Don't Be A Digital Hoarder

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Speaker 12 People use the same password for everything all the time, like the same basic password, and just add like a few things here and there.

Speaker 13 Wait, that's not okay.

Speaker 12 I'm Christine Zeer-Clissette. I'm Kyra Blackwell.

Speaker 14 I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.

Speaker 12 This episode is called Don't Be a Digital Hoarder.

Speaker 12 Hey, pals. Hey there.

Speaker 14 We're at week two of our spring cleaning series.

Speaker 12 Are you feeling motivated still? Are you not yet? Okay. All right.

Speaker 14 All right, but it's a long month.

Speaker 13 It's more fun thinking about the cleaning than actually doing it, though.

Speaker 12 It turns out

Speaker 14 today we're pivoting, though. We're not talking about scrubbing the floors.
We're talking about cleaning, cleansing, tidying our digital lives.

Speaker 13 Which is somehow more stressful.

Speaker 14 Are y'all digitally

Speaker 12 prim and proper? I feel the appearance of me would be that I'm prim and proper. I would assume.
But I am an, I'm a hot mess digitally. You're a digital hoarder.
Honestly, like I'm a hoarder.

Speaker 13 But every part of your life outside of that is perfect.

Speaker 12 So we'll allow it. We'll allow it.

Speaker 14 Everybody's got something.

Speaker 14 Yeah. What's going on with your digital life?

Speaker 12 I think I'm kind of like digitally sloppy. Like I don't erase emails.
My phone is completely full.

Speaker 12 I don't think I'm doing the the things that I should be doing to keep myself tidy and protected, actually. Protected.

Speaker 14 Yeah, that's the other thing. I am not beyond reproach here, but I do think about it often because you're right.
It's not just about deleting your emails. It's also passwords.

Speaker 14 It's also storage on your phone. Some of these things you don't necessarily think about or you do when you get really annoying pop-ups that say your phone is glitchy.

Speaker 12 And I think it's, yeah, exactly. I think it's one of those things that sometimes you don't think about it until an emergency happens.
It's almost like too late.

Speaker 12 And it's like, it's, again, it's like a preventative thing, right? Can you, what can you do now to keep things tidy? Telling myself,

Speaker 12 in order to keep that bad stuff from happening.

Speaker 13 Yeah, that's why we're going to be bringing on Caitlin McGarry because she knows all the things to do to keep your digital life in order.

Speaker 13 She's Wirecutter's senior tech editor and she edits all of our coverage about computers, phones, and digital security. So she knows a ton about digital hygiene.

Speaker 14 I like Caitlin too because she's not judgmental. She's just going to take us all gently by the hand and show us a world where we are not encumbered by the number of emails in our inbox.

Speaker 12 Yeah, that's right. She's firm but loving.
I love it. Well, let's find out.

Speaker 12 After the break, Caitlin is going to talk with us about our phones.

Speaker 12 If you're annoyed by your phone, if it's acting slow, if you keep getting annoying pop-ups that say storage full, or if it seems like it might be dying, you want to listen to this.

Speaker 12 We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 The Wirecutter Show is supported by Rocket Mortgage.

Speaker 3 Your home is an active investment, not a passive one.

Speaker 5 And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away. When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family.

Speaker 7 renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

Speaker 8 Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts.

Speaker 2 Find out how at rocketmortgage.com.

Speaker 11 Rocket Mortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states, NMLS consumer access.org 3030.

Speaker 15 Dell AI PCs are newly designed to help you do more faster. That's the power of Dell AI, powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors.
Upgrade today by visiting dell.com slash deals.

Speaker 16 Mont Blanc invites you to use life's quiet moments to pause, reflect, and put pen to paper.

Speaker 10 Chapter 1.

Speaker 2 Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 Part 1.

Speaker 12 Perfect.

Speaker 17 The mountains are impressive. Oh, I wish you were here to see them.

Speaker 13 Dear Diary, meet my new writing companion, the Meister Stuck.

Speaker 16 For every journey, the perfect companion awaits. Montblanc.
Let's write. Visit Montblanc.com for exquisitely crafted writing instruments, leather goods, and more.

Speaker 13 Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show. Our guest today is Caitlin McGarry, Wirecutter's senior tech editor.

