Turn Your Smartphone Into a Simpler Phone (Without Buying a New One)
Published October 2026 · Last verified October 2026
Before you buy a minimalist phone, know this: you can make the phone in your pocket far calmer and simpler for free. Here's the gentle, step-by-step way on iPhone and Android — grayscale, fewer apps, big text, quiet hours, and more. Want a hand? My number is (330) 200-8042.
Before you buy a minimalist phone, know this: you can make the phone in your pocket far calmer and simpler for free. Here's the gentle, step-by-step way on iPhone and Android — grayscale, fewer apps, big text, quiet hours, and more. Want a hand? My number is (330) 200-8042.
What's inside this guide
The printable PDF walks through 21 short chapters, in plain language. It also includes at-a-glance pictures.
- You may not need a new phone at all
- The whole guide, on one page
- What we're really doing
- Step one: turn the screen black-and-white
- Step two: clear away the apps you don't use
- Step three: hush the notifications
- Step four: one tidy home screen
- Step five: make everything easy to read
- Quiet on a schedule: Focus and Bedtime
- Android only: a simpler launcher
- iPhone only: a drastically simpler phone
- Two reasons to simplify, two sets of steps
- Why keeping your phone is often the smart move
- A good order to do it in
- Organizing what's left
- Turning off the little tricks that pull you in
- Keeping it simple over time
- When simplifying isn't quite enough
- Simplifying a phone for someone you love
- Common Questions
- You don't have to do this alone
Get the printable guide
Everything above is a quick summary. The full, printable guide — the same words, laid out to read and keep by the computer — is a free PDF.
Last verified October 2026.
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