Simple Habits to End Digital Clutter and Boost Your Productivity

How much of every week do you, or any of your employees, spend seeking out the information needed to get the job done… or trying to, at least, in between all the diversions and distractions. How often have you trawled through your digital storage, only to lose track of your progress when yet another chat notification drags your attention away from… what were you working on again?

Once this happens more often than it doesn’t, it’s easy to feel both swamped and like you’ve never finished a project in your life. Fortunately, this can be changed through a few slight adjustments:

Adopt a Standard for Naming Every File

How much of a pain is it to try to recognize the right file in a mass of nearly identical names? How much time does it take each time for you to (hopefully) find the right one in a mass of five or ten?

Being strategic in how you name your files helps ease these frustrations significantly. By adopting a standard naming convention, you can greatly simplify the process of finding exactly the right file, every time.

Let’s say you were working on separate projects for Larry, Moe, and Curly. With a specified naming convention, you could simply use details you know to more effectively locate each client’s file. For example, you might elect to name all files with the client name, project number, date, and then a description of the work done. As a result, you would be able to search for files named things like:

• MOE_153364_12/8_safety goggle sales
• LARRY_844623_7/24_hair conditioner requisition
• CURLY_777821_2/13_bandage order

If all your files match this convention, they become much easier to find… even if saved in the wrong spot.

Now, you may be wondering about all your existing files that won’t match your chosen naming convention. What do you do about those?

Simple—encourage your team to update the name of any existing files they interact with while also moving forward with the naming standard for all new files. This helps ensure that files that may need to be revisited match the standard naming convention.

Batch Your Notifications, Save Cognitive Space

While notifications are an essential part of the highly connected workplace, there can be too many of them bouncing around, distracting you from your tasks. Let’s assume that one department primarily uses a particular instant message channel to discuss a television show that most of that department enjoys, and one member decidedly does not.

This one department member can participate in notification batching, a fancy phrase for muting non-urgent communication alerts and checking them on a schedule, like every hour. By doing so, this lone team member can remain focused on their tasks without being distracted by recaps of the latest events on that show. If something requires this team member’s attention, the department can still reach out through other means.

Add Desktop-Zero to Inbox-Zero

The more icons there are on your computer desktop, the more challenging it will be to locate and access the one you need. A similar phenomenon can occur in email inboxes, which is why inbox-zero practices—attending to all communications and deleting, sorting, or archiving every message—are so popular. Why not apply the same practice to the desktop as well?

Encourage your employees to designate a specific time during the week to practice desktop zero by sorting any file on their desktop into the appropriate location in your business’ shared storage or into the trash as appropriate. With this bit of tidying up completed, your whole team is in a better place to focus.

It Doesn’t Take a Big Change to Make a Big Difference

Sometimes, all it takes to boost your productivity is a bit of digital tidiness. We can help you reach this goal. Reach out and schedule a workflow audit by calling us at (804) 264-9339.