To make this easier to explain, I’ll break the layout down photo by photo and tell you how to imitate it.

First page (home): This is where you have to do a personal reflection of the apps you have. Identify all the apps you use daily, and separate them from the rest of your applications.

Identify your four most used social media apps, and put them on the top of the screen. Next, identify four apps you’d define as productivity apps, and put them on the bottom row.

So why is Twitter on the bottom row of my home screen as a productivity app? That’s because I use it for work purposes primarily. In my case, its function isn’t for socializing.

Second page: Throw all your remaining apps into one folder. Don’t worry about the order or anything else. Ideally, you’ll never open this folder again unless it’s to delete an app.

Widgets page: If there’s one piece of advice that you accept from this article, it should be to use the widgets page. Set up all the widgets using the + button at the bottom of the page, and you can see which of your apps are eligible for the screen.

My secret is only the eight applications from the first page have the honor of making the widgets screen. Since they’re my most used, I can have all my needed information condensed and available at a glance.

Additionally, I’d highly recommend you use the search function to find any application that’s not in your daily use. This process is far faster than hunting through the hundreds of apps you may have and has allowed me to organize my device in a more efficient manner.

About those social media apps …

I understand having social media-based apps on the homepage of your device runs counter to the usual advice, but there’s an honest reality behind it. And in my experience, this is what works.

A year ago, I was assigned a project in one of my university classes. It was a social-media fast, which meant no texting, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and all the other apps you could think of.

So what was the hardest part? It wasn’t quitting — but rather the fact that everyone I knew kept reaching out solely on social media to contact me, and I was forced to respond for academic reasons.

Therein lies the reason for my recommendation to keep certain social-media apps on your homepage. We live in a day and age where social media dominates the landscape, and there’s no way around it. Friends and family use it to contact one another, and disconnecting can actually distance you from your relationships.

That being said, I must once again stress the importance that only the necessary social media apps are placed on your homepage. This includes email, texting, and maybe a few other strictly social-style apps. You should curate this strongly based on what you actually use for communication and maintaining relationships.

There are also stipulations with this recommendation that have to do with notifications, which I’ll outline below.

Tier 3: Adjust notifications

I have one more strategy you should use for organizing your apps: adjusting your notifications. I currently have found success using two methods when it comes to my notifications. Pick one:

Method 1: Only turn on notifications for your top four apps, and remove notifications for every application in your folder on the second page — as well as the bottom row.

That being said, turn sound off.

I say this because the red circle is distracting enough on the homepage. The ding you hear when you get a notification, however, is actually unhealthy. Researchers speculate the ding of a phone can cause your brain to release small amounts of dopamine. This inevitably builds the addiction to your phone. Additionally, if you’re responding to emails on your device and you get a ding from social media, you’re more likely to drop what you’re doing and get off-task.

Method 2: I use this strategy if it’s a midterm or finals week at my university. In short, turn all notifications and sound off. Your home and lock screen should always be completely blank.

I have some friends who keep their devices this way 24/7 and spend far less time consumed by social media and other distractions. Personally, I don’t usually need to go this far to stay focused on my phone, but it’s certainly the peak option for improving your productivity.