Speaker 13 She's reviewed technology devices, including Apple products, phones, and wearables for over a decade at this point.

Speaker 13 And before she worked at Wirecutter, Caitlin oversaw consumer tech coverage at Gizmodo.

Speaker 12 Caitlin, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 12 I think that when people think of spring cleaning, which we're covering all this month, people generally think of, you know, like organizing and cleaning their physical lives.

Speaker 12 but there's a lot of reasons to think about cleaning up your digital life and the devices in your life. Why should people pay attention to digital hygiene?

Speaker 12 Well, at WireCutter, we're all about extending the life of your device. So tech products cost a lot of money and making them last longer helps you obviously save money in the long term.

Speaker 12 And also like freeing up storage space is really important so you can stash more stuff on your device. And it's also really important to keep your information safe.

Speaker 12 So I have some tips for how to lock down your data.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I've literally never thought to do this, which clearly means that I need to. But where would you recommend people like me start?

Speaker 12 Well, everyone I think I've ever met has asked me about what to do about their photos.

Speaker 12 People have thousands, if not tens of thousands of photos on their phones, depending on how much storage space you have, which is a whole issue.

Speaker 12 You've probably gotten an annoying pop-up on your phone that's like, you've run out of storage.

Speaker 12 Would you like to upgrade? Yep, or $2.99 a month. And I always say,

Speaker 12 right. It's like, smash that upgrade button rather than like,

Speaker 12 yeah. But there's a way you can deal with that problem, which is to actually clear out your photos.
I'm sorry. Like manually?

Speaker 14 No.

Speaker 12 Manually, you got to do it. Taking some time to just clear out your screenshots or duplicate photos will go a long way.
And then what we recommend, you know, you get those reminders.

Speaker 12 On this day, you took this photo.

Speaker 12 So going through like every photo you took on a specific day over the years and just deleting the ones that you don't need, or you took like 50 photos of the same exact thing from like slightly different angles, that can be really helpful.

Speaker 12 Or your kid took 50 pictures of their face.

Speaker 12 Relatable.

Speaker 13 What if I need that random meme that I saved at 2 a.m.?

Speaker 12 I mean, keep the ones that are important to to you, Kyra. I'm not judging.
I love to leave the other ones.

Speaker 14 There's something that you can do about all this.

Speaker 12 Do better.

Speaker 12 Just like change your behavior and do better.

Speaker 12 It's a small tweak, but it goes a long way.

Speaker 13 You also had some advice about backing up your photos on a separate hard drive, right?

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 12 So if there are photos that you want to save, but like you're obviously not needing to look at them all the time, you can just offload them to your computer and then store them on an external hard drive or upload them to a service like Dropbox, just anything to get them off your actual phone to free up storage space.

Speaker 14 Are there automatic ways, Caitlin, you can find what those duplicate photos are in, let's say, an iPhone so that it becomes easier to go ahead and batch delete them?

Speaker 12 So on your iPhone, there's a screenshots folder. So it automatically sorts all of your screenshots into one folder.

Speaker 12 Like I just looked and I have over 400 screenshots and I don't even know what any of these are. So I'm just going to go ahead and delete all of them like right now.
Old move.

Speaker 12 So that's where all Kyra's meals are. Yeah.

Speaker 12 So Kyra, you're going to have to go through all of those to save your cherished ones.

Speaker 12 But that will go a long way toward freeing up some space.

Speaker 14 Okay, so then let's say I have been really rigorous about trying to delete photos of my friends and family and cherished moments. And maybe I haven't done a great job, but I've done my best.

Speaker 14 And I'm still getting an alert that I'm out of space and need to buy more and it's really annoying. What do I do then?

Speaker 12 Yeah. So on your phone under settings, there's a tab called storage and you can just open that and it'll tell you exactly what's taking up so much space.

Speaker 12 So in my case, I looked this morning and I have like an incredible amount of saved messages that I don't need.

Speaker 12 So you can have your phone delete every message that you've sent or received like after a year. And you'll be surprised how quickly that frees up storage space.

Speaker 12 But you might have also saved a lot of podcasts that you've already listened to. You don't need those anymore or like a lot of playlists that you don't need.

