The Digital Spring Clean - Declutter Your Digital Life Now!

The sun is shining, and the weather is sweet! That is unless April showers have migrated into May. But whatever the weather, Spring is here, and the sight of flowers blooming and birds returning from their winter breaks puts everyone in mind of a fresh start. However, while you may have taken the weekend to clean the windows and organize your summer wardrobe, there’s probably a part of your daily life that’s still mired in last year’s clutter. We’re talking about your digital life, and if you haven’t yet got around to a digital declutter then what have you been doing? This is no time to enjoy the sunshine!

Spring cleaning your computer and organizing your digital life is just as important as spring cleaning your apartment. It helps clear the way for fresh growth, new ideas, and forward-thinking views. It’s also likely to give your productivity a boost and reduce stress at work, putting everything you need exactly where you need it. Whether it’s emails, documents, photos, online accounts and subscriptions, apps or other software, straightening up and clearing out is a surefire way to kickstart your productivity over the summer.

Luckily for you, our top tips on how to organize your digital life will help make the process quick and painless—so you can get outside and enjoy some of that glorious spring sunshine.

Spring Clean Your Mac, PC, and Mobile Devices

Starting with your computer, and then moving to the rest of your devices such as smartphones and tablets, uninstalling apps and software that you no longer use will help free up storage space and declutter digital life. It’ll also help with productivity and increase efficiency. No more having to search through thousands of app icons to find the program you want, and no more accidentally opening your favorite game that looks remarkably like PowerPoint. Next, update all the software you want to keep and ensure your computer or device is running optimally. Solitaire 2018 is so last year. Why not update to Solitaire 2019!

Organize Files and Folders

Once your software has been updated, it’s time to take charge of your files and folders. Here, you can be fastidious or just fast. If speed is the name of the game and you no longer need access to documents, files, and attachments, then you can easily just throw them in a folder marked 2018. If you like a little more organization in your digital life, then carefully filing away relevant documents will take a little more time. However, for anything you need regular access to, this is certainly a better approach, allowing you to search methodically for the files you need.

Clean Up Your Email Act

Of course, for Spike users, Priority Inbox is already doing most of the hard work for you. However, there’s still plenty of ways you can clean up your email and simplify your digital life. A great place to start is by checking through your “Other” inbox and unsubscribing from newsletters and other regular emails that are no longer of interest. Ask yourself whether you really want that subscription to Office Chairs Weekly, and when was the last time you really stopped to read. Just unsubscribe and remove another distraction from your daily workflow.  The best way to deal with all this unwanted mail is to unsubscribe and stop receiving it in the first place. To streamline your spring clean, Spike lets you do this directly within the app, removing you from mailing lists and deleting all the old mails at the same time.

Bulk actions is another genius Spike feature made for clean digital living—helping you to keep an organized inbox throughout the year, but also providing a quick and intuitive way to spring clean your email. Instantly select multiple emails with the small checkmark at the top right of your screen (just above your messages). After that, simply click on messages you do not want the bulk action to affect. You can then choose to trash, archive, or mark as read all those messages that are still highlighted. It’s the fastest way to declutter digital life and freshen up your email!

Freshen Up Your Internet Browsers

Over time, you’ve probably gathered bookmarks that are no longer useful, plugins that are out of date, and stacked up quite the internet history. Freshening up your internet browser is an excellent way to speed up searches and stop that pesky autofill feature from sending you to unwanted webpages. You were looking for 6 Ways to Boost Productivity, not 6 Ways to Better Procrastination! Clear your history, your cache, and delete cookies. Your browser will feel like new once again!

Additionally, updating and removing both plugins and bookmarks can help declutter digital life and bring back much needed functionality and efficiency to your web browser. For example, bookmarks are designed to help you easily access web pages in one click, however, the feature becomes pretty useless if you need to scroll through thousands of unused pages before you find the one you need!

Reassess Your Security

Cyber security is as important today as it ever was, and if you’re still reliant on the classic “123456” password (or variations thereof) you should really think about changing your habits. Additionally, it’s a good idea to change passwords for your most important accounts at least once a year. Multi-factor authentication is a great way to go, and by using software specifically designed to generate and autofill passwords, you can further declutter your digital life by never having to physically remember another one again. Now, what was the name of your first pet again?