Eliminating e-clutter

Papers, books, magazines ... it's the stuff household clutter has always been made of. And now, as if we needed any more junk, there's a new breed of disorganization brewing: electronic clutter.

Experts say it's spreading fast.

More than a decade into the mainstreaming of computers and the Internet, professional organizers say the average person has accumulated thousands of electronic files, e-mails and digital photos.

Whether it's last year's annual report, that Web site you visited last week or an e-mail address for a relative you write to once a year, "how much time do you spend scrambling for stuff and searching for things?" says Lesley Alderman, an editor at Manhattan-based Real Simple magazine.

And how often do you browse through old e-mails in your inbox and realize you never replied? "Anything you can do to take that away will make you feel much more organized," Alderman says.

Electronic organization can be just as tricky as the real thing, says David Allen, author of "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" (Penguin, $15). Anybody who spends more than a couple of hours a day in front of a computer needs an orderly way to track e-mails, save and retrieve files, and archive all their material on backup CDs or memory drives.

Getting there doesn't necessarily require investing hundreds of dollars in a PDA. "Everybody tries to get some new program because they think it's going to fix it," Allen says. "But it's your brain you need to fix."

He and other productivity experts share simple and inexpensive ways to get digitally organized in the new year:

TAKING CHARGE OF E-MAIL

Change your setup: "E-mail is the big beast," Allen says. "The volume is huge and the problem is most people don't process their inbox." Treat the account's inbox more like an answering machine and less like a dumping ground for old messages. "If you leave them stuck in 'In,' then you've got to rethink every time you open your e-mails," Allen says. Quickly create folders with specific names like "From Susie" or "Monthly expense reports" that will archive e-mails for future reference.

Schedule true e-mail sessions: "People can spend all day checking e-mail," says Erica Ecker, a personal organizer at The Spacialist in Manhattan. That's because the first time is checking, the next time is checking for more new messages, then rereading and acting on a few older messages, and so on. To break the habit, turn off any computer alerts that announce the arrival of new e-mail, then schedule three to five daily sessions to read and respond to new messages. "It takes discipline," she says. "Piggyback it on to something that doesn't happen every 30 seconds, like meetings or coffee breaks."

Reset the inbox: From now on, reply to incoming e-mails within 24 to 48 hours and immediately delete the original message or move it into an archive folder. "Indecisiveness is a killer," Alderman says. To get organized, people must commit to taking some kind of action as soon as new messages come in. "Read and sort today's e-mail today," says Marilyn Paul, author of "It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys" (Penguin Compass, $14). "If you find yourself carbon-copied on a lot of e-mails you don't have time to read, put them in a folder." Try to get the inbox back to zero every day.

Unsubscribe: Signing up for daily e-mail newsletters and sales alerts seemed like a good idea awhile back, but now you're on autopilot, deleting the unread messages like spam. Open the next one that comes and follow the prompts (usually at the end of the message) to unsubscribe, suggests Julie Morgenstern, a Manhattan-based professional organizer.

USING THE INTERNET

Divert junk e-mail: Open a new free e-mail account and use that address whenever you make purchases online or register on Web sites. "It's not an address you give to anyone; it's your surfing and buying account," Morgenstern says. This should drastically reduce spam in your primary account and you'll rarely even need to check it.

Purge bookmarks: Clean through your browser's list of "favorite" or bookmarked sites, because you probably have too many, says Ecker. Ditch any sites that were marked by default, plus others that are no longer in line with your professional or personal life goals. Organize what remains into folders (think categories like "News sites," "Blogs" or "Industry"). The next time you create a new bookmark, "don't let the computer automatically pick a name for you," says Ecker.

Keep tabs on passwords: Start a running text file, or a spreadsheet if you're really organized, that lists all your username and password combinations for non-essential Web sites you do business with, Alderman says. Give the file an obscure name and embed it somewhere in your computer's folders, or print it out and tape it underneath your desk. "Once you start, you can just keep adding to it," and you'll never have to create duplicate registrations or waste time requesting your login info by e-mail. "It gives you such a sense of calm," she says. Just be careful about including high-risk banking, credit card or insurance accounts in the event that someone does gain access to your computer or finds the piece of paper under your desk.

Pay bills online: Banks have been offering this service for years, many at no cost to their customers. "If you're really computer literate, you want to get to the point where you're not paying anything by paper," Alderman says. To start, determine whether you'd like to have certain bills, such as car payments, automatically deducted from your checking account, or if you'd rather log into your bank account and initiate the payment yourself.

FILING ELECTRONICALLY

The name game: Computers can hold thousands of files and often people go to look for something and they can't remember what they named it, says Ecker. "You need to file for retrieval," says Stephanie Wilson, author of "Organized for Success" (Crown Business, $21.95). She creates folders by date and category, and likes to give documents simple but specific names that are easy to recall. Avoid confusion when working on documents that have several saved drafts, by using numbers or indicators like "final" or "rough."

Banish loose files: "If your desktop looks like a tornado" because you've been saving lots of random files, that's a sign of bad things to come, says Ecker. "Once it gets past that point of no return, it gets to total chaos." Think of the desktop as a virtual desk - tame the mess into a handful of folders by category.

Clean house: Sure, your computer's hard drive is large enough to store a lifetime's worth of electronic files, but that doesn't mean you should, says Wilson. "When you get a barrage of stuff, it begins to blur in front of your eyes." If you don't have the patience to open and delete old files, drop them into general archive folders by year to declutter the day-to-day workspace.

Make sure to archive, seriously: It could be the most important thing people should do for their protection, but don't, says Ecker. "There's zero use in using your computer if you're not going to back it up," she says. Make a standing appointment in your calendar to burn your data to a CD or memory stick (and label it with the date), says Meryl Starr, the author of "Home Organizing Workbook" (Chronicle Books, $24.95). And don't hoard a stack of old archive CDs on your desk, she says, "just keep the newest one."

Related topic galleries: Productivity, David Allen, Internet, Electronics, Manhattan, Consumer Electronics Industry