Attempting a Practical iPhone Homescreen

Several months ago, my iPhone mysteriously restored itself to the original factory settings. While this inconveniently occurred while traveling on business without access to iTunes, I took the opportunity to purge the device of excessive apps. I only restored apps that I actually use (novel concept, I know).

In an attempt to limit the times I check email, I removed my email account from the iPhone. That lasted about 3 days (two of which were the weekend). It was not practical. Two important examples caused me to put my email account back on the phone: (1) Ruby Receptionist sends voicemail .wav files as email attachments (mission critical information); and (2) while most emails do not fall in the urgent and important category, people often send last minute emails before meetings, etc., to which I need access.

Here is my current home screen:

I placed apps that I use on a daily basis as part of my workflow on the main screen sans folders. Some highlights:

• Yammer – our firm’s internal social network;
• Dictamus – a critical piece of dictation workflow – described here;
• Lose It! – a calorie/exercise tracker; and
• Omnifocus – yes, it is back, despite this post; to be explained another day.

I moved the Mail and social media apps to a folder labelled “Do Not.” The Mail app previously was in the static dock but was just too easy to access. Placing those apps in this folder serves as a nice little reminder to stop constantly checking email, Twitter, Facebook, and others. Others that get used are in folders on the home screen. For example, Clio is our legal practice management solution. I use it for heavy lifting on the iPad, where it has a more prominent spot.

I move these apps around based on new workflow or the app flavor of the week. How do you arrange your apps and how often do you rearrange them?