In the digital age, online clutter and can pile up faster than a storm dumping snow in the mountains of Colorado. Online clutter can also easily start messing with your creative flow, especially if you are faced with old emails, contacts and never ending spam each time you get in front of the computer. If you find that your energy seems zapped more than usual after you’ve been on the computer and you are unable to focus, it might be time to do a bit of online spring cleaning for a creativity kick-start.
Do you have a schedule or process for managing online clutter? It’s a good idea for everyone, but especially for creatives and entrepreneurs who would much rather be spending time thinking of new, innovative things. Just like when your home is cluttered and the energy within it begins to feel stagnant, the same thing happens when your online workspace is crowded and disorganized. It’s not inspiring or supportive for work or brainstorming.
Here are a few suggestions to help you get a handle on the online clutter and keep it from messing with your creative insights:
Pick a day once a month to go through your accounts and delete or archive old emails and stick to it. The first time you attempt this it will probably take some time (be sure to take breaks) but it will also help you move towards a clean slate of what kind of information you really want to save and cultivate.
Delete old contacts that no longer fit into your life. Perhaps you’ve changed jobs, careers are no longer connected to these people, or have a stack of old business cards taking up an entire drawer. Either way, the stale energy of these contacts is still hanging around, so why not make the decision to finally let them go?
Unsubscribe from old newsletters or ezines and create email filters, labels or folders for the ones you decide to keep or sign up for in the future. If you haven’t read a newsletter or ezine for 6 months, it’s time to cut it loose because you aren’t going to suddenly start reading it now. Another rule of thumb — if you have 7 – 10 different email newsletters in your inbox that you haven’t read, it’s time to start making some deleting decisions. Believe me, you will feel euphoric when it’s done! Also be mindful of what you sign up for in the first place so that you aren’t creating future clutter willy nilly.
Do your brainstorming and connecting away from the computer as much as possible. Nothing kills innovation faster than never leaving your computer space, constantly reminded of all the stuff you still have to get done. Do yourself a favor and take mental and physical breaks and step away from your electronics to better tune into strategies for how to use your technology more effectively to support how you work. Breaks offer perspective and enable you to focus on the bigger, overall challenge of how to work with your online clutter, rather than the tactical part of of dinking around in the details that can pull you down a rabbit hole.
The best creativity kick-start when it comes to clearing out online clutter is to find tools that work for you and how you manage your creativity online and off. I use Google and G+ for my email and content management needs and it works perfectly for how I want to manage my creative life. I also use handwritten lists for certain things and I still (gasp) use a paper based calendar. There is something about flipping through the pages and seeing things in a more tactile way that helps me manage my time and tasks. It’s also one less thing that I need to stare at on my computer.
What are some things that work for you, keeping your online clutter organized and manageable so your creativity can flow?
Photo by Ali