You’ve probably heard plenty about decluttering your physical environment. From Marie Kondo to minimalism, books to whole Netflix series, it’s been hard to avoid the tidying trend that’s surged in the last decade. Doing a digital declutter less talked about, but the same issues that come with having too many physical things also apply to our digital lives. A crowded and disorganised digital space can be just as overwhelming as having a cluttered physical environment. In this post, I’m going to walk you through how to declutter your digital life so you can experience less stress, overwhelm and chaos, and greater ease, calm, and focus.
In the last 10 years, most of us have spent more and more time attached to some kind of device, a trend that has catalysed since the pandemic started. Many of us now spend longer than ever before in front of a computer, and more time doing so at home. Our digital lives have become an extension of our physical lives. Even if you don’t work online, you probably conduct a significant proportion of your daily activities using technology and rely on a laptop or phone to store personal files, correspondence, photos, entertainment and more. Whereas the amount of digital stuff we could hoard used to be limited by the size of our hard drives, thanks to increased storage and the mass rollout of cloud services, those restrictions are gone and we can hoard away. We have more information than ever before at our fingertips, and it’s hard to filter out the noise and prioritise what’s really important.
A couple of years ago, I felt overwhelmed by how much digital “stuff” I had. Sure, it was tucked away on a computer or in the cloud and invisible most of the time, but the issue reared its head each time I opened up my laptop. From the files I knew I had somewhere but couldn’t find amongst all the things I’d kept “just in case”, to the 2000+ unread emails in my inbox (mostly subscriptions I never read), to a general sense of unease each time I opened Google drive, saw my desktop, peeked in my documents, and was reminded that what I could see directly in front of me, what already felt too much, was just the tip of the iceberg. For every file hanging out on my desktop, there were 100 more lurking just out of sight, but always in the back of my awareness.
Decluttering my digital life helped me feel more in control, more focused, and calmer. Instead of being reminded of how disorganised my digital life was each time I opened up my computer or phone, I could just get on with what I needed to do, which was a lot more enjoyable (and more efficient). This isn’t something that comes naturally to me. It’s something I have to think about and requires self-discipline. But it’s worth it.
Why declutter your digital life?
Decluttering your digital life can feel like a mammoth task, so if you are still on the fence, that’s OK. This section is for you. Perhaps you think it’s no big deal, or that it doesn’t matter if we have a few extra files hanging around. But it does: it matters for the same reason we like to keep our environment clean and tidy (-ish). When our digital lives are cluttered, we might deal with one (but probably a few) of the following issues:
- General low-level stress (and who needs more of that?)
- A sense of disorganisation
- A feeling of overwhelm and being out of control
- A lot of time being busy, but not much time being productive
- Not being able to find things we need
- Forgetting we have things that would be useful and/or spending money on things we forget we already had
- A sense of pressure to sort it all out and “use” things we haven’t yet used.
So even if you don’t think it’s a big deal, even if you don’t think it matters, why not try it? It won’t make life any worse, and it might even make it better 🙂
Before we begin, I want to clarify: starting to declutter your digital life isn’t the same as becoming a digital minimalist. I don’t think there is a “right” amount of stuff to have, digital or physical. It depends on your personal preferences and lifestyle. When I talk about too much, I mean too much for you. And when I talk about clearing out and organising your digital life, it’s always with the intention that you do so in a way that works for you. You know what your needs and habits are far better than anyone else, so please take what works from the sections below and leave what doesn’t. With that in mind, let’s move on to the practical steps involved in a digital declutter:
How to declutter your digital life
1. Identify the areas of your digital life that need attention
Is your desktop a disaster? Does the number if unread emails in your inbox make you gulp? Do you feel overwhelmed by the number of social media notifications you get?
