In my quest for a simpler life, I've been doing a lot of decluttering in my physical space. This has transferred over into my digital world, with a big emphasis on social media. On Day 17 of the MinsgameBOSS challenge last month, I attacked my digital life and got rid of a lot of "noise." It was one of the best things I did for myself. In light of that and other things I have done since then, here are my top 7 tips for tech decluttering.
1. FACEBOOK
FRIENDS. There are a few strategies for reviewing your friend list. One is to use those birthday notifications as a way to determine if the person you are being notified about is someone you want to be friends with (i.e. have you seen this person in the past year? Interacted with this person online in the past year?). Then, by the end of the year, you will have gone through the majority of your friends list gradually (minus those that don't list their birthdays or any new friends you accumulate throughout the year who's birthday has already passed).
If you're not into unfriending and just want to make your news feed filled more with the people you want to see, FB just rolled a "favorite" icon you can click and those people (or pages) will show up in your feed first. Otherwise if you click on "settings" you can select "news feed preferences" and follow their suggestions for cleaning out your news feed. I've used both these suggestions and have greatly reduced my FB clutter.
{Note: There is one more function you can use: mute. Muting friends that share content you find offensive or don't want to see results in them not showing up in your news feed. I'm not a big fan of this because if something is really bothering me, especially repeatedly over time, I prefer to just unfriend.}
PAGES. Through the years I've accumulated a lot of pages that I "liked" for many reasons--I wanted to like them, I accidentally liked them, I liked them for a giveaway, I used to like them, I liked them to support a friend. I still "like" a fair amount of pages but it's a fraction of what it used to be. And now I actually SEE the pages I want to see in my feed! (One side note: if you REALLY want to see a certain page in your newsfeed on a regular basis, the best tip is to interact with that page. Like their posts. Share them. Comment on them. Facebook uses that data and will filter that page in more if it sees you interacting with it.)
One area I focused on: BRAND PAGES. How many social platforms do you follow certain brands? I'll give you an example: Target. I was, at one point, following Target everywhere. Target is really good at marketing and puts out different stuff on different platforms, but it was still a lot of Target in my social media world. I started by unfollowing them on Instagram and Twitter but kept them on FB before dumping them on all platforms. Mainly because I realized: I was choosing to see commercials...and for what? I was afraid I would miss a deal or something...talk about a weird case of FOMO (fear of missing out).
GROUPS. This is another area that tends to get forgotten. I was in several groups for an old job that were no longer applicable to my life. Yet I would still see updates in my feed. Until recently I would just scroll past--until I finally took that "big" step of leaving those groups.
2. TWITTER LISTS
One of my favorite social media tips is Twitter lists. If you're on Twitter and following more than 100 people and NOT using lists, you're missing out. If you're not on Twitter because it seems overwhelming and confusing, lists are a great way to reduce that confusion and craziness. Lists help me keep track of the people I want to see. I wrote about Twitter lists here and while many of the graphics are out of date (Twitter went through a big update after I published my Intro to Twitter series) the majority of the information is still applicable. Twitter also has great information on lists here.
3. PICTURES
Back up your pictures to a cloud! Download them! Get them off your phone! This is something I struggle with. I struggle with two areas of pictures:
Editing as I go. Behind every one "perfect" picture there are (at least?) a dozen not-so-perfect ones. DELETE THEM as you go!
Getting them off my phone. At one point I had...I'm very embarrassed to admit to this...over 15,000 pictures on my phone. I'm still going through and deleting and backing up. STILL--and I started in the summer.
4. PHONE: APPS, TEXT MESSAGES
I went through all my apps and deleted the ones I don't use anymore, ones I've never opened, and ones that I downloaded for fun, looked at once and then never again. Which, in all honesty, was way more than I would have expected.
I also use folders on my iPhone (I'm sure other phones have the same or similar options) to organize my apps. But I try to keep the amount of apps I have in each folder to the first page, which means nine. I have a few folders with more than that, but for the most part I've stuck with that guideline. It helps me to actually SEE everything that's on my phone and not bury it and forget about it. Because in those situations it's only function is to take up memory, and memory is a valuable resource when you have over 15,000 pictures on your phone.
Another memory-saving tip for your phone? I learned last year that text messages actually take up a lot of space on your phone. And, depending on your settings, they just sit there. I changed my settings so they delete after 30 days but oftentimes I find myself deleting old messages sooner than that.
5. EMAIL
I now treat email like I do regular mail: I take action immediately. When I get the mail, I open it, sort it and toss what isn't needed right away. I don't let it pile up on my kitchen table/counter anymore. I do the same with email. I discard what isn't needed upon opening (and I UNSUBSCRIBED from about a thousand email lists), file emails needed for reference in the appropriate folders, and respond right away to those that need a response. It has made my email situation much more manageable. I'd be lying if I said it didn't get a little cluttered after a few weeks, so I also try to do a weekly clean-up.
6. Desktop and BOOKMARKS
I'm a little ocd about my desktop. I HATE clutter on it, I feel like I can't find anything, and I can't focus. But sometimes little things add up so I need to go back and file things appropriately or discard. I only have one folder that I always have on my desktop, but if I'm working on a specific project I'll pull that folder out so it's on my desktop, too. Currently I have four folders--my main one + three projects. And anything I download to my desktop I always try to file/discard at the end of the day. I'm telling you--a clear desktop is like a clear desk for me. I can't work amongst chaos.
Part of this includes bookmarks. Does anyone else bookmark webpages as though they are going to go back and read the entire internet? Oh, no? Well, then disregard the rest... Seriously though, I bookmark a lot. I finally went through my bookmarks, organized my folders and got rid of a lot of stuff I either already read or probably never will. I can find things easier now and my work flow has greatly improved.
7. IF IT AIN'T CUTE, PUT IT ON MUTE
...or get rid of it all together.
Social media has a way of making us feel bad about ourselves sometimes. Not that it ACTUALLY has that power, we own our feelings, but our reactions to the things people post can be negative and result in bad feelings. Between comparing lives, fear of missing out, jealousy, anger...it happens. I've felt this way before and had to start asking myself some important questions.
If a person (or brand, page, etc) is making me feel bad (or angry) in some way, then why am I following him/her/it?
What am I getting out of it, besides feeling sad, angry, jealous?
Do I want the time I spend online to be spent feeling bad or feeling inspired?
While we can't control what other people post, we can control our response to it or if we even see it at all. Take back your power: life is too short to spend it feeling bad. And you know what? I know that people have unfollowed me for this reason. And although it feels bad to know that you've upset someone in some way, I choose to look at it from the perspective that they identified a problem and took action. Something a lot of us don't do, so good for them.
What tips do you have for decluttering your tech life? Leave them in the comments, I love hearing how others simplify their lives!
xo Sara
P.S. Catch up on all my minimalism posts here!