SIX GOOD HABITS TO DECLUTTER YOUR ONLINE LIFE

1. Stop getting emails and notifications you never asked for. Unsubscribe from anything you don’t want.

2. No one wants to be seen working outside hours, but it can be a timesaver if you write that great email when inspiration strikes. Use Gmail’s “Schedule send” feature to delay transmission until you know it is most likely to get the recipient’s attention. This is usually around 8-8.30am, before they get to the main part of their day.

3. So little paper needs filing now that the simplest and best organised way to deal with it is have one pile in one corner of your home or office. Just put items on top as they come in and they are automatically filed in reverse chronological order. If you do need to refer to one, there is only place you need to look.

4. Accountants love any apps that scan receipts but you can also do it by taking photos with your phone and storing them in an album called Receipts.

5. By now your emails are well organised. Add the finishing touch by doing a weekly roundup of the few unanswered ones you have left. Bin or respond to them and you will keep your inbox backlog to a minimum.

6. Instead of swiping from screen to screen looking for apps you’ve added to your phone in no particular order, use folders to organise them in categories like “Finance” (Paypal, your bank’s app, Xero, currency conversion) or TV (Netflix, TVNZ, YouTube) or “Travel” for all the apps you will use if you are ever allowed to go travelling again. Aim to get all the folders on your home screen.