Digital Hygiene - Herman Martinus

2026-07-20

This was a short three-part series on Herman's blog which proposes some good digital habits. At least, the term "digital hygiene" is now permanently part of my vocabulary.

Emails

On emails, my system is largely similar. I am careful about keeping the inbox mostly empty, on accounts I regularly use and want to recieve new items on. Archiving means I never leave anything unsearchable, and works while I have "unlimited storage" in my inbox.

I would highly recommend this method of email clearing, especially the bits about carefully managing subscriptions. Blocking senders with bad email practices is, shockingly, a very valid option.

Notifications

Notifications, he advocates for turning everything off and then only turning on the necessary stuff. He advocates for having only a few regular forms of communication.

I appreciate this and at the same time cannot get myself away from the multitude of different methods of communication (Discord, GroupMe, SMS, email, etc). Perhaps that's an unfortunate part of the college life, though. Might change in the future to respect my limits better for communication.

Passwords

I don't have any particular notes here. I like my password manager, and I think most people would benefit from one external to their operating system/browser, if only for allowing accounts to be shared within a family.