It's Time To Declutter Your Digital Life

Let me ask you a question. How many hours do you spend on your phone or computer?

Be honest.

Between answering emails, updating your website and posting to your social media, it's probably a lot more than you realize.

The amount of time we spend on digital devices has increased by 20% since 2010. And while this increase has its benefits, including an increased volume of traffic and sales in the retail space, prolonged digital consumption has its consequences.

And between the inbox that demands constant attention, Instagram that needs updating and an RSS feed that needs filtering, your digital life can become cluttered and overwhelming.

So it's time to declutter your digital life. In this post, I am going to share a few of my favorite tips to clean up the digital clutter, ease your mind and enhance your workflow.

Delete. Organize. Repeat.

Do you need three workflow tools? Probably not. One of the most cluttered digital spaces is your computer. Take inventory of the programs on your computer and decided if each program is essential to running your business. If it's essential, keep it. If it's junk, delete it. Uninstall all those programs that you don't use, don't serve your business and take up valuable space on your desktop and in your mind.

The same goes for those documents, spreadsheets and other files that you don't need and suck the life and speed out of your computer. Go through each document and decide if it serves you. If you need space on your computer but need to keep those important documents, take advantage of cloud-based software. If you don't already, get a Dropbox account.

Organize. Move. Relax.

Organizing my phone was the first thing I did when I got my iPhone. I love that you have organize your apps in appropriate folders. I group similar apps into one folder, and then I organize my folders by how often I use the apps within them.

For example, I group my Dropbox, Evernote, Canva, Adobe, Feedly, Google Drive and Tiny Scanner apps into a work folder. And because I use this folder nearly every day, I move the work folder to the first screen so it's always easily accessible. I also don't have multiple screens to scroll through to find the app I need.

Organized AND efficient. #winning

Delete. Archive. Repeat.

The scourge of the solopreneur, the biggest time suck of them all, the source of digital clutter - I'm talking about email. Currently, I have 1,700 unread emails in my inbox right now. I have close to 25,000 read and unread emails holding space in my inbox. Overwhelming is an understatement.

Clean up your inbox by archiving or deleting your mail. Yeah, this means you have to go through your email. Good news for Gmail users - you can do this in batches. For example, if I wanted to apply an action to my emails from Bloglovin', I would simply search from:bloglovin.com, select all and archive, label or delete.

The other thing you can do to clean up your inbox is UNSUBSCRIBE! The whole point of email newsletters is to provide you with value. So if you don't read these newsletters or you don't want to be on a particular list, simple hit the unsubscribe button.

Power down. Breathe.

If you want to reduce the digital overwhelm, take a break. Shut down your computer. Power off your phone. Put them away. Choose a day and time that works for you. Use that time to digitally detox and fill up on friends, family, nature, books, cooking or whatever else fills your soul.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Your house only stays clean if you clean it regularly. (Or hire a cleaner.) It's a good idea to digitally declutter every six months. That way, your mind doesn't suffer from the overwhelm, your workflow remains fluid and your devices work smoothly. So take some time regularly to unsubscribe from email lists, delete obsolete programs and tools, turn off your notifications and power off.

How do you cut the digital clutter?