Tips for less clutter
A subjective truism is that not all emails and files need to be saved in perpetuity – especially downloaded files which infiltrate our professional and personal lives on a daily basis.
My belief is that only a small proportion of all files should be intentionally stored – and the rest discarded. However, this comes with a caveat because it’s not always immediately clear which to discard.
For this reason, I advocate having a ‘To Delete’ folder both on your email client (preferably web-based) and also on your local computer. For those astute readers, you’ll recognise that this is the same folder that I advocate to store all your downloads from your web-browser.
The secret sauce is the monthly ritual to transfer the files from your ‘To Delete’ folder to your Recycle Bin / Trash Can (or whatever the equivalent is on your Operating System).
How does this look like for me? At the start of every month, I first clear the recycle bin / trash can on my email account, so that it’s totally empty. Then I go to the ‘To Delete’ folder, select all, right-click and delete. There is a very satisfying animation of all those emails being transferred to the Recycle Bin.
I then repeat this with my files on my local computer starting with the “To Delete” folder – with very satisfying results.
The beautiful thing about these steps is that I’m safe in the knowledge that should I need to find a file (or email) I still have a month to rescue it.
For those a bit more risk averse, perhaps experiment with the same steps, albeit every two months, etc.