5 tips to declutter and reorganise your digital space

You're sleeping later (and worse), because you spend too much time scrolling social media. Your inbox is full of email marketing you don't have actual time to read. A phone memory of 128 GB is not enough anymore and you're always spending money on more cloud space. Your gallery is always full and it feels impossible to find that priceless photo of a special occasion in the middle of so many screenshots and useless pictures.It turns out you're far from alone.

According to a Deloitte Ireland survey conducted with 1,000 people in late 2025, 70% of Irish people feel they spend too much time on their phones — and 82% check their smartphone at least 10 times a day. We know you're exhausted and frustrated. And that's why today, we'll present to you, step by step, 5 tips to declutter your digital space, so you can use your time and storage better.

1. Look closer, understand the problem and then start acting

The key words for any decluttering process are self-knowledge and curation. If you're overwhelmed by information overload, take some time to look closer at your emails, phone apps, photo gallery and those forgotten digital folders. You don't need to do it all at once. Establish daily or weekly goals, according to your schedule, and set aside one hour to investigate. Understanding what is taking up space is the first step to clearing it up.

2. Don't be afraid to silence things

If the first and last thing you look at when waking up or going to sleep is your phone, let's start there. How many notifications do you receive daily? From which apps? Most of us allow app notifications automatically the moment we download them, and then we just forget about it – until our phone screen lights up and we see them pop up.

That screen light sparks our curiosity and pulls us in to check other notifications. And that's where our focus goes. But you can break that cycle by turning off app notifications. Go to your phone settings and open the apps folder. There, you can tap on each app and disable its notifications. In the first few days you may find it strange to not receive any alerts, but with time you'll notice a real difference in your focus.

That tendency is a fact: the same Deloitte survey found that 65% of Irish people have already turned off notifications from at least one app. The next step is making it a deliberate habit across all the apps that are stealing your attention.

3. Delete the apps you never use

Cluttered spaces fragment our focus and make it harder to feel mentally organised – as we talked about in this (link) post. The same logic we apply to physical spaces works for digital ones too. That's why you should delete those apps you downloaded for a very specific reason, used only once and never removed because you thought "what if I need it?". Well, if you haven't used it in the last six months, you probably won't need it anytime soon.

These apps are just consuming your phone storage and cluttering your digital space. And worst case scenario, you can always download it again if you need it later.

4. Unsubscribe from that mailing list

Internet marketing has many tricks. One of them is offering newsletter sign-ups in exchange for discounts, or to guarantee priority access to deals. When we accept, for whatever reason, we immediately start receiving more and more announcements we don't even have time to read.

And then there's our inbox, overflowing with emails we just open to delete – or leave there, taking up space. But this is also easy to fix. In each email account it is possible to manage your subscriptions. Again, the key word here is curation. Set aside an hour to go through the newsletters you're signed up to and unsubscribe from the ones that no longer apply to your needs. That way it'll be much easier to find what you're actually looking for in your inbox.

5. Define a screen time limit — and stick to it

A 2025 OECD study conducted across 14 countries found that people who spend more than two hours a day on screens for personal use are more likely to report lower subjective well-being. Are you part of that statistic? Here's how to start changing it.

First of all, take it easy. To set an achievable screen time limit, you need to consider your daily routine. For example, someone who relies on WhatsApp for work won't have the same limits as someone who uses it only for personal matters. The same guideline applies to Instagram.

Think carefully and start setting a real, measurable goal for yourself. If you're a heavy social media user, try cutting back by 30 minutes in the first week. Then, when you feel comfortable, increase that goal to an hour the following week. Understand your habits and limitations, and then build a plan around them.

Remember: curation and self-knowledge are the real game changers

If we could sum up those tips into one overarching principle, it's this: always keep in mind that the key words for any decluttering plan are self-knowledge and curation. Before deciding what to do, pay attention to your own reality. Understand what bothers you most, and which small changes you can apply to your daily routine to build a healthier relationship with your digital space.

Today, the internet is an essential part of our daily lives. We have a full camera and photo gallery, bank account, news feed, online shopping, professional networking in our mobile, all at our fingertips. It is easy to get immersed in that and lose track of quality, healthy time.

But it is manageable. It's a matter of understanding the context, setting measurable goals and staying consistent. These are just a few small adjustments that can make all the difference. Try them out and let us know how it goes.

Maria Elisa Nascimento

thesystematicmind@gmail.com
+353 083 398 4754

Dublin, Ireland

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