HACKER Q&A
📣 phs318u

Approaches to decluttering a disorganised digital hoard?


My partner has ADHD and recently started on medication to help her focus. She wants to declutter her “digital hoard”. Multiple mailboxes with 24K unread messages (and many more read). Multiple drives, folders, online storage, across which she had loads of similar (sometimes duplicate) content, not grouped by theme, subject or project. Myriad notes across paper, phone, emails and other apps. I’ve tried to help her by at least syncing her iPhone and MacBook. Shown her how to begin the process of unsubscribing and deleting big chunks of her inbox. But I’m at a loss of how to even begin with the rest. I have my own techniques which I’ve evolved over years drawing on things like GTD, zero inbox etc. Has anyone else helped someone start this long road and how did you do it? Any advice gratefully appreciated!

  👤 lihaciudaniel Accepted Answer ✓
Digital Hoarding is a symptom not a disease. But even in disease if symptom is problematic then we have problem

What does she hoard? Non sense tiktok videos, if these are research paper. It's not only smart it's awesomely genius to hoard on digital intellectual. The mind of genius

Don't ask if it's wrong, ask how is it wrong

👤 ofalkaed
Delete it all. Helping her declutter it, is validating the hoarding. She needs to make that step to realize that the hoarding accomplishes nothing and there is no consequence to not hoarding.
👤 k310
In effect, start fresh. Archive all mail and empty the mailboxes. Emails are files. Now, take all unsorted files and move them to a big external drive (with a backup plan).

I read that many young people have no concept of a folder or directory. They search. I search. You can keep the old drives as emergency backups.

Anything in frequent use can go to or stay in the customary home tree.

This is how I clean my dresser drawer.

1. I really need this. 2. It goes in a box. Repeat.

The worst deal for me is photos. After infinite years[0], Apple has really ludicrous image search. There should be free or cheap Image Categorization on desktops, safe from Google and others. and not locked in some file tree where leaf nodes are dates, or database. (Rant deleted)

Sorting and finding would be infinitely easier, like those files and emails above.

I am sorting books, because, like a bookshelf, I prefer to go somewhere and browse rather than search. Collections are pretty static and 1:1, so tags, which allow multiple values per file, are not really needed, but photos tend to be re-grouped from time to time and tags would be fine. If automated.

In a bit of irony, I am replacing purchased tree books with digital, preparing for a move. The books were perfectly organized but very heavy. My book directory re-org starts with them, because they were/are priority, worthy of shelf space, earned just before the previous move.

[0] It only FEELS like infinity.