Time for a Digital Declutter!

Time for a Digital Declutter!

October 29, 2021

While we may be aware that our digital files and emails desperately need to be sorted through and cleaned up, perhaps the thought of tackling such tasks feels overwhelming. With so many other things to accomplish and deadlines to meet, this feeling is completely understandable.

So, what can be done?

INDIVIDUALS

First, on an individual level, start with your UBC email account. Specifically transitory records within your saved emails. A transitory record is a record of temporary usefulness that is used to create another record. Barbara Towell, Electronic Records Manager, University Archives explains that, in terms of email, drafts, back-and-forth messages to set up meetings, notifications from list serves, and carbon copy messages where the recipient is not the main actor in the email, are all examples of transitory records.

While a piling up of emails may seem like a relatively minor issue, Barbara confirms that it’s much more than that. “It is inefficient to have a lot of emails that are of a transitory nature bulking up your inbox, your sent items, your junk mail…And the other thing is cost. It costs the University money for maintenance and backup.”

If we were to run some simple math to calculate the cost of searching for multiple documents and emails daily, then averaging that time and cost out over a monthly and annual period, Barbara’s comments become that much more eye-opening.

Thankfully, the initial cleanup of your email doesn’t have to take hours. In fact, with some simple steps, your email can go from overwhelming to completely manageable in less than 60 minutes.

STEP 1: CLEAR OUT YOUR JUNK FOLDER

Start by mass deleting (or archiving) any messages you are certain that you don’t need, like notifications and reminders for past events, confirmations on sent items, and newsletters you have already read.

STEP 2: CREATE FOLDERS AND LABELS

Next, focus on organizing messages that you need or want to keep.

How you label things is entirely up to you, but a proven method is to name folders based upon topics or types of email that you commonly receive. Things like: Tasks, Projects, Team, and so on. You can always modify this process as you learn what works best for you.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook, try taking advantage of the “categories” feature to add more information to your messages. You can even apply multiple labels to one email. So, that email in your “Team” folder can have the main label for messages that apply to your whole unit and sub-labels for each member of your team. If you find that there are still messages leftover that you will need time to categorize, use Outlook’s follow-up feature to have them show up in your inbox when you’re ready.

MAINTENANCE

After taking the time to perform this initial clean-up, Barbara Towell recommends emptying the trash regularly and “making it part of a daily routine. Even the last ten minutes of the day can really make a big difference” to ensure your transitory records are properly deleted and your inbox remains manageable.

FURTHER ASSISTANCE

On October 4, 2021, a 90-day automated data retention schedule was implemented at UBC for default transitory folders in the enterprise email service UBC Faculty and Staff Email (FASmail) in compliance with UBC Records Management policies and requirements. With this new retention schedule in place, information stored in the Deleted itemsJunk Mail, and RSS Feeds default transitory folders in FASmail will be automatically destroyed after the 90th day.

This automation ensures data is not retained longer than needed, reduces digital clutter, and complies with UBC Records Management policies and requirements.

This change affects all staff, faculty, and student employees at both UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan campuses who use FASmail. This change does not affect users of the UBC Student Email Service and the legacy Student and Alumni Email Service.

A data retention schedule provides guidance on how long records must be kept and ensures records are not indefinitely stored if they are no longer needed.  This will reduce the risk related to data breaches and maximize the usage of storage space.

Make sure to review folders that will be impacted by the 90-day schedule once implemented, back-up messages and links folders that are meant for long-term storage, and review and update any automated rules that you may have set up.

 

Where to go for information:

For more information about UBC Records Management, please review the data retention policies. Please contact the IT Service Centre with any technical support requests or connect with UBC Records Management (records.management@ubc.ca) with any policy questions you may have.

 

DEPARTMENTS

The other category of digital declutter in dire need of attention is departmental shared drives and folders. Chances are that your team's shared drive and folders feel like the virtual version of that backroom storage closet that no one wants to open for fear of all the loose items tumbling out.

We asked Barbara Towell, what the average state of record-keeping is on a departmental level at UBC. “Every couple of years I do a survey, and in that survey, I ask some general questions around where users feel is the biggest problem in terms of record-keeping, and…typically their shared drives are a mess,” and users “don’t even know where to start,” Barbara adds that often there is no unit level governance and users are confused about where things are and where to put things.

Fortunately, the University Records Management Office is available to help. Their staff can work with units to assist their record-keeping practices, ensuring that records are retained securely, in a cost-effective way, while meeting compliance requirements. Some of the services that they offer include:

  • identifying record-keeping issues and concerns
  • providing guidelines on best practices
  • collaborating on records management projects, and
  • training staff and faculty on topics related to retention periods, management, storage, and disposition.

To take advantage of these complimentary services, contact the University Records Management Office for a consultation.

You can view the full interview with Barbara Towell by visiting Privacy Matters On Demand.

Through conversations, knowledge sharing, and storytelling, the Privacy Matters @ UBC team hope to provide a venue to share inspiring ideas to improve privacy and information security, both at home and at UBC. For further assistance please contact the Privacy and Information Security Management team.