Technologies To Reduce Digital Clutter

Technologies to reduce digital clutter

1. Cloud Computing -

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Why keep things on your computer that you can keep elsewhere and access from anywhere? That's essentially the selling point of cloud computing, which takes your files and stores them on a remote server that you can then access from anywhere with a mobile device.
Services like Google Documents, Microsoft's SkyDrive and Apple's MobileMe can be used to store documents, emails and calendars and even share files remotely.
Why keep things on your computer that you can keep elsewhere and access from anywhere? That's essentially the selling point of cloud computing, which takes your files and stores them on a remote server that you can then access from anywhere with a mobile device.
Services like Google Documents, Microsoft's SkyDrive and Apple's MobileMe can be used to store documents, emails and calendars and even share files remotely.
2.  Email Inbox Manager -

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Email providers have long had ways of putting email where they belong - if only we took the time to actually put them to use.
One way to manage your email inbox is through mail rules, which are present in virtually every email service. Service providers like Gmail also have label and folder options that sort your mail for you so that the relevant emails can be read in one shot.
The new Hotmail interface also features a function called Sweep, which as its name suggests, pushes the mail you don't want from your inbox to another location that you specify.
3. Get Rid of Spam -

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Spam has to be the most annoying piece of mail to ever appear in your inbox. While email servers do a fair job of keeping most of the junk mail out, there are still some that inevitably seep through, especially if they're newsletters that you've subscribed to yourself.
These are updates that - let's face it - you hardly look at unless something really interesting catches your eye.
Hotmail's SmartScreen technology, for instance, keeps your inbox clean, by automatically verifying senders and informing you of suspicious emails as they come in.
4. Social Network All IN One -

Image from Microsoft

It's always easier to open one window for a few social networks than one for each, and there are several applications that will allow you to do this. One of them is TweetDeck, which supports Facebook and Twitter.
This feature is also available on the new Windows Live Messenger 2011 which gives you the convenience of having your Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn feeds all in a single window.
5. Personalise Your Site -

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Many sites these days allow you to hide panels you have no interest in, so that they don't pop up and annoy you.
For example, you might not want to see a list of videos that other users are watching at that very moment on Youtube. Getting rid of that part of the site is as simple as clicking on an 'x' to close the panel.
It might take a little bit of time to get everything just the way you want it, but ultimately it aids in making your browsing experience smoother and more enjoyable.
6. More Intelligent Searches -

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Since the advent of search engines like Google and Bing, providers have been constantly improving in order to make finding information more intuitive and simple.
This week, Bing and Facebook announced a new feature which allows users to personalise their search results based on what they've 'liked' on Facebook.
The social networking site has also teamed up with movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to allow users to recommend films to their friends.
For the more technologically savvy, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have even united to create a "canonical tag" in html code to reduce duplicate content search results.
7. Tighter Settings on Social Network -

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Granted, this one isn't completely new. If however you constantly find yourself wondering why a certain person keeps posting vivid details of every inane action they perform, you might want to hide them in your live feed on Facebook or in the social network feed of Windows Live Messenger 2011.
Alternatively, if you have certain friends you want to keep absolutely up to date on, Messenger also allows you to mark them as favourites so you are always in the know.

8. If you find yourself struggling under mountains of paper piles, you might also be yearning for the day when those piles are replaced by digital files that are easily searchable. That will mean less time sifting through documents and you’ll be able to find what you need quickly.
But, though it may seem that clutter is only attracted to the physical things you own, it can also creep into your computers and make a mess of your digital files. As Leo Babauta put it, “there are costs to such packrattery.” Whether you’re storing lots of photos, music, or documents on your devices, if you don’t have a system for easy retrieval (just like with your paper files), you’ll likely spend more time than necessary looking for the items you need. And, if you have an influx of files that you don’t use anymore, they will take up a lot of space and make your processor seem like it’s running on molasses.
To begin the digital clean up process, start by …

Purging duplicate files

Have you ever bought something only to discover that you already had it? Most likely, you just didn’t see the original or know where to find it, so you went ahead and got another one to replace it. Duplicate files can be like that, too. When you can’t find the file you want, it might seem easier to just download, recreate, purchase or somehow duplicate what you already have. You will then end up with multiple copies of the same thing, which can make using your laptop or PC more complicated than it needs to be. And, like unnecessary multiples of anything, they will consume space that could be put to better use.
Immediate actions:

• If you find documents with the same name followed by numbers in parenthesis, like XYZ.doc(1) and XYZ.doc(2), they’re likely to be the same document that you’ve downloaded several times. Use Duplicate Cleaner, Easy Duplicate Finder, Double Killer, or Tidy Up (for Mac) to remove multiple copies of the same files.
• Schedule purging sessions at regular intervals (once/month, once/quarter) to remove your duplicates.
• Start tagging your files with names that are easy for you to remember, and consider using the same structure (e.g. YearMonthDay_filename.extension, 20121024_digital.jpg). Before downloading or saving a new file, use the search feature on your PC or mobile device to ensure you don’t already have it.

