The magic of tidying up your apps
You have to ask yourself, does this app bring me joy?
I hoard apps like a squirrel with his acorns before winter. If I am even remotely interested in a free app, I will download it. And if I am interested in a paid app, I will just try it out.
The learning is worth the $1–3 even if I don’t like the app. So this means I have a ton of apps. But this means that apps sometimes get out of control. At one point I was up to 9 screens of apps on my iPhone.
The statistic from the most recent Apple WWDC keynote was that the average person has 119 apps. That is so many! I wanted to see how many apps I have downloaded in the past years. I initially couldn’t figure out how to do it until I found this Apple support article.
It took a while, but I counted. iTunes recorded that I have downloaded 1439 apps. However, that number is low (probably way low) because I switched Apple IDs, and other hijinks.
So I have tons of apps, and no way to deal with them.
Enter the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
There are a few key principles from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
- Does this object bring me joy?
- Discard first, store later.
Applying this to apps, the principles are:
- Does this app bring my joy?
- Delete first, put into folders later.
So I went through all the apps on my phone, one, by one, emptying out the folders, and started asking, does this app bring me joy? Most of the time, the answer was no, so I deleted it and moved on.
When I was done, I felt great! I remembered some apps I really loved that had been hidden in folders. I was down to 3 screens of apps. And my phone was mostly filled with apps that I like to use, and make life easier. Success.
While purging apps, I realized that there are several really bad reasons to keep apps around.
These bad reasons are:
- I might need it in the future
- I am going to try it out
- I paid for it, so I should use it
These are bad reasons, and they have easy fixes. Let us examine why they are bad reasons.
I might need it in the future.
If you are dealing with that one, take courage in the fact that if you need it, you can always download it later. The only apps that you might keep for future use are apps that would be needed in situations with no reception such as GPS apps, or road trip apps. The others can put back onto the old App Store in the sky, just waiting for when you need them.
I am going to try it out
If you haven’t tried it out yet, you probably won’t. So just delete it. If it strikes your fancy again, just download it again.
I paid for it, so I should use it
Sunk cost my friend. The mental burden of having that app there, telling you in a soft hissing voice “You wasted money on me” is much greater than the money spent. Just delete it and move on.
Side note tip: With all the downloading and deleting of apps, I use #Homescreen to take and share a picture of my home screen every month. It is fun to remember what apps I used, and what their icons looked like.
UPDATE: Got requests for a list of apps that bring me joy. Here it is.
Also, a reader from Reddit (thanks cvbk) brought up a good point. What do you do with the apps that bring you no joy and you can’t delete? (Looking at you Apple).
I make a folder called ‘no joy’ and stick them all in their on the last page of my apps. Then they only take up one app space, and I basically forget they are there. No perfect, but works for now.
I would encourage you to take out your phone and spend the next 5 minutes asking yourself, “Does this app bring me joy?” The answer might surprise you.
If you liked this article, or agreed with the idea, please click the green ‘Recommend’ button so others can enjoy.
If you want to read more about using habits and technology to live a better life, subscribe to my email newsletter here.
