A Better Organised Digital Declutter (number 6 might surprise you!)

A Better Organised Digital Declutter (number 6 might surprise you!)

Is your time and focus consumed by digital clutter? When did you last streamline and simplify your digital landscape? Unused apps, redundant folders, out of date documents and old messages all take up memory and can be an unnecessary distraction.

This third part in a pre-GDPR series centred around the home office takes you through some easy tips to reduce the excess on your laptop/PC and smartphone.

1. Set aside time and work logically through the different areas on your device, deleting anything that is redundant and moving active files or apps into appropriate folders – a clutter-free desktop or home screen can help you focus and be more productive

2. Organising files by date and deleting in chunks is a positive step towards freeing up space and memory. When going through files and documents, carefully consider whether there’s a situation where you will ever need to retrieve it— if the answer is no, delete it with confidence!

3. Perhaps you have a number of unused bookmarks in your browser? Delete what you can and move others into apps such as Pinterest, Apple Notes, Evernote or Pocket

4. On your phone, delete unused apps, old messages and out of date contacts — anything that is distracting or using up precious memory

5. Go through photos and purge any outtakes, duplicates or shots that you know you don’t want to keep. Consider moving the remaining images off your device and into cloud storage or an external hard drive

6. Check and clear your voice assistant recordings history on a regular basis. Visit myactivity.google.com or alexa.amazon.com for details

A simple, carefully curated, minimalist digital life is not a rejection of technology or a reactionary act of skepticism; it is, by contrast, an embrace of the immense value these new tools can offer…if we’re willing to do the hard work of figuring out how to best leverage them on behalf of the things we truly care about. (Cal Newport)

Reminder; Back up your laptop and phone regularly to the cloud and/or an external device.

Top tip — Storage management tools make finding and removing large or unneeded files a quick, simple process. Look at Optimized Storage on Macs or Disk CleanUp on Windows.

For advice about detoxing your inbox, check out 7 Simple Steps to Better Organised emails here or if it’s paperwork that needs purged have a look at this post.

Better Organised provides productivity coaching and professional decluttering & organising services for your home or business and is accredited by APDO. Please visit www.betterorganised.uk for details of services and client testimonials, or head to Amazon to order a copy of A Better Organised Home in 30 Days.