Well, Ill be: Its a new year! Already. Somehow. I think. (For full disclosure, Im still at least 77% asleep from my traditional end-of-year hibernation/hiatus. Kindly forgive any mid-sentence snores or nonsensical outbursts.)While most of the world is obsessing over Shiny New Stuff for 2025, though with the avalanche of awkwardly overlapping announcements known as the annual Consumer Electronics Show, along with all the never-ending crowing over almost-functional AI flummery personally, I like to think of the new year as a perfect opportunity to take stock of stuff you already have, give it all a good old-fashioned tune-up, and get it ready to work even better for you in the months ahead.Especially with Android devices now being supported with current software for longer than ever, youve got every reason to think about your phone(s) and tablet(s) the same way you do your car(s). In both those arenas, a teensy touch of easy occasional maintenance goes an impressively long way in keeping your tech in tip-top shape.And with Android, you really dont need much. In fact, so long as your device hasnt been involved in a metaphorical fender-bender, you dont even need a mechanic just about 20 minutes of time and the willingness to get your fingers a little greasy (metaphorically speaking) with some simple cobweb-clearing spruce-ups.So pop open your hood, pull on the nearest pair of oil-stained coveralls, and get ready to get your hands (metaphorically) dirty: Its time to step into the garage and get your mobile device back in fighting form for the coming year.Make your way through the following six steps and if youre hungry for even more advanced Android awesomeness after that, check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to uncover tons of new time-saving tricks.Step #1: Uninstall unnecessary apps Time required: 3 minutesThis first step may sound silly, but believe you me, it can make a mountain of difference: Whether theyre apps that came preinstalled or programs you downloaded once upon a moon, theres a decent chance youve got at least some unused items lurking in the mustier corners of your favorite Android gizmo. And guess what? Those forgotten icons do more than just collect virtual dust. They actively work against your need for Android-oriented speed.First, superfluous apps take up space both in the physical sense of your phones internal storage and in the sense of clutter that makes it tougher to find what you actually want at any given moment. But beyond that, abandoned apps often take a toll on a phones performance and stamina by needlessly eating up resources. And beyond that, they also open the door to some easily avoidable privacy compromises.You can probably scan through your app drawer pretty quickly and figure out which programs you havent opened in the past month or two. If you see something you arent using or something you really dont need touch and hold its icon and then look for the Uninstall option that appears around or above it. Remember, you can always reinstall it later if the need ever comes up.And if an app cant be uninstalled, it probably came preinstalled on your device and is baked into the system courtesy of your phones manufacturer and/or carrier. You should still be able to disable it, though: Either long-press it and then touch the i icon that appears or find and tap its title within the Apps section of your system settings. Then, look for the Disable command, tap it with gusto, and send the thing off to app hell precisely where it belongs. Bonus tip: Want a helping hand in identifying your unused apps? Grab Googles standalone Files app (which notably may not be the same as the Files app that came preinstalled on your phone). Open it once, then set yourself a reminder to check back on it in a month. By then, Files will have built up enough data to be able to tell you which apps you arent actually ever using and to give you a super-simple way to get rid of all of em with a few quick taps.The Files app by Google makes it easy to identify and then uninstall apps you arent actively using.JR Raphael, IDGJust be sure to think through its recommendations carefully before uninstalling anything. Sometimes, the Files app will flag an app as unused if you havent explicitly opened it in a number of weeks even if its something you actually do rely on as a background utility. But its a helpful starting point for this part of the process and a great way to get your tech-tinged tune-up going.And speaking of stuff that runs in the backgroundStep #2: Lock down resource hogs Time required: 5 minutesMaybe theres an app you genuinely do use but that drags your phone down with over-the-top background activity in other words, doing stuff you dont need it to do while you arent actively looking at it. Facebook and Instagram are both notorious for this sort of obnoxious behavior, and theyre anything but the only offenders.Lucky for us, though, even when an app is poorly designed in this way with abusive background activity and no easy option to stop it you can still reclaim control. Start by opening up the Battery section of your system settings and finding the app-by-app battery usage breakdown. (On some devices, you may have to tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the Battery settings to uncover that option.) Thisll work best if you do it toward the end of a day, when your phone has plenty of activity to analyze.Tap any app with high battery usage and then see how much of its activity is happening in the background while you arent actively using it. For any programs with high amounts of background activity, ask yourself: Is this app doing something in the background that actually matters? For instance, do you really need Facebook or any other social media and news tools to be refreshing their feeds while you arent looking at em? Probably not. But lots of apps like those do that by default and end up draining your devices battery and monopolizing its horsepower as a result.For any such items you come across, youve got two options: Look in the apps own settings to see if theres a way to turn off its background activity or, provided your phone is running 2017s Android 8 release or higher (which, by golly, itd better be!), use Androids own background restriction option within your phones Battery settings or Apps settings to shut it down at the system level.Disabling an apps background usage can cut down on unnecessary resource use and make your entire phone feel faster.JR Raphael, IDGLets check one more place, just to round things out: Head over to the Network & Internet section of your system settings (or the Connections section, if youre on a Samsung phone) and tap the line labeled Data usage or, if dont see that line, tap either Internet or Mobile network and then tap the gear icon next to your carriers name followed by App data usage. (On some devices, you might see App data usage or possibly Mobile data usage right on that initial screen.)However you get there, you should find a list of how much data different apps have been using as of late. Select any apps with high amounts and see how much of their data transferring is going on in the background. If