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14 Helpful Tips for New Year Digital Decluttering

by Andrew Shone | Jan 10, 2024 | News, Newsfeed, Productivity

These days, our lives are intricately woven into the digital fabric. From emails to photos, documents to apps, our devices store tons of information. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the sight of an endless inbox or app library.

As the new year begins, it’s the perfect time for a digital declutter. A clean and organized digital environment can help you improve your productivity. It also reduces stress. Here are some practical tips to help you declutter your digital space.

1. Start with a digital inventory

Before diving in, assess your digital landscape. Take stock of your devices, accounts, and digital files. Knowing what you have is the first step toward effective decluttering.

2. Focus on your most-used digital spaces

You don’t have to declutter everything at once. Start with the digital spaces that you use the most. Such as your email, cloud storage, and social media. These are the places where digital clutter can accumulate. As well as affect your performance and well-being.

Also, focus on your primary devices. Like your smartphone, laptop, or tablet. Decluttering these devices will have an immediate impact on your daily life.

3. Organize your files and folders

One of the best ways to declutter your digital space is to organize your files and folders. Create a systematic file organization structure. Use clear, intuitive folder names and categorize files logically. Use color coding to quickly identify specific subjects. This makes locating documents easier and prevents clutter from accumulating.

Delete or archive any files that you don’t need anymore. Back up your important data to a cloud service or an external drive.

4. Clean up your email inbox

Your email inbox can be a source of stress and distraction. Especially if it’s overflowing with unread or unwanted messages.

To declutter your email inbox, you can:

Unsubscribe from newsletters or promotional emails that you don’t read or need.
Use filters or labels to sort your emails by sender, subject, or priority.
Archive or delete old or irrelevant emails.
Set up a folder or label for the current year, quarter, or month, and move your emails there.
Refresh your email signature and make sure it has your correct information.

5. Clean up your social media

Social media can be a great way to connect with others. But it can also be a source of digital clutter. Especially if you have too many accounts, posts, messages, or notifications.

To declutter your social media accounts, you can:

Delete or deactivate any accounts that you don’t use or need.
Unfollow or mute any accounts that don’t add value to your life.
Clear your message inboxes and delete any spam or unwanted messages.
Delete or archive any posts or photos that you don’t want to keep.
Adjust your privacy and notification settings to suit your preferences.

6. Review your subscriptions

Another way to declutter your digital space is to review your subscriptions. You may have signed up for services that you don’t use or need anymore. Cancel any subscriptions that you don’t need. These may include streaming services, membership sites, cloud services, or mobile apps.

This decluttering move can help you save money besides streamlining your digital environment.

7. Review and delete unused apps

Apps can clutter your device and drain its resources. Review your apps and delete the ones you seldom use. Keep only essential applications to optimize device performance.

Old, unused mobile apps can also pose a security risk. If you’re not using the app, it’s likely outdated. Update any apps that you’re keeping to properly secure them.

8. Clear your desktop and downloads folder

A cluttered desktop and downloads folder can hamper productivity. Move files to appropriate folders and clear your desktop. This creates a clean, distraction-free workspace. It can also speed up your computer.

9. Secure your digital identity

Review your online accounts. Delete unused accounts and update passwords for security. Consider using a reputable password manager to enhance your online security.

10. Evaluate your digital habits

Reflect on your digital habits. Identify time-wasting activities and limit them. Set boundaries for social media and focus on meaningful online interactions.

11. Create digital detox days

Set up specific days for a digital detox. Disconnect from screens. Engage in physical activities and spend quality time with loved ones. Regular digital detox fosters mental well-being.

12. Streamline notifications

Excessive notifications can overwhelm and distract. You may feel like you’re not getting anything done because of constant interruptions. Customize app notifications, allowing only essential alerts. This minimizes distractions and enhances focus.

13. Invest in digital tools

Use productivity apps and tools. Project management apps, note-taking tools, and calendars help streamline tasks and enhance efficiency.

14. Practice regular maintenance

Digital decluttering is not a one-time task. It’s an ongoing process. Schedule regular maintenance sessions to keep your digital life organized and clutter-free.

