How to Make Your iPhone Productive

If you’re here to read this blog, I’m guessing your iPhone is uhhh mess (sorry not sorry). No worries, love, I am here to help! I am going to get you set up and ready to conquer your work day AND personal day!

Throughout this blog, there are links to video clip tutorials on how to do the steps I am talking about. Please be sure to watch these if you need help!

Before we dive in on how to make your phone productive, here are important terms for you to familiarize yourself with so that you can follow along with the blog!

Widgets:

A widget on your iphone home screen shows current information from your favorite apps. These widgets can help you access important information at a glance without ever having to actually open the app!

Folders:

Folders on your homescreen allow you to group together apps that you use regularly.

Pages:

The multiple screens of your unlocked iphone that hold your apps and widgets.

App Library:

Your final “page” on your iPhone that has every app that you have installed organized into categories. This is where ALL of your apps are located even if you don’t have them available on other home screens.

Follow these steps to get your phone productive and ready to go!

Step 1: Minimize the amount of Pages that you have and remove all your apps!

The pages you have on your home screens hold all of your apps. The more apps you have, the more pages that will show up. iPhone now allows you to get rid of pages, and only show the pages and apps that you want to see (the rest of the apps are stored in the App Library).

I suggest having 2-3 pages maximum in order to keep your phone simplified (this can vary depending on how many hobbies/jobs you have)

Examples of some pages I have:

First Page: Blank with a Date Widget on the top

I keep this screen empty from apps and calendars so that I don’t see any notifications or alerts on apps. When I see these notifications, I want to check them, but that is what I try to avoid (when I work, I will be on a different page of my phone, but when I am not working, I don't want to see those notifications.)

Second Page: Work Page with apps and widgets that I use for my business.

This screen is full of all the apps and widgets I need to run my business. This keeps me focused on what I need and not on what I don’t need during my work time.

Third Page: Personal Page

This screen will have your personal apps that you use for personal use and fun! This will look very different for every person, but it is essentially just a landing page for your favorite apps that you use for personal use (kindle, libby, snapchat, etc).

Next, get rid of ALL of your apps on your 2-3 pages. This just means to move them all to the app library (NOT DELETE THE APPS). We want to start with an empty page for this process. Use the videos below to help you minimize pages and move all of your apps to the App Library.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to minimize pages.

Watch here on how to move your apps to the App Library.

Step 2: Add Widgets to your Pages:

Widgets can be super beneficial on your home screen in order to access information without ever having to open the actual app. They can be added to your screen with different sizes and shapes so that you can pick the one that best suits your needs. Here are a few of my favorite Widgets:

1. Calendar Widget on “Business” page

2. Notes Widget on “Business” page

3. Color Widgets (with today's date and time) on home page

*These widgets can be organized on different pages to serve different purposes. You decide how you want to use yours :)

Here is a quick tutorial on how to find and add widgets to your pages.

Step 3: Add apps to your pages and organize them into folders.

This is the most important step!! Go through your app library and identify your apps by one of the following categories:

1. The App should stay in the App Library but not appear in any of my home screen Pages.

2. The App should appear in my personal, business, or other page on my home screen.

3. The App should be deleted because I no longer use it.

When you decide an app should be on a specific page because you use it often, move that app from the App Library to the Page it fits on. This allows you to access all of the apps you need on one page and not have to hunt it down, leading to extra time of actually working and less time scrolling through pages and apps!

The next step is to organize your apps into folders based off what you use them for. An example of this is that you could put all of your social media apps into one folder titled Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, Canva, scheduling app, etc).

Tutorial on how to add Apps from your App Library to your Home Screen.

Tutorial on how to create and rename folders.

EXAMPLE OF PHONE SET UP:

Home Page: Date and Time Widget (Color Widget)

Business Widgets: Calendar Widget and Notes Widget Apps: Business Suite, Google Calendar, Trello, HoneyBook, Canva, Banking App, Gmail, My Business, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger

Personal Page with Apps you want

Step 4: ENJOY!

Now your phone is set up to allow you to be productive when you need to be and RELAX when you need to!

Have more questions? Email us at boostvirtualky@gmail.com

Thank you so much for reading today! I hope this email was beneficial and helpful!