The great upside of digital world is having any information available at your fingertips in a matter of minutes (if not seconds). The dark downside is having information piling up so fast that it’s hardly possible to keep it under control.

Keeping items in digital space costs nothing (both for providers and consumers).

This means having endless sources of it and endless packs stored on your computer or in apps.

It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time.

I remember when I was a kid I had one subscription to a magazine, about three dozen books, and two dozens of music albums. And it was the same for everyone in the family. Things were taking up physical space. Leaving in an apartment we didn’t have much space. So our decisions were taking that into account.

Later a digital era started. Music on CDs, video on DVDs, and eventually goodies from the Internet. Still, digital storage space was very limited (like the physical one in our apartment).

Life was not centered around digital, most things were remaining offline. Yet, the problem started to raise. Once I had more than hundred songs on computer I needed a way to organize them. Once I started doing courseworks for University at computer, a question of organizing reference material came up.

Fast forward to current time. Unless I make a deliberate choice, everything is digital. Storage space costs pennies. Information needed to get things done and the one catching attention comes non-stop. Save this to learn new skill. Save that to review, edit, and send it back. Save this to check it out later. Save that just in case. And let’s not forget about “beloved” topic of emails inflow.

Snowball of information creates a pile of files, notes, web clips, emails, screenshots, and much more.

Digital places I use every day become a mess.

Sounds familiar?

Some lucky people don’t care about that. I wish I could.

Seeing a mess mentally distracts me to the point when I feel overwhelmed and discouraged. Thus at times I go through the process of amnesty.

Amnesty for your digital spaces and yourself

1 – Admit the truth

A perfectionist in you says that you have to clean up the mess. You have to go through everything, process, and organize.

That’s a great way to go when it’s reasonable.

When you have hundreds or thousands of unread emails, how many of those are still relevant and worth the time dealing with them?

When you have hundreds of files in Downloads folder, would organizing it be a good way to spend your time?

When you have hundreds of web clips in your notes app, does it worth the effort to process them?

Realistically speaking – No.

Responding to a month-old email doesn’t make any difference. Catching up on communication of completed project doesn’t make sense. Going through hundreds of files to find one worth saving for future reference is not the best use of time. Organizing hundreds of web clips easily can drag you into lengthy process with low outcome.

The fact that you have a huge pile of things doesn’t mean you have to process it.

It’s a game of amount, time, and value.

When the amount is huge or time per item is high while real value is low, then what’s the point in processing that pile.

2 – Grant amnesty to your digital spaces (and yourself)

Processing a heap looks like impossible task? Outcome doesn’t worth it?

It’s OK to archive all the items and have a fresh start.

About ten years ago I came back from a vacation and discovered over 400 emails in my inbox. It would take me about 2 days to go through them and reply. That’s not the most delighting start after vacation.

I remember I thought: “What if I reply to emails from last two days, archive everything else, and ask others to drop me a message if they still need an answer on anything popped up during my vacation”. In an hour I had empty inbox. A couple of people replied highlighting their questions. I saved myself 2 days without any problem.

Few years later I’ve heard about email bankruptcy. Although it talks about much more extreme situation of thousands of unread emails, the idea is the same.

It’s about being guilt-free to let go. It’s about removing over-piled digital data out of your sight and your mind. It’s about helping your anxious and overwhelm to go away.

Email is a digital space where help from amnesty is most obvious. However it’s not the only space.

Amnesty for emails is about letting them go:

• Reply most recent mails
• Archive all messages
• Don’t worry about your unread messages

There is no reason to feel obligated to process each and every email. Some of them have no value to you. Some were reasonable when they’ve arrived in your inbox, but are outdated by now.

Remember that if an email was important, someone will ask you about it. Otherwise you’ve saved yourself a ton of time.

Embrace that you can spend your time with better outcome and let those emails go.

Amnesty for files is about getting them out of your sight:

• Just move them to Archive folder

Deleting is hard decision to make. It is a part of processing. Amnesty is here to allow you skip processing. You keep your files. You can find them later (search function on your computer makes it easy). You just don’t see them daily.

We’re familiar with archiving emails. Same concept can be applied to files (and any other digital things) as well. All you need is to have an “Archive” folder on your computer or in cloud drive.

