Penny CatterallIn today’s fast-paced digital age, it’s all too easy to become overwhelmed by the constant influx of information and distractions that bombard us every day. Our digital devices have become extensions of ourselves, housing countless apps, files, and notifications that demand our attention. But what if there was a way to regain control and declutter your digital life? Enter digital minimalism – a powerful philosophy that promotes the intentional and mindful use of technology. In this step-by-step guide, we will explore the art of digital minimalism and provide you with practical tips and strategies to declutter, organize, and optimize your digital world. From streamlining your smartphone apps to creating a minimalist workspace, we will help you reclaim your focus, reduce digital overwhelm, and create a healthier relationship with technology. So, buckle up and get ready to embark on a transformative journey toward a more intentional and fulfilling digital existence.
Why should you practice digital minimalism?
In a world where information is at our fingertips, digital minimalism offers a reprieve from the constant noise and distractions. By practicing digital minimalism, you can regain control over your time and attention, leading to increased productivity, improved mental well-being, and a more fulfilling digital experience. Here are a few reasons why you should consider embracing digital minimalism:
### 1. Increased focus and productivity
When your digital world is cluttered with unnecessary apps, files, and notifications, it’s easy to get distracted and lose focus. By decluttering and organizing your digital space, you can eliminate distractions and create a more focused environment. This increased focus will allow you to accomplish tasks more efficiently and be more productive in both your personal and professional life.
### 2. Reduced digital overwhelm
The constant stream of information and notifications can be overwhelming, leading to stress and anxiety. By practicing digital minimalism, you can create boundaries and filters that help you manage the influx of digital information. This, in turn, reduces overwhelm and allows you to maintain a healthier relationship with technology.
### 3. Improved mental well-being
Research has shown that excessive screen time and digital clutter can have negative effects on our mental health. By practicing digital minimalism, you can reduce the time you spend mindlessly scrolling through social media or browsing the internet, and instead focus on activities that truly bring you joy and fulfillment. This intentional use of technology can lead to improved mental well-being and a greater sense of contentment.
Steps to decluttering your digital world
Now that you understand the benefits of practicing digital minimalism, let’s dive into the step-by-step process of decluttering and organizing your digital world. By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating a more streamlined and intentional digital existence.
### Step 1: Assess your digital inventory
The first step in decluttering your digital world is to assess what you currently have. Start by taking inventory of the apps, files, and notifications on your devices. Ask yourself which ones are essential and which ones you can live without. Delete any unnecessary apps and files, and unsubscribe from email newsletters and notifications that no longer serve you.
### Step 2: Streamline your smartphone apps
Our smartphones are often the biggest source of digital clutter. Take some time to go through your apps and organize them into folders based on their functionality or purpose. Keep only the apps that you use regularly and delete the rest. This will not only free up storage space but also make it easier for you to find the apps you need when you need them.
### Step 3: Organize your digital files and folders
Similar to organizing your smartphone apps, it’s important to organize your digital files and folders on your computer or cloud storage. Create a logical folder structure that makes it easy to find and access your files. Remove any duplicate or outdated files, and consider using cloud storage services to keep your files accessible from anywhere while reducing physical clutter.
One of the biggest challenges of living in a digital world is managing social media and other digital distractions. Here are some strategies to help you create boundaries and regain control over your digital consumption:
### Step 4: Curate your social media feeds
Social media can be a powerful tool, but it can also be a major source of distraction and comparison. Take some time to curate your social media feeds by unfollowing accounts that don’t align with your values or bring you joy. Follow accounts that inspire and educate you, and set limits on your social media usage to prevent mindless scrolling.
### Step 5: Set digital boundaries
To prevent digital overwhelm, it’s important to set boundaries around your technology usage. Establish specific times during the day when you allow yourself to check emails or use social media, and stick to those boundaries. Consider implementing a digital detox day or week, where you disconnect from technology completely to recharge and refocus.
### Step 6: Create digital habits
Creating intentional digital habits can help you maintain a minimalist digital lifestyle in the long run. For example, instead of reaching for your phone first thing in the morning, establish a habit of practicing mindfulness or engaging in a creative activity. By consciously choosing how you start and end your day, you can set the tone for a more intentional and fulfilling digital existence.
Tools and apps for digital minimalism
In addition to the strategies mentioned above, there are numerous tools and apps available that can assist you in your journey towards digital minimalism. Here are a few worth exploring:
### Step 7: Digital organization tools
Tools like Trello, Evernote, and Google Keep can help you stay organized and keep track of your tasks, ideas, and notes. These digital organization tools can reduce physical clutter and serve as a centralized hub for all your digital information.
### Step 8: Focus and productivity apps
If you struggle with staying focused and productive, apps like Forest, Freedom, and RescueTime can help you stay on track. These apps block distractions, track your time spent on different tasks, and provide insights that can help you optimize your digital habits.
### Step 9: Digital well-being features
Many smartphones and operating systems now come with built-in digital well-being features that allow you to set app limits, track your screen time, and schedule do-not-disturb periods. Take advantage of these features to create a healthier relationship with technology and maintain a minimalist digital lifestyle.
Maintaining a minimalist digital lifestyle
Now that you’ve decluttered, organized, and optimized your digital world, it’s important to maintain a minimalist digital lifestyle. Here are some tips to help you stay on track:
### Step 10: Regular digital decluttering
Just like physical clutter, digital clutter can accumulate over time. Schedule regular digital decluttering sessions to review your apps, files, and notifications, and remove anything that is no longer serving you. This will help you maintain a streamlined and intentional digital existence.
