Using Technology to Decrease Clutter

I will never be able to stress enough how useful I believe technology can be in helping to organize your life. I’ve written before about using reminders and I find it hard to go wrong with a good to-do list or notes app.

There are of course times when keeping hard copy documentation is helpful or necessary, and I plan to write about those things in the future, but in general I find that having electronic records is so much easier. You can access it from anywhere, whenever you need it, and you don’t have extra piles of paper cluttering up your space.

If you tend to accumulate papers, try the following ideas. Have a designated drawer or box for mementos so there is a contained place to collect them. If you have sticky notes all over the place, accumulate them in notes or reminders on your phone. Instead of collecting clippings or articles, make a word document for ideas, thoughts, and references. Organize your document by topic (or have separate files for each topic). Keeping it in a format you are likely to actually use when the thought strikes you and that will be easy to access and sort through when you want to find something in the future will not only decrease your clutter, but will also make it more likely you will ever refer back to the information you collect.

What are some hard copy files that you find yourself hanging on to? Is it really necessary to keep them in hard copy? If not, how might you most efficiently turn them into electronic files?