Digital decluttering is a self-help must-do and one that, for the most part, I’ve failed miserably at. I’m the kind of person whose computer desktop is the digital equivalent of picking up a stack of papers and throwing them everywhere. I regularly waste time scrambling through it when I need to find that one important document among the various screenshots, downloads, and copious files named “untitled.” (Or “untitledV2”, or “untitledFINAL”, and so on).
Unsurprisingly, my phone was no different.
Thanks to ever-increasing storage availability, my iPhone had expanded into a several-app-page monstrosity, with no organization whatsoever. It was a mixture of apps, folders, and webpages — a full royal rumble of icons. I’ve tried a whole host of tricks and tips to sort it: color-coding, using only folders, using just a single folder, deleting everything, and more. All resulted in a few days of thinking it’s working, realizing it’s not, and reverting to old habits. I needed to find an answer, because this chaos had consequences. Opening my phone was not only distracting — it was also stressful. Research has shown that our digital clutter can make us feel just as stressed and overwhelmed as our physical clutter.
And then a hero appeared. Well, it appeared a while back, with the release of iOS 14 and the App Library. And, once I recently started using it, I realised I had finally found the solution to my clutter.