Part 1: iPhone/Smartphone Application Organization
My iPhone is organized on two screens. The bottom bar of both screens houses my "essential" applications: Messages, Facebook, Music and Phone Calls. The first screen has all of my "most used" apps. These include Contacts, Safari, Settings, Camera, Mail, Notes, Calendar, Reminders, Clock, Weather, Maps, Newsstand, App Store, iTunes and one app folder titled "Social" that houses the following: Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Blogger, Messenger (for Facebook inbox), Album Manager (for uploading Facebook photos on the go), Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, Pages (for managing this blog's Facebook page) and HootSuite. The second screen of my phone has five folders entitled Utilities, Photos, Wellness, College and Study Tools. The Utilities folder houses Voice Memos, Stocks, Compass, Calculator, Apple Store, Emoji, iBooks, Errands, Countdown, Game Center and Passbook. The Photo folder houses Photos, Videos and PicFrame (photo collage app). The Wellness folder houses Nike + iPod, my gym's application, SleepSounds, Nike Training, Sleep101, Juice and Sleepbot (notice a pattern with the sleep apps?). Finally, the College and Study tools folder house my college's applications and StudyBlue/Quizlet applications respectively.
These folders help me easily locate different applications so I am always updated with the latest information.
Part 2: Computer Folder Organization
Maybe I'm crazy or maybe I've just had too many important documents go missing, but I am especially particular about organizing my computer folders. I have four main folders on my desktop: High School, College Applications, College and Personal. In both the High School and College folders are subsets of folders, first divided by grade (i.e. Grade 12) and then term labeled with the year (i.e. 12Sem2 for 2012 Semester 2). In each term folder are folders for each class (i.e. AP Lit). The documents for the particular class go in that folder (sometimes I even create subfolders for large assignments i.e. "Final Portfolio"). So to recap I would click High School --> Grade 12 --> 12Sem2 --> AP Lit --> Final Portfolio. The Personal folder houses a Photos, Blog, Projects, and Miscellaneous folders. The College Applications folder is filled with one folder per university I applied to and folders within that for each supplemental essay I wrote. Example: College Applications --> Random University --> Essay: Who Are You? When editing any kind of essay, I save every draft as a new document (as well as tracking changes) to ensure that no changes are lost in case I want to go back for inspiration.
Hopefully these tips for organizing your gadgets help keep things neat!
xoxo