Chances are some areas of your digital life are affecting your mental well-being more than others. Let’s start by identifying which have the biggest impact so you can address those first. Make a note of two to three areas that need attention. These might include (but aren’t limited to):
- Desktop
- Downloads
- Documents folder
- Cloud storage
- Mobile devices (phone and tablet)
- Social media
- Photos
- Bookmarks/saved articles and posts
Depending on what your digital life looks like, you might be tempted to tackle all the above and more in one go. I suggest not doing this: it’s a lot to take on and if you’re already overwhelmed by your digital life, adding more overwhelm to the clean-up process won’t solve that. Choose the two to three areas that will make the biggest difference first. Then, once you’re done, you can return to your list and choose two more areas, complete those, choose two more, and so on. If you’re struggling to identify obvious areas or just want to do a general cleanup, I’ve included some pointers below.
2. Set specific goals for decluttering each area
Create a plan for decluttering each area, including deciding which items to keep and which to discard, and how to organise the remaining items. Specific goals within this plan might include:
- Reducing items on your desktop to essentials only
- Achieving inbox zero
- Deleting apps you haven’t used for more than 3-6 months
- Unfollowing certain accounts on social media
- Renaming and reorganising the file structures in your documents
The exact goals you have will depend on what you’re decluttering, what you normally use that space for, and how you want to use it.
There are a couple of decluttering principles that are helpful to think about at this stage as you set your goals.
The first is to identify the purpose of each digital space. In our home, we have three types of places for our things: where they are left (for example, shoes kicked off by the door), staging areas and permanent homes. Permanent homes are where the stuff lives, while staging areas are places (like the kitchen counter) we put something temporarily while we’re waiting to put it away. The problem is that staging areas can gradually become permanent homes (ahem, my kitchen counter), which creates extra mess and extra stress.
The same principle applies to our digital lives, especially files. If you’re like me, you might find your downloads folder becomes cluttered on a weekly basis. The problem with this is that it isn’t a “home” per se. When I keep files in my downloads folder long term, it’s harder to find them (especially because they are often named helpful things like 3nejnvjnei83runefwi.pdf). Instead, I find it more useful to think of my downloads folder as a staging place: each file in there needs to be deleted or re-homed. For each file you come across on your desktop, in your downloads folder, in the cloud, or in your documents, think about where it really belongs, and put it there. The same principle can apply to email (some people use their inbox as a staging area, rather than a permanent home), and other digital clutter, too. Think about which of your digital areas accumulate clutter; chances are these are staging places. Before you start decluttering, make a plan for where your digital things need to go to be in their permanent home.
This brings us to the second principle, which comes from Marie Kondo: everything should have a home. Let’s say you’ve cleaned out one of your staging areas (like your downloads folder), and identified a bunch of files that need to go into your documents. Among them are some work files, a couple of free downloads you thought might be useful at some point, something you saved to show your kids, and an audiobook you downloaded. Dumping these things straight into your documents folder isn’t as bad as keeping them in your downloads (at least they are all things you want to keep), but it is the digital equivalent of having that cupboard you shove everything into, thinking “I’ll sort it out later.” Because, as we all know, we probably won’t sort it out later. Instead, start creating a filing system using folder hierarchies (folders within folders). This might start with “Work” and “Personal,” then become more granular from there. You can do something similar with email. For example, I have separate folders for things like tax deductible receipts so I can easily pull up the information if I need it.
Once you’ve identified the purpose of each digital space and decided on a home for everything, it’s time to begin your digital declutter!
3. Begin to declutter your digital life by going through each area and following your plan
First, think about the tools and strategies you can use to declutter efficiently, such as bulk deleting emails or using folder and labelling systems to organise your files. The exact steps you take to declutter your digital life will depend on the areas you are addressing, so review your goals from above and think about how you can do this as efficiently as possible. Go for easy wins first: if you are tackling your downloads folder, scan through and delete any files you know you don’t need before sorting out those you want to keep. If you’re tackling your emails, ditto.
You probably won’t get this all done in one session, and that’s OK. If it feels overwhelming, break the goal down into manageable milestones and focus on doing a little each day (e.g. processing five files/10 emails/1 sub-folder per day).
