Too Many Apps Draining Your Battery? Time For a Digital Spring Cleaning.

This is a guest post from Marissa Steimel, a senior at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Marissa serves as the executive chair of the University Program Board to plan events on campus, mentors students through the Emerging Leaders Program and the Pierre Laclede Honors College, works as a conference assistant with Conference Events & Services and participates in philanthropy/social/sisterhood events with her Delta Zeta sisters, all while completing an internship with BE Colleges in St. Louis. Follow Marissa on Twitter @SmileyRiss.

College students are constantly on their mobile devices. We organize our lives and function by utilizing apps on our smartphones.

My phone calendar is color coded to match my planner. The GroupMe app keeps me in contact with my University Program Executive Board. My social media apps have a folder all of their own because I have so many. My Google maps app is front and center because I have no directional capability and constantly need help finding my way everywhere. My US Bank app is responsible for helping me keep track of my finances as I’m preparing to enter the “real world.”

As spring arrived, I started traveling to visit graduate schools. During my various road trips, I realized I have a lot of apps on my phone I don’t actually use. You know the ones I’m talking about. You downloaded it because everyone else was or you needed it once, but now it’s just sitting on your phone, occupying precious device capacity. Why do we keep those?!

Part of the reason I became so concerned about battery life on these road trips was because I had been loaned a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 from Verizon Wireless to use for a few weeks. Let’s just say, it stayed charged for MUCH longer than my iPhone. I used the Google maps app on the Galaxy Note 3 on the way to Arkansas from St. Louis and it never lost service or died. That’s called winning.

I have to charge my current phone by midday because I’ve used up so much of the battery life at that point. I’m constantly moving from class to work to class to events to work to class. During that span of time, I’m emailing, texting, calling and updating from my phone. I need better battery life! Having the Galaxy Note 3 for a few weeks was a blessing because I could use it whenever my phone died…which happened a lot.

Anyway, in the car on my way to Arkansas last week, I decided I should complete a digital spring cleaning. I started sorting through my apps and deleting anything I hadn’t used during the past few months. Without even realizing it, I had built up stress over having so many apps on my phone. I breathed a sigh of relief as I deleted app after app. Now my phone battery is only powering apps I actually need (Google maps will never leave me!) and use on a daily/weekly basis. Digital spring cleaning = complete. Success!

Have you ever conducted a digital spring cleaning?

Disclosure: We loaned Marissa a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for this post.

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