With so many work apps, documents, messages, and emails, digital clutter has become a real problem many office workers face nowadays. This is especially true for email marketers who juggle huge amounts of correspondence at once. Imagine how much time they have to spend finding the needed conversations or documents when even an average worker spends 30 hours a week checking email.
Reasons Why Email Marketers Should Do Digital Declutter
There is no doubt that digital clutter negatively impacts your work performance. Filing documents turns into a mess, it takes up disk space and can even slow down your computer. This is also true in email marketing, where you run dozens of email promotions simultaneously. So here are some of the reasons to do a digital declutter:
- Boost productivity. You will be able to do more if you can easily find the file folder, or email you need, without spending a lot of time searching.
- Build priorities. During decluttering, you decide what to keep and what to delete, you can make tags for important documents, and move the most used items to an easily accessible location.
- Speed up your computer. Your device will become slow if there is not enough free space. Therefore, it is always best to delete duplicates and files you no longer need and uninstall unused applications.
- Increase concentration. It can become hard to focus on important tasks with many distractions around. Get rid of unuseful widgets and apps, and turn off push notifications and updates about new messages to keep yourself concentrated.
- Reduce stress. Both physical and digital clutter impacts our emotions and current mood. That is why the mess in the documents leads to frustration and irritation. With the digital declutter, your files are always properly organized, leaving you with peace of mind.
Seven Steps How Email Marketers Can Do Digital Declutter
There are several different ways how to get rid of digital clutter. You should base your approach on your current situation and work responsibilities. In general, turning the notifications off might be a good idea to boost concentration. However, for some, there might be a need to keep up with all the latest work updates constantly. So always make sure to adjust the digital declutter recommendations to your personal needs.
Read more: Top Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
1. Unsubscribe from Unneeded Emails
Every email marketer gets from dozen to hundreds of incoming emails every day. Therefore it is crucial to take proper care of the inbox and declutter it from unwanted or spammy emails. Most marketing emails include an Unsubscribe button at the end that lets you update the email preferences. Another alternative is to use third-party services that allow you to unsubscribe from multiple email lists at once.
2. Organize Your Email Inbox
Email inbox can become a total mess without proper structuring. Email marketers receive emails on various themes and from many different recipients. That is why there is a need to organize them accordingly to avoid missing any important updates. For example, Gmail allows using tabs and labels to create filters. This way, emails will be automatically stored and stored in specific folders.
3. Clean Up Your Hard Drive
Over time, computer disk space becomes cluttered with duplicates, old downloads, and unused applications. Without enough hard drive space, you might experience slow software response, lags, constant spinning wheels, and freezes. Perform regular computer maintenance and run Mac cleanup to ensure effective work of the device. Alternatively, you can also move files to cloud storage or an external hard drive.
4. Structure Files and Folders
Make sure to organize files on your computer if you download and save many documents on the hard drive for offline access. With a cluttered computer, it might become challenging to find the needed data. Create folders for different file types and relocate the most important ones to the Desktop. If you are a Mac user, you can also use color tags to easily filter and search files.
5. Clean Up Desktop and Downloads
These two folders are probably the most used locations on any computer, so they clutter extremely fast. Any file you download on the Internet gets saved to the Download folder. With time, old and unneeded files pile up and take up the disk space. Downloads decluttering should become a regular routine of your computer maintenance.
Desktop is the most accessible location, no matter what you do on your computer. This is the first screen you see when you boot your machine or switch between apps and files. That’s why it is important to keep your Desktop clean and neat at all times. And while it is a good idea to add app icons to the Desktop for easy access. Over time, it can become cluttered with shortcuts to apps we no longer need. Declutter Desktop from unused apps and files to organize your computer space.
6. Organize Your Web Browser
Browser bookmarks and extensions are other sources of clutter on your computer that also takes up disk space. Regularly check your Bookmark Manager and delete the bookmarks you no longer need. It is also a great idea to organize bookmarks into folders that are easy to access.
Installed third-party extensions can also pile up on your web browser with time. Some of them can even show push notifications and distract you from work. Go to the browser preferences to check the list of added extensions and uninstall the ones you no longer use.
7. Back up Your Data
Any computer is prone to crashes and system glitches. Therefore it is essential to have a backup of your files in case anything goes wrong. Use an external hard drive or cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox to save your data. It is important to use them regularly to keep up with the updates in the documents or create a schedule. For example, if you use Time Machine on Mac, all the updates are saved automatically, so you always have the latest version of your files.
Ensure your backup drive doesn’t become cluttered with duplicates of the same data. Otherwise, you will be lacking free storage for new updates soon enough. The best option would be to overwrite the old version of the same file with a new one instead of keeping them both.
In conclusion
It can seem challenging at first to change digital habits. But digital decluttering doesn’t just organize your work files. It also boosts your productivity and increases concentration. This road is worth taking if you want to do more in less time.
Email marketers will benefit from digital declutter as they won’t need to spend hours daily looking for the needed email or document. You can organize and declutter your email inbox, computer hard drive, and a web browser with just a few simple tricks. Start with small steps, and with time it will become your regular computer maintenance routine that helps to get ahold of your digital space.
