Tidy up your digital space
In a world drowning in emails, social feeds, and endless stimuli, getting lost in a half-procrastination loop is easy.
In a world drowning in emails, social feeds, and endless stimuli, getting lost in a half-procrastination loop is easy. With year-end approaching, it's the perfect time to review or rethink what you actually need and what you don't.
Take stock of what you have
Before you start cleaning everything in sight, figure out what services you actually have, how important they are, and how often you need to access them.
Focus on the heaviest hitters
No need to clean everything at once. Start with the environments you use the most — email, cloud, social media, and so on. That's where the most clutter accumulates, and it's the kind of clutter that's distracting and steals a ton of attention.
For most people, an unkempt inbox is a source of stress and procrastination. Endlessly sifting through, reading, and replying to unimportant emails is a black hole for time.
The simplest ways to clean up your inbox:
· Unsubscribe from newsletters and marketing emails you don't read or need
· Use filters to sort incoming mail
· Archive or delete unimportant emails
Reassess subscriptions
Another way to save time and sometimes money is reviewing subscriptions. Check what you're paying for and what you actually use. If you've signed up for a streaming platform and watched the content twice, it might be time to rethink it.
Reassess your apps
It isn't only about saving money — space on your device is a valuable asset too. Most mobile users don't use more than half of their installed apps more than once a year. If you have apps you never or rarely use, set aside time and prune them. Your phone will thank you.
Reassess your online habits
Not everything we do online is productive. While writing this very article I caught myself thinking about scrolling social media or checking email more than once. That's why it's important to take a step back and look at what we do online and how productive it actually is. A bit of fun for unwinding doesn't hurt — but it usually slides into endless scrolling, so I recommend setting a timer.