Digital decluttering has become just as important as twice-daily tooth cleaning. Particularly at this time, when the knowledge industry has largely shifted to online and remote work. If we don’t learn to keep our online environments neat and organized, our mental health and productivity could suffer greatly. Cluttered digital environments can cause fragmented attention spans, fatigue, overwhelm, and impatience.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to start cleaning out digital workspace.
Clean desktop and download folder
There’s absolutely no need for shortcuts on the desktop. Make sure to uncheck the box next to the option to create a desktop shortcut whenever you install an application.
Use Sorting hat folder to remove all the files from the desktop and download folder. Segregate them once in a week or month in each category like Docs, image (Jpg, Jpeg, Png, etc), Videos, zip file. Check carefully whether it is really necessary or just delete them. If it seems necessary, give them proper names & move them to a related folder.
Remove junk file
Junk files are temporary files created so your computer or phone can perform specific tasks and that are now no longer needed. At one time, these files were helpful, because programs, apps, and operating systems needed to create temporary files to execute computing tasks. But after serving their purpose, these files become useless junk.
As junk files accumulate on your hard drive, problems can arise. As storage fills up, your device may get slower or experience other performance issues. To avoid these problems, it’s important to delete junk files regularly.
𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Maintain a synced drive for all of your active files and folders, such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc. so that it may access from anyplace and won’t miss out. On the other hand, files that aren’t needed every day can be stored on a portable hard drive, copied, and updated once a month, or saved in a cloud storage system to be backed up to different servers, so you never have to worry about losing the data you store on them. Your data will still be safeguarded in numerous other locations even if one server crashes.
It does have one drawback though—when it syncs, the computer performs slowly. It would be wise to disable the sync while working and enable it when you take a break.
Empty your email inbox
Ready to trash everything in your email inbox? No? You’re not alone. A lot of us hesitate to throw away emails because we’re afraid of missing a million-dollar opportunity or an important message. Well, don’t! You are able to empty your inbox without deleting or putting any mails in the Archive bin.
Clear recycle bin
Recycle bin uses 10% of the total amount of memory on your disk partitions. You have a chance to recover any mistakenly deleted data because it preserves all temporarily deleted files and directories. When a file is deleted in Windows, the Recycle Bin receives a copy of the deleted file. An empty Recycle Bin is devoid of everything, while a full one resembles a waste basket filled with crumpled paper in icon. It’s a good practice to occasionally clear the recycle bin because anything kept inside continues to occupy hard disk space.
Remove duplicate file
Duplicate file removal improves system efficiency in addition to freeing up storage space. It’s all too easy to start editing the wrong document when there are too many duplicate files, and you may also grow weary of hearing the same song repeatedly. There are two main advantages to deleting them: you’ll free up a lot of disk space and you’ll get rid of confusing copies of your files that weren’t produced on purpose. Use File Explorer, run a few commands in Command Prompt, or use dependable third-party apps like – Easy Duplicate Finder to accomplish this.
Remove optional windows features
Search the Start menu for “Turn Windows features on or off” and you’ll see a list of optional components. Disable as many of these as you like – you can always turn them back on if you need them. Windows 10 also comes with numerous pre-installed Store apps. Clearing these out will help to declutter your PC and increase speed. On the Optional features page, scroll to the Installed features section. Use the “Find an installed optional feature” search field to locate the feature you want to remove or scroll through the list of installed features to find it. Click or tap the Uninstall button, and Windows 10 will immediately start removing the optional feature from your system.
Declutter your smartphone
Most of our phones are a cluttered mess as files keep building through social media, messages, random clicks for pictures and browser cache files. The first step of decluttering would be removing the unused apps. Even some apps which you used occasionally can be kept hidden to minimize the home screen.
Backup your data to the cloud using services like Dropbox, Amazon Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive to free up memory on your phone. Consider which of your files consume the most memory—typically images, documents, music, and video files—and save them in the cloud rather than on your phone.
Cleaning up junk files can help free up information that’s been sitting on your phone for years. Google’s own Files app can be very handy removing junk files, duplicate files, blur pictures and unused apps.
Conclusion
Digital clutter makes up the majority of distractions in modern life. It can be an invisible burden that accumulates, exacerbates process inefficiencies, frustrates users in their daily activities, and has significant ramifications for business practice. It is a major productivity killer. It’s high time to get rid of this clutter before it makes any more blunders. By developing systems to remove these stress points, we can focus our energy on more meaningful activities.