Remove programs on your mobile devices you no longer use

Grab your smart phone or tablet. How many apps are on the home screen? How many do you use on a regular basis? If there are apps that you no longer use or like, it’s time to give them the boot. Keeping them on your device eats up space, may slow down your device, and stop your phone from being backed up. In my case, I had too many pictures (along with some apps I didn’t use anymore) stored on my iPhone and iCloud declined to run the backup. After reducing them, the backups resumed.
Immediate actions:

• Starting with your home screens, remove your unused apps.
• After purging, take a few minutes to arrange the apps in a way that makes sense to you.
• iPhone and Android users (with Apps Organizer) can group similar apps together in one folder (music, finance, games, productivity, etc).

Organize your contacts

Digital contacts, like business cards, can linger around long after they’re useful. This is another area that duplicates can creep in, so look through your contacts list to remove them.
Immediate actions:

• Delete duplicates and update contacts with current information.
• When possible, separate your personal and business contacts.
• Keep your address book organized with programs like Google Goggles or Evernote Hello.

Cleaning up the clutter on all your devices may take a bit of time up front, but once you begin the process, maintenance will be easier. You’ll also immediately notice how much easier it is to locate specific information and you’ll have more room for the programs and files you need.

from: http://unclutterer.com/2012/10/25/clean-up-your-digital-clutter/

Expand Clutter can choke you: it takes away usable space, stresses you out, and makes you feel closed in. Digital clutter is just as bad, and while it doesn't take up physical space, it does eat up your hard drive, attention, and time. Let's put an end to it.

Break Through the Cycle of Clutter and Admit There's a Problem

Expand When someone keeps a ton of old clothes they've never worn or rents a storage unit, we say they're wasting money and energy on clutter. However, when someone buys 1TB hard drives for all of the movies and they've downloaded or ripped, it's no big deal. Digital clutter is still clutter, and even if it doesn't take up physical space, we still have an unhealthy attachment to it, whether the clutter is a few gigs of movies or a hard drive full of mp3s that we've never watched or listened to. In this post, we'll help you minimize the digital clutter in your life, and break free of that attachment. When we're done, you'll know that every audio file, every video or movie you have on your computer, NAS, or HTPC is something you'd actually watch, listen to, and enjoy. Photo by cambodia4kids.

Storage Is Cheap, but That's No Excuse

Expand We can hear you now: "Storage is cheap! I can buy a 1TB external drive for less than $100 and keep everything there, and even take it with me! Who cares?" That's a fair point, however:

• Keeping everything creates mental clutter, too. If you're swimming in 1TB of digital music, or digital copies and Blu-rays of movies you've never even watched, trying to figure out what to listen to or which to watch is more difficult than just pressing play when you're in the mood. The bigger the music collection, the worse shuffle works, and the harder it is to make a playlist, or even choose a few songs to go when you need to hit the road. In the end, the more we have, the less we actually listen to and really enjoy. Photo by Paul Wells.
• Buying a hard drive for media you don't use is still buying stuff to hold more stuff you don't use. It may be cheap and small, but that doesn't make it less unnecessary clutter, and it doesn't make the drive's contents somehow more useful or valuable. Imagine if that 1TB drive were full of things you actually used and enjoyed, instead of your digital cast-offs.The purchase would be more worthwhile, wouldn't it?
• That extra storage still requires power to operate, and needs you to back it up. The power costs are miniscule, of course, but if you don't want to lose everything on that drive, you'll still want to back it up. If the drive is the backup, that's one thing, but if you don't want the data to die when that drive dies (and it will, someday), you'll need to back it up to a location with even more storage. See the problem?

Like any good garage cleaning, we need to set up three buckets: Keep (store in an accessible location), Toss (delete), and Maybe (decide later, or archive instead of keep). This will determine whether we keep it nearby on our main computers or NAS devices, delete it entirely, or archive it some other way.

Whittle Down Your Must-Have Music and Stream Everything Else

When I asked my friends whether they ever deleted music they didn't listen to, they looked at me like I was crazy. "Delete music? Why would you ever do that?" Most of them pointed to the storage argument, and noted that they have remixes and songs unavailable through most streaming or digital download services. That makes sense, but those exceptions likely don't make up the entirety of your collection. So if you're ready to clean that stuff up, get your buckets ready.

