The Lazy Genius Podcast - #208 - Essentializing Your Phone Apps

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

Today, I want to help you essentialize your phone apps. In this episode, we’re going to specifically apply the Lazy Genius principle of essentializing to your phone apps to that you can go from being overwhelmed or annoyed or distracted by your apps to having them serve you in a way that matters.   Stuff Mentioned Find all of the Lazy Genius principles in my book, The Lazy Genius Way (affiliate link). If you’re looking for a resource about adult screentime, there’s an episode for that. Listen to it here. Essentialism by Greg McKeown (p.s. he has a new book out called Effortless!) Instagram is where I hang out the most online, so I’d love for you to join me over there @thelazygenius. Our Lazy Genius of the Week is Liz Wienke with her reminder to decide once and batch it. Download a transcript of this episode. This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I am Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 208, essentializing your phone apps. I'm guessing if you're listening to a podcast, you have a smartphone. It is not correct to say that everyone has one, since not everyone does for many reasons, but for the subset of humanity that is this audience, it is likely that everyone has one. So today I want to help you. you essentialize your phone apps. Essentialize is one of 13 lazy genius principles in my book, The Lazy Genius Way, which currently has over 1,800 five-star reviews on Amazon. Oh my cash! If you want to see if it's right for you. In this episode, we're going to specifically apply the principle of essentializing to your phone apps so that you can go from being overwhelmed or annoyed or distracted by your apps to having them serve you in a way that matters. before we get started this is not an episode about screen time there is one of those and it's actually super fantastic it's episode 196 had a lazy genius adult screen time and the feedback the week that

that episode came out was so good so encouraging no one felt shamed or judged about like how much they're on their phones because that's not the point is it the point is naming what matters to you and making choices to support that so just so you know what you're getting into today. This is not an episode about the time you spend on your phone. That is episode 196. This is focused solely on your apps, the ones you have, when you interact with them, and how they are stored. Now, if we're going to essentialize your phone apps, we need to know what essentializing is, right? The word essentialism was coined by Greg McKeown in his book, essentialism, which is a fantastic read. And it's focused more, though, on your work and vocation,

basically you want to only focus on the work that is essential rather than on all the extra stuff that takes you away from what is essential. But I think naming what's essential goes far beyond your work. And it also needs a few steps to help you figure out what to do after you know what is essential. That is why essentialize is a new verb that we will use in love in this lazy genius community. There are three steps to essentializing anything. First, name what matters. Second, get rid of what's in the way of that. And then third, make sure you have what you need to support what matters. It's pretty simple and the applications for this principle are like beautiful and very vast. You can essentialize your medicine cabinet, your exercise routine, your approach to birthday parties,

your relationship with your mother-in-law, and your phone apps. Anything can be improved using this principle. So first, we name what matters. What matters to you about your phone app. I am guessing the thing that matters most falls into one of three categories. The apps you have, like how they function and how they function, when and how you interact with those apps, and then how the apps are actually stored on your phone. Now, we'll break these down a little bit, but remember, I cannot tell you how to organize your apps or which ones to get because we have different lives and different priorities. What matters most to you does not matter most to me. So it's so important to name what matters most first. Once you do that, you'll be

be able to make way better decisions for yourself. Okay. So the first area, is your priority something about the actual apps? Does it matter most that you have the best apps that serve your life right now? Does it matter most that everything functions super well? Maybe it's like the best version of whatever that is. Does it matter that your app like syncs up with your laptop or someone else in your family? Does it matter that you only have fun things? that you don't want to have any productivity on your phone or the other way that you don't have fun things because they're too distracting. It's likely somewhere in the middle. But what matters most about the actual apps? However, maybe that's not your priority. Maybe the area that matters

most is when and how you use them. Is it that you use them more than you like? That you forget some really great functionalities are there and you don't use them very much. Is it that you go in for one thing and then you get distracted by another thing and forget the reason you went in the first place. Is it that you cannot find what you need? Can you not find the apps that you need? So it could be that the thing that matters most is in this category of when and how you interact with your apps. And then the third area is how they're stored. Is there something about how you access them, how your phone looks when you open it up, how they're organized? We all have different priorities and it could be that the aesthetic of that matters a lot to you. So take a minute to name what matters