Speaker 12 So you'll be able to see exactly what's taking up so much space and then decide what to do about it.

Speaker 13 I was today years old when I realized that when you download stuff off of Spotify, it goes to your phone. That's definitely common sense.
But I was like, yeah, that's just going to be ether.

Speaker 12 I don't know. No, I don't think it's common sense.
I don't think it's commonly known, though.

Speaker 12 Like, I recently did look on my phone and realized how much of my storage was being eaten up by things like old text messages and like... podcasts I downloaded.

Speaker 12 So I think it's, it's actually pretty common. I've also read that if your battery health is less than optimal, that can also be slowing down your phone.
Is that true?

Speaker 12 Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah. So the older your phone is, the older the battery is.
And after a certain point, your battery just degrades.

Speaker 12 And so you'll notice that it doesn't last as long after you charge it. Newer iPhones and some other Android phones have a way to check to see what your battery health is.

Speaker 12 So it'll tell you like, your battery health isn't great. It's time to get the battery replaced.
And that is much cheaper and easier than buying a whole new phone.

Speaker 12 How do you know the battery health isn't great? Like what, what are you looking for that kind of would indicate it may be time for a new battery?

Speaker 12 On an iPhone, if you go into settings and battery, you can see an option called battery health.

Speaker 12 And you just tap on that and it'll tell you, you know, if it's normal, if the battery needs to be replaced, the maximum capacity when you buy a phone should be 100%.

Speaker 12 If you, after a few years, notice that it's like under 80%,

Speaker 12 it's probably time to think about getting a battery replacement. Oh, sadly, it might be time.
I was going going to say, what is yours? Mine is 77. Mine's normal.

Speaker 12 How old is your phone, though?

Speaker 12 It's really new.

Speaker 12 My phone's maybe like a bunch of people.

Speaker 14 I wasn't prepared for a follow-up question.

Speaker 12 Mine is two or three years old. So maybe that makes sense.
But Caitlin, what do I do to replace it? Like, I'm not super

Speaker 12 technically handy when it comes to like repairing devices. Do I need to take it to a store to get it replaced? Can someone else help me?

Speaker 12 Yes. So it actually is somewhat possible to swap your own battery, but we don't recommend it for most people because there's like tools and glue and all kinds of stuff involved.

Speaker 12 But you can get it replaced at a store. If you have an iPhone, you can go to an Apple store.
If you pay for Apple Care, plus the battery replacements are free.

Speaker 12 If you don't, it's anywhere from like $70 to $120 to get a battery replacement. That's like not nothing, but it's way cheaper than a new phone.
What about if you don't have an Apple device?

Speaker 12 Google and Samsung obviously don't have stores the way Apple does, but they do partner with other repair shops.

Speaker 12 So if you just go to their respective websites, you can find which shops they partner with and how much it'll cost to change your battery.

Speaker 13 I've also heard that it's not advisable to charge your phone overnight because you never want to charge to 100%.

Speaker 12 Is that true?

Speaker 13 And if so, why?

Speaker 12 Yes, that is true.

Speaker 12 So charging your battery degrades the battery life over time. A phone's battery life is measured in charging cycles.

Speaker 12 But most new iPhones and Android phones have optimized battery settings that you just turn them on and it will automatically stop your phone from charging to 100%, even when it's plugged in.

Speaker 12 So you don't even have to think about it. It's just not going to charge all the way.

Speaker 14 That is something I did not know.

Speaker 14 And I've stressed out about the idea because I'm like, if I don't charge it at night, when am I going to charge it? Because when I wake up, there's never a charge.

Speaker 14 I have 50 chargers in my house, but there's never one available

Speaker 14 because I can't find it.

Speaker 12 They're like during the day.

Speaker 14 Yeah, they're just gone. And so if I don't do it at night, it's like at 20%, and then my phone dies.
So I did not optimize battery.

Speaker 12 That's amazing. Optimize battery.
Technology. Technology.
Who knew?

Speaker 14 So, what about cleaning the phone itself? Because I feel as though our phones are kind of grungy.

Speaker 12 Oh, yeah, your phone is disgusting. If I talk about it, I mean, just in general, this is not for you specifically.

