Do you have any idea of how much time you waste online just because you aren’t organized? And do you have any idea how much time you can save if you invested a little time in declutttering your online life? Neither is quantifiable for any individual but declutttering is definitely going to make a huge difference. Here’s how:
Maybe you have a lot of Google+ subscriptions, or you have subscribed to a lot of Facebook fan pages (notifications). Maybe you have a lot of YouTube subscriptions and maybe your email is clogged with subscription notices. Remove the ones you tend to ignore and you will save a lot of time. At the very least you can turn off email notifications so that you only see the notifications when you sign into whatever account they apply to.
Some spammers are good at masking their actual email addresses, so learn how to look up the source of the email and search for the “@” in the source code. You should see your email address and the address of the sender. You may also see another email address if it has been masked. Block spammers and you don’t have to worry about them cluttering up your email accounts anymore.
You are supposed to change your passwords every 72 days to stay on the safe side. Keeping track of which you have changed and how often is difficult, so have your online accounts remind you. Many, such as your email account, will offer to remind you every 72 days.
One of the best ways to declutter your online life is to add websites to your favorites list and come back to them when you want. You can go through your list occasionally and remove the ones you don’t need anymore, otherwise you can forget about them without feeling as if you have lost websites you may have found interesting or useful.
With RSS feeds you do not have to keep going back and checking websites to see if they have updated, and you do not have to look at subscription notifications. When you have a few moments free you can look at your RSS feeds and browse the websites that usually interest you.
Maybe you have clogged up your hard drive with it and maybe you have clogged up your cloud services with all kinds of crap. Remove the poor quality photos and videos you have on it. People are terrible when it comes to their music. If you put your music on random/shuffle and you keep skipping though songs, then consider removing a few. Put them on another hard drive or on disc if you do not want to lose them. Don’t waste time skipping through songs you don’t want to listen to.
One of the ways to declutter your online life is to take some of it offline. You do not need to keep apps and software for accounts you rarely use, and you don’t even need to save the passwords on your computer. Start a notepad that you fill with the website addresses, usernames and passwords and put it somewhere safe. Then, put those accounts out of your mind until you need them again. Out of sight, out of mind. Less time wasted.
These are just little things and they are not hard to do. Take a little time to do them and then be disciplined about keeping on top of it. Define yourself a regular housekeeping routine and implement it. Your online time will be so much productive.
How disciplined are you? What other recommendations would you make?