Top tech tips to declutter your life

Before every Diwali, Indian homes get into a flurry of activity to prepare for the big festival. Many homes buy new gadgets and appliances while others look at the event as an opportunity to renew the old with a thorough spring cleaning. In this digital world, our gadgets and cyber activities are responsible for most of the clutter in our lives. Lars Boilesen, the CEO of Opera Software gives us a few useful tips to get the tech side of your life in order this Diwali.

1. Beat the tangled mess. If you have a charging or data cable for a phone, computer or even camera that you owned four years ago and no longer use, you should definitely get rid of it. All new devices come with their own cables, making old ones redundant.

2. Get rid of unwanted mail. Go to the last page of your inbox and start with your oldest messages. These are usually outdated or not relevant any longer. If you absolutely must keep them, archive them to your PC so they're within reach but out of sight.

3. Find a browser that works best for you. Different browsers have different benefits. Choose an efficient one that will save time and money with features such as Opera Turbo mode, synchronised bookmarks and Speed Dial shortcuts to your favourite sites.

4. Back up your data. Ensure that all important documents and files are backed up and stored somewhere safe, either on a separate external hard drive or on inexpensive thumbdrives.

5. Cull your "friends" on social media. From those 10,000+ people on your friends list, there are many whose updates don't interest you. Some may even bore you! Give them the Diwalicleaning flick.

6. Clear old bookmarks in your browser. They may have been useful at one time, but now you should purge the ones you don't need any longer.

7. Clean up your temp files. It might also be a good time to clear out all the stuff your browser stores in its cache.

8. Run a 'full' or 'thorough' virus and malware scan. Prevent dubious sites and links from infecting your device. Before running the scan, make sure the virus definitions are up to date.

9. Organise your hard drive content. Keep your folders organised and delete any files you no longer need.

10. Physically clean your gadgets. Pick up the right tools and get them to look as good as new this Diwali