Tips on how to digitally declutter your phone. If your phone is causing you stress, and is full of unused apps, too many messages, emails and notifications, you can banish the digital clutter for a calmer and less busy home screen on your phone.
So much of our life admin is connected to our phones these days. If you have to scroll through too many apps, have 100s or 1000s of unread emails, or have notifications popping up constantly then your phone is probably causing you unnecessary stress and could do with a digital declutter. Clutter has been linked to causing stress, anxiety and more, and reducing digital clutter on our phones will certainly make it more functional at the very least!
DELETE old TEXT MESSAGES
Do you need all the text messages that are sitting in your message folder? I like to keep message threads from my husband and family, and dear friends, but others can be regularly deleted. If you’re hanging onto a message because it has some information in it you need, or a photo, save it elsewhere. Then you can delete the message.
Managing Phone Apps
The phrase “there’s an app for that” is certainly true with a phone app for everything you could possibly think of. However we can easily end up with way too many apps on our phone, and you don’t want to have to scroll through a bunch of apps that you don’t use to get to the one you do!
- Delete Unused Apps – How many apps do you have on your phone that you don’t use? There may even be some that you don’t remember why you downloaded them, and you have never used! Delete any unused apps, and assess what is left. Are there are any others that you don’t need and can delete?
- Organise Apps in Folders – Create folders for your apps to have a less cluttered home screen. You could make folders for the type of apps or even by how often you use them. Hold your finger on the app and drag it onto others to create a folder. iPhone users will need to hold the app until it wiggles then select Edit Home Screen.
- Hide Rarely Used Apps – There might be apps on your phone you use only on a rare occasion, or pre-installed apps that you never use but can’t be deleted. If you have sorted your apps into folders, move any folders of these apps to the very last screen on your phone.
Or you can hide them from your home screen altogether! It depends on your phone type as to how:
- Some androids offer that option in settings or there are apps that will hide apps from your home screen.
- iPhone users can delete apps from their home screen but retain it in the app library.
Have a Minimal home screen
Consider only having the apps you use all the time and your favourite apps on the first screen of your phone. This will be visually calmer and less cluttered when you first pick up your phone. Move your other app folders to a second screen.
Turn off notifications
Switch off unnecessary notifications from apps. Do you really need notifications switched on for anything bar calls or messages?
manage and back up your photos
TACKLING YOUR EMAIL
Notes and Lists
I find the notes feature on my phone super handy, however they can build up quickly. Look at the notes currently on your phone. Is there information saved there that should actually be kept elsewhere? Delete anything unnecessary or no longer relevant.
Does your phone need a digital declutter?
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