I was explaining here how decluttering the space you live in, can help you free your mind. In the digital era, we have a new form of hoarding: digital cluttering. Much like the physical one, it reflects the order and space you have in our mind.
Why do it?
You will find information easier and be more efficient. Do you really need all those proof of purchase emails for events you have already attended? Or all the welcome emails that don’t hold any true value? Removing them will help you find things easier.
You gain time. A direct consequence of finding things easier. If you are used to storing info that can be sought on the internet, a search engine will always be faster. Unless you are preparing to work completely offline.
You will save some money too. If you get used to keeping only the essentials, free or basic storage will be sufficient on both devices and cloud space. Look at the price difference in smartphones, to double your storage space.
Your stored referrals may become obsolete. There was a time when good tutorials were not easy to find and people where saving them locally on the hard drive. Nowadays technology changes at such a pace that new versions of a system or app are issued at least quarterly, if not weekly. Financial extracts also display a previous balance, so you don’t need to keep every single file.
It’s a form of hoarding. Just like physical hoarding, it’s an obsessive-compulsive behaviour. “You might need it some day”. You will find it online, don’t worry. I had a friend that was storing huge amounts of technical ebooks and tutorials. He barely read a couple of them.
Let go. Deleting certain emails or messages which may not bring happy memories into your mind, will help you let go. Why are you really keeping them? As proof? To bring back bad times to your mind? Just let go.
What to address?
Emails, pictures, files. Yes, I know sorting out pictures is difficult, you can leave that last.
What about social media? Let me explain some psychological facts. Fact #1: Every human being evolves. Not always in the right direction, but everyone changes with time. Those of us passionate about personal development, evolve the most. You might have been really angry 10 years ago and perhaps you’ve recently found your peace. Hold that thought and read the next fact.
Fact#2: We all have a projected image in front of society: our public image. If that image differs substantially from our true self, the bigger the gap, the bigger the damage. However, once such an image has formed we tend to strengthen it, even if it doesn’t represent us anymore. Were you perceived as strong and cold or on the contrary a party person? If this is the general perception about you, involuntarily you will try to strengthen that image even if it doesn’t represent you anymore. We all have a digital persona that we present on social media, also part of our public image. Removing posts that don’t represent you anymore, will help you free yourself from your old self and be more authentic.
How?
Take one thing at a time and focus only on that. I have explained here, the damage that multitasking does to your brain. Take one folder or one app and give it 10 minutes to focus exclusively on it. My advice: start with your desktop (the ‘default’ save location).
Joy and purpose. Is it something useful to keep? Good, keep it. Does it bring back some joy (like a message of gratitude or appreciation that you have received)? Great, keep it!
Prevent re-cluttering. Unsubscribe from email lists / newsletters that you don’t need. If it doesn’t work, block the address. It might be helpful to create some automated rules for sorting your emails to different folders.
Clean your bookmarks. I guarantee that some of those websites went offline anyway. There are apps that can check your bookmarks automatically and remove those that don’t work anymore.
Delete the accounts you don’t need. Maybe you just wanted to try something out – a new platform, software, service. Do you really want your information stored on dozens of unsecured servers?
Unlike/unfollow pages that you’re not interested in, anymore. You’ll have a cleaner newsfeed, more focused on what you really care about and you’ll spend less time scrolling through it. Since this one involves browsing social media to ‘clean it up’, I bet a lot of people will start with it.
Uninstall apps you don’t need or use anymore. It will speed up your computer or phone.
Turn off push notifications on your phone screen. Keep only those that you really care about, so that your phone doesn’t buzz every 5 minutes.
It will take some time to do all this. If you want, once you’re done, you can drop us a message. How does it feel to be free?