Speaker 12 I'm sure your phone is pristine, but for most of us, and I include myself, your phone gets so gross, especially if you like have it in the kitchen while you're cooking or like you just set it down on a random surface at like a bar or restaurant.

Speaker 12 It gets sticky. I don't even want to think about it.
So, yes, clean the actual phone, wipe it down, clean out your charging port.

Speaker 12 When you notice, like, oh, it's not holding a charge, there might be stuff in the port preventing it from charging. So, just little things, little things make a difference.

Speaker 14 What do you wipe it down with? Is it just a damp cloth, or what do you use?

Speaker 12 Um, yeah, it can be a damp microfiber cloth. The companies recommend 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes, which are super cheap and common.
So, nothing, nothing too over the top, just basic maintenance.

Speaker 14 While you were talking, I started to look at my phone, and this is absolutely foul. Really? Just alarming.

Speaker 13 What are you using to pick at the port, though?

Speaker 14 Right now, I'm using a push pin, which is probably not advisable. Don't tell me.

Speaker 12 Yeah, maybe just maybe just a toothpick.

Speaker 12 Don't send Tim this episode. If you have your phone in a case, it actually gets even grosser.
I don't know if you've ever taken, most people never take the case off, right?

Speaker 12 But like, once you do, oh, God. It's like taking couch cushions off your couch you're like oh what all these crumbs that's where they went you're like this is the kind of person i am

Speaker 13 so what i'm hearing is that we definitely need to be culling our photos. Just kill anything that is a duplicate, that is a random picture that you've taken 3,000 times from 3,000 different angles.

Speaker 13 And I'm also hearing that you need to check your battery health because that can really make or break your phone experience.

Speaker 13 Maybe if it's dying all the time or if it seems slow, maybe you just need a new battery, or unfortunately, you might need a new phone.

Speaker 13 I'm also hearing that we should be cleaning our phones more often. I can only imagine the amount of times I've dropped my phone on the subway platform and I just forgot to wipe it down immediately.

Speaker 12 That is so crazy.

Speaker 12 That's my confession. Don't judge.
There's no judgment here. We listen to your dill.

Speaker 12 And we we will also link on our show notes to some super helpful guides we've got on the site right now for organizing photos on your phone, optimizing your battery, and cleaning your phone.

Speaker 12 We're going to take a quick break, and when we're back, we will talk a bit about the biggest digital hygiene problems people have and some of the easy things you can do to make your devices safer.

Speaker 12 We'll be right back.

Speaker 14 I'm literally pumping Pure L onto my naked phone.

Speaker 1 The Wirecutter Show is supported by Rocket Mortgage.

Speaker 3 Your home is an active investment, not a passive one.

Speaker 5 And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away. When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family.

Speaker 7 Renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

Speaker 8 Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts.

Speaker 2 Find out how at rocketmortgage.com.

Speaker 4 Rocket Mortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states, NMLS Consumer Access.org, 3030.

Speaker 15 Huge savings on Dell AI PCs with Intel Core Ultra processors are here, and they are newly designed to help you do more faster.

Speaker 15 They can generate code, edit images, multitask without lag, draft emails, summarize documents, create live translations, and even extend your battery life.

Speaker 15 That's the power of Dell AI with Intel inside. Upgrade today by visiting dell.com/slash deals.

Speaker 16 Mont Blanc invites you to use life's quiet moments to pause, reflect, and put pen to paper.

Speaker 10 Chapter one.

Speaker 2 Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 Part one.

Speaker 12 Perfect.

Speaker 17 The mountains are impressive. Oh, I wish you were here to see them.

Speaker 13 Dear Diary, meet my new writing companion, the Meister Stuck.

Speaker 16 For every journey, the perfect companion awaits, Mont Blanc. Let's write.
Visit Montblanc.com for exquisitely crafted writing instruments, leather goods, and more.

Speaker 12 Welcome back.

Speaker 13 With us now is Caitlin McGarry, a senior editor at Wirecutter who covers tech, and this episode is all about digital hygiene.

Speaker 12 Caitlin, if you had to say the biggest issue that people have with their digital hygiene, what would it be? I would say passwords, for sure.

Speaker 12 People use the same password for everything all the time. It's the easiest thing to remember, right? If you use like the same basic password and just add like a few things here and there.