most about your phone apps. And if you're not 100% sure, just name one thing you think is likely a high priority and then essentialize based on that for now, right? It certainly isn't not going to hurt anything. And then if things shift in the future, as they often do, you can just adjust later. This is not rocket science. You just choose. You won't do it wrong. And you might not be doing anything. at all now to intentionally think about your apps. So taking a small step in the direction of something that matters, even if you're unsure if it matters most, it's still going to make your life feel a tiny bit easier. Just that little bit of intention. Okay. So if the first step in essentializing is naming what matters, the second step is getting rid of what is in the way of that.

What is preventing you from being able to live with what matters most? If your priority is in that area of the actual apps you have that you only want apps you love and use, then the way you can get rid of what's in the way is to delete unused apps, right? Purge your phone. If you're worried that you'll purge something that you're going to want again, you can put all of the purged apps in like a folder, like its own folder on the last page of your phone. You can keep them, but put them out of sight if that is an issue. But you might have like three different meal planning apps or exercise apps or to do list apps because you download stuff in an attempt to get your life together, but now your phone is full of apps you don't use. So you could purge to get rid of what's in the way of just having essential

apps if that matters to you. What about if what matters most is when or how you interact with your phone? Again, check out episode 196 about adult screen time, but you could get rid of easy access to distracting apps. You could put them in a random folder. on a back page if you would like to stop just automatically clicking on Instagram every time you open your phone. You know, Instagram is not bad. I love Instagram. I want to make that very clear. I often do. What I'm saying is if what matters to you is that you're not distracted by the same apps all the time, you know, that automatic opening, maybe getting rid of easy access to them could help. You can also get rid of notifications for certain apps. You can silence notifications for certain text

threads or people that you text. There are a lot of people in your life who you text with, but who will not text you emergency-related things? Isn't that why we get freaked out about like turning off notifications and muting things? Is because we worry about an emergency? Well, there are a lot of people in your life who are not going to text you emergency things. So if what matters to you is to not constantly be tapped on the shoulder by your phone, you could silence some of your texts. You could turn off those notifications. your text still come through by the way if you've never done that before in that little red number or whatever is on non-apple products i don't i don't know what it is um but it still shows up like on

the icon but you just don't get the notification so you can get rid of alerts another way you can get rid of what's in the way if what matters is kind of excess time is setting some app limits in your settings or setting like overall screen time limits on your phone if you know it's not good for you to spend more than an hour a day on Instagram, let's say. You could set a limit for social media apps and your phone gives you a little high five and then like a pat on a butt to move along after it's been an hour, right? You could get rid of time. You don't know your spending by setting up some limits, right? Just to kind of give you a little hint of when like, hey, hey, Kendra, you've been on here longer than you would like to be. You can also, I do this a lot, you can get rid of

cellular data for certain apps. So if what matters to you, let's say, is that you read in carpal line instead of scrolling your phone, turn off the data to your distracting apps as a reminder to open your Kindle app or bring an actual book instead. You don't want to have to like stream and use all your data if you are like me and do not have unlimited data. And then what if what matters is how your apps are stored, right? You can get rid of an order of apps if it feels ugly or clunky. Like, you could streamline things in folders. You know, you could categorize it in folders or you could pull everything out of folders. Maybe folders are like not working for you. Get rid of folders. You could put fun or distracting apps in the back of your phone and productive ones in the front.

Or if productivity is what you want to chill out on, you could put your fun stuff in the front. You could put your Kindle app, a meditation app, and a fun game on the front page of your phone and put everything else in the back. Whatever matters to you. But get rid of organizational strategies with your apps that do not serve. What Matters to You. Name what matters and then get rid of what's in the way. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science Happiness Podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your

podcasts. The third step to essentializing your phone apps is to make sure you have what you do need to support what matters. If what matters most to you is, again, the actual apps that you have and that they serve you well. Notice if there is a category of app that you're missing that would serve you, like a meditation app, you know? Or maybe the app you do have to serve a specific purpose, like budgeting or staying in touch with people or making a grocery list, maybe what you have. It works fine, but it doesn't work great.

