How to spring clean your ‘screen life’ to become more productive

Spring is generally when we think about cleaning and organizing our homes, so it’s the perfect time to organize our work lives as well. However, cleaning and tidying your digital area is equally vital as decluttering your actual home.

Due to the epidemic and lockdowns, there has been a significant rise in the usage of linked digital devices during the previous year. And the more we utilize digital space (for example, while working remotely), the more “virtual clutter” we generate. This is terrible news since virtual clutter causes us to become distracted, slower, and less productive.

Productivity has become a hot topic among UK businesses. According to recent data, the country’s productivity is 16 percent lower than the G7 group of industrial countries’ average (ONS survey). In addition, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a new £520 million Help to Grow initiative to assist small firms in increasing their productivity in the 2021 Budget.

So, how do we approach this? We’ve put up the recommendations below to help you and your team with step-by-step instructions on cleaning your digital area and being more efficient and motivated at work in 2021.

#1 – Clean up your desktop PC.

According to studies, the typical knowledge worker spends around 2.5 hours each day, or almost 30% of their working time, looking for information. If your office or desk area is disorganized, you will waste crucial working time hunting for papers and information. A cluttered computer desktop is the same way.

It will assist if you begin to think of your computer desktop in the same way you think of your actual desktop: it is critical to maintaining it clean and neat. When it comes to cleaning your virtual environment, starting with your desktop is a good place to start. Go through all of the files and folders on your desktop, remove anything that isn’t required, file what you want to save, and create folders for anything that doesn’t already have a home.

#2 – Embrace ‘inbox zero’ by clearing your email inbox.

The so-called “inbox zero” technique is a terrific way to keep track of the digital garbage that builds up in your inbox. The idea is to keep your email inbox clean by archiving or removing everything you don’t need to act on and filing everything else in its proper location.

Start by removing emails that you no longer need since they’ve become digital clutter which will slow you down and divert your focus away from work at hand.

When attempting to empty your inbox, sort it by the sender. Seeing many emails from the same individual grouped will help you get things done much faster. Just remember to reverse the sort order after you’re done.

In the future, try to keep your inbox at zero by removing any emails you don’t need as you go.

#3 – Set a limit on how much time you spend on social media.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by social media. You can’t keep up with the amount of information and messages coming at you at breakneck speed. Consider how you can keep it from taking up too much of your time. Instead of being active on every social feed, you should utilize the platforms where your community is most engaged.

Here, purging is your closest buddy. Make a list of all the organizations and platforms you participate in and how they help you advance your career. Then deactivate or remove those that aren’t useful. Make careful to unfollow any sites or groups that aren’t beneficial to you.

Don’t forget to turn off social media alerts to prevent getting distracted. This is usually done via your account’s settings and notifications.

#4 – Remove any unneeded applications and programs from your computer.

Don’t be scared to eliminate all of the free applications and programs that you never use from your computer since they might slow you down and divert your attention away from work at hand. You may always upload them again if needed.

Too many applications claim to alleviate our worries, yet the sheer number of options and diversity might make us sluggish. It’s much better to pick a few applications that save you time and help you be more productive, learn them well, and use them often.

Remove any unnecessary programs from your dock or taskbar so that you only see the shortcuts you need, depending on what you use at work.

Getting rid of unneeded applications and programs from your taskbar and keeping just the ones you need will help your computer run faster.

Decluttering your virtual area today will help you become more focused and effective at work in 2021, at a time when boosting productivity is a priority for the UK’s small companies.