Speaker 13 Wait, that's not okay?

Speaker 12 I can't with you.

Speaker 13 I thought you said, no, but I thought when you say that people use the same password, I thought you meant literally they use the same password.

Speaker 13 Not that they use the same base password and add numbers and exclamation points.

Speaker 12 Get out of here, Kyra.

Speaker 12 We're all about prevention here.

Speaker 12 So now that we know that adding one, two, three, four to the base password is not the safest way to manage your passwords, I think we can make better choices going forward.

Speaker 12 That's what we're all about.

Speaker 14 Rocks one, Kyra, Rocks.

Speaker 12 One, two, exclamation points. One, two, exclamation points.

Speaker 13 I thought I was doing really good, you guys.

Speaker 12 Yeah, so when you go home tonight, Kyra, you're going to get a password manager. Tell us what this is, really, because I hear it all the time.

Speaker 12 I know that people should be using a password manager, but what is it exactly?

Speaker 12 So a good password manager will store all of your passwords for you, but also create strong passwords for all of the services you have logins to and just keep track of them for you.

Speaker 12 So you have a master password to your password manager, and then the password manager has all of your passwords. So you don't have to remember each individual one.
You just know the one password.

Speaker 12 And then the password manager fills them in for you as you're logging in places. And it can also change them for you if there's like a data breach and your password has been leaked on the internet.

Speaker 12 Can I ask just the question that always pops into my head about password managers? I know we should be using them. Caitlin, how do we know that we can trust the password manager?

Speaker 12 How do we know that, you know, that that's going to be more secure than like my little black book full of all of my little passwords in the back pocket of my jeans.

Speaker 12 Well, we test password managers thoroughly. So I highly recommend people read our guide to password managers and we outline exactly what we look for and how we determine which ones are the safest.

Speaker 12 Our current recommendation is one password. We love it.
It works really well. But basically any password manager is better than no password manager at all.

Speaker 12 So if you're not using anything, just get started with something and that's safer.

Speaker 12 We recommend one password, but if you are all in with Apple products, like you have an iPhone, a MacBook, Apple has a new passwords app that does basically the same thing.

Speaker 12 It manages all of your passwords for you. Is that free? It is free.
Yeah, it comes pre-installed on your iPhone. And using that is better than nothing at all.

Speaker 12 We just recommend one password because we don't like services that are locked into one ecosystem.

Speaker 12 So if you have like an Android phone and a MacBook or an iPhone and a Windows laptop, it's not possible to use passwords in the way that's most effective.

Speaker 12 So that's why we recommend OnePassword because it works on everything.

Speaker 13 So now that I've learned that I've been doing passwords incorrectly, if I am worried that one of my exact same passwords have been leaked, what should I do?

Speaker 12 So change your password immediately. If you have a password manager, which you're getting tonight when you go home,

Speaker 12 it will change it for you and store your new secure, strong password.

Speaker 12 You can also monitor your credit just to make sure that someone hasn't gotten a hold of anything that they need to like open new accounts in your name or something like that.

Speaker 12 You can check your credit for free once a year at annualcreditreport.com or you can pay to see your credit score at various places. So just keep an eye on that stuff.

Speaker 12 But yeah, changing your password immediately is pretty much like the pro tip.

Speaker 13 And then how often are you changing your passwords just to switch it up?

Speaker 12 Oh, I'm changing them daily, you guys. I'm like, I'm a pro over here.
You're not.

Speaker 12 No, you're not.

Speaker 12 I change them whenever I get like

Speaker 12 your information has been leaked. I'm like, all right, let me take some control here.
I don't tend to change them all that often. Yeah, just letting the password manager hold on to things for me.

Speaker 12 I don't even know what my passwords are to like most of the things that I use because I haven't created them myself. So

Speaker 12 that helps. That's what makes me nervous about a password manager.
If I don't know what the password is, then that kind of makes me nervous.

Speaker 12 But I guess it's like you could always reset your password, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 12 So having the password manager with the one password that you need to remember, your master password, that's all you need to know.

Speaker 12 So the password managers that we recommend, they work across all different platforms. So you don't need to know each individual password to each individual service.

