I am a Digital Hoarder

You probably are too

Do you have someone in your life who keeps everything? They refuse to part with seemingly pointless objects. They make excuses and declarations about why they need that thing. They make you feel bad about even mentioning it. Maybe that person is you.

I am not that person. I have practiced essentialism and minimalism for years. I say this with pride, but not to rub your nose in it. Also, this is only somewhat true. While I do keep a simple and essential home, and I do keep a simple productivity system, I tend to hoard knowledge.

In the '90s, this looked like me printing out how-to manuals so I could easily reference MS-DOS commands or video game walkthroughs. But eventually, I would deem that those were no longer needed and would recycle them.

Now, in the world of digital information and seemingly endless storage, that last step feels less necessary. Since the creation of the modern web clipper, I have been giving myself the excuse to save things from the web so I have them for later. While most of this process has been wonderful for a curious knowledge seeker, it has gone a little too far.

Most of you reading this likely do not have a PKM, or similar. But you might save articles or social posts you like to your notes app. You might save your inspiration to Pinterest, Are.na, or mymind. But more than likely, you hoard screenshots and browser tabs.

I have never been a screenshot hoarder—my current count in my camera roll is 321, and that dates back to 2014. I also never have more than a dozen tabs open—it causes me anxiety. But I do love to keep reference material in Obsidian, Notion, and my file explorer.

I did not notice this much until recently. Over the last few months, I have been making a push to store more of my data in one centralized location: offline-first.

What does this mean? I have been moving tons of information out of services like Google Drive and Notion to my file explorer, Finder/Files. While this is connected to iCloud so it is backed up, it allows the data to have a different sense of size and presence. Rather than being saved on some "unlimited" service, relying on search to happen upon them when needed, they are front and center. They are being stored in a limited storage file system.

I am far from done with the migration, but it is coming along nicely. Mainly, it is allowing me to audit this data, determining what should stay and what should go. This also gives me a single source of truth. I do not have to search Finder, then Notion, then Google Drive—just to find something I am looking for.

When I am done cleaning this up, how do I plan on keeping this managed? Simple: rely on less automated systems, regularly review sources of data, delete more than archive, and only use tools and workflows that support this going forward.

What does this actually look like?

I am unsubscribing from Readwise. While the service is great, the ease of saving information and pushing it to my PKM was too frictionless. Embracing friction will support this by slowing me down and making me think about keeping information. I am using a basic read-it-later tool that forces me to copy and paste highlights, making me think about their necessity.

I have a tendency to archive every email. I am changing this. I plan on deleting first and archiving when it feels valuable.

Using systems that support single sources of truth. Tools like Apple Notes, Notion, and most web-first tech allow you to make files with the same names. They allow you to add files to other files, rather than linking to them. While this is convenient, it leads to duplication. I am still going to use these tools, but not the same way I used to. Tools like Obsidian allow me to link files and block duplicate file names, preventing me from making a duplicate by accident.

If you are interested in doing the same, here is a checklist to get you started.

While you might not be a physical hoarder, you are probably hoarding tons of digital files, and you probably don't realize it. Even if you take no action from this letter, I hope you just think about the data we are keeping in various places. Consider your stance and beliefs around AI or the values of the companies that are storing the data, or don't. Either way, digital hoarding is not new, but recognizing it can be.