593

Minimalism and electronic files

In my previous entry, I reflected on my relationship with physical documents and letters I receive. In addition to that, I wanted to reflect on my relationship with electronic files. 

In this autoethnography, I've mentioned that I don't like (though at times I still use them!) the words clutter and decluttering when applied to material objects. After all, these objects embody nature, human and non-human labour, and time. Yet, when it comes to electronic files, I used to experience them as clutter. While I've always preferred very simple organisation of my files and an almost empty desktop, at some moments of my life there were certainly more files than at other times. For example, when I was working on my PhD (2016-2020), I saved many articles to read later. Over the years, I've developed and maintained a much more minimalist, and what feels to be healthier, relationship with electronic files. 

I organise my files into four folders: (1) my autoethnography, (2) my works, (3) books and papers, and (4) everything. I try to work on a very small number of projects each time and dive deep into them. For example, these days there is another file on my desktop, which is an article I'm co-authoring with fellow humans. Since my autoethnography is ongoing, I always keep it on my desktop. The "my works" folder includes pdfs of all the articles and books that I've authored or co-authored, funding applications, as well as submitted articles, a list of ideas for future projects, and some projects that might not materialise (which is ok). I keep the pdfs of my own works because oftentimes my fellow humans email me and ask if I can share a copy. It's easier to keep them in one place. The "books and papers" folder contains others' books and academic articles. I used to have many of them in that folder, but I usually can access all of them via the library, so I don't keep many these days. Moreover, my interests as a researcher evolve, and I might no longer be interested in some books and articles that I was curious about previously. The "everything" folder certainly sounds like a space where I would keep electronic clutter. In reality, it's a very small folder with some electronic documents, lecture slides and my notes. 

I don't have folders for, e.g., pictures, because I usually don't keep photos (apart from those that are part of my autoethnography). 

Every now and then, I go through the folders I mentioned above to see if I still need any of the electronic files that I have. Because there are not many of them, "decluttering" doesn't take very long. 

I feel that relating with my electronic files in this manner makes me feel free, light, and more creative. 

592

Minimalism and physical documents

I keep various physical documents and incoming post that I want to look at in a simple bread bag made from organic cotton. Most of those documents and letters are folded in half, so they don't take much space. 

At times, I feel that I get more letters than fellow humans in my social circle because in the past few years, I've lived in four countries, and I still receive letters from, e.g., tax authorities and pension institutions. Danish authorities and institutions communicate with citizens electronically, so I don't receive letters from them. For this reason, perhaps much of what I say in this entry doesn't apply to fellow humans living in other countries. 

Whenever I can, I try to read every incoming letter as soon as possible and decide whether I need to keep it (which is very rare - most of these letter don't need to be kept) or recycle it. When I don't have time to look at the letter, I put it in the bread bag. Because the bag is relatively small, it doesn't accommodate many letters. I try to revisit the bag every month to see what I still need to keep and what I need to recycle. It usually doesn't take longer than 15 minutes, including removing my personal details from the letters. Dedicating some time to dealing with letters feels like an act of self-care. It doesn't feel rushed. 

If there is some information that I can simply write down in my notebook, I do that and discard the letter. 

I've been approaching documents and incoming letters this way for many years, and this approach has worked well for me. It's always easy to find the documents that I need. I've met fellow humans who keep almost all incoming post just in case and separate letters and other paper files into different folders such as healthcare, pension, banking and so on. Personally, I would find living with multiple physical folders containing papers and documents of different levels of importance (e.g., one's birth certificate or one's passport vs an expired promotional letter from one's network provider) overwhelming and stressful. Other fellow humans feel uncomfortable with any number of physical documents, as such documents might be experienced as clutter. I don't mind living with a small cotton bag with documents. To me personally, micromanaging every incoming letter to avoid any clutter would feel more stressful than giving myself some space to evaluate and decide. 

At times, I don't need a physical copy of a document, but I might still need the document. In this case, I take a picture of it and only store the picture. Every now and then, I revisit these photographed documents to see if I still need them or not.