### Step 11: Regular digital detoxes
In addition to regular decluttering, consider scheduling regular digital detoxes where you completely disconnect from technology for a set period of time. This can be a day, a weekend, or even a week. Use this time to recharge, reconnect with yourself and loved ones, and gain perspective on your digital habits.
### Step 12: Practice mindful technology usage
Finally, practice mindful technology usage on a daily basis. Before reaching for your phone or opening a new tab on your browser, ask yourself if it aligns with your values and goals. By being intentional about how you use technology, you can ensure that it enhances your life rather than detracts from it.
Digital minimalism offers a powerful solution to the overwhelm and distraction that often accompany our digital lives. By intentionally decluttering, organizing, and optimizing our digital world, we can regain control over our time and attention, leading to increased focus, reduced stress, and improved well-being. Remember, the journey towards digital minimalism is a ongoing process – one that requires continuous assessment and adjustment. So, start small, be patient with yourself, and embrace the transformative power of digital minimalism. Your mind, productivity, and overall happiness will thank you.
Here are some more practical tips from digital organizer Penny Catterall:
In this brave new world of Marie Kondo-ing and rejecting items that don’t “spark joy,” many of us are still ignoring the digital clutter that has taken over our lives. We take thousands of photos and videos on our cell phones and never look at them again. Our email inboxes are filled with thousands of unread emails. We are bombarded by constant distracting notifications from Facebook and Instagram, unable to get anything done. It has become impossible to see our beautiful desktop wallpaper because our computer’s files and folders are blocking the view.
As a professional organizer, I’m on a mission to help people declutter and organize their digital lives. It’s easy to ignore digital clutter, since it lives on your computer or phone rather than taking up space in the real world. But as we rely more and more on accessing our information digitally, it becomes vital to keep only what is important and to be able to find it quickly when you need it.
Here’s a great quote from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist that pretty much sums it up for me.
“If there is one thing I’ve learned about physical possessions during my journey into minimalism, it is this: If a physical possession is not helping me fulfill my purpose, it is distracting me from it. And the same goes for the digital clutter we continue to accrue day after day.”
In this post, I’ll show you:
- How to get started creating a digital filing system.
- Tips to save, name, and organize your important documents.
- How to clean out your rarely-looked-at Downloads folder on your computer.
Creating your digital filing system
The great thing about digital filing is that you can create, rename and delete folders and documents very easily. The problem is that most people don’t bother to come up with a relevant name for their digital documents, and then just dump them on their desktop or in their Documents folder with no particular form of organization.
If you are setting up a digital filing system for your home, it’s best to start with creating folders for a few broad categories. My main ones include Family, Medical Records, Insurance, Financial, Home and Household, Education, and Auto. I also have one called Order Your Life that’s dedicated to my business, and into which all my business-related files and documents go.
Within each of my main folders, I have more specific sub-folders. For example, under Medical Records, I have a folder for each family member, and under that their medical records by type (Lab Reports, Annual Exams, etc.). Under Financial, I have folders called Investments, Bank, Retirement, and Credit Cards, with a sub-folder for each financial company in which statements are grouped by year. Under Home and Household, I have folders called Purchase Documents, Mortgages, Household Maintenance, Utilities, and Capital Improvements.
This is just an example; you can create folders based on your specific projects and interests. However, try not to get too complicated with your upper-level folder names. It’s better to have fewer–and simpler–broad categories than to have too many; otherwise, you will just be creating more clutter.
Naming your files
How you name your files is just as important as how you name your folders. Accurately naming your files is the key to being able to retrieve them even if they have been improperly filed. Both Macs and PCs have the ability to find anything in your whole computer with a simple search. But the file name needs to be relevant to its subject; don’t let the name default to the first several words of the document, or worse, to something like Scan004.
Whether you create a new document, save an email attachment, or scan a note into your computer, you will need to:
- Name the file something that makes sense to you and is relevant to the content
- Keep it simple and as short as possible
- Whenever possible, include the date of the document creation, formatted as YYMMDD so that all your files will line up in chronological order; for example: 2019.06.30 Brown’s Plumbing.
- Don’t use the name of the month written out, like January or June.
- Most important, be consistent! Keep the same naming convention, whatever you use, throughout your folders.
Cleaning out your Downloads
It turns out that many of my clients don’t even know that a Downloads folder exists! If you have a Mac, you can find this folder using the Finder app on your dock, and if you have a PC, you can find it in File Explorer. We usually have a lot of stuff that accumulates in that folder without even knowing it, and over time it can really build up and thus slow down the performance of your computer.
I’ve seen downloads going back more than 10 years on some of my clients’ computers, even if their computers aren’t that old–they just transfer all their files from one computer to the next without ever cleaning them out. Although it may be daunting to try to decide what to keep and what not to, chances are that if you have downloads from several years ago, you either don’t need them anymore or you’ve already put them somewhere else on your computer. Here are a few tips for cleaning out your downloads folder and keeping it under control:
- Save attachments from emails directly into your digital filing system.
- Rename each attachment to something that makes sense to you.
- If you don’t have an appropriate folder for the attachment, create one.
- Sort your downloads by Type and mass delete any that end in .dmg (Mac) or .exe (PC). Those are installation files, and once you’ve installed the program, you don’t need them anymore.
- Look for files with the same name but ending in (1), (2), (3), etc. Usually these are multiple copies of the same file; if so, you can delete them.
In a future post, I’ll discuss (a) quick ways to delete unneeded emails and photos, (b) helpful apps that can immediately capture, digitize and organize business cards, receipts, etc., and (c) how to choose the right cloud-based storage so you can access your documents anywhere, anytime.
