There’s a real trend towards trying to organize and simplify our things, as popularized in Marie Condo’s mega-hit book, “Spark Joy.” She has a quote about her philosophy that I love: “Tidying is the act of confronting yourself, cleaning is the act of confronting nature.”
In our tech-obsessed world, it’s becoming increasingly important to redeem our lives (and also our sanity) to reclaim what I call ‘squandered time.’ also be intentional about tidying our digital data as much as possible. I’ll divided this article into 2 main sections: WHY (the real benefits) and HOW (practical tips).
WHY
It seems like a tedious, waste of time right now, but it will actually SAVE YOU TIME in the future. Just like how the average person spends 10 minutes a day looking for everyday items (ie, keys, wallet, etc.), I would argue we waste even more time than that looking for digital files in disorganized folders, or getting distracted by news and notifications that pop up on our screens.
You might FEEL BETTER. Do you have occasional or chronic anxiety? Phone fatigue? Digital de-cluttering might help you alleviate those symptoms. You also get a sense of empowerment over your digital space. It’s all about OWNING your space.
Just like in the physical sense, knowing where our digital data is and how much we actually have will help us be in control.
Borrowing from Kondo herself, she points out that if you’ve never thought of doing something like this before, then you may experience the most drastic change after.
Ready? What are you waiting for? Let’s dive right in.
The Actual Cleanup: HOW
There are 2 main ways of going about it, the first is to do it in small chunks of time (like, 30-45 mins). The other is to do it within a period of several hours. There is no right way or wrong way to initiate it, but if you’re like me, you’ll want to attack it and at least reserve 2 hours to start off with. Who knows, you might find that you really get into the swing of things and keep going back to finish what you started. Another important thing to keep in mind is to try and do it when you’re in a decent mind space. For example, doing it in the evening after a long day of work might be exhausting and further exacerbate the process.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is the order in which you start things. After reading Marie Kondo’s book, I would suggest tackling work stuff first, and personal/sentimental things last (ie, photos). It is very easy to get sidetracked and end up spending several hours thinking of your teenage self…
Key Areas:
COMPUTER – organizing files
You should aim for your desktop screen to be clear of any documents. It should be a clean white space (excluding your choice of desktop wallpaper). Everything else should be in folders (under My Computer, My Documents, or My photos, etc.)
How to organize files and folders.
To start off with, here’s some basic main folder headers:
- Work
- Personal
- Education
- Resources
- Finances
From there, you can branch off and try and find common groupings that make sense. For some items, you might choose to do it chronologically (2020, 2019, 2018…), while others might require a certain category (ie, Freelance, “Company names”, Contracts…). You can always add a Miscellaneous folder to every main group, but I would try and limit the amount of documents you place in there (ie, 10-15 max), or else it might defeat the purpose of your folders.
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Follow Kondo’s advice: Does it spark joy? In other words, does it still interest you? If the answer is ‘yes’, but you still have a list of 10+ subscriptions, I suggest that you try paring down to five (or customizing your subscription options, if available).
Delete large attachments and photos
If you use Gmail and Google Drive, you can find out how much space you have left by clicking here: google.com/settings/storage. This might determine how much you want to clear.
For deleting large email attachments, simply put “size: 10M” in the search finder, which will find emails 10MB or larger.
To find the largest files in your Google drive, click here: https://drive.google.com/drive/quota.
Deleting photos and videos
Parsing through copious amounts of photos and videos is perhaps one of the most tedious things you can do, but it will most likely free up the most amount of space (if you use an automatic backup system), and it can also save you a lot of time in the long run.
There are also apps that are dedicated to auto-selecting the best photo and deleting the outtakes, although I haven’t used them myself.
Start by deleting duplicate photos and videos, then delete media that isn’t important to you anymore. Ask yourself, “Would I want to remember this image years from now?” If the answer is no, delete it. If the answer is maybe, you can keep it in a “Pending” folder and revisit it later on.
Going forward from this exercise, it’s also important to maintain your image library. That means tidying it up on a monthly or quarterly basis. This will help keep you on top of your storage limit.
PHONE
Uninstall all non-essential apps.
Have you counted your apps? It’s like counting the clothes you own, you’ll be amazed at how many you may actually have, even if you’re a technological minimalist.
Given that apps are easy to re-download, you have to ask yourself, “When was the last time I used this?” If, like objects, you think to yourself, “there might be a few times when this can come in handy!” ask yourself instead, “Do I really need an app or can I use the website version instead if I need it from time to time?” It might be like those screw nails in your cupboard that might come in handy for a project that’s years away..
Sometimes apps are useful during seasons, but we don’t need them anymore. Learn to recognize those seasons, and remove the app when the time for its usefulness are over.
After you’ve pared down your apps, keep your essential ones on your main page, and place the secondary ones into groupings as much as possible.
I hope this article has helped inspire you to live a tidier digital life!