3 Tips for Digital Decluttering
Digital clutter is easier to collect than vacation souvenirs. I find myself confronted once again with the choice to either upgrade my cloud storage space or delete the precious data I’ve collected over the years. It leaves me in a panic. I start etching through one file, one image, one spreadsheet at a time to determine its level of importance in my life. I ask myself how I ended up with four copies of the same picture or why I took so many selfies. What was I thinking?
The corners of my cluttered cloud storage are stuffed so full I can’t help but realize this spills over into my brain. Overwhelmed with information, ciphering through these files from years ago brings up all sorts of thoughts and emotions. Sometimes I’m confused: What was this for? Why did I keep this? How long should I keep this for? Other times I am intrigued: I forgot I had this! I remember this! Occasionally I find the choice easy to delete a file. Mostly, I’m torn on the next step.
I imagine I am not the only person who needs a little digital spring cleaning. Do you have the corners of your cloud storage stuffed? Have you been putting off the spring cleaning of your photos or files? Here are three things that are helping me right now as I work through this process.
Streamline Your Cloud Services
It’s a wonderful world we live in, one where we don’t need to worry about enough storage on our computers or keeping track of jump drives. We have Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, and I’m sure there are more. Do you have files in multiple cloud services? A good first step is to streamline your files to one service as much as you can. You may not be able to totally disregard these services but keep your files all in one place if you can.
Work In Layers
If you are in a situation like mine, you may have to work in layers. After you have streamlined your cloud services to the one which works best for you, now is the time to go through an initial glance through your files. Make the easy choices. Delete the bad selfie shots, the old documents you don’t need anymore, and any duplicates you encounter.
After you’ve made it through your initial sweep, now you can work in the second layer. You might name your documents more accurately as you evaluate what they are. You’ll likely find more you can delete. You may come across an old ebook of recipes you got when you signed up for that email list forever ago, and it’s time to make those twenty healthy smoothies this month finally. Who knows what you’ll find?!
Continue from there. If you need more layers to work through the details, then take all the time you need. There’s no right way to do this…only your way.
Create Your System
I don’t know about you, but this is the fun part to me. I get to create my structure moving forward and decide how I want to keep myself sorted. By utilizing features like folders, titles, tags, keywords, and, yes, even emojis, you can easily sort the items you have left. The beauty of a good system is that it’s easy to pop in new files, downloads, and photos.
Having Trouble Keeping Up?
If you often find yourself not keeping up with sorting items according to the system you put in place, there are likely only a couple of reasons why.
One, you may simply have too much stuff you are hanging onto. I once heard that organization is an imaginary value, meaning we are just taking our clutter and making it look pretty in tidy order. You may need to challenge yourself to continue stripping away what you have AND what you continue to bring in.
Two, your system is too complex. If it’s too complex, you likely won’t keep up with it. Keep it simple and plan on once a month going through the new items you’ve accumulated. Downsize accordingly.
Why Does This Matter?
There is lots of science-y stuff out there to tell you why decluttering is good, how it opens up our minds for better creativity, and so on. Bob shares what Steve Jobs taught him about creativity, so check that out. For me, aside from these factors, my faith is an important piece. When I look into the Bible and the stories, I can’t help but think of the freedom many before me experienced because they were in a free place to simply BE.
…Adam and Eve didn’t even have clothes, yet they communed the closest to God than any after them…
…David laid in the green pastures and by the quiet waters…
…Jesus and his disciples traveled town to town with not even an extra set of clothing…
…The early church members in Acts sold all they had and gave to those in need, and they lived in great community…
I can’t help but allow this to influence my life of minimalism and intentional living day by day.
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