Control clutter with our tips on tidying up your tech.
"Control clutter with our tips on tidying up your tech."
MANAGE YOUR INBOX
Two years ago, you thought subscribing to a weekly newsletter on otters was a good idea? Time for an overhaul. “Be realistic and unsubscribe from mailing lists you no longer read. Create filters for the subscriptions you love so they appear in one folder on your desktop and can be found easily,” suggests Olivia Chiong, founder of Unbusy Entrepreneur and operations manager at Key Person of Influence Singapore. “The Unroll.me website or app combines all subscriptions into one e-mail so you can organise your favourites from there.”
CREATE MORE SPACE
HR might not be crazy-happy about this, but having two monitors at your workstation lessens the hassle of minimising and toggling between windows, and a larger desktop space means you can access more open documents at once.
SEPARATE SALE NOTIFICATIONS
You love shopping. And you hate missing a bargain. Olivia recommends creating an e-mail account (for example, iloveshopping@gmail.com) to store the online discount codes sent to you. This way, you’ll know exactly where to go on the weekend and won’t miss out on deals. Bonus: You’ll no longer be tempted by a barrage of random ads.
HAVE A TO-DO LIST
Simple but effective: Paste digital sticky notes on your desktop to remind you of your tasks for the day.
DELETE, DELETE, DELETE (OFTEN)
Check your programs folder regularly and delete those you haven’t used in the past six months. Be ruthless!
USE THE TASKBAR
Pin frequently used software onto your taskbar to access it quickly. “It’s amazing how often people forget to use this function,” reveals Olivia. The same goes for rifling through your browser history. Bookmark frequently visited websites!
USE A COLLAB TOOL
Chat communication tool Slack is like your Whatsapp messenger – but it’s stored in your cloud, so you never lose any chats when changing devices. Its web interface allows you to create channels for your work team members and to upload files directly, while its search function helps you access the information stored. Also good for personal use.
GET A TIME MANAGEMENT APP
Rescuetime is an online tracking system that runs in the background on your smartphone or desktop while it’s in use. It gives you detailed reports of the time you spent on any website or app, how productive you were and whether you achieved your goals. At the same time, it blocks distracting websites during hours that you designate.