So maybe you could spend a few minutes looking for a substitute that works better. What if what matters most is when and how you interact? with your apps. Something that might be missing in supporting that priority is a routine around what you do when you pick up your phone. I will often pick up my phone to check something specific, right? Check the weather. I don't know, whatever. And I immediately opened my email app and then my Instagram and then I forgot why I came. So maybe, if that's you, maybe you have like a lock screen that says do what you came to do or stop trying to get everything done right now or hi you're really pretty i hope you're having a really great day i know that that's silly but like also you might need to add something to your phone

app life that impacts what matters most that helps you support what matters most if something is missing especially after you've gotten rid of what's in the way of what matters you can add that supportive thing to your life and then what if your priority is how you're your apps are stored. You could add categories and folders, you know, maybe there's a productivity folder. Maybe you want to limit your interactions with certain games or certain social media apps. So those are, you could label the folder. Like you can name your folders, right? So you can name the folder with a time frame you're going to engage with them. Like maybe you could make even like a carpool line folder. Like those are the fun distracting mindless apps that you're going to play around with.

during that specific time because that matters to you. You can organize your apps in rainbow color if having a pretty phone, if that matters. I've done that before many times. There's something so delightful about having rainbow screens. I couldn't really find anything all the time, but sometimes that didn't matter so much. You can change your lock screen or your background to something that makes you smile. I mean, I know we know that one, but like sometimes we forget to make that fun, make that image fun. You could put only one. app on the front page, like on that front screen, to remind you that that app is the thing you want to do more than the other things. There was a season in my life where the only app on my first screen was

my Kindle app. It was a visual reminder of like, hi, you love reading, just reminding you of that. And it was really great. So that is the process of essentializing how to do your phone apps. It's personal, but it works. You name what matters. You get rid of what's in the way of that. And then you make sure you have what you need to support what matters most. So to give you kind of an A to Z example, I will share my own essentializing process. So what matters most to me is that I, and that's right now, by the way, what matters

most to me right now, this changes depending on the season of my life. What matters most to me is that I don't go into like that Twilight Zone, that phone, Twilight Zone where you like forget why you were there or how much time passed, you know. Like I said, I really love Instagram. I do. And I use my phone a lot to work on Instagram because it's part of my job. I use my phone to stay in touch with people to, you know, stay on top of what I need to do, like all the things we love about having a computer in our pockets. But when it comes to zoning out, I would much rather read. Like much, much rather read. I don't like, to zone out on my phone. And I said this in adult screen time that episode. It's actually important

to remember that apps and the internet and social media and all of it, it is created to make you stay. That is the whole point. People make money when you're on your phone. So they're going to do whatever they can to keep you there. Now, there is nothing wrong with staying there. There's nothing wrong of staying there. But if you want to have a different intention with your time at certain times of the day or whenever you open your phone, it's important to remember that it is a bit of an uphill battle just because of how the thing is created. So all that to say, my biggest priority with my phone is that I do not fall down the rabbit hole and find myself like having scrolled for an hour when I could have been reading or that everything is so automatic that when I open the phone to check if it's supposed to

rain during soccer practice tonight that I spend 10 more minutes opening the other apps because they're just there and I've gone into automatic, right? So if that is what matters, the best thing that I can get rid of is the expected. I have to trick my brain into not expecting a certain app to be in a certain place. That simple tap of like, oh wait, that's not my email app because I moved it to another folder, like with completely unrelated things, that helps me wake up enough to remember that I'd rather be reading, like almost always. Or it reminds me that I can check the weather and then turn off the phone. So I will get rid of my phone set up often. Like I will rearrange everything. I will put stuff in different folders and on different pages. It's almost like

