Clean Up Your Phone for Increased Productivity

You spend time cleaning your office, your car, and even your bedroom. You also spend countless hours filing paper and email.

Yet, when was the last time you cleaned up your phone?

Is it as organized as the rest of your life, or is it a mess of unused apps, notifications, and more?

Too Many Apps, Much Wasted Time

Want to see a scary number?

Guess how many apps are installed on your phone right now.

If you own an iPhone, go to Settings > General > About > then Scroll down until you see Applications. And there is your number.

That is how many apps are currently installed on your iPhone. (Android… you’ll have to look it up. :P)

If you are like most people, you have a myriad number of apps installed that you don’t even use. And just like physical clutter, they get in your way, distract your attention, and prevent you from reaching your potential productivity.

Clean Up Your Phone

Cleaning up your phone is easy, yet most people don’t do it on a regular basis.

If there are apps on your phone that you never use… simply delete them. Get them out of there.

Some people are hesitant to delete apps. “What is I need it again?” Well, you can simply download it again if the need arises.

“If you can’t remember what an app does or when you used it last, delete it immediately from your phone.”

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I just deleted 118 apps. And that was a quick and ruthless clean-up. I can still go deeper when I have time.

Why do you need that many apps?

The answer is… you don’t. They are distractions, and they get in your way of getting work done. Many of them have badges and notifications that further try to get your attention.

Here are some tips to help you declutter your phone:

• Remove Apps – As stated above, the first this you want to do is remove apps from your phone. Lots of them. DELETE them. Be quick and be decisive. If you don’t know what an app is or what it does, or can’t remember the last time you opened it, then delete it.
• Clean Up Storage – Photos, movies, and even text messages take up a lot of room on your device, as well. Remove ones you are done with. Store your photos in the cloud to get them off your phone. And yes, even your text messages should be cleaned up on a regular basis. (iMessage is infamous for huge GB-sized files.)
• Limit Notifications – Be very, very selective about which apps you allow to push notifications to your phone. You don’t want unimportant beeps and interruptions for the latest sale in a shopping app that you never use.
• Turn Off Geo When Not Needed – In addition to notifications, apps will try to abuse your geolocation. While this is not clutter per se, it does affect your productivity and battery life if apps are constantly checking your location.

Clean Up Your Phone

You clean your house on a regular basis. Your work space, too.

Considering that your phone is with you 24/7 you should also spend the time organizing and cleaning up the most important device in your life.

(And don’t forget to back it up!)

Question: How many apps were you able to remove from your phone? You can leave a comment by clicking here.