Where to Start Getting Digitally Organized

Now is always a good time to focus on getting digitally organized! Getting organized in any capacity can be overwhelming. In most cases, it doesn’t matter where you start, it’s just important that you get started somewhere. Looking for suggestions on where to start? Review some of our tips and tricks below to tackle your digital clutter in order to have a more productive life both personally and professionally!

1.     One of the easiest and most satisfying places to start getting digitally organized is by deleting your unnecessary emails. Unsure of where to start? Sort your emails by who they’re from (instead of by date). That way you can easily identify all of your promotional emails and past events that can head straight to the trash. Looking for a quick and easy way to unsubscribe from promotional emails? Check out unroll.me to unsubscribe with a click of a button. Once you’ve deleted all of your unnecessary emails, you can start to divide up the rest into folders that make sense to you. Think of your digital files like your physical files and try to keep those categories consistent. This might include: To Respond, To Do, Upcoming Travel, Health, Finances, Utilities, etc.

2.     Transfer all upcoming events into a digital calendar. Commit to one calendar so you don't double-book yourself or forget to show up to an appointment. Having a digital calendar allows you to always access your calendar on your phone wherever you are.

3.     Delete old photos and videos on your phone. Start with the low-hanging fruit like blurry photos, duplicates or old screenshots that are no longer pertinent. If you want to take your photo organizing to the next level, sort your photos into albums once you’ve deleted the unwanted photos.

4.     Decide how you’re going to back up your devices. That way you won’t lose your data if your devices get lost, stolen or malfunction. There are a ton of options to back up your data whether it’s by a cloud service or hard drive. What is most important is to select an option and stick with it. We always start to see a disorganized jumbled mess when people first start using one service and then switch to another halfway without transferring everything from the original back up to the other. When it comes to cloud services we suggest using Dropbox due to its streamlined design and easy to use features. Other options include iCloud and Google Drive amongst many others.

5.     Delete old apps on your phone that you no longer use. This will not only help create more storage on your phone, but it will also minimize distractions and visual clutter. Once you have your apps picked out, sort them into folders by category. Examples might be “Photography” or “Navigation.”

6.     Similarly with your apps, delete old contacts and notes in your phone that are no longer relevant. There’s nothing helpful about storing old contacts and notes that are no longer applicable.It’s just digital clutter.

7.     Clean up the desktop screen on your computer by deleting all of those screenshots and documents you no longer need. Create folders to corral files into categories to make them easier to find. Make sure that your documents and folders are all labeled consistently and accurately.

Want to learn more about getting digitally organized? Check out our online Digital Organizing Course! The course will walk you through step-by-step how to get your digital life in check. Learn the same digital organizing systems that we use ourselves and teach our clients.