TECH4GOOD
New year, new you, right? You could have resolved to quit a vice, learn something new, manage your finances better, sign up for a gym membership, shift to fruit smoothies, and check a couple off your bucket list of places to visit. What about digital decluttering, the ultimate unsung hero of resolutions?
With the new year upon us, it’s the perfect time to step back and declutter our digital lives. Whether cleaning up your email inbox, organizing your files, or limiting your screen time, there are many ways to declutter your digital life and start the new year fresh. Digital clutter can be overwhelming and stressful, especially when it comes to managing our online lives. Even our friends from the cybersecurity company Kaspersky say that adding this practical and intelligent resolution to our 2024 list will help us protect our precious data!
Digital decluttering is a process of removing unnecessary digital junk from our lives. It's a by-product of the digital age. In today's hyper-connected world, our digital spaces often resemble our physical ones – overflowing with unused apps, forgotten files, and endless notifications vying for our attention. These all amount to what we call digital clutter. Think of our digital space as an extension of our physical environment. Just as clutter in our homes can create stress and impede our ability to relax, a cluttered digital life can distract us, drain our energy, compromise our security, and hinder our creativity.
A Kaspersky report showed the top five data that are commonly stored on devices are general photos and videos (90 percent), pictures and videos of travel and personal emails (tied at 89 percent each), address information/contact information (84 percent), and private messages via SMS/IM (79 percent).
Digital decluttering can be a daunting task for many reasons. Digital clutter is often out of sight, out of mind, unlike physical clutter. Another reason could be our propensity for digital hoarding, meaning the habit of accumulating digital files and apps we rarely use. It can also be caused by reasons like pure laziness, anxiety over the idea of deleting anything or thinking something might come in handy later on. Decluttering, therefore, should be purposeful and ruthless.
We can start by identifying the areas of our digital life that need decluttering. This could include our email inbox, social media accounts, files and folders, and apps. Then we create an action plan, determine which areas to tackle first, and set realistic goals. Let's start small by choosing a manageable area like our inbox. We should always ask ourselves questions like: Does this item spark joy? Do I use it regularly? If not, let us thank it for its service and let it go.
Next, we review our files and delete anything we no longer need (easier said than done!). This could include old photos, documents, and other files. We must also ensure we have a backup of all our important files, either to an external drive or a cloud storage service.
Taming our email inbox should be a ruthless but necessary exercise. Delete any old emails we no longer need. We can also create folders to organize our emails and make it easier to find what we need later. One of the easiest ways to declutter our digital life is to unsubscribe from email newsletters we no longer read or use.
We can clean up our devices by deleting all unused apps and programs, organizing all screen icons, and turning off all unnecessary notifications. Cybersecurity experts from Kaspersky say this is also the best time to check if all our accounts are secure. If an app provides biometric access, we should kiss passwords goodbye. We should separate our private and work lives while always observing cyber hygiene.
Taking control of our social media activities would be the most challenging as it involves emotional and behavioral changes. We need to be firm while being brutal. Let us unfollow accounts that no longer spark joy in us. Ending doom scrolling will help us limit our screen time and restore sanity to our lives. How about a social media break? It can be a refreshing way to reconnect ourselves and the real world.
Decluttering is not just about throwing things away; it's about making conscious choices about what we bring into our lives and what we choose to let go of. It's an act of self-care, a way to create a space that reflects our values and aspirations and moves away from a chaotic mess. Let us remember that decluttering is a journey, not a destination. The journey may not be easy, but the rewards – a calmer mind, a more productive life, and a newfound sense of joy – are well worth the effort.
So, let us unplug, declutter, and recharge – our mind and focus will thank us for it! t4g.tmb@-+
(The author is an executive member of the National Innovation Council, lead convenor of the Alliance for Technology Innovators for the Nation (ATIN), vice president of the Analytics and AI Association of the Philippines, and vice president, UP System Information Technology Foundation.)