it's almost like being in like high school English class and you're in discussion groups and then everyone has to get up and find a new seat and find a new group or whatever or like a camp game. I do that with my apps. I do that with my apps to keep my brain from getting too connected to interacting with them in a certain way. And then that third step of like what do I need to add, it kind of depends on my season. Sometimes after like a busy work season when I'm on Instagram a lot. For example, when my book came out last year, I was on Instagram all the time. I needed to have the only thing, like after that season was over, I needed to have the only things on my front screen, be my Kindle app, the Spotify and Sonos apps so I could play music on my phone and in my

house, Voxer, because I like talking to my friends, and then the Starbucks app, because it was fun to think about, like, taking a minute to get a treat after a busy season, right? I don't always know what I'm missing until I think about the season I am in, right? And so what I need to add, it kind of depends on the season. Because remember, that lazy genius principle, there's another one of live in the season. It is really important to name where you are. I needed my phone a lot when I was launching my book. Like to put Instagram and my camera app and the apps I used to make graphics and all that, to put those in some obscure folder on a back page, it would not have served. me in that season. It would have been really annoying. So they were on the front page for that.

What you need depends on your season. It's not as simple as like be on your phone less. That is diminutive and it generalizes your situation. It might even feel like you're shaming yourself. You decide what you need. And there are seasons where we need to take a break from all the apps or some of the apps and other seasons where we want to play so much two dots or spider solitaire because our brains are just like so overloaded with input that we just need to zone out on a card game. Like you decide what matters. And once you do that, you can essentialize your phone apps to support it. I hope this helps you and gives you some encouragement to see your smartphone through different eyes. In case you are interested, I will be sharing my essential apps on

Instagram this week. I have ones that really do impact my life in like super great ways every single day. So I will share those at The Lazy Genius this week. So if you don't follow me there and would like to, please do. And of course, I would love to hear how you are essentializing your phone apps. We'll probably have like a feed post or something where you guys can share what you're doing to name what matters, to get rid of what's in the way and have what you need. The more we practice essentializing and practice applying all of these lazy genius principles, the easy. easier it becomes. Okay, before we go, it's time to celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week, it's Liz Wanky. Winky? Winky? I'm sorry, Liz, I don't know how to say your last name.

She wrote an Instagram post recently at MamaStay underscore Well, which is great name. That's such a name. Mama stay. Come on. And her post was so beautiful and so very lazy genius and I just wanted to share it with you. So Liz writes this underneath a picture of her. She's got this like sassy smile on. She's wearing a t-shirt that says, espresso yourself, which is so great. She says the following. Dirty hair, tired eyes with yesterday's makeup smudged beneath them, picking up takeout yet again. We are in the middle of a move and things feel hectic. Things are hectic. I've often resisted survival mode. It just felt like a cop out, an excuse to just not try. But like it or not, we are smack dab in the middle of survival mode over here. I started listening to

the book, The Lazy Genius Way, and it has been, no, it is the biggest breath of fresh air. It's given me permission to let go of perfection. Moving is chaotic and trying to tightly control it. I can't read guys. And maintain order and routine in every area would lead me right over the edge. Instead, the principles of this book are helping me prioritize what matters and let go of what doesn't. I'm doing my best to live in the season, principle four. I'm feeling more organized than I thought because I'm deciding once, principle one, batching it, principle nine, and essentializing principle 10. I let people in principle eight. And she tags a couple of people. Thank you for taking our kids. And most importantly,

I'm trying my best to schedule rest, principle 12, and be kind to myself, principle 13. Lacey genius, if you're looking for a hype girl, I'm her. She is me. And this may seem unrelated to my usual intuitive eating content, but I firmly believe that if I had not given up dieting and learned to cultivate self-compassion. I'd be a tightly wound mess right now. Letting go of perfectionism with food really does spread into other areas. Start small. Principle number two. Liz, I love every single ding-dang word of this. Thank you for so generously sharing about the book, for one, but also showing us how to apply multiple principles in a way that supports what matters to you. This whole thing just made me smile so big. So thank you for being a lazy genius and encouraging your community and listening and

reading and all the things. I hope your move is going well. Congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. That's it for today, y'all. Thank you so much for listening for following me on Instagram at The lazy genius, for reading the lazy genius way, and for being generally awesome humans. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way.

We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your Podcasts.