Time to Organize Your Apps

I needed to find the Publix app on my phone the other day to check the weekly sale when I was making the grocery list, but somehow that Publix app is always lost in the clutter of the apps on my phone. Does this ever happen to you? I did eventually find the app, but I was frustrated for a few minutes until it finally appeared from the sea of all my other apps.

I decided it was time to organize my apps.  I started by asking myself, how many phone and tablet apps are too many?  How many apps to you have?  Maybe the most is important question is, how many of these apps do you use?

This is week 15 of Organize Your Life.  This week’s challenge is to organize your apps, on your phone, on your tablet even on your computer.  In case you missed any of the previous Organize Your Life posts, you can read them all on the Organize Your Life page.

Let’s get started working to organize your apps.

3 Easy Tips to Keep Your Apps Organized

Start by Removing the Apps You Don’t Use

How often do you hear about a great new app or see a post about a new app and quickly go download it?  You try it for a few minutes to see how it works, you might even use it for a few days, but then you get busy and forget about it.  Eventually, all these “exciting apps” you download just add to the clutter on your phone.

The first step to finding your apps is to remove all the apps you don’t currently use.  If you decide later, you really need it, you can always download it again.  But just like with the “stuff” in our home, we get rid of it if we are not using it, the same is true for apps on our phone and tablets.  If you don’t use it, get rid of it.

Next, Group Your Apps by Type

Don’t you feel better cleaning up all those apps you have not used in so long?  Your phone probably even feels lighter?  At this point depending on how many apps you deleted, you may be thinking, I’ll able to find my apps now.  But let’s add a few extra steps to really organize your apps so you can always find them when you need them.

With the apps you have remaining, sort them by type.  For example, if you have game apps, put all your game apps together.  If you have reading apps, but all your reading apps together, and so forth.  The main reason you cannot find your apps is because they are just added in random order.

Here are a few ways I organize my apps, I like to have all my Bible and Bible study apps to together, education/learning apps together, shopping apps together.

Take your time and get all the apps in the right places and all the similar apps together.  This step alone makes finding your apps so much easier because you know all your reading apps are grouped in one place or all your games are together not mixed up everywhere.

Finally, Create Folders by Category

The last step is to put your apps into folders.  I was not a very big fan of folders, but my son puts all his apps in folders and his iTouch is so organized.  He can always find his apps.

Create folders based on your groupings.  For me, I have reading apps, blog apps, Bible apps, games (not many they use up too much memory), education apps.  You could even be more specific and have folders for your apps and your children’s apps (mom’s games and children’s games or mom’s books and kids books).

If you frequently use an app, you don’t have to put it in a folder, you might find it’s easier to save it to your home page so you can access it quickly.

As you sort your apps and create your folders, find a system that will work for you.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.

To organize your apps, start with these 3 steps: delete all the apps you are not using, next group your apps together by type and keep them in order, and last create folders for the categories of apps you have.  You can always create new folders, delete folders and move apps around to design an organization system that will help you find your apps when you need them.

Your Turn…

How do you organize your apps?  Do you ever have a difficult time finding your apps on your phone or tablet?