It's already November and Mariah Carey had already declared the arrival of her...or rather, winter season. Folks, two months left. TWO MONTHS LEFT to say goodbye to this disastrous 2023. I'm devastated, really. At least, the abnormally-hot season is gone.

I've been quite unproductive in language learning for the past few months due to numerous extra tasks I've burdened myself with. Lately, I've been doing a lot of digital organization in my free time. Obsidian made me organize my notes (still ongoing), but it led to more and more digital organization. It was like a domino effect; one day I was organizing my book notes, and that led to me organizing the whole collection of e-books I had on my PC and Calibre. Then, I was getting frustrated as I couldn't find the cover picture for some books, despite searching through the overwhelming jumble of pictures that were scattered all over my computer folders. Before I knew it, I was diving into a deep digital decluttering of my entire digital space. I really don't know what happened, but I was like, why not just keep this train rolling and do a massive digital clean-out that I've been procrastinating for several years?

I was never good at organization, both physically and digitally. I tend to hang onto things that I no longer have any use for. Also, I was always happy with organizing just the surface of my workplace now and then. For example, my computer's desktop is pretty clean; it has only three folders and a recycle bin, since I don't like a crowded desktop scattered with application shortcuts and files. It's clean and minimalist, just like I prefer. However, once you step into a folder, it's a Pandora's box you'd never want to open. It's all clutter and an ever-expanding disarray.

I've been writing down "digital declutter and organization" as one of my New Year's resolution for years. I've always been aware of the pressing need, and it was weighing on my psyche not getting on with it. Of course, I've been careful to manage the amount of data on my computer since mine is quite old, and recurring maintenance is crucial for its well-being. However, I never did the necessary clean-out and organization. My backups are in an atrocious state, too. I have three hard drives for backup; one for all important files and phone backups, one for videos and pictures, one for the entire computer. They have gotten pretty messy over the years as I accumulated more digital clutter without organizing it. There were tons of duplicated pictures and videos but in different file names; there were a couple thousand Photoshop files that were collecting digital dust; I had three or four copies of the same phone backup from several years back, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It was a disaster, really.

I have been postponing the task for a long time, but now, I finally took the time to sit down and go through each file I owned, not only on my PC but also on the hard drives, Dropbox, Google Drives, my phone, etc. It was a pretty painful, tedious, and overwhelming process. But whenever I disposed a chunk of files into the Recycle Bin, I felt the weight being lifted off my shoulder little by little. It was refreshing and gratifying. I emptied the Download folder and the Capture folder, promising myself to clean these folders once a week from now on. I was also determined to implement a new naming system and a folder structure to enhance search and organization. I simplified a lot of aspects and boy, it looks a thousand times better.

Aside from that, I organized all my bookmarks on my Vivaldi browser. I was surprised and nostalgic to find bookmarks from 15 years ago, 98% of which obviously no longer worked. I've just been importing the bookmark over the years, adding the new ones and never deleting the old ones. It was pretty much a trip down memory lane going through those bookmarks. You realize how much you've changed over the years and how little you've changed, too.

Overall, I'm glad I did it. It took eons of time, but my computer is 58GB lighter and all folders are well-structured, and the files are in chronological order. I made new backups on my hard drives and I even added a backup log, so that I won't forget when the last backup was as well as what to back up next time. Digital Marie Kondo would be proud of me. I can finally check off the task on 2023's resolution list.

Happy decluttering!

✔✔Corrected