Thanks to the many conveniences of technology, we’re all spending an increasing amount of time in front of our phone and computer screens. But have we stopped to consider the trail of digital clutter we’re leaving behind? If we’re not careful, digital clutter can steal tons of our time, energy, and money—without our even knowing it.
Digital clutter can look like a number of things. But unlike physical clutter, identifying digital clutter is less intuitive to spot. That said, it’s incredibly important that we know how to identify digital clutter so that we can deal with it as soon as we see it.
Check out the six types of digital clutter you might be overlooking, as listed below:
1.) Ignored apps, files, and photos
It cannot be stressed enough how liberating it can feel to delete useless items from our devices. Whether they’re unused apps, duplicate photos, or useless files, freeing up space doesn’t just help our gadgets run better; it also makes our browsing experience quick, frictionless, and stress-free. You can also say goodbye to annoying notifications that tell you you’ve run out of space the next time you snap a photo!
2.) Notifications that needlessly distract you
Not all notifications were made equal. Yes, it’s important to be reachable for family and work emergencies. But is it equally important for you to know exactly when your friend posts a joke about their boss on Twitter, or who the 46th liker of your new profile picture is? Probably not.
Turn off unnecessary notifications on your phone and personal computer to experience a boost in your levels of personal engagement and productivity.
3.) E-mails and messages that aren’t worth your time
Don’t hesitate to delete e-mails and messages that are irrelevant to your priorities. Just about everything is vying for a slice of our time and attention, so let’s not spend our precious resources on things that don’t really matter. Ain’t nobody got time fo’ spam—or late-night messages from old exes, whoops!
4.) Forgotten online accounts and subscriptions
Often overlooked are the accounts and subscriptions we signed up for years ago that are still haunting our inboxes to this day. If you have a few hours on your hands, take the time to delete old accounts and unsubscribe from services you’re no longer interested in (especially paid ones). You’ll be surprised at how much less e-mail will show up in your inbox, once you deal with this particular clutter task.
Pro-tip: There are a few tools you can use to identify accounts and subscriptions that are associated with your e-mail address. Just make sure that they won’t sell your e-mail info to paying brands and companies (as is the case for the popular service Unroll.me).
5.) Contacts and accounts you don’t care about
Block, unfriend, mute, unfollow, delete—all these options exist for a reason. Yet so many of us refrain from using them because we’re scared of missing out on breaking news, or we’re worried about how other people might react. In reality, however, important news will find a way to get to you, and barely anyone will notice if you’ve stopped following them on social media.
In today’s noisy digital age, unsubscribing should be considered a healthy practice of discerning who to listen to and who to ignore.
6.) Unsorted files and folders
Our devices can still feel cluttered even after we’ve gotten rid of unwanted apps, files, and folders. This may be because of a lack of organization. However, there’s no need to create a complicated filing system in order to effectively sort data. A few simple, well-categorized folders should do the job. The less clicks required to find what you’re looking for, the better.
Pro-tip: Instead of creating tediously nested folders to store your files in, be specific in naming your files instead. This makes it easier for you to find your files in a pinch when using the search function (e.g. “2010.10.20 Coron Family Beach Trip Image 1.jpg”).
Dealing with digital clutter isn’t simply dropping a mess of files into a new folder (which we’ve all done before, let’s be real). Though it might give us temporary relief, simply hiding our digital clutter in folders within folders within folders won’t solve the anxiety we’ll experience once we inevitably have to go through our files to look for what we need.
Sure, decluttering our digital lives may not come naturally, but it’s worth doing well. Keeping digital clutter around only slows us down and distracts us from the things that truly matter to us. Digital decluttering is really just a modern-day act of prioritizing what we want to spend our time on.
