{Day 1} Discovery in Contentment and Simplicity

Day 2 of #31Days

Simplifying My Phone

I have a tendency to want everything. 

Really, I do. My family says I'm awful to shop for because I usually buy what they were going to get me.

This week I'll be talking about discovering what I have, being content and simplifying anything that has become "too much."

Today's topic my cellphone!

I love my iPhone. I updated it. It's a wonderful blessing and a horrible curse.

It's a hot mess right now. Too much data used and untouched apps. Preparing for the update, I deleted so many apps, very few have I actually put back on my phone.

There is no reason to keep my phone cluttered. I need to figure out what is important and what I can live without.

I use my phone as.... a phone. Genius idea.

I use my phone primarily though for texting, social media, camera, surfing the web, planning, and reading. 

So, if an app doesn't fit the bill it goes!

Social media is a big one. It rules our lives; it is the 21st century curse.

If I didn't have Instagram and Pinterest on my phone I honestly don't know how I would handle it. 

I use a lot of camera apps to design pictures and buttons for this blog, social media and for fun. But there are some apps I have never used and a couple I want, but there is no room on my phone.

Surfing the internet is pretty explanatory. We will talk about my excessive tabs in another post.

I love my Evernote, notes, and voice recorder for planning. But most of my planning is done via paper and pen.

I use my kindle app and adobe reader for e-books. I love free ebooks. I read everyone that lands on my phone! And I use my Bible app daily for my quiet times.

I also have random apps floating in the atmosphere of my gigabytes. Some are "essential" that don't match the other categories.

discovery 

Miriam Webster defines discovery as: 

the act of finding or learning something for the first time : the act of discovering something. 

I've discovered quite a bit about my phone.

It's always in my hand.

It's always full.

There's many unused apps.

I am unhappy and stressed when I try to use it!

contentment

Miriam Webster defines contentment as:

the state of being happy and satisfied : the state of being content.

I've uncovered I don't enjoy using my phone.

I've uncovered that I waste time trying to find what I'm looking for and stumbling onto an app that wasn't what I needed.

simplicity

Miriam Webster defines simplicity as:
the quality of being understand or use : something that is simple or ordinary but enjoyable

I've found out that my phone isn't easy to understand or use.

I've found out that it isn't simple and enjoyable.

I've discovered that I am not content with my phone and that it is making my life complicated.

Steps to recovery:

1. Evaluate all apps on my phone

2. Evaluate the layout for simplicity

3. Clean up music on my itunes so as not to clutter my phone music. Since the update, it's completely changed and stressed me out. 

4. Make sure pictures are backed up via dropbox and then erased from phone to save space.

5. Clean out my notes, texts, voicemails, and any small data that builds up.

6. Test out the new and re-evaluate to make sure I'm content and is simple.

How about you? Is your phone making your life easy, or stressed out? What steps will you take make sure?

Stay tuned for day 2 of #31days tomorrow!

Intro: 31 Days of Discovery in Contentment and Simplicity