Start Every Week With This Digital Decluttering Method
It’s common knowledge that physical clutter reduces your productivity and concentration, so you should clean up at and around your desk as often as possible, but you should also start applying this practice to your desk . Most of our life is spent on the phone and computer, so the cluttered digital space also does not contribute to the work of your brain at maximum speed.
Studies have shown that clutter can make you exhausted, stressed, and burnt out. You feel better when less debris clutters up your vision and space, but an unmanageable desktop or home screen can backfire just as much, according to Psychology Today .
Take a look at your desktop, tabs, inbox, and home screen: how many different windows do you have open right now? They drain not only your mental energy, but also the energy of your device.
When and how to clean up your devices
Try to start each week with digital decluttering. This shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes, but you’ll be more productive when it’s done, so it’s a good investment of your time.
On your desktop, create folders where you can store everything you need, whether it’s documents for work or screenshots for your business. Every Monday, go through any documents or pictures you have on your desktop and paste them into the appropriate folders to keep everything looking cleaner. Do the same with any new apps you have installed on your phone. There’s no reason to scroll through pages and app pages to find what you need when you can hide it in a folder and keep your home screen organized. Only the necessary folders for everyday use should be available on the desktop and home screen . The rest must be sent somewhere invisible but searchable.
Close any open windows you are not using and any tabs left over from your last browsing session. If you really need something affordable, bookmark it. Get in the habit of closing tabs whenever you’re done with them. (Check also minimized browser windows; I always have at least three windows to close.)
Next comes email. We previously recommended the one-touch mailbox management method , and it works great here: open every email you’ve received in the last week and either delete it or archive it, depending on whether you think it’s there. you will need later. Anything you archive, be sure to set aside time to reply later in the day or week.
Perhaps most importantly, delete as you go. If you downloaded an app for one purpose and don’t use it anymore, delete it . If your files contain documents from an old course or working draft, delete them . Try to do this for the first 15 minutes of every Monday (or when you start the week) to greatly reduce digital clutter and any stress that comes with it.