Need Help with Data Management Solutions?

Here’s to stepping into the new year with a clear, focused mind and a more organized digital life. We can help you keep your data under control. We offer effective data storage, backup, and management solutions.

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Featured Image Credit

This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.

EDR vs XDR

by Andrew Shone | Jan 8, 2024 | Uncategorized

Cyberattacks happen every 11 seconds around the globe. It’s no surprise that cybersecurity professionals are looking into the best solution that helps them to protect digital assets.

EDR vs XDR

The most common solutions available on the market are Endpoint Detection Tools and the more advanced Extended Detection & Response. Since these two products look very similar, there is a need to understand the EDR vs XDR differences.

What is EDR?

It offers an integrated, layered approach to endpoint security. This software monitors and collects endpoint data for in-depth analysis while offering automated responses based on pre-set rules and criteria.

Endpoint attacks are widespread, making cyber criminals their favorite gateway to the overall organizational network. With the increasing trend of remote workers, it becomes easy for hackers to get unauthorized access to employee IDs and passwords and then crack the code of the entire business network.

How does EDR work?

When it comes to protecting endpoints, EDR offers good security against ransomware, Trojans, and other types of malwares.

Hackers made more than 700 million ransomware attack attempts in 2021.

Your organization can reduce the cost of a breach like ransomware through an Endpoint detection and response tool. It continuously monitors endpoints for malicious activities. If the software finds any anomaly on endpoints, it contains the threat and alerts the system administrator. Criminals won’t be able to access your whole system as their attack is analyzed in a sandbox or isolated environment.

What is XDR?

It is an extended detection and response system that provides comprehensive security on endpoints, networks, and cloud stations. This software is installed on your business network, collects data from multiple security layers, and correlates it. Your security team can detect threats fast as they get complete visibility into the entire IT Infrastructure of your organization. This tool improves their response time with better visibility and investigation techniques.

How Does XDR Work?

Security analysis needs to deal with alerts from different software. They feel overwhelmed with too many false positive investigations, especially with disconnected attack viewpoints. The SOC team will be equipped with a powerful tool, which lets them perform a detailed investigation into any behavioral activity or even on email, server, cloud workloads, networks, and endpoints,

The team can investigate faster without wasting time on manual tasks thanks to automatic XDR analysis. It offers a holistic approach for detection and response throughout your IT infrastructure, and it’s how you can improve your security posture.

EDR vs XDR- What’s Similar?

Here are similar functionalities of both tools.

Preventative Approach: You need a security tool that helps you prevent and stop attacks and incidents. Thankfully, both EDR and XDR solutions are pretty helpful. They collect data and then apply data analytics and threat intelligence so that your team knows where the potential threat lies. It’s easy to prevent a threat before it spreads.
Rapid Threat Response: Both solutions offer threat detection and response automation, which is a big plus. You can minimize the impact of an attack and avoid significant damage through them. An attack on any network or endpoint won’t spread around as a result.
Threat Hunting Support: Today, organizations deal with more sophisticated hackers and threat actors. They know how to bypass legacy systems and antivirus. There is a need to think beyond reactive security.

So, a quick EDR vs XDR analysis lets you understand these tools’ similar functionality; they are proactive security measures. Regardless of what device you get, it offers deep visibility and access to data, so your team can hunt threats proactively.

EDR vs XDR: What’s the Difference Between EDR and XDR

You already know what’s common between XDR and EDR. Now let’s get understand their differences.

EDR only collects data from endpoints, while XDR collects data from the entire IT infrastructure, such as endpoints, workstations, cloud, and networks. Endpoint security is crucial as most cybercriminals attack your organization from this point, but it doesn’t mean you need to overlook other security areas. So, when looking for comprehensive coverage, you can opt for Xtended Detection and Response tool.

Wrap up – EDR vs XDR

Finally, you have to get a comparative analysis of EDR vs XDR. The question is, what solution does your organization need? It’s good to get dedicated endpoint security with an EDR, but extended protection with XDR makes more sense when securing all the aspects of your enterprises.