Amnesty for digital notes and web clips is about hard reset:

• Create new account and re-start over there.
• Transfer vital notes and collections you actively use.

We store digital notes and web clips in specific apps or services. They provide us goodies to streamline getting information into them. They give us different tools to organize information in them. We try different approaches. Eventually it can result in an unmanageable zoo.

In my experience it’s much better to start over with a new account and treat your original account as an Archive. You can always go there if you happen to need anything. I bet once or twice a year at best.

Most of that information is there “just in case” anyway. I guess you didn’t use it for months. I can tell for myself that oftentimes whatever I have in web clips I can google in five minutes. Those web clips shouldn’t have been saved at all. Yet, they are there cluttering the app. It takes time to train yourself what does worth saving and what can be googled at any time.

Amnesty for screenshots and info photos is about clean memory stream:

• Move screenshots out of photos on the phone and tablet. (Tech will help you. They are automatically gathered to separate collection in photos app.)
• Photos have to be cherry-picked and moved manually.
• Once you have photos and screenshots moved out from photos app, archive them like files.

Screenshots and informational photos should not be in photo stream in the first place. They have nothing to do with memories and moments of life. They should have been put into separate inbox (e.g. inbox in todo app or inbox in notes app).

In reality it’s simpler to let them default in photo stream. So we all let it happen. Then we forget process them. At the end of the day who treats photos app as an inbox to process. Not many. I’m guilty as well.

Is amnesty even needed for read- and watch-later lists?

I believe read later and watch later lists are a special category.

They get cluttered fast.

On the other hand they are supposed to be like that. They are basically never ending storage for anything caught an interest.

I don’t care what’s happing there. I have no idea how many bookmarks I have in Pocket (my app of choice for read later) or in YouTube.

I see them as “maybe” lists.

So I don’t have mental obligation to process them and keep clean.

And I believe that’s the best strategy about them.

3 – Restart (or adopt) inbox zero strategy

“Inbox zero” propagates practical approach to keep your inbox under control. It relies on having a defined time in a day to process inbox.

Typically people apply this method to emails. To my mind it’s a great method for any kind of inbox (e.g. tasks, notes, web clips, etc.).

If you use inbox zero strategy only for emails, consider employing it to your other inboxes.

If you got derailed from inbox zero and appeared in a land of messy piles of items in your inbox, it’s about time to restart your relationship with inbox zero.

If you’re new to the concept, essentially it’s about two things:

• Have specific time to process your inbox.
• Deal with each item only one time:
  • Do – Take action right now, if it takes only a couple of minutes to complete.
  • Delegate – Pass it to another person who is better equipped to handle it.
  • Defer – Make a task or schedule an appointment. Things that take time shouldn’t be a part of inbox processing. Acting on quick wins – yes. Dragging yourself into half an hour task – no.
  • Archive – If you think you might need the information, archive it.
  • Delete – When none of above applies, delete the item.

And remember that inbox zero is not about having it empty all the time.

It’s about having control of how full it is and emptying it regularly.

4 – Limit your digital appetite

Don’t grab everything you see. Having limitless storage doesn’t mean you should collect everything. Your time to process things is very limited.

Every room in digital space where information originally arrives is an inbox.

Most obvious are email inbox, task manager inbox, downloads folder. Everyone has at least half a dozen inboxes. Many have a dozen without even realizing this.

There are two types of inboxes: Owned and Reactive. They are different in nature. Yet the result of having any of them overloaded is the same.

The best strategy to avoid overload if limiting incoming stream.

When you limit appetite in both owned and reactive inboxes, life gets simpler. Having just about what you can handle removes FOMO and anxiety. Information pile doesn’t grow up into the sky. Procrastination dies before it’s born.

Think about limiting your appetite as the possibility to enjoy 3 full meals a day opposed to 20 snacks. We all know which one is better for health, gives rest time, and allows us to recharge.

Instead of having 20 email subscriptions pick 3 giving you the most value. Instead of random web clipping do this only as part of research for specific project at hand. Instead of acting on every request double check if you can delegate.

Having no clutter is a great feeling. But if you spend hours a day to keep everything organized, when are you going to take actual action?

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