TIPS TO SIMPLIFY YOUR DIGITAL LIFE

WHY SIMPLIFY OUR DIGITAL LIFE?

Several ways of simplifying your digital files can help make your life better. It can help you save time, reduce stress, and increase productivity. By decluttering your devices and organizing your files, you can easily find what you need when you need it. It can be frustrating knowing that you have something stored digitally but cannot remember when it is located. Reducing the time spent searching for files the more time you can spend on more important tasks. Also, by getting rid of unnecessary apps and files, you can free up storage space on your devices, which can help them run faster and more efficiently. Also by implementing a simple backup storage plan, you don’t have to worry about losing important information or sentimental photos.

DIGITAL PHOTOS

I struggle with digital photo organization. Mostly because I have not yet found a great method of storing them and because I always fall behind on getting the photos off of my phone to get them organized. Some best tips indicate that you should organize your photo files by date by creating folders labeled with different years and subfolders labeled with specific dates. The photos that I do have are currently organized in this way. However, it is not my favorite way of storing them because there is too much need to keep clicking within folders to find photos. I also have to click on each picture to see if it’s what I am looking for.

With so many photos, I find it very difficult to manage them this way. What I think will work best for me is saving all of the photos in one location (not in subfolders). Each photo will start with a consistent date format xx-xx-xx so that they automatically sort in date order. In the file name, I am also going to include very brief info like Thomas & Kaitlin Disney, or Kaitlin & Hailey at the beach. This will help with having to click and open each photo trying to find whatever I am looking for if I need a picture for a certain person.

DIGITAL PHOTOS – METADATA

Another tip that I found was to add metadata to your photos, such as location, event, or keywords, to help you search and sort them later. This is something I will look into because I am not familiar with it.  But, maybe if you are, that can be something to try out. To save on the amount of space needed for photos it is great to get in the habit of deleting unwanted photos. Regularly delete duplicates, blurry shots, or screenshots that were only needed for a specific one-time purpose.

DESKTOP / LAPTOP ORGANIZATION

I don’t have a Mac, so the way I organize my computer is based on a Windows Operating system, but I would imagine a MAC would have similar functions. My favorite organization tool on my laptop is having my frequently used programs pinned so that I can easily open them quickly. When using Word or Excel, I keep files that I frequently use pinned so that I can open them quickly. I like to create folders by year for financial information, but other than that pictures are the only other things I have to work on simplifying on my laptop. I don’t use it for that much else.

EMAILS

Regularly delete emails that you no longer need. Seeing an enormous amount of emails can feel overwhelming so deleting often will help keep the number of emails down and save storage. Create folders or labels to categorize your emails based on topics, projects, or priority. I don’t do this for my personal emails, but I do this for work and it helps when I need to locate an email about a certain topic. I like to use the VIP feature in the iPhone mail app which puts emails from senders identified as VIP into a separate folder. This works well for vacations too when I need to refer to email confirmations.  I just identify those senders as VIP and then I can easily find any confirms needed while on a trip.

If you receive newsletters or promotional emails that you no longer find useful, consider unsubscribing from them. Instead of constantly checking your inbox throughout the day, allocate specific time slots to process and respond to emails. Respond to important emails in a timely manner.  This can take away some of the anxiety you might feel for knowing emails are awaiting your response for too long.

MOBILE PHONE

Turn off notifications for social media apps to minimize interruptions and distractions. I like to keep notifications off for all apps with the exception of specific reminders that I need to see that remind me of time-sensitive tasks I need to do. File your apps in folders. For example, I have my most used apps stored in the following folders:

Productivity – where I have any time blocking/reminder/to-do list type apps. Groceries – keep my grocery list app, meal planning app, instacart, BJs, stop & shop, and any other apps related to meal planning & grocery pick-ups. Fitness – workout apps, health apps. Books – Libby, kindle, good reads, audible. Shopping – kohls, chewy, target, eBay, etsy, etc. Banking – checking, credit card, and retirement account apps. These are all on my home screen, so it helps keep me focused to go to exactly what the intended action was that I needed to take when picking up my phone. Consider removing apps that you don’t need on your phone. This can help reduce distractions and improve focus.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Set time limits: Use built-in features or apps to set time limits for social media usage. This can help you manage your time effectively and prevent excessive use. I must admit that I once set a time limit for Facebook and would just ignore it when I felt like using the app.  So, you must know what works for you! Designate specific times of the day for social media use. This can help distractions throughout the day if you have a certain time planned to check-in. Be mindful of your usage: Reflect on how social media makes you feel and its impact on your well-being. Consider reducing or unfollowing accounts that don’t add value to your life.

BACK UP PHOTOS & IMPORTANT FILES

Simplifying the safety of photos and important files is important too. It can be stressful knowing that you have information that could be lost at any time if something were to happen to your device. Even if you have a backup system that is not real-time it can be time-consuming to make sure you keep it as up-to-date as possible. If you do need to back up data that was not close to real-time it can be very difficult to figure out what info is missing and even more difficult to try to recreate the info that was lost.

We use a service called Carbonite that continually backs up all files on the computer as long as you are connected to the internet. I’m sure there are many other similar services like it.  But, it is great to not have to spend any time thinking about backing up our computers. For our phone, we have our iPhones set to automatically back up to the cloud. We actually pay $10 a month for extra storage because my whole family is on the same plan. I feel like it’s worth it so that there is never a chance of data (mostly photos) being lost because we ran out of cloud storage.

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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