If you’re still not sure where to begin, high-impact starting points include:
- Unsubscribing from emails you never read
- Deleting apps you don’t use (or know you overuse…)
- Clearing your desktop and dock/shortcuts
- Cleaning out your email inbox
- Emptying your trash folder
- Clearing out your downloads folder
- Uninstalling software you no longer use
- Updating software and operating systems to the latest versions
If you notice you’re finding it hard to start, you might be overthinking things. Choose one area above (it doesn’t matter which one; any area is better than none!), set a timer for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, and make a start. The longer you delay, the worse the problem is going to become, whereas the sooner you start, the more you get to enjoy a greater sense of peace and freedom in your digital life. Decluttering your digital life isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s also not difficult. I promise: you can do and have done much harder things.
4. Create a maintenance plan
Now you’ve started decluttering your digital life, keep going! Stay motivated by reminding yourself of the benefits of decluttering, such as increased productivity and reduced stress. Return to your plan and goals regularly and imagine how great it’s going to feel when you have an empty inbox, a clear desktop, a more organised file system.
It’s also worth thinking about how you are going to maintain and protect your newly zen space. Maintaining your new system is just as important (if not more so) than doing a digital declutter in the first place. The good news is it’s also easier. If you’ve started decluttering and have a plan to continue, you’ve already done the hard part. Processing 20 emails from your inbox requires much less willpower than processing 2000. Deciding where to put five files you want or need to keep requires much less brain power than doing the same with 500 files.
What you do for maintenance and how often will depend on your personal circumstances. A good place to start is to take the list of tasks you created to do your initial digital declutter and turn them into daily, weekly, or monthly recurring tasks. For example, you might decide to process your emails at the end of every day. You might empty your downloads and trash every week, and you might review your devices for unused (or overly used) apps each month.
5. Avoid the temptation to accumulate more digital clutter
As well as creating a maintenance schedule for your goals, give yourself a helping hand by addressing the problem at its source. We live in an age of information overload and, while there are amazing benefits to having so much information and so many resources at our fingertips, there are big drawbacks too. It can lead to “digital hoarding,” where we hold on to things we don’t really need and will never use “just in case.”
One of the biggest challenges associated with digital decluttering—and I think harder than doing the decluttering—is changing our mindset and habits around digital clutter. Like most of this process, the same principles apply here as to getting rid of physical clutter.
The first step is the maintenance schedule above: regularly processing, archiving, and deleting your digital “things.” There is an important step that comes before that, however, which is digital discernment. Being selective about what you download or save in the first place will give you less to maintain in the future. Whenever you go to save, download, or subscribe, ask yourself:
Is this useful?
Do I really need it?
Do I have anything like this currently?
Have I saved/downloaded/subscribed to anything like this in the past? If so, did I actually use/enjoy it?
Finally, celebrate your success! Even if you haven’t fully met your digital decluttering goals, chances are you’ve made significant progress and can already notice the difference. There will probably always be more to do, but you will already notice a difference and that’s worth celebrating 🙂
Tools to help you declutter your digital life
To finish, here are a few tools and apps that might be helpful as you declutter and maintain your digital life. Some of these are Apple/Mac-only (sorry), but there are likely to be Windows/Android alternatives. Please note: some of the links below are affiliate links.
Utility tools like Daisy disk, which shows you which files are taking up the most space on your hard drive; Gemini, which identifies duplicate files, and Clean My Mac, which does what it says on the tin.
File management and organization tools, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Evernote, which can help you store and organize your files and documents in the cloud.
Task and project management tools, such as Trello, Asana, or Notion, which can help you manage and track your to-do lists, tasks, and projects. My personal favourite task management tool is Things.
Calendar and scheduling tools, such as Google Calendar or Fantastical, which can help you plan and schedule your appointments, meetings, and events.
Email management tools, such as SaneBox, Boomerang, or Unroll.me, which can help you declutter your inbox and manage your email more efficiently.
Password managers, such as 1Password, which can help you securely store and manage your online passwords and login information.
I hope this post helps you as you begin your journey towards a more peaceful and productive digital life!
