I’m a real sucker for apps and have actually been collecting them ever since getting my first iPhone 2 years ago. I’ve since downloaded 261 apps, of which 116 remain on my iPhone. The problem is, I’ve always had a difficulty managing and organizing the apps on my phone. As much as I’m a fan of Apple products, I feel that iOS’ limited app organizing ability is actually one of its biggest limitations.
I’ve also realised that on top of collecting apps, the phone has gradually been taking away more and more of my time over the years. I constantly find myself scrolling through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter mindlessly, reading updates over and over again and opening data heavy apps like YouTube in the subway for entertainment, only to be really frustrated because of the non-existent data network in Singapore.
Whether or not my time was spent on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reeder, games and whatever else, I was determined to cut that down.
I began searching on the Internet for the best and most productive way to organize apps, but somehow most of what was available didn’t make much sense to me, probably because everyone prefers organizing his/her phone in a different way.
It was then that I decided to conduct a little experiment.
I made time-wasting apps like social media apps and games more difficult to access by placing them on a screen that was further away, and made hygiene, work and productivity apps more easily accessible by doing the opposite, placing them on a screen that was closer to my home screen.
I also tried my best to follow the concepts of usage-based, relatedness-based and usability-based app arrangement (read more about it below). I’m really happy with what I have so far, hopefully it’ll be a start to helping me cut down the amount of time spent on my phone, or at least the amount of time spent mindlessly scrolling through social media apps.
Here are some screenshots of the current state of my phone:
The screen to the left of my “Home” screen
Here’s where all my utility apps are. If you’re familiar with iOS, I use the screen to the right of this as my “Home” screen, so this “Utility” screen is easily accessible with one swipe to the left.
“Home”
I use these apps the most, or at least want them to be the apps I use the most.
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