Declutter Your Data

Take Charge of Your Data and Organize Your Digital Life

Table of contents

Part I: Why Digital Decluttering Matters 1
Introduction 3
1. The Digital Clutter Problem 4
2. Benefits of Digital Decluttering 5
3. What to Do about It? 7
4. Is Digital Decluttering for you? 8
5. How the Process Works 9
6. The Commitment to the Digital Cleanse 10
1 Information Overload 11
1. Can You Stand the Noise? 11
2. I Heard You but I Wasn’t Listening 12
3. Develop Filters 13
4. Fake News and Reliable Sources 14
5. Spam, Duplicates, and Other Evils 15
iv Declutter Your Data
2 Technology Inventory 17
1. Shifts in Relationships with Technology 17
2. Taking Technology for Granted 18
3. Technology Collection Inventory 18
3.1 Computers and peripherals 19
3.2 Phones and tablets 19
3.3 Gaming consoles and games 19
3.4 E-readers 20
3.5 Image, audio, and video equipment 20
3.6 Storage devices 20
3.7 Smart home devices 20
3.8 Connectors 21
4. Repurpose, Donate, Recycle 22
3 Digital Footprint 24
1. Seeking Data 24
2. Digital Footprint Checklist 24
2.1 Internet access 25
2.2 Servers 25
2.3 Websites 26
2.4 Email and databases 26
2.5 Storage solutions 26
2.6 Productivity services 27
2.7 Social media and online communities 27
2.8 Shopping accounts 28
2.9 Loyalty programs and memberships 29
2.10 Online banking 30
2.11 Gaming accounts 30
2.12 Entertainment accounts 31
2.13 Events and tickets 31
Contents v
2.14 Medical attention 32
2.15 Academic interfaces 32
4 The Myth of a Perfect Life 35
1. In Consideration of Minimalism 36
2. Defending Conversation 36
3. The Costs of Digital Living 37
4. The Privilege of Digital Access 39
5. An Integrated Digital Life 40
Part II: How to Declutter Your Data 43
5 Your Digital Report Card 45
6 Just Say No 48
1. How to Say No 48
2. The Value of Your Time 49
3. Habit Making 50
7 Establish Your Response Time 53
1. How Fast Is Fast Enough? 53
2. What’s Your Response Time Going to Be? 54
3. Respond to Everything? 54
8 Turn off Notifications 56
1. But I Need to Know What’s Happening 57
2. Exceptions to the Notification Rule 57
3. How to Check Notifications Efficiently 58
9 Dedicated Devices 59
1. Divide Your Digital Activities 59
2. Go Analog to Decide 60
3. Sticking to the Plan 61
4. Devices When You Travel 62
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10 Digital Calendars 63
1. What to Include in Your Digital Calendar 64
2. Schedule Digital Tasks and Digital Fun 64
3. Put Your Digital Time in Your Calendar 65
4. Have a Ritual to Make the Most of Your Tech Time 67
11 The App Diet 68
1. How to Reduce Your “App-etite” 69
2. Finding New Apps to Love 70
12 Consolidate Your Data 71
1. Data Needs a Home 71
2. File Names and Folder Structures 73
3. Pick a Cloud 73
3.1 Cloud storage options 74
3.2 Reasons for an extra cloud 75
13 Your Email Inbox Is an Eyesore 76
1. Too Many Emails 77
2. Chasing Inbox Zero 78
3. How to Tackle Your Inbox 79
4. Schedule Time for Email 80
5. Weekly Email Maintenance 80
6. One Big Archive 81
7. Declare Email Bankruptcy 81
8. Banish “Reply All” 82
9. Consolidate Your Email Addresses 83
10. Inbox Is Not Your To-Do List 84
11. Pick Subscriptions That Serve You 84
12. Create Your Own Email System 85
Contents vii
14 Curate Your Photos and Videos 87
1. How Many Photos Do You Need? 87
2. Best Practices for New Photos 88
3. Best Practices for Old Photos 89
4. About Unflattering Photos 90
5. Don’t Forget Your Videos 90
5.1 Live video 90
15 Smart Home Savvy 92
1. Smart Home Devices 92
2. Data Gathered, for Better or Worse 94
16 Figure out Your Privacy 96
1. The 3Ps 96
1.1 Professional 97
1.2 Personal 97
1.3 Private 97
1.4 Divide and blend 98
2. Be Authentic 99
17 Connect with People 100
1. Focus on True Friends 100
2. Don’t Forget Your Fans 101
3. Pick Your Experts 102
4. Give up on Toxic People 104
18 Social Networks and Online Communities 106
1. Take Charge of Social Media 107
2. Forget about Social Media 108
3. Social Media Invitation Etiquette 109
4. Delete Unused Groups 110
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19 Take a Digital Vacation 111
1. Value of Doing Nothing 112
2. Get over FOMO and Embrace JOMO 113
3. Tech-Free Time 116
4. Sabbatical versus Convenience 117
5. Go Analog 118
20 Pursue Your Passions with Abandon 119
21 Fighting Fake News 121
1. Vetting Information 121
2. Technical Considerations 121
3. Content Creator 122
4. Consider Bias 122
5. Follow the Money 123
6. Research Ethics 123
7. Funny Pages 123
8. Emotional Triggers 124
9. Savvy Friends 124
22 Capturing Ideas 125
1. An Effective Productivity Approach 125
2. Ways to Capture Your Ideas 126
3. Digitize Your Analog Notes 127
23 Digital Parenting 128
1. Model Best Practices 129
2. Cyber Dangers Are Real 130
3. Kids’ Digital Clutter 130
4. Posted with Permission 131
5. Location Tracking 132
6. School Rules 132
7. Family Internet Rules 133
Contents ix
24 Digital Estate Planning 136
1. Estate Practicalities 137
2. Wishes for Digital Assets 138
25 Think Like a Librarian 140
1. Need to Know, Nice to Know 140
2. Fake News and Click Bait 141
Part III: Maintaining Your Decluttered State 143
26 The Art of Digital Living 145
1. Digital Decluttering Maintenance 146
1.1 Ongoing check-ins 146
1.2 Revisit troubleshooting tactics 146
1.3 Hide in plain sight 147
2. Quest for Digital Happiness 147
2.1 Beyond the basics 148
2.2 Define your own happiness 148
2.3 Be mindful 149
2.4 Going forward 150
Download Kit 151
Samples
1 Preconceptions about Digital Decluttering 4
2 Technology Collective Inventory 21
3 Digital Footprint Inventory 33
4 Conversation Challenge Tracker 38
5 Digital Report Card 46
6 Time Tracker Worksheet 51
7 Response Time Planner 55
8 Dedicated Devices Planner 61
9 Author’s Google Writing Calendar 66
x Declutter

Description

Technology makes things faster, and simpler. At the same time, with all the technology that surrounds us on a daily basis, we are awash in too much information. Our computers, phones, tablets, work projects, tax and other files, and various online accounts all store data. It’s a lot! Can anything be done? Yes! Declutter Your Data is for anyone who is interested in making better use of technology and coming up with an organized and efficient way to organize personal data. To learn more about this publisher, click here: http://bit. ly/2u91Tz7