Muting notifications can feel a little awkward: what if you miss something important? But almost everyone I’ve spoken to has said something similar about this concern: the people who need to come to you know how to do it, be it via text message or phone. Your sanity and attention will thank you.
Celebrate the January digital purge.If you’re feeling ambitious, read a page from my colleague Tate Ryan-Mosley, a digital rights and democracy reporter. She’s celebrating her fourth annual digital cleanup in January, a four-week period of cleaning up every part of her digital life: email, files, security, and the phone.
This is how it works:
Inweek 1, Tate is doing a “massive cleanup” of her email, unsubscribing from newsletters and other non-serving lists, and deleting massive amounts of email she will never read. She also spends a day contacting people who may have sent her an email and whom she has not yet replied to. The New Year is a great time to revive those connections and let Tate start new conversations with people who are important to her.
Week 2is dedicated to file organization: cleaning up files in the cloud, on the desktop and on all drives and storing them where they belong. “This is my least popular week,” says Tate. “But in the end you feel like you’ve really achieved something.” Tate’s advice? Organize files by general category, not by date. And treat file organization as real work, because it is. “I do it during work breaks when I’m waiting for a meeting, or I take an hour, listen to music and really do it,” she says.
Week 3Tate’s digital cleanup is dedicated to security. She goes through every sensitive personal account and creates new unique passwords with the help of the LastPass password manager. Tate is also using Google this week to get rid of sensitive information like their personal phone number and address that may be floating around the internet. Tate swears by the New York Times Guide to Self-Doxxing, available here, with clear instructions on how to keep your private information safe online.
Week 4is the most fun, according to Tate. She’s taking the time this week to clean up her phone’s backlog of photos, delete apps that don’t serve her, and reorganize the home screen. “The nice thing is that I don’t have to sit at my desk to do it,” she says. “Maybe I’ll wait in line or watch TV.” Tate is also taking the time this week to turn off their notifications (see above).
For Tate, Digital Cleanup January isn’t exactly fun. How many resolutions are there? But when the calendar changes to February, it has reached a ton. “I feel so good for the rest of the year,” she says. “And I can’t wait until December to take care of all of that again. I love how I feel afterwards. “
Finally, remember that there is a whole world outside of technology.Once upon a time, people didn’t cranks over their phones and practiced that particular thumb gesture of endlessly scrolling social media. Some read books. Others chatted with their fellow human beings – or simply took a break.
Cal Newport, a professor of computer science at Georgetown University, is a strong advocate for reforming your relationship with technology, especially when it really isn’t necessary. “When you use technology to do important things, it helps,” he says. “If you use it by default as a distraction from unpleasant thoughts or experiences, it can become a problem.” So put the phone down and feel these emotions, even if it’s boredom, sadness, or fear. Maybe it will make you feel a little more human again.
