How I Organise My Apps

If you’re currently feeling a little out of control with the content on your phone, you’re not alone. I’ve recently started a private digital declutter group on Facebook with 50 members. Over 300 people contacted me when I first proposed the idea of the group on Instagram back in August! Week to week we are working hard to declutter, tidy and organise our digital content. It seems like this interest in organising our digital lives is here to stay… There is a growing demand for help and advice on how to regain control over this aspect of our lives. Increasingly I am being hired to support clients with organising their digital content on their phones, computers, laptops and other devices.

Today I thought I’d share how I keep my apps organised on my phone. I’ve always been a fan of rainbow order so it should come to no surprise to you all that I organise the apps on my phone in rainbow order too! I know this method wouldn’t work for everyone but if you like the idea of organising your apps in this way, here are the steps you need to take…

Step One: Examine what apps you have stored on your phone first before you start to organise them. So many people make the mistake of organising first before taking stock over what’s there in the first place. This isn’t organising; it’s just moving things around and trying to make them look pretty! Trust me, it doesn’t work. To be fully in control over your apps, as well as give yourself the ability to find what you’re looking for when you need it, you have to complete an app cull first.

TIP: Count how many apps you have stored on your phone before the cull. Most people who do this are often shocked at the amount they currently have!

Step Two: Go through your apps one at a time and ask yourself how often you use it. Be honest: have you ever used it? What purpose does this app serve in your life? Is it stored on your phone for practical purposes? Does it bring you joy right now? Does it lead you to living a more joyful life? If the answer is yes to any of the above questions proposed, then keep the app in question. Then move on to the next app. Continue until you have completed all of your joy checks on all of the apps on your phone. I currently have 60 apps stored on my phone. It doesn’t matter what your number is; as long as all of the apps stored there are serving you and helping you to live well.

Step Three: Create your rainbow folders by dragging similar coloured apps together. If an app has more than one colour in their design, just pick the colour that is most dominate and sort it accordingly. Once it’s paired with apps of similar tones and colours, you won’t notice its variation. I prefer having all of my apps accessible in eight different colour-coded folders on my homescreen. I do try to colour code the apps inside the folders too by organising them in colour gradients but that’s just my preference!

TIP: For apps that have several colours in the design, create a rainbow folder!

Step Four: Give each folder a ‘name’ by using the appropriate coloured emoji to match the coloured apps stored in each folder. This is where you can get very creative! Choose the correct colour emoji to match the content of the folder in line with your personality. For example, for the blue folder of apps, you may choose a blue heart or an ocean wave. This is your phone: it’s reflection of your personality!

TIP: I recommend keeping a maximum of 9 apps in each folder so everything remains visible from the homescreen.

TIP: Keep your top 3 or 4 most frequently used apps at the bottom of your homescreen. Mine are my email, safari and phone contacts.

Step Five: Enjoy your newly organised colour-coded app collection! And don’t be put off if it takes you a while to remember where your apps are! I promise that within a few hours you will regain full control over where everything is located. And another bonus I experience with organising my apps by colour is that my general categories of ‘social media’, ‘shopping’, ‘news’ etc. are a little bit mixed up. This makes it far less tempting to look at similar apps unnecessarily for extended periods of time. Organising my apps by colour means I’m intentional about what app I want to use when I use my phone. It’s so tempting to mindlessly browse all of your similar apps when they’re concentrated in only one folder.

If you would like to organise your apps in this way and need more help, please feel free to ask a question in the comments. Alternatively, if you’re not a fan of this idea, let me know what works for you. Happy tidying!