Get Time Back In Your Day By Cleaning Up Your Digital World

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - You know about spring cleaning and probably to shred your old records after tax time.

However, do you ever de-clutter your digital life? Well, there are ways to clean your online world which can help put more time back into your day.

KDKA-TV's Julie Grant sat down with computer science expert and Duquesne University professor Dr. Patrick Juola to get some simple digital decluttering tips.

"Disk space is cheap. Nobody is bothered by having a lot of files on your computer. What you're bothered by is having a lot of files that you can't find, but you have to look for to find what you're really interested in," Dr. Juola said.

So, one tip is to get rid of what you don't use.

"Look at all of the programs that you've got installed on your computer, especially the programs you don't know well, and ask yourself if you really need them?" Dr. Juola said.

The next tip is to clean up your desktop.

"Most people can't find anything on their desktop. If you want to get yourself five seconds of time back, make sure you have a clean desktop on the computer as well as in real life," Dr. Juola said.

Next, figure out how much time you're spending online.

"One of the things that Facebook and other social media platforms are very good at is playing subtle little mind games to get you to spend more and more time online," Dr. Juola said.

Also, delete any unused accounts.

"Yeah, I have like three or four email accounts that I have no idea what the password is," Elizabeth Vaughn said.

"I have about 20 email accounts. But half of them I don't know the information, the passwords I lost," Catherine Walker said.

Speaking of email, be sure to trash those old emails.

"If you haven't read that email since it arrived six months ago, you're not going to read it. Get rid of it," Dr. Juola said.

So, what about all of those pictures you probably have?

"Sometimes, I take my photos from my phone and put them on my laptop because sometimes I run out of data on my phone," Vaughn said.

One way to help solve that problem is to buy an external hard drive and save what you want to keep.

"A 4-Terabyte hard drive costs about $100 at Best Buy. That hard drive will store call it a million photographs. How many photographs are you going to take in your lifetime?" Dr. Juola said.

Also, ask yourself if you really need a cloud drive when you are backing up on an external hard drive.

Dr. Juola believes they are an unnecessary exposure.

"The more you know about what you're doing in the cyber world, the more you'll be able to keep track of what's going on," Dr. Juola said.

Last, but not least, remember you can't live your life to the fullest if you're always consumed with your devices.