Creating a Weekly Digital Clean-up Schedule

New month means new habits! What better way to kick off the month of March by getting into the habit of having a weekly digital clean-up?

I teach a workshop on cybersecurity for the rest of us. (Sign up for the workshop here or buy the slide deck here.) In that workshop, I lecture on ways to protect yourself online, from freezing your credit, getting dark web notifications, and using a VPN (and a whole lot more).

It’s become a very popular workshop, but it got me thinking: having digital hygiene is more than freezing your credit or knowing about social media engineering; it’s also about keeping active on unsubscribing from unread mailing lists, power cycling your laptop, and more.

And even better? A checklist is involved!

Let’s dive in!

What is a digital clean-up?

A digital clean-up is when you actively and regularly keep your digital presence in tiptop condition. Example? Clearing your browser cache regularly or keeping the software on your phone current are ways to perform digital clean-up.

How often should I perform a digital clean-up?

Short answer: weekly!

And to get you in the mood for when to do it, plan on Sunday as you get ready for the week. It shouldn’t take you more than an hour to go through the checklist, and that’s on the wide end.

New week, new you!

What is involved with a digital clean-up?

There is a checklist!

Here are 14 things to do weekly to keep your digital presence in peak condition!

1. From your inbox, select five pieces of retail newsletters you haven’t read in over a month and click unsubscribe.
2. Power cycle your wifi router.
3. Power cycle your laptop/desktop/device.
4. Close any browser tabs you haven’t looked at in over 48 hours.
5. Double check to make sure you have thrown anything in your computer’s trash bin you may still need.
6. Check your phone’s home screen and delete any app you haven’t used in 30 days. You can always download it again later.
7. Turn off notifications for any apps that you don’t need such as the game who notifies you to come back and play.
8. Check, and apply, any updates to your computer’s operating system or apps (same goes with phones, too!).
9. Check Apple App Store or Google Play Store for any subscriptions you may not be using and cancel.
10. Once you’ve double checked your trash bin, empty it.
11. Check your Downloads folder and delete anything you don’t recognize or move into a specific folder like Documents.
12. Open your phone’s camera roll and delete 10 blurry photos or videos.
13. Clear your browser cache.
14. Backup your data using the 3-2-1 method.

Anything else?

Nope, that’s it! It may take you longer the first time or two when you do this, but once you get in the swing of things, it’ll be done in a blink of an eye.

Tip: Set a weekly reminder in your reminder app so you won’t forget!

Lastly, if you want the checklist in one handy dandy location, I’ve got you covered! Sign up for Nerd Girl Industries Presents, the bi-weekly NGI newsletter, and the checklist will be in your inbox lickity split.