Have you ever thought about kicking off the New Year with a clean slate on all your social media sites and your mobile devices? From cleaning out your contacts to pairing down your apps – perhaps even giving your LinkedIn bio an overhaul, getting everything up to speed could feel just as good as cleaning out the fridge or purging old clothes and shoes from your closet. It may sound extreme, but if you take a quick look at your various social media accounts, email and your mobile devices – you’ll see – they’re overloaded. It’s time to take the theory of clearing your clutter and applying that to your tech for a fresh start to 2016. Here’s how to get it all sorted out.
End-of-Year Tech & Social Media Cleanup Tips
Take a close look at the contact list in your email. Has it gotten wildly out of hand – to the point where you aren’t even sure who half the contacts are? Go through slowly (this project can be a big one!) making sure people are categorized correctly, that you have all of the necessary information for key contacts, consolidate duplicates and even delete anyone you don’t recognize or with whom you know you no longer need information for. You can also take this time to add contacts from that huge pile of business cards you’ve been carrying around.
Update your LinkedIn profile. There’s no time like the present to get your LinkedIn profile up to speed with your current position, experience, photo and all the recent projects you’ve been working on. Even if you’re not on the hunt for a new job, LinkedIn is a great spot to strut your professional stuff and make connections you wouldn’t normally make. Take the time to follow some influencers, companies and professional organizations that also interest you.
Give your mobile tech devices an app overhaul. There are so many cool apps out there – so many we want to try and test. So they’re downloaded, used once or twice and then you forget they’re even there. Give your phone and tablet a good app purge – it will feel oh so good. While you’re at it, think about apps you’ve recently heard of or seen in action that you want to check out – perhaps a little app upgrade or app exchange is good too. For every few that you delete, allow yourself to download a new one that you’d like to test. Cleaning up your devices will also help you gain valuable hard drive space, which will make everything function at top performance.
Organize your computer desktop. Do you find yourself storing document after document and photo upon photo on your desktop? Time to create some folders and add a little touch of organization to your computer. Rather than having to search for the docs you need, this will help you navigate easily to where things are stored. Already have a folder system and you just aren’t using it? It’s time for a bit of a cleanup. Get rid of docs you don’t need and organize the ones you do. It will be such a relief the next time you open your computer and you’re not overwhelmed by everything living on your desktop.
What do you think? Can you take the time to get ready for 2016 with an end of the year social and tech cleanup?
