Welcome to the first Tidy Tuesday of December!
I don't know about you, but where I am, it's cold. Really, really cold. Winter feels like it's finally here.
This month, as the year winds down, we'll be looking at some quick reset/clean-up tasks you can do to give yourself a clean (or at least less cluttered) start in the new year. The idea is to take care of some easy things that usually don't make it to the forefront of your attention, other than as a minor annoyance while you're in the middle of doing something else.
For this first week, it's time to focus on your phone. You can approach this from many different angles, as most of us have lots of ways things slowly build up and clutter the device we carry just about everywhere. All you have to do is take 10 or 15 minutes and focus on some little tasks that collectively make a noticeable impact.
Here are my recommendations to help make your phone feel fresh and uncluttered:
- Clear your screenshots folder. This often contains hundreds of forgotten captures--one-off images that you sent to a friend or coworker in a text thread and then forgot about. You can find these in your phone's official Photos app under Collections,. iPhones have them one level deeper under the "Media Types" heading; you might need to scroll to the right a bit to find it. On my phone, I had 41 screenshots, which was actually a lot less than I expected. I deleted 30 of them and opted to keep the rest, most of which are funny memes, and the world can always use more of those.
- Delete old text message threads you no longer need. This is another one, especially if you get (and ignore) a lot of political or employment spam. (Seriously, who actually responds to unsolicited text messages promising a job that pays $1,000 a day?) But in addition to spam threads, this also applies to legitimate conversations that are no longer relevant: Facebook marketplace sale discussions, group chats about where to meet for dinner, and so on. I tend to keep most of my one-to-one text conversations around forever, but there are almost always at least half a dozen I can delete anytime I look. Also, don't forget alternative messaging platforms: Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and any others you might use.
- Review storage settings and clear app caches. Check this in your phone's Settings app under Storage (or sometimes General and then Storage). There's often not too much you can do directly from this view, but it provides a good high-level look at which apps use the most space on your phone, and sometimes what kind of data takes up that space--videos, photos, etc. If you're perpetually or even just occasionally low on storage space, this gives you an idea about where to start cleaning up for the biggest, fastest improvement.
- Remove stale contacts. This might include duplicates, outdated numbers, and even people you don't recognize. These entries in your phone don't really take up any storage space, but irrelevant or inaccurate contacts make it harder to find the right person or company when you need to. Bonus: just looking through your contacts might remind you to call or text someone you haven't spoken to in a long time.
- Delete voicemails you've already addressed. I'm bad about this one; I don't get a lot of voicemails, but it's way too easy for me to forget they're hanging around in my mailbox. Just don't forget (like I often do) to actually delete the message once you're done with it.
- Delete unused apps. We covered this during Apps Month in Tidy '24: Purge the Unused. Apps collect on our phones, and they don't delete themselves...why would they? But I'd bet you use fewer than 10% of what you have installed on any kind of a regular basis. That doesn't mean you should uninstall the other 90%, but it does mean you could probably get rid of a bunch of them without even noticing, simply because you haven't checked in a while. Take a few minutes and look through everything you have installed; even if you only get rid one one or two, it's better than nothing!
- Review and tighten notification permissions. This is another topic we covered in Tidy '24, the week after the post I mentioned previously: Silence the Distractors. Allowing too many notifications through is far worse than just having too many apps on your phone in the first place. I'm personally pretty bad about this, too, because I'm overly optimistic about what notifications I'll actually use. If you find yourself scrolling through a mountain of pending--and often quite stale--notifications just to find the one you thought you saw earlier, or yesterday, or last week...it's likely that you also suffer from hyper-optimism in the digital world. (It's an affliction with many symptoms, and this is only one.) Take a look at that Tidy '24 post and see which apps truly deserve the privilege of interrupting your day. Your attention is the most valuable resource you have. Don't let anyone take it without your express permission.
Now, you might notice that photos don't show up in this list, even though you probably have tons of photos on your phone. Never fear; photos get their own dedicated week.
Also, don't worry about doing everything I mentioned above. Feel free to pick and choose based on what applies most with your usage style. Even if you only do one task, that's better than zero! And if you have other ideas, go for it--and I'd love to hear them for next time the topic comes up.
Until next week, stay warm, and happy data-taming!