Do a digital spring cleaning – then make it stick

Spring has finally sprung in the Northeast and while the pollen count may prevent us from keeping our houses completely open, it does bring to mind the tradition of spring cleaning. There are differing accounts about exactly where the custom started, but after a long winter, it makes sense you may need to air out and clean out your house. In our modern lives, most of us don’t have to cope with the soot left by coal heat and oil lamps, but we do have to deal with a kind of digital residue. So, why not extend this tradition to clean that up? Here are a couple ideas to tidy up in your digital life.

• Passwords and online accounts (Do they need to be updated or deleted?)
• Browser settings and bookmarks (Are these still useful?)
• Computer desktop and mobile app screens (Can you reduce the clutter?)
• Online files and backups (Are these organized and functioning?)
• Email accounts and inboxes (Are you making efficient use of your inboxes?)

This list is far from complete, but for many it will still seem daunting. So, after you have a nice clean bookmarks bar, home screen, and inbox it may be a good time to think about how you can keep your digital house a little tidier. For instance, consider investing in a password manager to make it easier to stay on top of all your online accounts. You might also consider developing a strategy for getting emails out of your inbox faster so that you can reduce the digital clutter you need to deal with every day. Although we may not have to contend with as many grimy technologies that necessitate actual spring cleaning, our digital technologies require more frequent attention than once a year.