--- title: "The WSJ's Health and Wellness section provides a glimpse into a distinctly first-world problem: digital hoarding" description: "Guest blog article by Rich Colosimo WSJ's digital hoarding: [[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577305520318265602.html]]." image: https://www.people-onthego.com/hs-fs/file-15436466-jpg/images/email-keyboard.jpg --- - [Home](https://www.people-onthego.com/) - [Contact Us](https://www.people-onthego.com/company/) - [Blog](https://www.people-onthego.com/blog/) [![pog_logo_on_white_tall](https://www.people-onthego.com/hs-fs/file-2213160099-jpg/people-onthego/pog_logo_on_white_tall.jpg)](https://www.people-onthego.com/) ![Less Is More Blog Productivity Tips](https://www.people-onthego.com/hs-fs/file-15411125-jpg/Top%20pictures/pog_top_5.jpg) ### Join us at the Webinars **[![2021_Webinars_Schedule_People-OnTheGo](https://www.people-onthego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2021_Webinars_Schedule_People-OnTheGo.jpg?width=163&name=2021_Webinars_Schedule_People-OnTheGo.jpg)](https://www.people-onthego.com/webinars)** **[Click for our Webinars Schedule.](https://www.people-onthego.com/webinars)** ### The Perfect 15-Minute Day Method is here! 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Signs of digital hoarding include: using all your free space on gmail; a desktop cluttered with icons; digital photos that are mostly bad; and TV shows you don't plan to watch. Suggested "treatments" include: [Inbox Zero](http://inboxzero.com/) (made famous by Merlin Mann of 43folders); declaring email bankruptcy; and reducing inflow to your email inbox.  The real kernel of where this article meant to go is one of the signs that is ignored in the text: "Deleting anything makes you anxious -- even things you can't remember why you saved." Digital storage, by itself, is in a different category than physical hoarding because of the inherent cost-benefit analysis. With no physical outcomes, other than costs for a 2TB hard drive (<$200) every so often, it's hard to compare keeping emails with a pile of old unread newspapers. Certainly, the filing vs piling debate makes the "cost" of storing more even lower -- the generally accepted answer these days is that it's faster to search than maintain a detailed filing system. The search costs go down more than expected because you don't have to search for everything you store, but you have to file everything to have a filing system. I think the critical distinction is one of attitude and anxiety: if you are anxious, you have a problem regardless of whether you have 100 photos or 100,000. If you search and can't find things, that's a different problem with a specific solution for your situation to create [total organization](https://www.people-onthego.com/time-management-e-mail-outlook-excel-word-powerpoint-sharepoint/total-organization/). I find that [Quicksilver](http://qsapp.com/) and Spotlight do quite well at finding things quickly for me with little worries on my part.   Take a quick look at your primary machine ([OmniDiskSweeper](http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/) is a free lightweight simple sizing tool): how much do you have in various folders?  After doing some cleaning myself, it reports:  - iTunes (Includes Stanford IOS course in HD and music videos): 50gb - Documents (includes archived client files and backups as well as my second copy of most mail since I have Outlook for Mac installed too): 26.6 gb - Pictures: 16.9 gb - Library (a Mac folder that stores mail, working folders for DevonThink, and IOS backups): 14.3 gb - Downloads (all my "temp" storage plus working files for learning how to program): 4.2 gb - All that plus the miscellaneous leaves me with plenty of space on a 256gb solid-state macbook air. NB: To be fair, I've offloaded 10gb of old Windows PST files to my time capsule, and about 6gb of tutorial videos for Rails/IOS as well. Much of my old music (about 60gb) resides on my still-running Windows Vista desktop on a 500gb hard drive. What's your digital storage profile look like? What tools do you use to find things easily? Topics: [tools and supplies](https://www.people-onthego.com/blog/topic/tools-and-supplies), [information overload](https://www.people-onthego.com/blog/topic/information-overload) ### Subscribe by Email [![Need an employee training solution that's flexible and affordable? 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