. Passwords: everything needs a password so the old school method of writing them in a notebook is just not sufficient or efficent anymore. Best way to get a handle on passwords is using an online password manager. I personally use LastPass. There are other programs available too such as 1Password. It stores all your passwords, can generate passwords for you and it can be added as an extension on your browser so it automatically signs you into your various accounts. It's a lifesaver. You can also pull up the passwords on your mobile devices so you're not having to remember hundreds of passwords or having to create new passwords regularly because you can't login to your accounts. I highly recommend using one. You're welcome!
5. Electronic Recycling: This is huge. In case you were not aware, you're not allowed, at least not in California anyway, to just toss your electronics in your garbage bin. Disposal of electronics is handled differently, as are batteries, light bulbs and other types of like waste. If you're ever wondering how to dispose of certain things, Earth911 is an amazing nationwide site that offers a recycle guide, you can look up recycling resources by zip code and waste type. Bookmark it immediately! BestBuy has an incredible recycling program, your local waste management company should have resources as well as other local electronic recycling programs. Do your research and grab all the old electronics around the house and feel really good about getting rid of it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you'll need it later. Technology changes so quickly that most items are obsolete within a few months so there's really very little value in electronics. If you're hanging onto floppy discs and old school monitors...e-recycle it, no one wants them and the tech museum already has their display!
Please take a few minutes to tackle one of these areas today. Eliminating digital clutter will be an ongoing task, but you'll see immediate results in the use of your devices and how you feel using them. I dare you to try it!
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