When you hear spring, cleaning usually follows. But this year, your spring cleaning should be more than giving your living environment a fresh start. Because we live online as much as we do in our homes these days, it’s never been more important to keep our digital life just as tidy. We’ve put together a helpful guide of things to consider that will keep your digital life organized. Take a few hours out of your day, cozy up on the couch and get to cleaning!
We use our emails for just about everything these days, so it’s very easy for clutter to build up in our inbox. Update your privacy settings and make sure all spam goes directly to that folder. Go through your subscriptions: if you’re still receiving emails from a store or service you haven’t bought from in years, it’s probably time to unsubscribe. Your inbox should be easy to navigate – make it a habit to go through it every day and delete anything that isn’t important or pertinent to your daily life.
Organize your desktop
Many of us tend to save files on our desktops because it’s the easiest way to access things, but over time they add up and create a busy environment. Now is the perfect time to get your desktop clean and organized – create folders and categories, give files easy and direct names and purge anything you no longer need. It’ll create a cleaner look and a better user experience, so when the time comes to find a file, you won’t be searching endlessly.
Bookmarks
We come across a lot of great things online, from new blogs, music artists and recipes. But your bookmarks should be for your favorites and the websites you actually frequent. Sort through your bookmarks and if you haven’t visited a site in a while, delete it!
Update your passwords
When’s the last time you updated your passwords? And are you using the same one for your important accounts like banking, email and social networking? Having different passwords best protects you against hacking. Make sure your passwords are long and combine capital and lowercase letters. You might also consider writing them down and keeping them in a safe place.
Remove any floating apps
Whether it’s games we played for a few days then got bored of or apps that no longer pertain to our everyday life, many of us have apps on our devices we no longer use. Go through your phone and computer and delete any that are just floating around. An added bonus is this will free up storage and help your devices run smoother! Also, keep in mind that if you have an account with the app, you’ll want to close that too.
Freshen up your social media
If we’re checking anything online, chances are we’re also checking our social media. Keep your feed clean and relevant: go through your friends and following list and delete anyone whom you haven’t interacted with or can’t see yourself interested in connecting with again. Also, unfollow pages you’re no longer interested in and update your security settings!
Dispose of electronic devices safely
Finally, dispose of any old devices. Many of us have outdated phones or technology laying around that only add to the clutter. Wipe the devices clean so they don’t have any personal information, remove the SIM card and locate a store such as your phone provider where you can safely dispose of them.
With these helpful tips, your digital life will be safer and run much more efficient. And remember, it doesn’t have to be spring for you to do this. Continue decluttering beyond the season and enjoy a stress-free digital life year-round.
