When we hear spring cleaning, most of us immediately think of our pantries and the nooks and crannies of our homes. This is also a great time of year to clean out the nooks and crannies of our digital files as well. Block some time to review what you have saved on your computer and in the cloud; cleaning it will improve efficiency as well as potentially protect your data.
- Find and delete redundant, obsolete or trivial files. Do you have the same photo saved three places, or are you still storing that meeting agenda from two years ago? How about the magazine article you downloaded to read? Time to delete!
- Delete old or unnecessary emails. That back-and-forth with the vendor whose product you never used can head to the recycle bin as well as anything out of date such as the informal announcements of IT maintenance or donuts in the breakroom.
- Pay attention to how files are saved. If you have access to sensitive data such as phone numbers and policies, or restricted data such as FERPA data, ensure they are stored according to company policy.
Not only will you clear up space on your hard drive and cloud storage, which could help with productivity when searching for information, but you’ll also reduce data storage costs and minimize the amount of information that could be accessed and stolen in the event of a security breach.