Last week I discussed the joys of spring cleaning! Getting your physical space cleaned and organized will make a huge difference on your mindset and productivity. This improves your ability to focus immensely. Not having so much stuff around to get in your way or distract or you is a huge help. This is not only true for your desk, room, car, house, etc. This also applies to your computer, tablet, phone, and anything else you may use. Whether you use hard disk storage or cloud storage, or both, we quickly realize that there is a lot of opportunity for clutter when it comes to our digital world. I have a few old devices I do consider physical clutter at this time because they run slow and are not as useful and have a lot of random files and apps that I don’t need or use anymore. With the old devices that I plan to sell or dispose of I am not really concerned. However, for the rest of my digital world, I do plan to get this a lot more organized. However, with many devices and many files, apps, photos, music, videos, etc. it can be just like cleaning out a house. It can be overwhelming so that you don’t know where to begin. If you are wondering that, here are a few ways you can get digitally cluttered and the solution.
- Too many tabs in the web browser. We are all there at some time or another. I’ve had so many tabs open at times that I can barely see the icon, let alone any of the words. This kind of clutter is fortunately quite easy to fix because it’s a matter of closing tabs. If you really want to remember the webpage that is open on that tab you can bookmark it.
- Files all over the place. If your files look like a messy table or desktop, then it is time to reevaluate the organizational system. I have seen computers with over 50 different things on the desktop alone. That is totally fine if you know where everything is and when you need it, but much more often than not that is a sign of clutter and disorganization. It is like looking at a table with papers all over the place in no particular order. The best remedy to this is similar to clearing files off of a desk. The first step is to come up with a system such as what folders you will need to get organized and how you want to do it. Make sure you come up with a good system first, it will help you in the future.
- There is no consistency between devices. Are you storing files on a computer’s hard drive, and then not be able to access them anywhere else? Cloud storage can really help with something like this. There are also many apps that work well on multiple devices and can be used to get you much more organized. Depending on your needs and your files, the best solution and system will vary from person to person. Since I have several devices, this is more important for me than someone who maybe just has a computer and a phone.
- There are too many apps. I admit to having to many apps. There are plenty that I stopped using, or never really used to begin with. My phones are much better because I get a new one more often than other devices. I have apps that I have had since my first iPod Touch for iOS and from my first smart phone (but thankfully those are just on the Google account and not on the phone). I haven’t taken this advice yet, but I think it may be time to clear out some of those apps.
These seem to be the main culprits I have come across. Since I spend a lot of time on electronic devices, it is just about as important for me to be organized and clutter free as I would be with a physical space. If there are any other ideas you have for digital clutter, please let me know by leaving a comment.
