The smartphone has become an ever-expanding toolbox, collecting tools that are often redundant, broken, or unused. You might have 50, 60, and even 100 apps installed—but you actively use fewer than 20% of them.
The rest is just digital dead weight you carry daily.
This accumulation has consequences. Every extra app means:
- More time searching for the one you need.
- More notifications vying for your attention.
- More updates pending.
- More time spent installing those updates.
- More storage space taken up.
It’s like owning a toolbox so cluttered that finding a single screwdriver takes 10 minutes.
The solution is straightforward but requires discipline: a minimalist approach with three layers.
- Essentials: The five to 10 basic apps you rely on daily, like messaging, email, browser, maps, podcasts, and a calendar.
- Useful: The 10 to 15 apps you use weekly that add clear value—banking, weather, a chatbot, or a trusted social media platform.
- Expendable: Everything else. If you haven’t opened an app in over a month, you likely don’t need it. The “just in case” logic doesn’t apply as often as you think.
Digital minimalism isn’t about restriction—it’s about clarity. Every app deleted reclaims a fragment of your attention. And unlike storage, attention can’t be bought.
App saturation has become the new ambient noise of modern life. You don’t notice it until it’s gone, and then you wonder how you lived with it for so long.
When your phone says “memory full,” see it as an opportunity. You probably don’t need more space. You need fewer distractions. Storing memories is a different story.
Image | Thom Bradley (Unsplash)
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