Even though our digital world is often where we spend a lot of our time, it might not be the first thing that comes to mind for your Spring cleaning activity. You may have heard that unplugging from technology regularly can be a great way to cleanse your mind. However, a digital spring cleaning includes a lot more. Here are a few ideas to consider.
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Tame Your Email and Calendar
Achieving “inbox zero” may not be possible. If you are like me, I clean out my inbox at the end of the day only to find a mountain of email in the morning. Even if you already plan to stay on top of your emails, there are plenty of easy ways to continue to lighten up your digital clutter. Here are just a few:
Set a fifteen-minute timer and unsubscribe from all those pesky sales and spam emails clogging up your inbox.
Consider archiving old emails or setting up electronic folders to help you clear out your inbox. Filing the contents of emails gives you a better chance of finding them when you need them.
Set up rules in your email client to automatically delete emails in the trash to free up space on your hard drive. Or you can store them on a separate hard drive.
Set aside quiet time each week to read non-urgent emails. You can put them in one folder to access at your convenience.
Put weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays on your calendar. You can even set up reminders, so you never miss an important day for those close to you. You will know they are coming, giving you time to make them unique.
Make your doctors’ appointments. Start by making a list of the types of appointments you need and when. You can even set reminders in advance of your annual check-ups to ensure you won’t be disappointed that the doctor can’t see you when it’s time for your yearly check-up.
Make workout appointments with yourself. Nothing makes you happier than good health. By having it on your schedule, you are more likely to keep it open and not book something else.
Organize Your Phone
We look at our phone hundreds of times a day. Taking a few minutes to organize and streamline access can be something that helps us be more productive and may also reduce our stress. Look at these ideas to see if any might help:
Delete unused apps. We all have apps we rarely use. Deleting them will help you find the ones you use frequently.
Group apps by category. Take time to organize your apps into categories for productivity, travel, finance, shopping, and social media. It will save you time and frustration.
Update your apps. This may take some time so find a time when you do not need your phone. Perhaps scheduling a regular time each week to do this will reduce the time it takes to keep everything up-to-date.
Update your contacts. If you are like me, you have a list of address changes and phone numbers on a pad for when you have time to update contacts. Like you, I never have time unless I schedule it.
Move or delete pictures. Most of us have every picture we have ever taken on our phones. Schedule time to sort them and consider putting ones you don’t want to delete on a separate hard drive or in Evernote or Dropbox.
Wipe down all your tech appliances. Computers, phone, mouse, trackpad, printers, etc. More bacteria live on these devices than on a toilet handle! Yuck.
Free up digital space. Find your storage settings and check what is taking up the most storage space. Instead of buying more cloud storage, you might be able to delete or move things that are taking up space.
Take Back Your Time
Once you have finished a clean-up of your digital world, take a few moments to reflect on what change you would like to make in how, when, where, and the amount of time you spend engaged digitally. The attached exercise might help you be more intentional in your digital usage.