by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Although I like to declutter and organize at intervals year-round, I do make a more focused effort in the spring. That’s because my RSS feed is full of spring cleaning tips.
Frequently these tips address cleaning dirty windows or dryer filters, but there are also a few reminders out there to spring clean our digital content and sites.
I decided to make a list to consolidate the electronic spring cleaning I’ve done in past years.
Update my website. This is more than just spring cleaning for me–I’ve got a monthly reminder on my Google Calendar to ensure my site is up-to-date. But I’m more thorough in the spring. I check for broken links, consider dropping or adding content in my sidebar and header/footer, look for old ‘updates’, ensure my bio and contact info is updated, backup my site, install any software or plugin updates, check page load speed, and make sure my site looks good on mobile and all browsers (sometimes browsers update and our site may not look good in the browser after the update).
Email. Even though Gmail and other programs hold lots of data, I do like to go through and unsubscribe to unneeded newsletters, archive old material, and delete emails I no longer need.
Word. I make sure most documents are in folders, delete old drafts of long-published books, and tag files to make locating them easier in the future.
Catch up on my scanning. I’m trying to go as paper-free as possible. I use the free software Evernote and One Note to help me keep information organized. I also use a free app, CamScanner, to take pictures of documents with my phone and then email them to myself for a quick digital copy. Again, tagging the documents helps to locate them later.
Social media. Are my bios up-to-date? What about my privacy settings and contact info? Have I changed my passwords recently? Are there people I should be following back? What apps am I allowing to access my accounts (review and either keep or revoke access)? Should I refresh a header/cover/background? Are there any groups that I want to leave?
Amazon author page and individual book pages. Is my bio updated? My photo? Are all my books linked to on my Amazon Author Central page? Am I still happy with the book descriptions on my book pages? How do the editorial reviews look now–should I add any positive reviews?
Backup. Backing up our data, websites, etc. doesn’t have to be a major chore or an expensive one. I like to have at least two locations I back data up to–one in the cloud (emailing files to ourselves counts), and one in an external hard-drive (the prices are way down. You can get 1 terabyte for about $50 on Amazon).
What else should I add to my list?
A checklist for writers of social media and website spring cleaning chores: Click To TweetImage: MorgueFile: Pippalou
Great list! Maybe go through your newsletter subscribers to make sure you don’t have any duplicates? And clear out bookmarks you don’t need?
I set up a digital system and cleaned out my files and blog this past winter. It took me the better part of three days, but I have been so much more efficient since then I literally don’t know what to do with myself?
Deborah–I forgot about the newsletter! Yes, going through MailChimp for duplicates (or even folks who’ve never opened a single newsletter) is a great idea. I can’t think of the last time I looked at my bookmarks, either, so always good to weed it out.
Yay for feeling (and being) more efficient!
That’s a good list!
How about going through your social media contacts and dumping those that are either inactive or have unfollowed you? (I actually check whounfollowedme.com at least twice a month to catch Twitter unfollowers.)
Alex–Good one to add! I need to do that on Twitter. :)
Great list! Thank you!
Tracy–Thanks for coming by!
Backing up your data is such an important thing to remember to do regularly! I thought my computer died on me a few weeks ago and I hadn’t backed up in quite a while. It was a scary few hours thinking I had lost everything. Fortunately, my computer started up again and the first thing I did was to back up my data.
Have a great weekend!
Ellen–That IS scary! And I think many of us have had a moment like that. I know my laptop was accidentally knocked off a high counter onto a hardwood floor just a week ago…and even though I’d just thoroughly backed up, it really jolted me!
This is such good advice, Elizabeth! I think part of having a professional presence online is to keep things electronically tidy. So as I was reading your post, I was thinking of how important it is to do simple things such as checking links to be sure they’re ‘live,’ and proofreading things. It all works together to make things look better and work smoothly.
Margot–Proofreading is another good thing! Especially when we’ve had time/distance from copy, it’s good to read back through bios/book descriptions/etc. for typos.
It’s a good time to spruce up business cards, brochures, etc. Or go through our contact list and update those.
Diane–Good point! My business cards could use some tweaking. I did go through my list of contacts and merge duplicates.
Elizabeth, this is such a good reminder! Don’t feel very springy hereabouts – we have as much snow as ever we did. Got a big dump yesterday. Argggh. One thing I do is prune my fb. I send out a notice saying so and then remove those who never comment or ones that have such different interests that I know we won’t miss each other. I don’t mind keeping my so-called friend list small but I do keep on my nieces and nephews whether or not we interact much!
Jan–Snow? What is this substance of which you speak? :) We really didn’t get any here in the Charlotte area this winter–my daughter was bummed about it.
I like your FB pruning. That sounds like a good idea!
I love normal spring cleaning, but the technology kind not so much. :)
Teresa–It’s a little tedious. But it’s a great feeling when it’s done!
Elizabeth: such worldly wisdom, such a grownup commitment to ORDER. For me, thought, spring cleaning (as a writer) is limited to throwing out the many hard-copy printouts that accumulate along the walls of my study. With the coming of warmer weather, they are no longer needed for insulation.
Barry–Ha! Well, I think that my reduction in digital clutter (and fear of losing data) is sort of a stress-reliever for me. Sometimes I’ve got too much input resulting in too little output. :)
You made me smile. :) Warm weather wishes to you from a Southern friend.
[…] Spring Cleaning for Writers – Elizabeth Spann Craig […]