Unsubscribe: Tackling your Digital Clutter Dilemma
Life can get messy sometimes. We’re not talking about your relationships, either. We’re just talking about clutter. There’s that pile of laundry on your couch that takes 2-3 business days before it gets folded or that pile of junk mail on the counter you’ve been meaning to sort. But you also need to consider managing your digital clutter.
What Can We Consider Digital Clutter?
There are different things we can consider to be digital clutter. Those things include:
1. Duplicate photos on our phone: I’m also prone to keeping duplicate photos on my phone because I need to check which version of my selfie looks prettier. Spoiler alert: the photos are always almost the same, and I end up not posting them.
2. Screenshots: Aside from duplicates, your phone’s memory is also full, probably because of screenshots. These are also considered digital clutter, especially if you forget why you saved them in the first place.
3. Subscription to newsletters you don’t even read: Seeing your inbox with 5,000+ unread emails will get annoying, especially if you are looking for a specific email. The culprit? Subscription to newsletters that you don’t even read, but you’re still subscribed.
4. Files on your desktop: If you’re not careful, your desktop will look like your work desk, full of clutter that will only take a few minutes to sort and organize, yet you still can’t find the time.
5. Files on your download folder: If it’s a file you downloaded to forward to someone and you’ve already done that, delete it from your downloads folder since you already have a copy in your email’s sent folder. Otherwise, your download folder will be another digital graveyard of forgotten files.
6. Open internet tabs: You know yourself; if it’s something you want to read because it piqued your interest, you would have already done so. Keeping a tab open because it’s something you tell yourself you’ll read once you get the time, is a joke you tell yourself every day for the past year.
7. Apps you don’t regularly use: If you downloaded an app because you tell yourself it’s for loyalty points for a shop you visited once because you were hiding from an ex, that’s digital clutter.
How Digital Clutter Affects Us
It might be something you don’t give that much thought to, but like physical clutter, digital clutter also affects us in different ways, such as:
It stops us from being productive: I sometimes open my email to send a message, but upon seeing a flood of unread emails and Google reminds me again that I don’t have enough storage, I delete newsletters and email notifications instead. Before I knew it, I forgot the reason why I opened my email in the first place.
It overwhelms us: When I want to clean my email inbox, and I see I must go through thousands of emails and I need to decide which ones I need to delete and which ones I need to keep, I close my email app and open Netflix instead.
It keeps us from doing what we need to do: I need to download a productivity app that might help me from procrastinating, but I can’t because I’ve been procrastinating in tidying up my digital clutter to free up some space in my phone for a new app. See the irony in that?
Our mental health and well-being can be significantly affected by digital clutter. Just as physical clutter can give us a sense of chaos and increase our stress levels and anxiety, unorganized digital files can have the same effect. If only I could summon the spirit of Marie Kondo to help with my digital clutter, I would. But since that’s not possible, I guess I must soldier on and spend my weekends decluttering my digital space without having a meltdown.