• 
  Sort your library by Last Played/Last Modified. Unless it's really worth keeping, delete any tracks you haven't listened to in over a year (or less, if you're feeling ambitious). If you're keeping them for archive purposes—as in you've digitized CDs you no longer have—that's fine, but get them out of your library. They just make it more difficult for you to find the things you actually want to hear, and make shuffling a painful experience.
• Stop syncing everything to your mobile devices. Aim to sync playlists with your mobile devices, not entire collections. Ideally, you'll have playlists for the songs you actually enjoy, so you don't have to worry about missing anything. Then, these playlists will inform what you should keep and what you should delete.
• Try a new music player. Our own Walter Glenn noted that when his dad wanted to really get to the bottom of what he listened to, he installed a new music player, and instead of importing his whole library, he dragged in songs individually when he wanted to hear them. After a week or so, he had a new collection of only the music he actually listened to. Give it a try, and if you're interested, here are some new players to try.
• Separate what you love to hear from what you want to keep. This is where our "Keep" and "Maybe" buckets come in. Delete is easy, but separate out the songs that are rare or you have an emotional connection to from the ones you could fire up right now. Put the ones you could listen to at any time today in the keep folder, and the rest in your maybe folder. We'll archive those later.
• 
  Expand Stream Everything. For our own Adam Pash, if he can't get it on one of the myriad streaming services out there, it's not worth the effort. For others, like Whitson Gordon, streaming isn't ready to totally replace his music library. Use a service like Spotify, Rdio, or even Google music to hold songs or albums you never listen to but might want to "some day." That way they're there for you, but they're also not taking up space.

These are just a few ways to trick yourself into highlighting the crap lurking in your music collection that's taking up space. It's long stopped being a badge of pride to have thousands of mp3s, and having the biggest collection doesn't net you friends asking to poke through them anymore. All it does is take up disk space you could use for other things, clog up your music library, break your music player's shuffle feature, eats bandwidth if you back up to the cloud or stream to your mobile devices, and make your backups painfully slow. Consider how much space you'll free up for new releases from the bands that you actually do enjoy hearing regularly, or for future discoveries, once you do clear out all of the old crap.

Whittle Your Digital Movie Collection to The Movies You Actually Watch

Expand Streaming services offer a wide catalog of movies and TV shows that are all available on-demand at any time. While their catalogs change with time and licensing agreements, that doesn't mean the only thing left to do is download everything or start buying Blu-rays. The goal here is to minimize the clutter, right?

• Clear the low-hanging fruit first. Delete your duplicate files. Delete the movies that you have physical copies for, or the movies and TV shows you downloaded but are available on streaming services (and probably aren't going anywhere.) Also, just like you did with music, delete anything you haven't watched in over a year that you're not keeping for archive purposes. You can always re-rip, buy, or download it again if you want it.
• Use webapps that track streaming catalogs for you. Sites like InstantWatcher keep an eye on Netflix streaming (and even Hulu streaming as well) for you so you know what's about to expire and what's been recently added. Sites like previously mentioned Goodfilms even syncs with your Netflix account and will show you any movies you want to see that are also on Netflix streaming. Hulu notifies you when titles you want appear or are about to expire.

We're not telling you to not digitize your own movies—just avoid collecting for the sake of it, or ripping just because you paid for the movie, even though you'll only watch it once. There are caveats though: Travel or lack of internet access is a good reason to pack a digital copy. Also, it's not difficult to blow through a bandwidth cap while streaming, so we understand if you'd rather be a little more conservative in your deleting. If you have a terrible DVD rip of a film you know is free to stream on Amazon in HD, seriously, let it go.

Archive Everything You Can't Bear to Delete

By now, you probably still have a "Maybe" folder you're having a hard time with. That's okay: it's time to archive those tough-to-handle files for safekeeping. You'll note we didn't do this first precisely because we didn't want you to just toss everything on a hard drive, pretend to "clean up," and in reality just add another device to your clutter. Photo by Robert Nelson.
We mentioned earlier that storage is cheap, and it really is. Pick up that 1TB drive, and label it "Archive." We've shown you how to digitize your life and get rid of physical clutter, but archiving your media lets you keep the things that are rare or special without taking up useful space, and doesn't require you to back it up regularly. Stash that drive somewhere that's not just plugged in to one of your computers—preferably somewhere you keep other valuables. (If you must plug it in, just don't import those files into your library!) This is key—don't just use the drive as more space, use it as a true archive.

We've all got a few cabinets, drawers, and shelves filled with clutter that seems outdated: CDs, paper, photo albums, DVDs, and books take up a lot of space. Here are 10 ways you can take the plunge into a digital, clutter-free life.

10. CDs, Records, and Other Music

ExpandIf you were alive before the age of iTunes, you probably have countless CDs, cassette tapes, and records lying around taking up space in your house. Maybe you have some of them in your digital music library, others you don't. Well, now's a good time to digitize everything and get rid of some of that clutter (well, the clutter you're less emotionally attached to, at least). Ripping CDs is easy, but if you want to rip those old records, you'll have to do a bit more work. While you're at it, make sure you're ripping everything in high quality—after all, you might just become an audiophile in the process.

