Nowadays, most of the work we do is done through our computers or smartphones. Almost everything is done online – we run businesses online, communicate online, plan and keep track on everything through apps and online tools. Technology helps us to save time, be more productive and achieve more.
In times, however, many entrepreneurs may feel that they lose control over their digital lives. The worst part is that many don’t realize how the digital clutter is harming their productivity and businesses until it is too late.
The hot summer months, when most entrepreneurs want to go on vacation and enjoy the hot weather, are perfect to make some big changes in the way you run your business and communicate with your team in order to work more effectively and save time. This short digital decluttering guide will highlight the fundamentals and will give you an idea where to begin from.
Start with your desktop
Clean up the desktop from files that you don’t need and organize the rest in folders that are named accordingly. You will be surprised to see how many unnecessary files you have on your desktop, which can slow down your work.
Control your inbox
Email flow is an inevitable part of our online lives, but it can be extremely distractive. Organize your inbox in a way that you can navigate it easier. Clean your spam folder regularly and delete unwanted messages. Unsubscribe to newsletters that you never read. Organize in folders the important messages. Stay organized in your email management and you will save yourselves a lot of time and even stress.
Back up your files
If you don’t back up your files, you should start immediately! The most convenient way is to use Dropbox to store important files – you can organize everything in folders, work directly in the files and save changes online, and easily share your files.
Clean up your downloads
Once a week take the time to clean up your downloaded files. Everything that you don’t need must go. It will save so much space on your hard drive, you won’t believe it.
Go through your bookmarks
This one is gold! How many times you come across something interesting on the web and want to read it later? Probably very often! But how many times you actually get back to it after you’ve bookmarked it? Probably not so often!
If you go over your bookmarks on weekly basis, you can be sure that you have evaluated all links that are interesting to you, read them and un-bookmarked the ones you don’t need anymore.
The app overload
There are so many cool apps out there that promise to make our lives easier. There is always something new to try and check out. Often we download an app and never use it, so it just takes up space and annoy us with notifications. Once a month go through your apps and delete everything that you don’t use. You might be surprised to see how many will actually make it to the Delete button!
Unfollow and unsubscribe
Is your feed swamped with updates that are distracting you? It might be time to go over the pages that you’ve liked on Facebook and the accounts you’ve followed on Twitter and do some cleaning. This is a great way to optimize the information that reaches you on social media, which can make your online experience much better. Put the FOMO to sleep and you will be much more productive and satisfied.
