Begin Decluttering your Technological Life
Lately, I have been posting a lot on my Instagram about decluttering. I made a post about a
minimalist packing mentality and four crucial things to keep in mind. I have shared my own decluttering of my message apps on my phone and call log. I want to share a more "full" version of that experience in this post, along with some other ways in which I declutter my technological devices. This is about some easy steps you can take to begin decluttering, but at the same time, it's about the mental effects of a clean space. When we clean up our physical surroundings, even if those are virtual ones, our mental space feels cleaned up as well. We have air to breathe and room to focus without the distraction of unnecessary clutter.
1. Let Go, Let Go, Let Go!
I will share a few methods that you can incorporate very simply into your day to day life and activities are a few ways to declutter your phone or any other technological device. It's all about
letting go!
A major part of a minimalist mindset and having a decluttered space is ensuring that the things you bring into your space are the ones that add value to your life. Yes, there are some things that we really need (like bank files) that do not add value, but that we need. This post is not about those things. This post is addressing all the things we really don't need but we never critically looked at them and asked ourselves if we needed them or why we were keeping them.
We walk through life, focusing so much on having and buying and keeping so that we have
things to show for ourselves, our hard work, and our accomplishments. But the truth is that half the things we have, we unconsciously picked up along the way.
2. Delete Old Text Messages
Timeframe: Weekly.
I am really starting this post off with the most difficult one here, but it is also a crucial step in truly evaluating all the things we hold on to and place value on. Be really honest with yourself when asking this question: have I ever gone back and re-read text messages with friends/family/etc.? If the answer is yes, can you say which texts those were specifically? Who were they with? What was the context? If it's about information like addresses, flight info, or even anything financial, a text is not the best place to be storing that anyways. Find a safer place. Make a file or save it to their contact. Literally
anything else!
If keep chats so you can go look back at pictures sent, save the pictures to your camera roll. Done!
You do not need texts with mundane or logistical content. Delete them!
If you go back and look at texts for any other reason ... like maybe it is a significant other and the chat is "important to you", ask yourself why the non-tangible virtual chat is so important to you? There are definitely reasons to keep certain things and I am not telling you that you have to delete
everything. Just be really critical about
why you feel the need to keep them. Maybe your relationship is long distance and this is all you have for a while. If that is reason enough for you, then that's good enough! When you are clear with yourself as to why you are holding onto things, it becomes easier to clean up the rest.
3. Delete Your Call Log
Timeframe: Weekly.
Same as with your text messages, I suggest deleting your call log once a week. Unless you really really really need to be able to go back and see who called you, there is really no reason to be keeping this. If you need a particular number of someone who called you, save it to your contacts. You can always delete it later. This is all just extra clutter that takes up space that we don't have in our phone, and that we do not need to and never actually end up looking at any of it.
4. Unsubscribe to Emails that don't Add Value
Timeframe: Daily.
Each time you check your emails, unsubscribe to any of the emails that you were planning on deleting without reading. So often I found myself deleting emails that I never read anyways. I started realizing how ridiculous it was that day after day I simply kept deleting the same emails instead of doing something about it! It was as though I didn't realize that by simply clicking one little button, I wouldn't have to spend time deleting anyways! Maybe I was finding it meditative ... I don't know! Either way, it takes 3 seconds to unsubscribe from an email that is clearly not adding value to your life since you are not reading it, in comparison to the 5-10 minutes you are spending deleting all of them. And if you miss a day of deleting them, then you have 50 extra emails in your inbox the next day.
Some emails that I still subscribe to (and recommend) because they add value to my life:
5. Unfollow on Social Media
Timeframe: Daily.
This one is similar to the idea of unsubscribing to emails. If you are scrolling through Instagram for example, do you know who each person in every picture on your feed? Sometimes we follow people back because they followed us or we follow a page because we scrolled down it for 2 seconds and it looked interesting. However, when the posts of those people actually show up on our feed, we have no idea who they are. I can't tell you how many profiles I would have click on in order to find out who I was following and what they were about. This is just one example of how we clutter our social media sites with information that does not necessarily add value to our lives. If this happens, consider unfollowing them. This will allow for the profiles you actually want to see to come through.