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9. Photos and Slides

ExpandYour digital camera makes digitizing photos easy—all you do is transfer them to your PC—but if you have a lot of old photo albums, it might be a good idea to scan those into your digital library to keep everything together. Scanning regular photos is easy, and you can easily touch them up with software to make them look crystal clear. Then, just organize them using a library like Picasa or Lyn, and sync them all up to the cloud so you always have access. If you have some old negatives lying around, you can easily scan those in too.

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8. Post-Its, To-Dos, and Other Notes

ExpandPen and paper is still one of our favorite to-do list managers, but if you find that you get buried under disorganized scribbles and Post-Its, it's time to take it all digital. Use a to-do manager like Astrid or Wunderlist to keep track of your tasks, and a program like Simplenote to capture, organize, and sync all your simple text notes. If you really want to go all-out, you can use something like Evernote, which lets you capture nearly anything into a searchable, syncable database, so you always have those little notes on hand.

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7. Business Cards and Contact Info

Despite what many people say, business cards are not irrelevant quite yet. But, they can get lost easily, and clutter up your wallet, car, desk, or whatever other place you choose to stash them. Instead of hoarding tiny pieces of paper, scan them into your phone as contacts using something like Google Goggles. You can stick them all in their own contact group, so they don't clutter up your personal contacts, and you'll always have that info on hand when you need it. Plus, when you want to send that info over to someone else, you don't need to fumble for a business card—just send them the digital contact via SMS, email, or Bump.

6. Books, Magazines, and Newspapers

Some bookworms may shudder at the thought of giving up their physical books, but it can help you reclaim a lot of space. Ebook readers are cheap, and you can load them up with ebooks without spending a dime. If you get a Nook Simple Touch, you can even root it and turn it into the ultimate reading machine with some bookmark-and-read-later apps, some news aggregators, or whatever else you want. iPads and Android tablets have a lot of digital newspapers and magazines available in their respective app stores, and they work quite nicely—not to mention you can visit nearly any publication's web site for the latest news on any given subject.

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5. Recipes and Other Kitchen Tools

ExpandIf cooking your daily meals and tracking what you eat has gotten too complicated, a switch to digital might be just what you need. Ditch that old recipe box for a recipe library on your computer, or even better yet, get a meal planning app and plan your weekly meals stress free. Not only can you store recipes, but you can create grocery lists based on what you're going to make during the week, saving you the headache of sifting through recipe cards, and tiny grocery lists. While you're at it, grab a couple of these apps so you can better track what you're eating and stay healthy.

4. Movies, TV, and Other Video

If there's one thing that took up more space than anything else for me, it was the giant shelf of DVDs, Blu-Rays, and other video media. There's no need to have all of those around, though. Build yourself a media center or buy a cheap-but-awesome set top box for all your digital video needs. You can stream movies and TV through services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, or you can rip all those DVDs and Blu-Ray discs right to your hard drive for playback on your TV, and download anything of the holes in your collection. Not only will you get rid of all those discs, but you might even get rid of a box or two from your media cabinet.

3. Gift Cards, Loyalty Cards, and Event Tickets

Raise your hand if you've ever forgotten to bring your concert ticket to the concert. Ever forget to put the right loyalty card in your pocket, or even forget that you have a gift card for the store you just shopped at? Moving these things to your phone can not only save you some space in your wallet, but it can help you keep all that stuff organized. iOS 6 just introduced Passbook, a great way to manage your gift cards, coupons, loyalty cards, and event tickets right from your phone. You can also get Passbook on Android with Passwallet. Alternatively, use a program like Key Ring to scan in all your loyalty cards so you have each of them on hand at all times, and use a program like TripIt to get digital information about your flights when you travel. The more you can put on your phone, the easier it'll all be to access.

2. Money

ExpandOkay, so paper money and physical credit cards aren't so easy to get rid of, but you can do a lot with your phone. Not only can you manage your money and budgets with something like Mint, but you can actually pay back your friends with services like Square or Dwolla (or, if you must, PayPal). Some banks even have an easy way to make digital payments between friends. If nothing else, it'll make it easier for you to stop carrying around that checkbook, or stop worrying about how much cash you have on hand all the time.

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1. Paper Documents, Manuals, and Everything Else That Comes From Trees

Okay, so you're really committed to this digital thing, which means it's time to round up all the paper in your life and convert it to a digital format: bank statements, insurance statements, bills, and even the manuals that come with all your gadgets. Okay, that last one is pretty easy to do—just search for the manuals on Google and toss out the paper—but everything else is a bit more complicated. Check out our complete guide to going paperless and how to make the transition from paper for information on how to digitize, how to store it all, and what things you should still keep around in paper form.