It’s well-established that physical clutter impairs your productivity and focus, going as far as to make you exhausted, stressed, and burnt out, which is why decluttering your workspace is key component in a lot of productivity techniques. In this day and age, though, your “workspace” isn’t always (or, in some cases, even) an office or desk. Your phone and computer are your workspace. That’s where you spend most of your work day looking and interacting—and when it’s cluttered, you can feel discombobulated, the same as you might with a messy cubicle. It’s time to stop thinking only about decluttering the physical world and make a better plan to keep the digital one in good shape.
Take stock of your desktop, your tabs, your inbox, and your home screen: How many different windows do you have open right now? They are not only bogging down your mental energy, but your device’s energy, too. Let’s fix that—and find a solution that sticks.
When to declutter your devices
Aim to start each week with a digital decluttering. It doesn’t have to take more than 15 minutes, but you’ll be more productive when it’s done, so it’s a good investment of your time. Approaches like this work best when you actively take the time to schedule them out, so fall back on time boxing and time blocking, and consider using a specialized to-do list system like 3-3-3, then designating the weekly decluttering one of Monday’s three small tasks.
How to digitally declutter (easily)
On your desktop, create folders that can store whatever you need, whether those are documents for work or screenshots for your side business. Each Monday, go through whatever docs or pics have accumulated on the desktop and stick them in their respective folders so the whole thing looks cleaner. Do the same thing with any new apps you’ve put on your phone. There’s no reason to scroll through pages and pages of apps to find the one you need when you can stash it in a folder and keep your home screen organized. Only keep the necessary, daily-use folders available on your desktop and home screen. The rest should be banished somewhere invisible, but searchable.
Close all open windows you’re not using—and all the tabs left over from your last browsing session. If you genuinely need something available, bookmark it. Get in the habit of closing tabs whenever you’re done with them. (Check for minimized browser windows, too; I always have at least two that need to be closed, but I rarely realize they’re running in the background.)
What do you think so far?
Next up is email. I’ve recommended the “one-touch” method of inbox management before, and an adaptation of it works great here: Open every email you’ve gotten in the last week and either delete it or archive it, depending on whether you anticipate needing it later. Anything you archive, be sure to set aside time to respond to later in the day or week. (Again, time box and time block this, plus add it to your to-do list so it’s a real, scheduled task, not just a good idea you may or may not get around to.)
Perhaps most importantly, delete as you go. This is the the one I struggle with most, but once you get in the habit, it’s easy. If you downloaded an app for a single purpose and don’t use it anymore, delete it. If you have docs in your files from an old class or work project, delete them. Stick to doing this for the first 15 minutes every Monday (or whenever you start your week) to dramatically reduce your digital clutter and any related stress.
