Smart Smartphoning – Did you remember to tidy your phone this morning?

December 15th, 2009

By Tom Gunn

self-discipline

Mobile phones now do more for us than we ever imagined they could. They serve as a hub of our personal information and communications, both written and spoken. Even though we’ve been taught since we were young ones about our own hygiene, a subject most of us neglect is smart phone hygiene. And just as we know we need to take care of both our bodies and our minds, our smartphone hygiene requires the same approach.

Now as your mother would say…

Clean It Up
First, think carefully about the physical cleanliness of your phone. You hold it to your ear, you’re constantly touching it with your fingers, and depending on the model it may be very near your mouth for minutes or hours at a time. Aside from any cash you may be carrying, your smartphone may be the most filthy object you carry on your person. samsung-sph-m4650-smartphone Now there’s no need to use a hanky every time you touch it or go to extremes, but it might be a good idea to use a spray disinfectant or a little rubbing alcohol on the surfaces once or twice a week to keep bacteria from building up too badly. Your smartphone may help you get your work done and stay in touch from day to day, but if you’re not careful it could actually make you sick; not exactly a productive outcome.

Shut It Off
Put your iPhone down once in a while. Phones can do more for us than ever before, and with the latest smartphones this is especially true. There are software applications for everything from finding a date to brushing your teeth, not to mention mobile email, all at your fingertips twenty-four hours a day. Too much exposure to electronics, however, can only increase your stress, especially if your device is how you connect with your work life. Turn it off from time to time. Replace your facebook with a little face time. Take a walk, say hello to people, and leave the smartphone at home. A little balance in your life can go a long way towards staying healthy and happy in the long run.

Oh, and remember your second grade teacher? They’d probably say something like

Clean from the Inside-Out, your Brain is just as Important to your Health!
Since you’re using your smartphone for so much of your social networking and communication, email management can become a challenge. You don’t want to become an Android, just use one. But even if you’re only using your Android smartphone for personal communications, the tweets, the text messages, and the emails can all begin to pile up quickly. This “electronic crud” on your smartphone can start to impair how well it functions.

Keep in mind that, while your phone may be capable of holding large amounts of data, the performance of the device tends to diminish as the data piles up. The best way to handle this is to periodically backup and delete your old messages so they’re not hanging around adding unnecessary clutter.

htc-hd2-03 One of the best hassle-free ways to handle this is through Hosted Exchange services. These allow you to sync and back up your mobile device over the air. Virtually every smartphone model has a means to connect and you can always sync to your home or work machines aswell for both PC and Mac users.

This can be a real benefit for those who struggle with email organization between devices and workstations. With a Hosted Exchange service like mail2web Mobile Email, you can organize your email while riding the train to work. Drop your emails into the folders you want them in for future reference and arrive to work with a clutter free desk and desktop computer. Everything stays neatly prioritized and organized, making the most of your time. With Hosted Exchange, every change you’ve just made to your email on the way to work is manifested at your desk, as though you’d been there the whole time.

Hosted Exchange also helps users keep track of calendar changes. If an appointment is postponed you can enter that change in Outlook or Entourage at your desk. The Hosted Exchange service will then automatically sync that change with your mobile device using ActiveSync, supplying you with accurate up to date information if and when you need to check your schedule away from the office. Wasted minutes of frustration and headaches become a thing of the past.

The same goes for contact information. Your address book listings stay complete and accurate across all your devices and computers. If there’s a contact on your Windows Phone you don’t need anymore and you decide to delete it, it’ll be removed across all your computers and devices. Your data not only follows you around, it changes as your needs change.

Hosted Exchange services aren’t free, but the investment can be well worth it. How much would it cost you, for instance, to miss a job interview or an important meeting with a client all because your data isn’t properly synced?

As our tools become smarter, we must be smarter in how we use them. Smartphones help maximize what we can achieve but a clean phone, inside and out, means a healthier, happier, more productive user.

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