By Leo Babauta

One of the things people ask me about very often is getting their digital lives sorted out. There’s a lot of information coming at us, and it can feel like it’s all piling up and like it’s incredibly messy.

From overflowing inboxes and messaging apps, to dozens of browser tabs and files on your desktop, to tasks and information you’d like to keep track of … it’s a lot!

So today I’d like to share three simple tips for getting your digital life organized.

With small steps, you’ll start to feel like things are in at least a semblance of order.

Tip #1: Simplify

It’s hard to organize when you have a million things to organize. One of my favorite organizational tips is Simplify Before Organizing. If you’re going to organize your house, it’s much easier to do so if you’ve donated half the crap in your house!

With your digital life, it can help to take a few days to simplify:

• Spend 30 minutes going through your email inbox and archiving everything that’s not important or requiring action. Star the items that need action. Give others a quick reply if you can do so in less than a minute. Unsubscribe from marketing emails and newsletters you don’t read. Clear things out a bit!

• Take an hour to bookmark and close tabs you’re not using right now. If you’re keeping a tab open because it needs you to take an action, bookmark it into an “Action” folder and put it on a task list.

• Take a couple hours to delete things on your computer you no longer need. Put everything else that’s not that important into an “archive” folder.

Once you’ve done a bunch of simplifying, you can move on to organizing. But note that simplifying can still be done as you organize.

Tip #2: A Place for Everything

My all-time favorite organizing tip is A Place for Everything (and everything in its place). In this case, that means designating locations for the things in your digital life.

Use buckets:

• Email: Have a folder or label for items that need action (I used Starred in Gmail). You could also have folders for emails that need follow up, and for specific projects, if you like.

• Browser tabs: There are so many tabs! I like Arc browser, because it has different spaces where you can keep different kinds of things (i.e. a space for writing, finances, learning, an important project, etc.). And in each space, I have folders that organize different tabs I need to save. But no matter what your browser, you can bookmark your open tabs and put them into folders. If the tabs are important, take the time to find a place for them.

• Notes and documents: There’s been a boom in the last decade in different kinds of note-organizing software (Notion, Obsidian, Roam, Tana, Capacities, etc.). My recommendation is not to go down the rabbithole of trying to find the perfect system. Just use what you’re used to (Apple or Google Notes, One Note, Google Docs, Evernote, etc.). But have folders/tags for the info and documents you need to reference. Don’t try to organize it completely, just put things here in rough groups and use the search for when you need to find things.

• Computer folders: Same thing with all the files on your computer — put them into some rough categories/folders, and don’t worry about it too much. I have folders for tax stuff, important documents, writing, and some work projects. Throw everything in there, and don’t have it cluttering your desktop.

• Tasks: Again, I don’t think there’s a perfect system, and people spend way too much time trying to find the perfect task software and organize everything perfect. You could get away with a couple of lists in your notes app: a master list of everything you need to do (organized by different areas, such as finances and work projects, if you like), and your Today list. Whatever system you choose, keep it simple, and add things from your browser tabs and inboxes that need to be done, so you don’t have to keep everything in your head.

As you can see, I highly advocate keeping your organization simple, not overthinking it, not needing the perfect apps or setup. Don’t spend a lot of time organizing — your time is better spent doing. Or on anything else that’s fun.

The main idea is to designate a place for just about everything in your digital life. Once you have those places, take a little time each week to tidy up and put things where they belong.

Tip #3: Keep Things Focused

Finally, assuming you did the first two things … you have some space to focus. If you’ve simplified and put things in their place, your digital life should be a lot simpler.

The final tip is to focus on one thing at a time. Clear away everything else when you’re going to do one thing.

For example:

• When I write, I use a fullscreen writing app.

• When you do email, just focus on processing your emails as much as you can in the space you’ve allotted.

• If you focus on a task, just have the document(s) or browser tab(s) needed for that task open. Play some music to focus yourself, and don’t switch around.

• If it’s time to organize, focus on organizing as much as you’re able to, and then let it go and move to the next thing.

• Use site blockers to block out distractions except for times you’re taking a break.

This isn’t about perfection … but if you let yourself focus, your digital life won’t feel like such a mess.