Social Media Clean Up

Something I've found easy to do in between everything else in life is to clean up my social media when I get a few spare minutes (and remember to do so!).

When my partner and I were ready to announce our pregnancy on Social Media (like Facebook and Instagram) I first wanted to check who I was friends with and who was following me as I felt this kind of news really should be reserved for those people we wanted to know.

I removed quite a few people from Facebook - mostly those 'friends' who I have little contact with other than seeing their status updates on Facebook and who I felt I didn't really need to have anymore. Thankfully I never had accepted requests from strangers so my friends list wasn't very big.

On Instagram I changed my profile to private first and then by going into my "Following" list I could remove followers whom I didn't know or felt it was their time to go. I'e also been un-following accounts that I am a bit bored with - why would I want to keep seeing things that don't interest me or things that 'Spark Joy' in KonMari's words?

As I have an Instagram account that I sell handmade crochet and knit items from, I put a note in my private profile for businesses to follow this account instead of requesting to follow my private one. I also follow businesses from my business account instead of my private one too - keeping the two quite separate.

It's @chunkystitches --- if you are interested!

Not once did I feel bad for removing people from my Social Media - it actually felt good. It felt like I had more control over my online-life and didn't have to remember who I was 'friends' with or who was 'following' me so I didn't have to second guess or censor any of my posts.

Emails - Not Drowning In!

I know I'm not the only one who has signed up for every. single. website. mailing. list. EVER. But I also open, delete or store every email that I receive constantly throughout the day.

Gmail has answered my organisational prayers and has this really nice feature where your emails can be sorted into separate inboxes like Primary, Social,  Promotions and Updates. 

Yay Gmail - you have OCD too?

I have the Gmail widget on my phone screen set to my Primary inbox so I only see the important emails pop up in this widget and then have the option to check the other inboxes also. As soon as I open an email I decide what to do with it - I delete it, I save it in same inbox for now or I move it to a folder I have made for storage/reference at a later date.

I can receive 40+ emails per day yet whenever I go to bed my inbox has no unread messages.

Unsubscribe - Just Do It! 
More recently I've started unsubscribing from services the minute I open the email. If I regularly delete the emails immediately or feel I no longer want to receive these I make sure I unsubscribe - it saves all that time and energy spent deleting emails later. And I can tell you that I have not missed a single one of those emails that I unsubscribed from. I don't care about sales or cheap holidays (that might sound weird but honestly I'm not currently interested in going on a holiday). 

I have decided this was 'Inspired by KonMari ' because it has definitely felt like I've de-cluttered and tidied an aspect of my life - you could even say it was one of my Komono categories!

Freedom

Now that I've got fewer 'Facebook friends' and I'm following fewer Instagram accounts and have less emails to sift through I don't spend as much time online trying to keep up with everyone. I've never been someone overly attached to my phone but I'm realising more and more how much being online dominates our lifestyles these days and I didn't want that to be where all my spare time went.

Source

I still need to do my technology clean up, like sorting through all my saved photos and files on my laptop and backed up to my Google Drive and I'm hoping to get started once I'm on maternity leave.

xx Emily