Digital Declutter With Konmari Method (For A Less Distracted, More Focused Lifestyle)

Do you feel like the amount of digital clutter in your life is getting out of hand? Are you constantly feeling overwhelmed by how much information and data is on your computer, laptop, or phone? If your digital life is getting messy, you’re not alone. These days it’s just about impossible to stay organized with all the information that accumulates in our inboxes, on our desktops, and scattered across social media platforms. It can be difficult to find where to start decluttering. This article will cover ways to declutter your digital life with Konmari Method and make it easier to focus on important tasks.

SEE ALSO: How To Be Mindful In Key Areas Of Life

Marie Kondo approach for tidying your digital world

You’ve probably heard about the Konmari method and how it can help you declutter your home. But what does it have to do with your digital life? The first step is making room for new things by getting rid of items that you don’t need or do not spark joy! For example, if there’s an app on your phone that doesn’t get used often, but still takes up space, then why keep it? If you have a social media alert that is continually distracting you, erase them as well. You’ll naturally find that you have a lot of items to go through. After you’ve gotten rid of anything non-essential, start organizing them by category. For example, all photographs are kept in one folder, videos in another, music in another, emails in another, and so on.

Here are some Konmari rules to declutter your digital life.

Make a commitment to tidy up. Do it all in one go

Take your time to dedicate to tidying up all your digital mess in one go, or it will never get done. I’d also recommend scheduling this task for a specific time that is suitable for you, perhaps when the children are at school so you won’t be disturbed?

Tidy by category, not by location

Desktop or your home screen might be the first one you want to clean up because it is the first thing you see. However, the Konmari method does not focus on cleaning by location but by category. If you go down the category list in order, you’ll notice that many folders on your desktop get cleaned themselves.

Follow the right order (Start with categories that you feel are easy to get rid of)

Begin with files that you don’t have a strong emotional connection to, such as Media files (Music, Video), Documents, Program/App, Email, and so on. Keep photo at the last type to declutter.

Start by identifying what you need and what spark joy? (Delete the rest!)

Digital files, unlike cloth, we can’t hold in our hand and feel it and ask ourselves does it spark joy? It’s also difficult to get rid of something that provides useful knowledge. The key point is choosing what to keep not focus on what to delete. So, when you start organizing, it’s a good idea to have one folder called “Spark Joy” and another called “Important.” After looking at each file, just keep the ones that are essential or spark joy. Delete the rest!

Organize your files by category

For example, my folder looks like this: “Photo”, “Documents”, “Videos”, “eBooks”. If you’re like me, you probably store both personal and working information on the same laptop. Perhaps it’s time to split them up: “Personal/Photo” and “/Working/Photo” Because these files have different purposes, I don’t want them to pollute each other.

Reduce the number of folders you have. Keep it to a minimum

When I tidy up my laptop, I notice that there are a lot of duplicated photos because there are so many subfolders that have been cloned and forgotten! So keep things simple.

Step-by-step To declutter your digital files with the Konmari method

It’s difficult to picture your digital assets across all devices and platforms. So note down what you have:

• Media files
• Program/apps
• Browser
• Email
• Cloud storage
• Social media
• Photo

Media

What is the last time you played an MP3 on the laptop? If it is too long delete it and save only what sparks joy. What if you suddenly think of a song or audiobook you want to listen to but no longer have? You can either find it on Spotify or, worst-case scenario, purchase it again. Video files consume too much storage space especially raw files from the camera or GoPro that have not to been through editing. Do you plan to edit these anytime soon? if not, delete.

Documents

Gather all your document files excel, word, pdf, text, in one place and start sorting out. If things are no longer important or bring you joy delete them.

Programs, Applications, Services

On laptop, take a look at your programs list, delete what you do not use. (If you’ve been using your computer for a long period of time, it may be time to reset it back to the original condition and install what you need). On mobile, after cleaning unused apps and delete apps that do not spark joy! you then can group app by categorize like “finance”, “social networking”, “productivity”, etc. Some applications, such as note keep a lot of data you submit, spend time going through and deleting data that is no longer useful to you. Then, look at data for other accounts on other platforms. Delete your old online accounts you no longer use. Then tidy up the accounts you are using. For example, I use dynalist.io for taking notes, Jarvis.ai to write content.

Web browser

If you install many browsers on your laptop, choose to keep the one that you use the most and delete the rest. Next, clean out your browser Extension/Add-ons, Bookmarks, Browsing History, and cache files.

Email

How many email account do you have? If you have too many it is time to consider delete emails that you no longer use. Now with each email account start to clean it up. You might want to sort your email by oldest first because the old email is the one we want to get rid of soon.

• Unsubscribe from newsletters that you no longer want to read
• Bulk delete emails that are not important, for example, search “from Malaysia” to filter out emails from Malaysia Airlines that you no longer want to keep then select delete all.
• Archive emails that spark joy
• Save attachment that you need or bring you joy, delete the mail

Photo

Photos are one of those things that most of us hold on to even though we don’t really want them. When sorting through your photos, ask yourself if they spark joy. If not, delete. You’ll end up with only those memories that make you happy and give you joy.

Social media

Cleaning up Facebook. Unfriend or unfollow the people, groups, and pages that bring you no enjoyment. After that, it’s time to go through your feed and get rid of all the posts that do nothing but make you feel bad about yourself. Clean up your notification setting as well to let Facebook let noisy. Similarly do the same to your Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest account.

Cloud storage

There are many different cloud storage services available, but if you’re not aware of what you have, it’s really difficult to find what you need. Take a similar step like cleaning up your files on laptop. Sort out file per category and clean it up.

Notifications

Switch off all notifications that you do not need. This way you are less distracted by your phone and can concentrate on the things that are important to you.

Home screen/Desktop

Take a look at your home screen/desktop, what applications make it easy for you to access the information or app that’s relevant to you? If they don’t help, delete them!

Conclusion

In this article, I’ve discussed how the Konmari method is a way of clearing out all the digital clutter in your life. It’s not just physical items that can be cleared away, but also things like apps, social media notifications, and photos, old online accounts you no longer use.

I hope these tips will help you with decluttering and organizing your digital world!