Speaker 12 So clearly passwords are super important, Caitlin.

Speaker 12 Beyond that, is there something else that you commonly see people be lax or sloppy about and that they could just immediately improve their lives by sort of paying more attention to?

Speaker 12 Yeah, we also recommend using a two-factor authentication app.

Speaker 12 And I think a lot of people think of two-factor authentication as like, oh, I'm just going to like enter my phone number and it'll text me a code and then I'll enter the code in.

Speaker 12 But we actually don't recommend that because it's pretty easy to hijack someone's someone's phone number.

Speaker 12 So we recommend using an app. We currently recommend Duo and Google Authenticator.

Speaker 12 And that way it'll just send a code to this app on your phone and then you can enter the code and log into your account. And if you have an Apple or a Google device, they both have Find My Network.

Speaker 12 So like the ability to find stuff that's attached to your account. So I recommend setting that up so that you can track stuff down when you lose it.
And by stuff, what do you mean?

Speaker 12 You can find your phone. You can find your laptop.
You can find if you have AirTags on anything. You can find those.
You can find your AirPods.

Speaker 12 Basically, anything that you've set up with your Apple ID, you can find using the Find My app.

Speaker 14 I have to say, I am thrilled with the Find My function on the phone.

Speaker 14 You put on that ding, the little sound, play a sound, and then you burrow under the covers and find wherever your phone or your watch is.

Speaker 14 It is so unbelievably helpful, and I feel like that technology has gotten very, very precise.

Speaker 12 I always find my stuff. I mean, clearly, I probably need an air tag on my keys because that's what's always going missing.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 12 And you can also share air tags with like other people in your life. It's it just makes it easy to know where things are.
So, highly recommend those.

Speaker 12 And they're not super expensive, they're only 29 bucks for one.

Speaker 13 It feels like emails specifically pile up and there's just no way to cut them down. I know that my email inbox is probably in the tens of thousands at this point.

Speaker 13 So what advice do you have for people who just feel like it's past the point of no return with their emails?

Speaker 14 I relate to this so much. Yeah, you too.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I feel like email is something I'm always struggling to stay on top of as well. Like I find that filtering things into specific folders is really helpful.

Speaker 12 I sign up for a lot of retailer mailing lists just to get like discount codes and stuff.

Speaker 12 And remembering to unsubscribe or having the Apple mail feature that will unsubscribe for you, just remembering to do that on a regular basis is really key.

Speaker 12 Cause like, I don't need all of these promotional emails.

Speaker 12 And the emails that you get that are actually relevant and that you need to read are, I don't know, at least in my case, like it's not that many.

Speaker 14 What you're saying is you don't recommend just letting it go and waiting till whatever comes after email gets popular and catches on?

Speaker 13 We thought it would be Slack, but that turned out to be worse.

Speaker 12 Now it's Slack and email.

Speaker 12 So I don't think email is ever going anywhere. Like I like emailing email.

Speaker 14 Have you looked at your inbox recently?

Speaker 12 Oh, it's got over 50,000 messages.

Speaker 12 Oh, God.

Speaker 12 When you run out of space, you can still just upgrade to more space.

Speaker 14 We know there's an issue psychologically with just letting this pile up into the tens of thousands and sort of turning an eye and pretending it's not happening.

Speaker 14 But is there an issue from a digital hygiene perspective, Caitlin, of taking that approach?

Speaker 12 No, I mean, you might eventually like run out of space. I think right now I've used like six gigs of the 15 gigs that I have in Gmail.

Speaker 12 And I've had my email account for, I'm not even going to say how long. So I think it's pretty tough to actually reach like the storage space cap on your email.
Oh, I'm trying.

Speaker 14 So is it just about, yeah, is it just about sort of taking a guess of how long you're going to live and then

Speaker 12 putting that up?

Speaker 12 Yeah,

Speaker 12 divide that by the gigs you have. Totally.
Yeah. It's, it's the most effective way.

Speaker 12 I mean, I think the only problem is that like you might miss emails that are like extremely important if you don't stay on top of like the things that you're subscribed to and whether they look like legit or you may be at risk for falling for like a scam email if you're not on top of it because the scammers are getting really sophisticated and the emails they send can look like very similar to legit emails.

