Digital Information Clean-up
DIGITAL SOBRIETY in INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM
took place Wed. Apr. 17 at 4TH Space
learn more and watch it on YouTube
March 16th, 2024: Digital Information Clean-Up Day!
an annual event each third Saturday in March for assessing your digital usage and spring cleaning digital records, apps and emails. Delete the unnecessary and adopt more sustainable digital practices using the Records Management and Archives (RMA) Digital Cleanup Guidelines below.
Why participate in Digital Clean-Up Day?
Adopting sustainable practices for the organization and removal of digital documents, applications and emails has direct positive ecological and economic impacts.
Digital pollution may appear invisible but has great impact on the environment. Unnecessary files left in cloud storage exist on physical servers and consume large amounts of electricity, contributing to global emmissions that include 3.7% (900 million tons of CO2) from internet usage alone. Moderation of everyday digital use -“digital sobriety”- and routine clean-ups of digital content reduce unnecessary use of digital resources by doing more with less.
The high economic cost of retaining files in cloud storage and on servers can also be reduced with routine clean-ups that postively effect document retrieval, time management and general efficiency.
Visit digitalcleanupday.org for more information
The following guidelines will assist you in cleaning up your digital content:
The following types of superfluous emails should be deleted to free up space and lessen the digital footprint:
- Routine correspondence: meeting invites, memos, confirmations, promotional material, miscellaneous messages such as advertisements, catalogs, forms [1]
- Out-of-office / automatic replies: search “out-of-office” or “automatic reply” in Outlook
- Drafts
- Newsletters [2]
Don't forget to empty your Deleted Folder and/or recycle bin!
See our Email Management Guidelines for more tips!
[1] Smithsonian Institution Archives. (n.d.). Weeding files. Retrieved October 26, 2023
[2] The Ultimate Digital Clean-Up Checklist: Are You Prepared For The New Year? — Smashing Magazine. (2016, December 16). Smashing Magazine. Retrieved October 26, 2023
- Review the contents of your OneDrive, home drive and shared drive for drafts and copies and delete them
- Search for previous versions of current documents and delete them
- Delete working documents that are no longer necessary, i.e. those with final and official versions
Files on the desktop, in download folders, hard drives or on external storage devices are at risk of being lost should a device fail.
- Sort and move active documents to your OneDrive, home drive or shared drive
- Destroy obsolete documents
- Store documents in the cloud to facilitate hybrid work and remote access from anywhere
Deleting large files is one of the most efficient ways to reduce the digital footprint.
Delete in Outlook:
- Go to the Microsoft 365 website
- Select the Outlook app
- Click the settings gear icon - top right
- Select General from the left sidebar
- Click Storage
- Review your folders and identify those that are heavy
- Delete documents according to rules outlined in the Records Classification and Retention Plan (RCRP)
or
- Choose your preferred Outlook timeframe option for deletion: emails older than 3, 6 or 12 months
Delete in OneDrive:
- Go to the Microsoft 365 website
- Select the OneDrive app
- Click settings gear icon - top right
- Select OneDrive Settings
- In the next window, click More Settings from the left sidebar
- Under Features and Storage, click Storage Metrics
- Sort folders by size to identify the heaviest and delete from OneDrive
REMEMBER: OneDrive is for working documents. Final versions of documents should be stored on your unit's SharePoint site, in Teams or a Shared Drive.
Each time a file is attached as a copy to an email, a new copy of the same file is created. Over time these copies add up and use precious server space.
Sharing files directly from OneDrive, Sharepoint or Teams saves on storage and facilitates efficient workflows that allow colleagues to work and collaborate on the same document in real-time.
Additional advantages to direct sharing:
- Reduction in the number of copies of the same document
- Easy file retrieval
- Ensurance that all users are working on the current version of a document
SOURCES:
Cyber World Cleanup Day. (2022, May 4). Cyber WCUD | A day for a more sustainable digital. Digital Cleanup Day. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://cyberworldcleanupday.fr/welcome.html
Cyber World Cleanup Day. (2022). Guide 3 Clean your computer and your Drive. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://cyberworldcleanupday.fr/fichiers/EN-CWCUD-2022-Guide-3-Clean-your-computer-and-your-Drive_compressed.pdf
Cyber World Cleanup Day. (2022). Guide 5 Cleaning your emails. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://cyberworldcleanupday.fr/fichiers/EN-CWCUD-2022-Guide-5-Cleaning-your-emails_compressed.pdf
De Benedittis, C. P. &. J. G. &. J. (2023). Digital sobriety: From awareness of the negative impacts of IT usages to degrowth technology at work. ideas.repec.org. https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/emse-04116949.html
DIGITAL CLEANUP DAY – Digital Cleanup Day. (n.d.). Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://www.digitalcleanupday.org/
Donnelly, C. (2022, March 18). Digital Cleanup Day: It’s time to take out the digital trash. Ahead in the Clouds. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/Ahead-in-the-Clouds/Digital-Cleanup-Day-Its-time-to-take-out-the-digital-trash
La Maison de l’innovation sociale (MIS). (2022, June 28). Promoting digital sobriety: ECOist Club invites us to save the planet by doing ourselves some good - Maison de l'innovation sociale. Maison De L’innovation Sociale. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://www.mis.quebec/en/actualites/promoting-digital-sobriety-ecoist-club-to-save-planet/
Smithsonian Institution Archives. (n.d.). Weeding files. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://siarchives.si.edu/what-we-do/weeding-files
The Ultimate Digital Clean-Up Checklist: Are You Prepared For The New Year? — Smashing Magazine. (2016, December 16). Smashing Magazine. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/12/digital-clean-up-checklist/
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, September 20). Digital Cleanup Day. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cleanup_Day
