A digital declutter is basically an audit of your entire digital life in full, this is then followed by deleting or rearranging all of what is left into a simpler and more backed up system.
The goal is to declutter your digital life to make room for more and scale your existing successful courses instead of adding more clutter to your business.
Digital clutter doesn’t necessarily take up physical space in your life, but it does in fact take up precious space in our heads. A cluttered digital environment gives us the feeling that a variety of things are all competing for our attention, which can be so incredibly mentally draining and stressful. This in turn makes it far harder to focus, think creatively, and make those important decisions that need making.
How to Declutter Your Digital Life & Reclaim Your Attention
I am a digital hoarder and keep things for “incase”. Am I the only one?
Recently I finally decided that a digital declutter was in dire need.
If I hadn’t looked at it in years, I got rid of it.
The goal for me was to make space for new.
Everyone is on this declutter train but it doesn’t need to only be your physical life.
A digital declutter includes all your electronics like your phone and computer.
Get rid of the old to make space for the new. This doesn’t mean once you have decluttered that you should now create a bunch more things to just add more clutter.
That is definitely NOT what I mean.
The best thing you can do is to improve the things you already have instead of creating something else and making more clutter.
Simplify to Scale
6 Tips to digitally declutter
1. Unsubscribe from everything you never read
Let’s be honest, we all have subscribed to probably close to a million emails.
Companies we aren’t really interested in and then they just pile up in our inbox and we never read them – EVER.
Just me? I didn’t think so.
There is a super simple solution to this – UNSUBSCRIBE!
You won’t miss them and if you do then you can just subscribe again.
2. Clean up your desktop
All those random shortcuts, lonely files or “untitled” folders, delete them!
Clear up your desktop so that your screen is decluttered, clean and not mentally draining when you just look at it!
3. Delete the contents of your downloads folder
You know what I am talking about right?
You download a bunch of things all the time, screen grabs or downloads to quickly upload somewhere. They all end up in a folder or scattered around your phone or computer. They take up space and are NEVER deleted.
Well, it’s time. Yes, right now!
4. Disable non-essential startup programs
Are you tired of your laptop taking forever to start up, then you need to focus on the likely problems: start-up programs. Have a look at all your applications that are running at start up and turn off the ones you know that you definitely don’t need.
This allows you to no longer allow annoyances when you are ready to sit down and focus on work. These small changes are important, making sure everything is working for you and not hindering your progress.
5. Turn off non-essential notifications on your smartphone
Have a look through the notifications for every app you are using and make sure that you are only receiving the ones that are absolutely essential.
This means saying goodbye to many of those social media notifications.
Those notifications take up a lot of your device’s battery and disturb your focus and thought process — getting rid of them will help you prioritize and focus on the task that you are busy with.
6. Sort out your files and folders
You need to set aside some serious time to organize your chaotic files and folders into something with order and that lets you access the files you actually use and need quickly. Same goes for your browser bookmarks – delete what you don’t need anymore. Yes, that includes the recipe that you saved 2 years ago and still haven’t made.
You’ll feel better for it.
All the clutter in your files are standing in your way!
Basically, the steps to decluttering are:
- Go over everything digital that you own (files, folders, accounts, etc.).
- Delete and get rid of anything you don’t use and need.
- Reorganize whatever is left.
- Stay focused and maintain the organization with consistent habits.
good luck!
What are your favorite ways to declutter?