Clean up and secure your digital life NOW!
If your email inbox and phone storage are bursting at the seams, like mine, you are in need of serious digital decluttering.
For the past few years, the Christmas season has been my season for digital decluttering and security tightening of my digital assets. At first, it was just changing passwords. But as time went on, and with social media exploding, my problems escalated.
Dropbox began warning me that my storage is nearing full capacity. My Gmail accounts are facing the same issue. I am also subscribed to so many newsletters that I even don’t have the time to read. Talk about information overload! And no, I do not want to pay for additional storage if I can help it.
Don’t even start me on my phone storage. I just checked my phone and I have over 2,000 photos in my gallery. What has added to my dilemma the last few years is the rise of chat apps. My Viber and Telegram feeds are a nightmare to look at with so many groups that people have added me to or which I subscribed to. Just looking at them stresses me out as I see unread notifications running sometimes into the hundreds.
Recently, I came across a Facebook by a friend, Chit, who also advised people to clean their digital life. I decided to combine her suggestions with what I already do (or plan to do in the coming months) to clean up and secure my digital life.
You should consider doing this too.
TIGHTEN DATA SECURITY
Change passwords
This cannot be emphasized enough. If you have never changed your passwords since you first set it up, this should be your first action this year. Ideally, passwords need to be changed regularly. Annually, at the very least. More often, if you can. There have been many data breaches over the years involving different apps and websites. Just by regularly changing your passwords, you make it more difficult for hackers to access your accounts.
Start with the critical ones that could potentially expose you financially, such as your banking and e-wallet apps. Consider changing also the passwords of your email addresses, chat apps, and websites you regularly log into.
Using a password manager to generate strong passwords and store all your passwords is a great tool. You only need to remember one strong master password. This way, you can have unique passwords for all your digital assets
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA)
Two-factor authentication or 2FA is an extra layer of security that requires two forms of identification to access data. Aside from your password, 2FA means that you will need to enter another code that will be sent to you either through email/SMS, a code generated from a third-party authentication app, or your biometrics (fingerprint, face, or retina). Enable it wherever it is available on your apps or websites.
CLEAN UP YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS
Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters
There were offers for free wellness e-books that I registered for but the downside of this is that they automatically put your email address on their mailing list and start sending you their promotional materials. These have bloated my email inbox unnecessarily so I am slowly unsubscribing from these.
Maybe you get these also from airlines, hotels, and other establishments. Usually, the option to Unsubscribe is found at the bottom of their emails. If there is no Unsubscribe option, as I have found in certain emails, go to my next suggestion.
Create an email filter for spam emails
Yes, there are marketers that DO NOT provide an option to Unsubscribe from their emails. I find them inconsiderate but the solution is simple.
Go to the Settings of your email provider and create a filter. In Gmail, for example, you can create a filter that detects a word, a subject heading, a sender’s address, and so on. Then you can set the filter to immediately send an email to Trash without passing Inbox. Just remember to check Trash every so often and empty it. Items in Trash still count towards your storage capacity.
Leave groups that are no longer relevant
Check Facebook, Messenger, Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other chat threads that you joined or was added to. The less you need to scroll down to check if you have new messages, the less stressful it will be on you.
Unfollow/Unfriend
How many pages and groups are you a part of? Are they all still relevant to you? Find time to go through them and unfollow those you no longer need.
Do the same with Facebook friends and accounts you follow on different social media platforms.
Trash old emails you no longer need
Old emails just use up your precious storage capacity. Go through your emails and trash those you no longer need. Remember to follow through by going to the Trash or Bin and empty it because, as I already mentioned above, emails still in Trash continue to count towards your storage capacity.
One tip: If you have thousands of emails to wade through, select first those with attachments because file attachments occupy more storage.
Offload photos/videos
You may not realize it but in this age of selfies, groupfies, and social media, we accumulate a lot of photos on our phone. Too many of these can eat up your phone’s capacity easily and could slow down your phone.
You can transfer photos and videos directly to a computer, external drive, or storage app like Dropbox. Those with Gmail accounts can also move these files to their related Google Drive.
Delete unused apps
Apps also use up phone storage and when left running in the background, slow down your phone. Do a quick sweep of your phone and delete any apps you have not used in a long time. You can always re-download these when you need to.
That’s it! I know the Christmas season will not be enough for all these. This will be a year-round effort. Still, we should regularly clean out our digital life or else we will find our digital assets swamped.
