How I 'KonMari'ed my phone

Minimalism isn't a new or a recent phenomenon. In it's nature it is a tool used to live more with less. Whether that's with material possessions or the likes of a mentality, it's centred around the idea that you have less going on so you have more capacity to focus on what's important and prioritise accordingly.

With a world that is digitally polluted and overwhelming to the senses with a constant ebb and flow of advertising, the movement of minimalism is cutting through this and offering an alternative. In a society wrapped up in suit ties and cluttered inboxes, minimalism is helping people to not only be more productive with their lives but restructure their value system, focusing on building themselves, the relationships around them, as well as optimising their workflow for increased success.

Someone that's breaking new ground in this area is Japanese best selling author and organisational consultant, Marie Kondo. Coining the 'KonMari method', this is a phenomenon that is capturing the hearts of people across the world. Marie Kondo focuses on a decluttering system that gets you to ask yourself the question, does this item bring me joy? This focus cultivates an ideology on only having items in your life that serve a purpose or bring joy.

One of the things that has been causing some brain clouding has been my electronic clutter. With a desktop full of icons, numerous misc files, and an overflowing downloads folder on top of a messy phone organisation system, my brain was about done. Following a post I saw somewhere in a mazagine/blog I saw the approach of applying this method to your phone.

How does it work?

Essentially you follow these steps:

1. Delete all the apps that you don't use or bring you joy
2. Select the top 2-4 apps you use and pin them to the bottom
3. Create one single folder and put every other app inside of it
4. Turn off all phone notifications excluding the most important apps (in my case, it's my messages)

After the process, here's what my phone looked like:

Page 1

Page 2

Initially, the KonMari phone edition was done on an iPhone so I couldn't have all of the icons on the one page without it automatically deleting the empty page. To counteract this I used one of my other most used apps for the homepage to allow my Apps folder to show up on another page.

In terms of functionality, when you need to access another app you simply use the search function and avoid scrolling through a folder/pages to find it. 

How has this process made a positive impact?

Increased clarity of mind: When I open my phone it is nice just to see an image with 1-2 icons. Having less visual noise helps me to focus on the task at hand.

Increased productivity: Not being able to see the apps helps me forget what's on my phone and in turn I am less tempted to go on apps for impulse reasons such as scrolling Pinterest or playing games.

Decreased time wasting: Instead of opening my phone when it lights up with an email or app update, I can allocate parts of my day to answering emails and replying to messages as only my top priority apps have permissions set.

In summary, this has helped me to change my mindset of my phone from a noisy, multitasking toy to a clean, productive tool. This change of mindset has helped me to hone my focus on the important things and my habits have grown in only needed to turn to my phone when I need a tool or sorts instead of a way out in awkward social situations or as a time filler.

This is something that I would highly recommend trying out, it is definitely something that I can vouch has made a positive difference in a step towards a more minimised, productive way of living.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------