Speaker 12 So if you don't stay on top of things, you might be more susceptible to stuff like that. But otherwise, it's just totally psychological.

Speaker 12 I think for your mental health, you should curate your email a little bit.

Speaker 13 Okay, so don't look behind. There's only ahead.
Anything else?

Speaker 12 That is not what you're hearing. No, that's what I'm hearing.

Speaker 12 I mean, I think you can totally handle it that way. Like, just today,

Speaker 12 start today. Start today for a better you tomorrow.

Speaker 12 You can't do anything about the past. Mistakes have been made.
It's all about the future. I'll leave my digital archive as is and move forward.

Speaker 14 Just be better.

Speaker 12 Be better.

Speaker 12 Okay, Caitlin.

Speaker 13 Well, before we wrap, we usually ask all of our guests one final question. What's the last thing you bought that you've really loved?

Speaker 12 The last thing I bought that I really loved. So I play the cello and I have been renting a cello for a little while.
And because I just moved, I had to like turn in my rental.

Speaker 12 So I finally splurged and bought this really beautiful cello for myself.

Speaker 12 I'm looking at it right now and it's making me so happy.

Speaker 12 So I think just splurging on the things that bring you joy and hobbies that are away from technology and away from screens is really delightful.

Speaker 13 That is the most wholesome and sophisticated answer I think we can.

Speaker 14 Iconic answer.

Speaker 12 I will also say it brings me joy when I'm on a video call with you and I see your cello in the background. So like, love it.

Speaker 14 Well, if you don't do it for yourself, do it for Christine.

Speaker 14 Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for making us look at the hard truths and for holding us with grace.

Speaker 12 Right. Happy to help.

Speaker 14 Y'all, what are we taking away from Caitlin from this episode?

Speaker 13 Y'all already know I have to get a password manager.

Speaker 12 Ah, yeah, and that's it.

Speaker 14 Yeah, it's time.

Speaker 12 It's time. It's probably like the most effective thing you can do if you take one thing away from this episode, if you're not using one.
And it's free.

Speaker 14 Yeah. I'm going to see if I can hack you when we get home.

Speaker 14 I'm going to see if Kyra W123 works.

Speaker 14 My takeaway is that I'm going to to clean all of my devices when I get home with little alcohol prep pads.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 12 I got to. It's disgusting.

Speaker 13 I mean, you already did it today. So you can.

Speaker 14 I know that I haven't done the case, my AirPod case, my watch, all of it.

Speaker 12 I do that when I go to the gym. I just take the, you know, you wipe down stuff with those pads at the gym, and I just do that with my phone.

Speaker 12 So my takeaway is that I have this ginormous pile of emails, and I'm not going to let that pile stop me from doing better in the future.

Speaker 12 I may not go back through the archive and delete everything, but going forward, I'm going to be better about just staying on top of the things that are coming into my email. I love it.
Look ahead.

Speaker 12 That's right.

Speaker 14 It's a whole new you.

Speaker 14 So, as always, if you want to find out more about what we talked about today, go to our website.

Speaker 14 We'll also link in our show notes to lots of helpful guides with more details on password managers, two-factor authentication apps, and more.

Speaker 14 That's it for us until next week when we're gonna do a two-part episode about stains. We've got the stain doctor back, Andrea Barnes.
We're gonna hear from you, our listeners.

Speaker 12 Am I too late? Are the pants ruined? Any advice would be really helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 14 We're gonna get into it. In the meantime, thanks so much for listening.
Kyra, Christine, my friends, peace.

Speaker 12 Bye. Bye.

Speaker 12 Today's episode was Mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alicia Ba Itoupe, and Diane Wong.

Speaker 12 Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief.
I'm Christine Searcoset. I'm Kyra Blackwell.

Speaker 14 And I'm Rosie Guerin.

Speaker 12 Thanks for listening.

Speaker 12 Let me also say welcome to the show again because I feel like I sounded like a very soft, like nighttime DJ.

Speaker 12 Okay, welcome to the show. Welcome to the show.
Caitlin, we're going to spin some of your favorite tracks.

Speaker 12 Oh my God, what a vibe here. This is so exciting.
Let's start with Michael McDonald.

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