6 Tips for Organizing Your Phone

Whether you are at the stage of social distancing where there is nothing left to organize, alphabetize or color code or you haven’t decluttered a single thing, all of our phones could use a little love. The average American spends just under 3 hours PER DAY on their phone but very few of us give our phones a second thought when it comes to organizing.

I have outlined my top 6 tips for organizing your phone below. Even simply implementing a few of these changes will make a world of difference in your phone’s functionality and how you interact with it on a daily basis.

How To Organize Your Phone

1. Turn off the pesky alerts! No one needs the stress of all those red bubbles on their phones especially if it is something as minute as $10 off your favorite food delivery app. Think through the apps on your phone and what you actually need to be drawn to every day. Slack or texts, probably yes. The latest trend in game apps, probably not.

2. Declutter your address book. Take an evening (and perhaps a glass of wine) and give your address book a deep dive. Got duplicates or missing someone’s most up-to-date details? Make a list and get updated so you won’t be searching when you need it down the line. Someone no longer in your circle? Deleting is 100% allowed.

3. Simplify your home screen. Just as you need a little space in your brain, your home screen needs a little breathing room. Think through your most frequently done tasks on your phone, move the key items to the home screen and push the others to another page. As a bonus choose either a pretty, clean and neutral wallpaper or a photo of something that makes you smile.

4. Get those passwords out of your address book! Not only is it not secure it can take time when you are trying to login to an app or website. A service like Keeper or LastPass will help keep your passwords secure and streamline the login process.

5. Create a system for your photos. Are they backed up somewhere? Should you put them in albums for easier access? Do you need to share them, or do you want to get some printed? Any you can delete?

6. Organize your apps. We are all guilty of an impulse download or a phase (remember Words with Friends!) but even our apps need periodic decluttering. Start with a ruthless clean out of your apps (if you can’t guess what the app does by looking at the icon, that’s a pretty good sign you can delete). Then determine the best organization system for you and how your brain works. Color coding or by category are my two go-tos but it is important for you to figure out what works for you so you can quickly access what you need.

TELL ME: do you keep your phone organized? What is your favorite app or feature on your phone? I couldn’t live without my address book and use the voice activated timers so often when cooking.