Declutter Your Digital Life

We all have a list of ways we can make our lives easier, right? Keep the house clean, keep your keys where they belong, and don’t forget to walk the dog. While it’s not too difficult to maintain a clean lifestyle (assuming you work hard at maintaining it!) our digital life is a whole different beast. I’m guilty of having hundreds of dog photos I’ll probably never look at again. So what’s a better way at a fresh digital start? I don’t want to factory restore my phone or PC and I’m sure neither do you! There’s a better way to go about dealing with unwanted digital clutter.

Unfollow the unimportant
One of my rules is, if I don’t recognize the name, I unfollow it. It helps a ton with my Youtube playlist. I’m familiar with channels I regularly watch. When a new video pops up by a certain creator, I know what to expect. When I go through my list at the end of the month I unfollow all the names I don’t remember watching. I also cleaned out my Goodreads “To Read” list. Can you believe I deleted over 500 books? Many were from my time working at a bookstore. I would add anything that looked interesting. My tastes have changed since then. If I haven’t made time to read a book in over 6 years… Chances are I might never read it!

Delete unused apps
I’m so guilty of downloading 10 different photo editing apps and then only using one. Take the time to use each app and delete what you won’t use. You’ll save space on your phone and you won’t mistake one app for another. This way you can focus on the one or two important apps and really learn how to use them. Apps work best when they work for you, not against you. Many apps feature in use tutorials but if you need help there’s always Youtube!

Back up important files
Use either an external hard drive or the cloud to create a safe space for your important files. No one wants to lose years of family photos or medical documents due to a hazard or a mistake. Don’t wait until a natural disaster or a rogue cup of water puts an end to your prized files! Keeping these files safe allows you to free up your phone or PC and not worry about losing anything.

Don’t feel pressured
It’s so easy to get caught up in the way famous people live. We all want to have a glamorous lifestyle filled with only photo ready moments. But many of these “ideal” moments are staged. So take a break from it all. Don’t feel like you need to keep up with the Joneses. I promise you that most of the time people are too busy looking at their own lives to fuss over yours. You should dance and no one’s watching!

Disable notifications
There’s nothing more annoying than waking up and seeing 100 notifications. Apps are constantly bugging us to play with them. Many notifications are simple and meaningless chatter. Go through your phone and tell them to shut it! You’ll feel calmer waking up to nothing other than your alarm. It also allows you to start the day without spending an hour on your phone before you roll out of bed!