Digital Spring Cleaning

We’re a couple of weeks into the “official” spring time here in the UK (and despite being stuck inside it’s actually been sunny for once!) and we have a long Easter weekend to rest, relax and also be a little bit productive. Often people use this time of year where we’re starting to get longer days and sun  to Spring Clean. I, of course, dislike cleaning immensely although will probably still do some. But for this post and my own productivity – I realised that what I really needed to do was CLEAN UP my devices over the next few days. 

One of the big reasons for this is it’s been weighing on my mind for a while. Last year I upgraded my phone, and the first thing I did was just put everything on my old phone onto my new one. Thousands of photos, messages and many unused apps… it feels like it’s too much but I’ve spent so much time having them all. On top of that, I have a laptop full of disorganised folders, emails and bookmarks, including an external hard drive which is the same. So I’ve given myself a challenge this weekend to sort this out and I’m bringing you along with me.

Inbox Zero

First things first, I’m gonna aim for Inbox Zero. This doesn’t mean I’ll delete all my emails but I have been receiving the “your storage is almost full” alert from gmail for a while now so I do need to start. 

First things first is taking a scan through my main inbox folder and I’m going to delete any emails I know I don’t need, like shopping and ad emails – and also unsubscribe from newsletters that I never read! I’ll do this manually for some, and then use Unroll Me for the rest. 

The second step is to organise my email folders and archive the emails which may be important or sentimental such as from family or bill-related emails.This also includes invoices and order details for anything I’ve bought that I may need returns or warranty for. 

Once I’ve sorted gmail, I’m also going to replicate it for my blog email. I’ve been receiving more and more spam content, so I really need to keep on top of it going forwards as well. 

Bookmarks Be-Gone

Next up I’m moving towards my bookmarks bar. I’ve been using Google Chrome since I was a teenager, so I have about 10 years worth of bookmarks on my account which may or may not be useful for me (probably more on the “may not” side to be honest). In order to stick to my bookmarks folder, bookmarks will need to fit into one of the below categories: 

• Blog accounts and important docs
• Income related
• Recipes
• Learning and personal improvements
• Work related
• Favourite content creators

If they’re not fitting right in the above, they have to be bookmarks that I’ve used in the past few months (basically since Christmas!) or they’re gone. I’ll also be looking into each of those category folders and removing any links which may be old and defunct, or just not necessary for me to keep anymore. 

Abandon those Apps

Next I’m taking a break from my laptop and I’m having a look at my phone instead. I have a lot of apps which I’ve downloaded for many different reasons, and then they’ve just been left on my homescreen not being used. I’m gonna have a look through and force myself to think about the apps I actually use, and whether I need to be using them. If I’ve not used them in a long time then we’re gonna have to part ways (except for things like Uber and the Starbucks app… some of these will be Covid dependent!). 

Photo Storage

I’ve done some work on the laptop and on my phone, and now I’ll have to have a look at both. Next up is photo storage. I have SO MANY photos across all my many devices and I really need to reduce these down, delete duplicates, and make it easier for me to find memories I want to search for. I’m going to make sure all my photos are on my external hard drive, and are properly ordered, labeled and filed away. The goal is to keep uploading onto the hard drive once a month so it doesn’t get this bad again too. 

First up is I’m going to organise by “type” of photo or image. Are these general photos of friends and family? Are they part of photography or artwork that I’ve created? Are they related to the blog? Three separate folders will be created for these.

Next up will be by date, which will go by year and then monthly folders for organisation purposes. Then in my month folders I’ll start to split out on categories/themes/events depending on which main folder is used. For my blog, each blog post would have it’s own folder, for my family/friends group I’d categorise by event. For example in November I may have photos from a birthday meal, or December could have Christmas Party photos. 

Then finally I’d start making sure all the relevant photos are dropped into the right place, and will be so much easier to find going forward. 

Organising for Efficiency

Most of all my digital spring cleaning is going to help improve my everyday life. I’m not sorting these out to waste my time over the long weekend, but to reduce the time I spend trying to find things. I’m organising my apps so I don’t spend ages searching through my menu, I’m organising bookmarks so I can quickly find the site I need, and I’m clearing down my inbox so the important emails are what I see when I open that tab. 

Organising my life is an ongoing project, but it’s goal is always to improve my everyday capabilities. We all have 24 hours in a day, and where possible I want to cut the crap that can take up that time but adds nothing to my life. This isn’t to say everyday is going to productivity all the time, I’ll still be having lazy days and sleepy scrolling – it just means I’ve lost one less minute trying to find my way onto Netflix. 

How will you be digitally spring cleaning?

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