the uncluttered smartphone experiment

February 10, 2019

I’ve noticed the rise in my smartphone usage over time. I realized I had over 100 apps. 30 were the default pre-installed ones but where did the rest 70 come from? This is how my phone screens looked like:

When I checked, 50% of these apps weren’t used by me in the past couple months. I went right out and deleted them irrespective of the feeling that I might need them just in case. I deleted all social media apps, turned off all notifications, and put the remaining apps in one folder. This is now the only page I have on my phone:

It’s an effort to streamline, cut out the noise and distraction, and be more focused on what really matters to me. Nick Baker and James Connors discussed how de-cluttering our lives could improve creativity on Minor Details Podcast and I do need more creativity to design better. But would putting everything in a closet help? As Nick said, just don’t open the closet! Myrin (Jacob Dawson) was already a step ahead in deleting all social media/infinity loop apps and using the true distraction free smartphone. In fact the sound of this clip is from his YouTube video on this topic. Check it out. As far as posting sketches everyday is concerned, I will install Instagram once a day, post, and uninstall. No endless scrolling.

Why do I need to post everyday? Because it has helped me build a habit of sketching and to push for the extra mile every single day since the past two months. I can see the improvement in my work and it’s a commitment I don’t want to let go of.

Get on board if you aren’t already. I’m sure we all could use less screen time.