Screening My Digital Real Estate

Tony Robbins doesn’t miss a chance to emphasize: ’Where attention goes energy flows’ and in this article I want to bring your focus to the most important digital real estate in your life (No, not your Facebook profile!) — the home screen of your phone!!

On that note, here is a screenshot of MY phone’s home screen and through this article, I’ll explain why it is set up that way. I hope this exercise helps you create a conscious relationship with your phone and more importantly, helps you create more time for the things you truly love — as it did for me!

Well… this is where you can start judging me and my home screen. Enjoy!

Okay, it is not an iPhone, your judging experience begins. So, as you can see, I don’t have more than one screen: and this is where I access the apps I need the most. At the end of this article, my hope is for you to be able to ask yourself: ‘Why do I need more than one screen?’ If it helps, you might even want to do a digital Marie Kondo, to fit everything you require in just one screen.

Hey hey — I know you’re wondering why — and here goes: This process will make you question the purpose of every single app and the attention that you give it during the day. At this juncture you need to use your judgement: while you may be tempted to keep the ‘Facebook’ app on your home screen, you’d do well to ask yourself: ‘Is it really worth it?’

Several researches suggest that the act of having to click one additional click creates a (good) mental block that discourages us to subconsciously access apps that don’t matter. So, to give it a shot, I uninstalled Facebook (the app.. From my phone). I do post for business and personal reasons (or you wouldn’t be reading this article either?), but now I am forced to do it on the desktop vs having to open the app and then indulging in the doomed scrolling. My current desktop process, just FYI, significantly cuts down the time I spend on Facebook. Having said that, I use the Facebook messenger app to communicate with friends across the world and I love it. Can’t blame a guy for wanting to be on top of that communication game, can you?

Is that a fanfare I hear? Or are we coming to most people’s favourite — Instagram! I am sure most of you noticed the Instagram app on my home screen (like I said you can judge!). Apart from utilising the platform for business purposes, I follow quite a few personalities like — Jay Shetty, Simon Sinek. I avoid the doom scrolling by prioritizing their stories and posts first (Again, by applying awareness here!). And of course, to connect with my international friends (Okay, I agree it is my vice and I’m allowed to have one).

If you take a closer look, two apps that are on my phone but are consciously absent from my home screen are: the stock trading app and the crypto trading app. Over time, I have realized that I don’t need to track the price of every security I own, constantly. This simple act has redirected me towards my desktop to access my stock and crypto apps (which is quite tedious) — and the result? A shiny new homepage with a spot that can be filled by an app I *really* need.

If you’ve gotten the drift of the intent behind the whole “Choose what really matters to you” thing, the next step to de-clutter that home screen, is to leave a space or two open for something new to find you. Personally, I did try Clubhouse for a bit — not my jam (get it?). The fact that I leave an open space or two in my prime digital real estate makes me feel good — it is like having a garden in your house and not cramming every inch to make it the living quarters: you’ve got plenty of room to breathe and to grow!

Now, here is where it gets interesting: originally, I did track digital well-being natively on my phone but I don’t do that anymore. Everyday, I’m conscious of making my phone work for me and not the other way round. If you want to know how I do it, here are the things that have helped me:

• Most of my notifications are turned off and certainly, no email ones are on!

Fun Fact: I was so addicted to Office Mail when I worked in my corporate job that I took the blasphemous decision of uninstalling Outlook on my phone (I Know!) and using my browser to check my office mail when needed. P.S.A.: Best decision ever!

• I keep my phone on Airplane mode from 9 PM and turn it on only after 8 AM, post my early morning yoga practice. #SingleYogiThugLife #HatersBackOff
• Notice from my screenshot that I keep my phone on silent/vibrate? I honestly don’t know what my ringtone sounds like, lest it rings when I’m not expecting it to.
• Digital Shedding — I try to look at other apps on my phone and uninstall the ones that I have no use for anymore. (I uninstalled Car2Go recently, remember that?)
• Bonus: This episode ‘Dial D For Distracted’ from one of my favorite podcasts — Happiness Lab by Dr. Laurie Santos has made me aware to try and ask myself before I randomly pick up my phone — ‘Why, Why Now and What For?’ If I can’t answer all of them well, I leave it in the other room, where it usually is, when I’m working!

Of course, no size fits all. Play with it — My home screen gets tweaked here and there from time to time, but it has never been more than one screen for as long as I can remember now! P.S: This is a practice I followed even before my awareness journey began.

Your objective should be to use your phone efficiently to create more offline time.

If you are still judging — Yes, I view my weather in Degree Celsius. I am about to complete 2 decades in America and I still can’t get around Farenheit. I mean, how elegant it is that water freezes at 0 and boils at 100!

Oh and the words that you are struggling to make sense of on my home screen — Chitram, Dhyanam, Aharam & Vahanams are Sanskrit/ Indian words for Movies, Meditation, Food and Transport respectively. Don’t worry — I saw you peeking and thought I’d help out!

If this has been a useful read for you — or it made you have your own “Aha!” moment, don’t forget to let me know and also share your tips on how you go about maintaining your home screen and utilizing your phone and time optimally.

Leave a comment if you resonate with what I share and even if you don’t — I’m open to all suggestions. Feel free to ask about any of the apps I have that you may or may not recognize — For instance: The Oura Ring & App have been a blessing, never ever tracked my sleep to such precision and made life changing lifestyle changes.

That’s it for this one, folks — until next time!

Stay blessed.

raja sampathi, calmcorporate