Streamlining Your Digital Workplace With These Cleaning Suggestions
It’s time for spring cleaning now that the sun is out and the birds have started chirping again!
But what we’re discussing here is not the annual spring cleaning of your home or even your lawn. When was the last time you went through your digital area and cleaned it up? entire email inbox, all of your files and folders, all of your photographs, and so on.
In honor of the arrival of spring, we’ve compiled a list of digital spring cleaning techniques that will assist you in removing the winter’s worth of clutter from your workstation.
- Inbox Clean-Up
Do you begin each day by clearing up old newsletter subscriptions and magazine magazines that you no longer read? Better better, do you simply skim over them? Or, might the search function be considered your closest buddy, while your inbox be considered your worst enemy? Imagine supposing each and every email you received was a physical piece of paper sitting on your desk. Yikes.
People, we are going to make some significant progress here!
Unsubscribe from those annoying subscriptions; it took you two minutes to sign up for them, so it shouldn’t take you more than a minute and a half to go to the bottom of the email and click the “unsubscribe” button. You might also download an application such as Unroll.me, which will automatically unsubscribe you from any emails that you do not want to read.
- Create folders – Regardless of whether it’s by the sender, the subject, or the project. After that, utilize the search function provided by your BFF to relocate these messages from your inbox into the appropriate folders. This will provide you with a clearer image of your individual senders and enable you to collect communications that are connected in a single location.
- Use the archive function – It is a simple method for cleaning out your inbox without deleting any of your emails. Emails that are more than three months old may usually be safely stored; if responses come in from archived emails, there is no need to worry since they will get into your (now clean) inbox!
- Try the zero inbox challenge – Do you recall when you initially set up your email account and there was nothing in the inbox you could check? We have faith in your ability to rise to this formidable test!
- Advanced tip: You may establish filters in Google Gmail or rules in Microsoft Outlook; doing so will immediately file messages from certain people or websites into particular locations, such as freshly formed folders or even into your trash, depending on what you decide.
- Find The Bottom of Your Download Folder
Everything that we save to our computer from the internet is saved in a folder called Download. This includes zipped files, unzipped files, documents, contracts, photographs, and videos. anything and anything
The most effective strategy is one that is gradual and steady. Choose a location, preferably one that is separate from your Download folder, in which you will create new folders, and then split your screen into two windows. One window will display the Download folder, and the other window will display the location in which you have chosen to create your new flashy list of folders.
Step by step, either by the date the file was downloaded or by the file name, establish folders with names that are appropriate to the content, and then move objects as you go. Additionally, you have the ability to transfer files into your trash bin.
If you sort the files by date, you’ll be able to see how long they’ve been lying there, maybe undisturbed; if you sort them by file name, you’ll be able to see the duplicates of duplicates; for example, have you ever seen a (7) at the end of a file name?
- Cancel accounts and uninstall apps
Technology is always evolving; new computer programs and smartphone applications are released every day. Also, just as with those annoying mailings, we sign up for free trials and download each and every app. In other words, if your home screen and/or desktop appear like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle, it’s probably time to clear things up.
It’s most possible that you’re not making use of all that you envisioned would be useful. When you are going through your email, keep an eye out for any free trials or sign-ups for services that are foreign to you. If you aren’t utilizing these services, you should use this time to cancel the accounts for them. Both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store allow you to see which of your applications are utilized the least. Choose to remove it, then click!
This will prevent your emails, usernames, and passwords from becoming into the hands of unauthorized users, such as hackers and others of their ilk.
- Get a password manager
It’s true; we just recommended clearing up unused software and removing applications and programs from your device. However, if you use a password manager, your information will remain secure, and you will be able to generate robust passwords to protect your accounts in the event that a security breach occurs on any of the websites or applications that you use on a daily basis.
It takes a hacker around two seconds, according to kimkomando.com, to break an 11-character password that exclusively contains numbers. Wait… two seconds! However, if you are able to make a password that is 12 characters long and has a nice mixture of letters, digits, and symbols, it will take them 34,000 years to figure it out. And about a minute and a half for you to forget about it.
The good news is that CNET has just published their ranking of the top password managers that may be used in 2022.
And remember to never save your login passwords or other sensitive information such as credit card numbers to a document that is stored on your computer. In the event that your computer is hacked, lost, or stolen, this would be the same as handing a complete stranger the keys to your house.
- Take your pick; there’s always something to clean
If you are feeling energetic and have found your rhythm with your digital spring cleaning, we have even more techniques to streamline your digital life, including:
- Review, delete and backup your photos.
- Go through your web browser bookmarks.
- Clean up your computer like you did your inbox (this will also help overall performance and speed).
- Dispose of old computers, laptops, tablets, and phones – Consumer Reports has great ways to safely and securely destroy these items.
- Check out this webinar from the National Cybersecurity Alliance for more tips.
Making it manageable
You don’t have to complete everything on this list, but even doing a little bit is better than doing nothing at all. Similar to how you would clean your house one room at a time, you should handle one part of your digital environment at a time. Even if the digital world doesn’t take up any real space, getting rid of the things associated with it that aren’t absolutely necessary can make you feel more prepared to take on the spring (and summer).
And if you find yourself in need of assistance, have a look at VA FLIX; our knowledgeable staff of virtual assistants is here to aid you in arranging your digital space and getting rid of everything you no longer want or use.