My point is this: follow the people who inspire you but know who they are. Know why you are following them and why they are adding value to your life. Does what they speak about inspire you? Does their advice help you? Whatever it is, care enough to know who you are following (or friends with - whatever social media site applies to you) ... for your own sake. That way every post you see will be meaningful and add value to you in some way.
6. Delete Your Photos
Timeframe: Daily
Don't worry! Not all of them! I recommend you go through your photos at the end of each day or at the very least at the end of each week. Delete all duplicates - you only need ONE of each photo. Trust me. I then suggest that you upload all your pictures to your computer weekly, or at the most monthly, maybe seasonally. I say this for people giving reasons such as wanting to show their photos from their past year to their parents/friends. Then, delete them from your phone! Keep the keep-sake photos and declutter your phone!
Getting into this habit will keep photos to a minimum because you'll only be keeping the good ones. It will in turn, allow you to manage your phone space and keep the photos app of your phone clean. It will also save you massive amounts of time in the future, where you want to look at old photos and half of them are stupid ones and duplicates. Or, alternatively, you are running out of space and need to delete all those silly blurry photos. JUST DO IT NOW!
The Test: Adding Value vs. Knowing when to Let Go
Ask: Does this add value to my life?
This is the question you should be asking yourself each time you go through any of these categories. I have written about this quite a bit in this post, but what does it actually mean? How do you know if something adds value to your life?
Here are a few tells. Does it excite you? Does it have something to do with your passions or something you are super passionate about? Do you read whatever it is through in its entirety all the time (or almost all the time at least)? I am asking these questions with things such as Instagram/Facebook pages or email subscriptions in mind.
Ask: Why am I holding onto this?
This will be the question you ask yourself when it comes to deleting your texts at the end of each week. What is my reason for wanting to keep this particular text or blurry photo? Is it adding value or am I simply holding onto it because it gives me a sense of security to have all these potential people to text as soon as I open my iMessage or WhatsApp? Us as human beings like security. We like to feel safe and attachment is the response. We attach ourselves to material things and technological things because we place value on them and they give us that sense of security. However, sometimes we place that value onto things out of habit; Not because they actaully have the value but because we are so used to putting importance onto things. That is why it is so important to ask yourself why you are unable to let go.
Physical Decluttering = Mental Decluttering
My experience of incorporating these declutter methods into my technological space has made me feel calmer. I no longer am following tons of people who I don't even know or who post things that do not resonate with me. I don't spend 5 minutes every day deleting emails that I am subscribed to from clothing stores that I no longer want to spend money at. Deleting my texts allowed me to focus only on the things I am doing in this moment. It reminded me to let go of the past and focus on the now. If a chat with someone is finished for the time being, delete that chat until you reach out to that person again.
As soon as you understand why you were not able to let go and then
do it, you almost have to ask yourself what you were so worried about this whole time. We think we need to hold onto certain things, but as soon as we let them go, the energy spent holding onto them is free.
My mom always told me that my headphones represented my state of mind. And let's be honest, everyone's headphones are tangled 99% of the time. Obviously, my headphones don't directly equal my mind, but the point still stands. Every little bit of our physical lives have an effect on our mental state. When the headphones are tangled, then your bag probably isn't organized, and in that case, your bed is unmade and the kitchen is a mess. You can be organized in many aspects but even the smallest areas of clutter can subconsciously weigh on you. We never think about technology as a place that needs to be organized. Many people don't organize their files and simply keep everything on their desktop (please let me help you!). Most of us probably never delete our call history and we have texts with friends from 5 years ago ... that's way too far to be scrolling back to re-read.
Let it go. Organize and declutter your technological space. Make it a nice and calming environment since so much of our lives is spent on it. Honor and respect your time enough not to waste it on things that don't add value to your life. I know you can do it.
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