We all make use of digital means to manage our lives but often those same means can cause our lives to become cluttered; all those emails and endless notifications can be annoying.
South Africa (15 September 2021) – Our digital lives today are filled with a limitless amount of music to listen to, emails to read, people to follow, and so on. The flip side of having all this technology available at our fingertips is that it can lead to us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and stressed out. That’s why it’s important to declutter your digital space every now and then in order to feel energized, relaxed and even happier. But where do you even start?
Calvin Fisher, owner of Pandabomb, a digital production house that specialises in photography, videography and social media marketing, has put together a few pointers on what you need to do to get your digital life in order.
Clear out your emails
If you have a lot of emails that you know you don’t need, filter those out and delete them all at once instead of going one by one. Also, try and keep all your important emails together in folders instead of everything being messy in your inbox. By following this simple step alone, you’ll find that going through your emails won’t be such a daunting task in the long run.
Unsubscribe! Unsubscribe! Unsubscribe!
This tip cannot be stressed enough. While clearing out your inbox, make an effort to unsubscribe from all the websites you no longer follow. You’ll be surprised by how clean your inbox might feel after doing this. This step will also help you keep all your emails in check. While you’re on your unsubscribing mission, do the same on social media. Unsubscribe from YouTube channels you no longer benefit from and unfollow accounts on social media that no longer serve you and your interests.
Clear out your phone gallery
You know all those useless images that get stored in your phone gallery because of your WhatsApp group chats? It’s probably a good idea to delete those as well. Take some time to look through your images and clear out all the irrelevant photos and videos. This will allow you to have some extra memory space for all the things you actually do want in your gallery. And delete duplicate photos that you took. You don’t need six images of your dog sleeping in the same position. Choose the best one and delete the rest.
Turn off unnecessary notifications on your phone
If you feel like your phone is controlling your life, now might be the time to try and limit your phone usage. One great way to do ths is by muting all the unnecessary social media channels. This would eliminate the useless scrolling and distractions throughout your day. Also, turn your phone face down if it’s next to you while you work. That way, you won’t see the screen light up everytime a new notification comes through.
Turn your phone off for a few hours
One of the best ways to declutter your digital life is by giving yourself and your phone a break every now and then. Keep your phone on charge and avoid looking at it for a few hours. If you want to surf the web or your Instagram feed, set a specific time during the day just for that and don’t be afraid to set a timer for yourself if you have to. You can also put your phone away at a certain time every night. Dedicate a space where phones can go to rest when you go to sleep. Need it for an alarm clock? Get a real alarm clock.
Take your time going through these steps. There’s no right or wrong way to approach this list; if necessary, close your eyes and point to the tip you want to complete first. Completing these steps sooner than later is better, only because digital clutter will impact your productivity.
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