Wunderers joining forces for a cleaner digital environment
Researches have proved that clutter and mess create more stress, reduce the ability to focus and even impact one's sleep. We believe the same relates to the digital environment, therefore we organised the very first Wunder Digital Cleanup Day.
When thinking of waste, usually we imagine physical piles of old stuff, but how often do we think of digital waste? Of course, we could take the approach – if you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist – but we sure can notice it in our digital device performance. Cleaning and decluttering is always good, but the springtime is exceptionally supportive for that, therefore on one Friday of March, inspired by the Global Digital Cleanupopens-in-a-new-tab activity, Wunderers joined forces in the first-ever Wunder Digital Cleanup day to take action in reducing their digital footprint.
Free your workspace = free your mind
We genuinely believe that getting rid of old stuff on a computer or phone brings even greater value. A variety of researches have spotted out that clutter and mess can create more stress and anxiety, reduce the ability to focus and even leave an impact on sleep quality. We believe the same relates to the digital environment.
We created quite detailed guidelines with steps and tips to make the cleanup process smoother and to change habits also in daily work-life. For example, how to clean and organise the computer, mailbox, Google Drive and other digital tools.
Taking care of yourself
The main goal of Digital Cleanup Day was to free and improve the digital setup we use on daily basis. To increase focus by getting rid of distractions such as overloaded computer desktop, popping up notifications, different newsletter subscriptions. To gain and maintain a feeling of control in one’s life by keeping the digital environment clean and organised. It will save time when trying to find something. And not a less important – to raise the mood by creating a personalised environment – a desktop picture, customized colours and other tool settings, setting reminders to take a break – whatever makes one feel better throughout the workday.
Taking care of cybersecurity
The Digital Cleanup initiative was not only about deleting; it was also about making our environment safer. We encouraged our team to spend time on security activities – to run apps and system software updates, to delete outdated apps, to review and remove old wi-fi networks, clean browser history. By protecting private data, we decrease the cyber risks for the company.
Taking care of nature
Digital trash leaves a negative footprint on our nature and environment. Old files, emails, apps, duplicates of photos and videos are piling up on servers and continue to consume electricity. Digital Cleanup day initiative helped us to reduce the digital footprint and maintain green thinking within our team.
Digital Cleanup day in numbers:
Wunderers involved
Spent on cleaning
Cleaned out
Participants would like to see it as an annual event
25% of our team took an active part in the initiative. In total, we spent 60 human hours (or 2.3h average/per person) on cleaning and organising our workspaces. Together we cleaned 1014.78 GB of digital waste thus reducing global CO2 by 254 kg per year. And after cleaning, 100% of the participants were happy with the result and said this initiative should be annual.
Still, if these number doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to clean your workspace, read what Wunderers said about the initiative:
Tuomas: Cleaning up makes working more effective, + the green aspect is nice.
Kati: I can not thank you enough for this initiative! Finally, I had a chance to organise my notes and snapshots. My desktop is clean, folders and content groomed, and I feel relieved. Honestly, it has a mental effect!
David: I thought it’s a bit silly at the beginning, but actually, I enjoyed the task and felt uplifted, like cleaning in the real world 🙂
Zane: I was surprised by how many expired Adobe Photoshop App versions my PC was holding!
Joonas: I thought I keep my stuff in order, but it feels nice to get rid of any extra baggage.
Jenny: This really should be done yearly!