So you guessed it the solution is not always about getting more space on your phone or digital devices. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and bogged down by the amount of digital clutter we accumulate, photos, notifications, apps, social media, emails, pdfs, and so much more. I’m in total need of a digital declutter.
What is digital decluttering? And what’s the difference between a digital detox?
Digitally decluttering, is where you organize, remove, and clean up your digital devices, social media, email inboxes, and any digital spaces that impact your life. It’s different from digitally detoxing, which is setting time to be away completely from your digital and online spaces. It’s like the same kind of relief you get from physically decluttering!
The benefits of digital decluttering:
- Increases productivity
- Speeds up your devices
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Helps your overall mental health
- Improves your focus and concentration
- Helps you prioritize what matters to you
- Builds your confidence up
- Gives you more mental and emotional energy
Where to get started?
Break it down. Don’t try to tackle everything at once. Maybe you’ll decide to spend some time once a week, select the device and the area that you’d like to declutter. I would suggest an area that you’re most frustrated with or would be most happy to see progress in. Set a timer and do what you can within that time frame. When the time’s up go do something else, take a break from your screens, and be proud of what you’ve done!!
Your digital decluttering list:
- Photos, and videos – Delete duplicates, back them up on your hard drive, drop box, or google photos. If you’re like me I keep a lot of photos for inspiration and ideas, and I create secret Pinterest boards, that only I can see and organize them from there.
- Apps – Check your storage, and look at when was the the last time you used the app. If you didn’t touch the app within months, just delete it. To make myself feel better, I always remind myself that I can always re-download it if needed.
- Email Inbox– Unsubscribe like a savage. Keep the emails, you absolutely love and will check. Delete the emails that you don’t really need or let’s get real, won’t even open up and read, even if you save it for later. I went from 3,000+ emails down to 0, and it feels so good, and way more manageable now.
- Social Media – If you’re not vibing with someone’s energy anymore remove them from your feed. Or you can just mute their content. This is about your world, there’s nothing personal about it. Remove photos you don’t want from your feed, on instagram, you can just archive them.
- Desktop – Back up what you don’t currently need on a hard drive, google drive or your dropbox. Only keep items on your desktop that you use every day or every week. I’ve now gravitated to keeping my documents on google drive, because then I can access it on all my devices.
How often should you digitally declutter?
Take it from me, don’t wait until your devices keep having those popups that you’ve run out of space, or your computer works slow. I would recommend to do this once every 2 weeks or once a month. It just depends on how much time you have, but try to find a consistent schedule to declutter. This way you can prevent things from getting way too backed up and feeling completely overwhelmed.
It feels as equally good as physically decluttering your space, and it really adds more intention and mindfulness to how we use our devices. We can either use it positively or negatively and that choice is up to us!
