Open up to New Opportunity with Digital De-Cluttering
Spring cleaning beyond the attic!
Ahhhh… Spring Cleaning. Everyone around me is talking about it at the time I’m writing this. It seems we’re all overdue for dusting off, decluttering, and revitalizing our homes and lives to embrace this season of new life and growth.
Spring Cleaning isn’t just for basements and closets though, it’s also essential for our digital spaces. In today’s fast-paced world, our digital landscape can become quickly cluttered with unnecessary files, photos, apps, emails, notifications, and screenshots that live on your desktop.
Digital clutter can be the source of stress, overwhelm, and decrease your productivity.
In this blog, we’ll explore the effects of digital clutter and how spring cleaning our digital spaces can create room for new opportunities and a more fulfilling life.
Ready to start your digital cleanout? Let’s go!
What is digital de-cluttering?
Digital clutter refers to the buildup and overaccumulation of disorganized digital content: emails, apps, notifications, photos, files, documents, and more!
It could be anything from too many unread emails to people on social media you’re “friends” with but don’t actually know. It might be unused apps, duplicated photos that are here, there, and everywhere, or an onslaught of digital notifications distracting you from productivity and enjoying your non-digital life to the fullest.
Digital clutter is anything that takes up space on our devices or in our lives without serving a useful purpose. And just like physical clutter, digital clutter can create stress, decrease our focus, and make it challenging to find what we need when we need it.
With storage options that are seemingly endless, it’s easy to see how it can pile up until it’s unmanageable and impacting your wellbeing. And that’s where the de-cluttering comes in.
Where to start your digital decluttering
The process of digital decluttering will look different for everyone, depending on what you use regularly in the digital world, how many devices you have, and what you need vs. what you don’t.
Here are a few ideas to get you started and some places I recommend looking to start your digital decluttering efforts.
On Your Computer, Phone, or Tablet
Your computer, phone, and devices are a hotspot of digital clutter and I recommend breaking it down into bite-size chunks.
Perhaps you tackle one device at a time, or one category on each device per digital decluttering session. Break it down how it works best for you and look at:
Your computer desktop. Yes, the one that’s currently littered with screenshots and uncategorized documents. Take time to decide whether or not each item is worth keeping, and file them where they belong. Move to the trash or delete whatever you no longer need.
Your files. The purpose of filing things digitally is you can easily find them and refer back to them. If it’s impossible to find things, or your system has no rhyme or reason, it might be time to declutter your computer files.
Photos. Did I hit on a nerve there? I understand that photos are something you might not want to let go or delete. A great place to start with photos is to just go through and be sure that none are duplicated. And if there’s a photo or series of photos that really does not bring you joy, you can choose to delete them!
Unused apps. I know it might be tempting to think that you’ll start using that app again “someday” and maybe you should hang onto it. If you have apps that aren’t helpful, useful, or beneficial to you in some way, they’re just taking up space! And you can always download them down the road if you change your mind. In the meantime, you can safely delete them from your device. For many folks, categorizing their apps and putting them in folders is also beneficial. This way, all your health-related apps, education-based apps, professional tool apps, etc. are grouped together and easy to find in one place.
Subscriptions
Another great way to declutter your digital life is to cancel or discontinue any subscriptions you don’t use or find useful. That speaker’s guild you’ve been a part of but never attended a single meeting, despite paying for it every month, can you safely let that go? The recurring charge for the tool or course you keep meaning to dive into and learn but haven’t had the time? If you’re not going to make the time in the near future, are you willing to let it go? Doing this on a regular basis will save you money as well as the stress and overwhelm of getting all of these emails.
Emails
Email clutter is two-fold. First of all, there’s probably an influx of NEW things coming in from lists you’re subscribed to and never have time to read or have no interest in. Here’s your permission to unsubscribe from those right away! The other part of email clutter happens when you let your inbox be a collection ground for anything and everything. You don’t file away emails that have been replied to, and it’s sheer and utter chaos in there. The problem with this is you can lose track of what you’ve read and what you haven’t, what you’ve responded to, what’s stuck in your drafts folder, and any actions you need to take from the emails you receive.
There are some popular systems out there for cleaning out your inbox, for example the Inbox Zero method. Depending on the email service you’re using, many email providers offer folders, labeling systems, and filters to help a new influx of unwanted and unnecessary emails that take up space in your inbox and your mind.
Social Media
Social media can get out of control quickly due to the number of platform options to choose from and infinite connections to be made. Make sure the social media platforms you have are ones you choose to be on, engaged with, and that add value to you in some way.
Social media decluttering could take a variety of different forms and could look like:
Unfollowing people or unfriending people who bring you down
Disconnecting from people you don’t know at all
Leaving groups you don’t want to be a part of
Deactivating accounts you no longer need in your life
Cleaning up your profiles, bios, photos, etc. (check out my LinkedIn Profile Tips blog here for more on that topic)
And more!
Benefits of All This Digital Decluttering
Releasing all of this digital clutter can help you feel lighter, clearer, and more productive in every aspect of your life! Open up to letting it go and the possibilities of how much better you’ll feel are endless. I always find that letting go, no matter the form, makes space for bringing in the new things I want to experience in my life.
So now the question is, with your newfound space, what do you want to create?
What’s Next?
Once you’ve decluttered and let go of what’s weighing you down, look at what you want to bring into your life. What are you missing? What do you want in the future? What is there still for you to create? To do? To learn? To become?
Start by asking yourself these questions, and thinking about your own answer to, “What’s next?” and then start mapping out the action steps you need to take to get to where you want to go.
As you envision and expand the horizons of your future, you’ll discover that the possibilities and opportunities are endless, if only you’re willing to let go of what’s holding you back.
Need More Guidance?
These are the kinds of questions I excel at helping my clients answer! No matter where you are on your journey, I can help you determine what’s next and take the action you need to get there and achieve your goals! Book a call with me!
