It’s December, end of the year. However I’m not going to review what happened this year, not yet. I just wish to share some thoughts on how we manage our digital lives in 2015.

I don’t know about you, but I regularly review what apps are on my iPhone, delete the ones I don’t need, while rearranging my home screen to make them neat and tidy. I have a few rules. 1) My home screen has to be functional, meaning I won’t blindly keep it minimal (down to a few icons or keep everything in folders). I display what are frequently used, and keep the useful ones in folders. 2) It still has to be tidy. I just won’t keep the useless ones on P.1.

And here it is.

There are a few points to highlight. 1) The Phone app isn’t in the dock anymore. I once considered putting it in the Social folder altogether. (Some kids even ask “how do I delete the Phone app?”) 2) “Calendar 5” by Readdle has officially replaced “Week Calendar” as my favourite calendar app. Apps by Readdle are always excellent, the other great app by Readdle being “PDF Expert 5”. 3) I don’t always turn to third party apps. Some made by Apple, though lacking features, are just handy enough. “Weather”, “Reminders”, “Safari” and “Mail” are fine examples. Yes, I’m using “Outlook” primary for push notification, but “Mail” remains my favourite app reading and sending emails.

Back in a few years ago, when the App Store first started, asking others “what apps are on your iPhone” became a social phenomenon. This coincided with the “what’s on your iPod” phenomenon in the early 2000s. It tells a story about who you are. When you keep your home screen neat and tidy, your life shouldn’t be in a huge mess either. On the contrary if you keep the “Game Centre” or even the “iOS tips” apps on the first page, I doubt you pay much care to your work.

Anyway perhaps that’s enough of self obsession. What I do isn’t always the best. What Apple does isn’t either. And that’s sad.