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Digital hygiene checklist

Tighten the basics in an afternoon. This is the posture that moves most adults from 2/10 to 7/10 — without becoming a survivalist.

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When to use this

  • When your phone is the first and last thing you touch each day.
  • After a high-friction week that you suspect was made worse by digital load.
  • Before a focused work block — to clear the friction in advance.

How to complete it

  • Work the checklist in order; the early items reduce friction for the later ones.
  • Tick what you've actually done, not what you intend to do.
  • Pick one item to install permanently this week, not ten.

Common mistakes

  • Treating it as a one-time setup. Defaults drift; check quarterly.
  • Removing apps without removing the underlying use case (which then resurfaces in a different app).
  • Ignoring the desktop / laptop side. Phone hygiene without desktop hygiene is half the system.

Digital hygiene checklist

Vinthony Academy · vinthony.com

Passwords

  • Password manager installed and used by default (Bitwarden, 1Password, or built-in browser).
  • No password reused across sites.
  • Long master password — 4+ random words.
  • Recovery codes for the master password stored offline.

Two-factor authentication

  • 2FA enabled on email, bank, password manager, social media, cloud storage.
  • Hardware key or authenticator app preferred over SMS where possible.
  • Backup codes stored offline.

Devices

  • Phone and laptop full-disk encryption enabled.
  • Auto-lock under 5 minutes.
  • Recent OS update applied (within 30 days).
  • Lost-device wipe configured (Find My / Find My Device).

Accounts

  • Email auto-forwarding rules audited — nothing rogue forwarding mail elsewhere.
  • Connected apps audited on Google / Apple / Microsoft / Meta — third-party access reduced to current essentials.
  • Old accounts you don't use closed (or marked for closure).

Backups

  • Phone backed up to an encrypted cloud, weekly.
  • Laptop backed up to a separate device or encrypted cloud.
  • Backup tested — can you actually restore from it?

Surveillance posture

  • Smart-home / always-listening devices audited; ones you don't actively need turned off.
  • Browser uses a tracker-blocker (uBlock Origin / Brave).
  • Mobile location-sharing audited — who can see you, do they need to?
  • Public-record / data-broker exposure checked once a year.

Annual review date.