Four Tips to Declutter and Simplify Your Digital Life
When your house is cluttered with stacks of magazines, groceries you still need to put away, piles of clean clothes and half-full water bottles, you can easily feel quite disorganized. Interestingly, the same can be true for your digital “home” — only instead of piles of junk mail on the kitchen counter, digital clutter manifests itself in the form of dozens of apps you rarely use, thousands of emails clogging up your inbox and overly complicated systems that sit there unused.
Just like spending an afternoon or two clearing out the clutter from your home will help you to feel more relaxed and put together, the same is true for your tablet. In order to simplify your digital spaces and enjoy a more streamlined and serene lifestyle, check out the following suggestions:
Archive Your Old Emails
Open up your inbox and delete as many emails as you can. Use the same philosophy as you do when choosing old sweatshirts and jeans to donate — if you have not read/worn it in a year, it’s time for it to go. Archive what is left into separate folders — maybe one for your sweetie, one for family and one for work. Unsubscribe from the mailing lists that no longer interest you, and try not to worry about the emails you still need to answer. Your goal is not an empty inbox, simply a decluttered one. Bonus tip: a great time to tackle this chore is during commercial breaks while watching your favorite show or game on TV.
Scrub Your Social Media
If those little Twitter, Facebook and Instagram thumbnails give you stress every time you see them on your smartphone or tablet, delete them. Choose one device for your social media and stick with it; that way, you won’t feel constantly compelled to check the never-ending newsfeeds, photos and more. You can also take this a step further and pare down your lists of contacts on all social media; when you do go into the apps you will only see who and what matters to you, not a lot of digital clutter from companies you don’t really care about and posts from friends of friends.
Look to AI for Help
Another great way to simplify your digital life is through the help of artificial intelligence (AI). For example, upgrading to a Snapdragon AI platform from Qualcomm can help your mobile devices to get to know you and your digital habits and adapt accordingly. These mobile platforms features AI machine learning that includes time-saving features like battery-efficient performance, and noise detection and elimination. For example, if you use your phone’s built-in personal assistant quite a bit, the entire mobile platform will share the battery load, which means you won’t have to stress over your smartphone running low on power.
Purge and Organize Your Apps
You can get an app to help you with pretty much everything, from keeping your money straight and help you with shopping and cooking to keeping tabs on your Fantasy Basketball team. The problem is, those apps take up space on your phone’s screen and memory and they can cause your smartphone to slow way down. Take 15 minutes and delete any apps that you have not used in the last 6 months or that you don’t think you will ever use. If this makes you anxious, remember that you can always re-download it in the future, should you actually need it. Then, in a day or two, spend another 15 minutes organizing what you have left, putting some apps into folders and putting the ones you use the most onto the main screen.
Digital devices are supposed to help you, not make you feel stressed and overwhelmed. By spending short bursts of time here and there clearing out what you don’t use and adding innovative technology that will make your technology run more efficiently, you will have clean and decluttered devices in no time.
Pinstripe Magazine Staff
Online Men’s Lifestyle Magazine on Gear, Grooming, Girls, Gadgets
