Weekend Digital Decluttering

Today, I tidied up my files. It's a weekly routine that helps me stay on top of my digital clutter. I hate it when files and emails pile up, because it gets much harder to sit down and sort them. Seeing too many unopened emails is overwhelming. I'd probably delete them all instead of checking each one.

So, I clean up every week. I urge you to do it, too, if you haven't yet created a weekly digital decluttering routine. It takes only a few minutes if done weekly.

Here are three areas I tidy up:

1. Inbox

I start with my emails. I've signed up for a couple of newsletters and I usually find time to go through all of them only on weekends.

If I like what I read, I save them in their dedicated storage space. For example, if a paragraph sparks an idea for future blog content, I add it to my idea bank. Sometimes I find marketing insights that we could use in Prodigy for newsletters and social media content, and I save them to our company's Notion workspace for the team to work on in the coming week. If the email isn't interesting at all, I hit delete and don't bother reading the whole thing.

I also regularly unsubscribe from email lists. When I find myself deleting their emails too often, it's a sign that I should probably stop the subscription.

Then, I check my Notion inbox. That's where I collect my notes during the week—articles I want to read in the future, blog topics, project ideas, quotes, errands I need to schedule, and many more.

I go through the list, moving the ideas and resources to their dedicated spaces, adding the tasks to my task manager, and scheduling errands in my calendar.

2. Desktop

One of the folders that always fills up with temporary files is the desktop. All those screenshots and files that I had to save quickly are stored there. I love Mac Desktop Stacks, instantly tidying up the space, but it's just sweeping the files under the rug. I want them either sorted (saved to the appropriate folders) or thrown in the bin.

Because when my desktop folder becomes a home for screenshots and random files, I'll forget what I've saved there and will probably never come back to look for anything.

3. Downloads

Similar to the desktop folder, this can quickly get cluttered too. Move files to their dedicated folders and delete the ones no longer needed.

Doing these on weekends allows me to have a fresh start on Mondays. Everything that comes into my inbox are recent, and nothing gets buried and forgotten. All new files saved to my Desktop and Downloads folder are recent too, and I can quickly find files I've temporarily saved there.

It's refreshing, and I'm also currently looking for ways to declutter other digital spaces, like my phone's camera roll. Can't wait to get that organized!