Hi everyone, this week I want to revisit digital minimalism which I posted about a couple of months ago. The biggest thing for me is my phone and I still use it far too much but I wanted to share with you what I have on my phone and what my home screens look like.
So here we go. I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max which very rarely is not in arms reach. Before I heard of digital minimalism it was a mess I had apps and folders all over the place with half of the apps on there I never looked at. So I decided it was time to clean it up which helps me to be more intentional with how I use it.
My home screen only has eight apps which are the apps that I use everyday. The reason behind this is to try and remove the distraction of those apps that you see and just pop into and end up scrolling for ages. So my key apps are my banking app, Whats app, Email, photos and camera, notes and reminders. I do have instagram on there and this is really because i am focusing on building my followIng so I am on there quite a bit. I also have a couple of widgets one for my activity tracking and the other is a weather widget. Oh and I do have Amazon on there as well, not sure this should be on my Home Screen but hey ho we can’t be perfect lol.
My second screen:
So this is where all the other apps go. There are 8 folders that I use to categorise my apps e.g. smart home so this is where all my apps to do with my smart home stuff goes so that its easy to find and so on. I try to make sure that the apps that are stored in these folders are apps that are used on a regular basis so say 2 or 3 times a week. I put my other social media apps on this page and the reason behind this is to try and avoid getting distracted and losing hours of my life scrolling.
Apps Library
Any other apps just sit in my apps library. So these are the apps that i very rarely use and should probably just delete but there is the odd one that I will occasionally need so it is useful. I still want to reduce this further so I will be having another clear out in the near future.
Useful features/benefits:
- You can hide screens and your apps will still appear in the apps library.
- Not getting distracted when you open your phone as the apps are not just there you have to go somewhere else to find them – extra effort.
- Spending less time checking apps
- Been more present especially when around my family
- Helps with Productivity (less distractions)
This can be extended to your other devices as well. For instance you can restrict what you put on your iPad depending on what you intent to use it for e.g. no emails or social media apps.
There are some great features coming up in IOS 15 such as focus time and scheduler. I will be writing a review on this in the coming weeks as I am using the beta version currently, so watch this space.