Here’s a quick quiz. Open your phone and scroll through all of those little icons. Count them up. How many are in your digital space? How many do you use regularly? It’s probably time to do some house cleaning.
Table of Contents
How Did We Get Here?
It’s quite simple really. Today’s consumer is driven by efficiency, speed, and immediate gratification. To meet that need, Google and Apple have a vast array of apps for anything – business, finance, education, entertainment, personal management tools, lifestyle, fitness – and the list goes on and on.
Want to date online? Here’s an awesome app for that. Want to play games on your phone? That’s the largest category of apps in both stores. Need to-do lists or reminders? Download the apps.
Retailers are also on board. Amazon has a mobile app for shopping ease. Other individual retailers press you to download their apps to get discounts and special pricing only via those apps. Want a pizza? Get two for one when you order through the mobile app. Need to send or receive money? There are apps for that too. Need a ride? Use the app to order one. And especially for retailers, there are push notifications to motivate more use (and purchases).
It’s all about user experience and convenience. And who doesn’t want that today? Add in cost-effectiveness (the majority of apps are free to download and developers/companies make their money by offering fee-based upgrades).
Where are You in All of This?
If you are a normal consumer, your phone is full of apps. They are taking up space – on your screen and on your phone. Wondering why your phone is a bit slow? Wonder no more.
So where do you begin with this house cleaning task? Here are the steps you can take.
Identify the Apps with Little-to-No Use
Your phone came with embedded apps. Are you even using them? How many of the games have you played? How many solitaire games do you need? How many news apps do you have and are you using them? How many clocks and calculators do you need? Chances are you have more than one of each. Do you have your own playlist or are you using Pandora? How many online banking apps might you have that you don’t even use (e.g., Chime)?
It’s time to get rid of all of this superfluous stuff. Dump those apps.
What’s Left?
Now take a look at what’s left and prioritize. If you have apps that you regularly use every day or that are important when you need them (e.g. Uber or Lyft), these are high priorities.
But what about those that you don’t use often but that are just nice to have? Maybe there’s that big box home improvement store that you use when you are planning to paint or remodel that offers discounts for using their app; perhaps it is that shoe retailer that you may use every few months; or it might be that eyeglass retailer that you use once a year to set up an appointment for an exam and new glasses.
These apps are better placed on your other devices – a tablet or a PC. Why? Because these are apps for things you plan for in advance.
Your Mobile Apps are Like an Overstuffed Closet
We all have them – closets full of clothes, shoes, boxes, and unwanted gifts we have just squirreled away. And we keep telling ourselves that we have to clean those closets out. But we procrastinate until the urge finally hits us. Then we go on a cleaning frenzy and feel so much better once the fluff is discarded and what’s left is organized.
The same goes for your phone. Pretend it’s your mobile closet, and clean it out. You’ll be glad you did.