an app is using a significant amount of background data for no apparent reason, take away its ability to do so by deactivating the Background data toggle on that same screen which will in turn free up precious processing power and battery juice in addition to stopping the needless drain on your mobile data plan.With both parts of this step, just be sure to use common sense and avoid disabling background permissions for any system-level tools things like your Phone app or Android OS as well as for any apps that genuinely need such capabilities in order to operate (like a messaging app, for instance, which wouldnt be able to look for new incoming messages if it didnt have background data and battery access).Step #3: Nuke annoying notifications Time required: 4 minutesThis next step is less about system performance and more about your own sanity and ability to get stuff done. Notifications are distractions, after all and odds are, your phones giving you plenty of attention-demanding alerts that are ultimately slowing you down.Think about all the notifications that show up on your Android device and then think carefully about how many of em provide you with truly pertinent info that warrants the interruption. Do you need to know about every breaking news story the second it happens instead of finding that info when you actively seek it out on your own? What about social media mentions or incoming emails? Only you can decide what makes sense for you, but Id be willing to wager you have at least a couple (and more likely a coupon dozen) types of notifications youd be better off without.If you think of any such examples, march into the Notifications section of your system settings and tap App notifications. You can then select any app youve got and either turn off all of its alerts, at the system level, or disable only certain types of alerts its able to generate for instance, leaving on notifications for direct messages in LinkedIn but shutting off all the other types of interruptions that service loves to send your way.You can also get even more nuanced and change the way certain types of alerts appear maybe setting an apps less important notifications to show up silently so youll see em eventually but wont be bothered when they arrive. Bonus tip: Provided your phone is running Android 9 or higher, theres a quick n easy way to find your worst notification offenders: Head into that same Notifications section of your system settings, tap App notifications, and then look for the Most recent bar or the All dropdown at the top of the screen.Tap that, then tap the selector at the top of the screen and change it to Most frequent and then, youll see an ordered list of exactly which apps are interrupting you the most. You can tap on any apps name from that list to jump directly to its notification controls and tell it to kindly hush its virtual beak.Your Android notification panel doesnt have to be an inefficient, clutter-filled source of stress.JR Raphael, IDG And if you want even more notification-improving intelligence, check out my free Android Notification Power-Pack to explore six next-level notification enhancers thatll make any Android device instantly more effective.Step #4: Clear out your storage Time required: 3 minutesAndroid phones often have limited amounts of local storage especially when youre working with an old Android device or one thats more on the midrange to lower-end side of the spectrum. So the next step in our speed-up will clear out the clutter and free up some of your devices precious local space. Thatll give you more room for future downloads and app installs, of course, but it can also help your phone run a heck of a lot more smoothly.The biggest storage-sucking culprit, not surprisingly, tends to be content from your camera so if you arent already using Google Photos excellent cloud-syncing capability, head into the apps settings and set that up now. Then, you can safely erase all the local copies of your photos and videos and still access them as if they were on your device. Plus, you can get to em fromother phones or computers, too.The rest is refreshingly easy: Remember that Google Files app we were talking about a minute ago? Open it up and look through the cards on its Clean screen. Theyll show you a bunch of smart suggestions for stuff you can clean up and delete, ranging from junk files and duplicates to already backed-up photos, videos, and other files you arent using and likely dont need. You can review all of the suggestions and then click a button to sweep any of the associated files away without ever leaving the app.Youll have a smoother and quite possibly speedier Android experience with less stuff clogging up your storage.JR Raphael, IDG Bonus tip: If youre using a Google-made Pixel phone, look for the Smart Storage option within the settings area of the Files app (which you can get to by tapping the three-line menu icon in the apps upper-left corner and then selecting Settings). Activating that will allow your phone to automatically remove already-backed-up photos and videos whenever your storage is running low or after the files have been on your device for a certain amount of time taking all the heavy lifting out of your hands and making the ongoing maintenance almost entirely effortless.Step #5: Spruce up your home screen Time required: 4 minutesAlmost done! Up next is a simple step thats all about organization, speed, and the resulting efficiency thatll bring you all by getting your home screen tidied up and in optimal working order.An organized home screen makes it faster and easier to get to the stuff you use the most and realistically, for most of us, thats a relatively small number of items. Remember: This isnt iOS! You dont have to treat your home screen as a generically cluttered grid of every single thing youve got installed.So look at every item on your home screen and think carefully about how often you use it. If it isnt something you open at least once daily or close to it, take it off. That way, your home screen will act as an efficient launching pad for your most essential apps, shortcuts, and widgets the stuff you actually access on a regular basis and then everything else can be pulled up quickly as needed via your scrolling alphabetical app drawer. Bonus tip: If you really want to take your home screen efficiency to the next level, consider exploring some of the many excellent custom Android launchers that are out there and waiting. They replace your standard home screen environment with something much more customizable for your specific work flow and preferred methods of getting stuff accomplished, and they can make any phone feel meaningfully faster, more efficient, and also just more pleasant to use.Step #6: Flip Androids secret superspeed switch Time required: 1 minuteLast but not least is one of the most powerful speed-boosters for any Android device, no matter how new or high-end it may (or may not) be.Its a secret switch that puts your phone into a little-known and deeply buried turbo mode of sorts. Itll take you virtually no time to find and activate, and trust me: Youll notice a definite difference the second you do.Ive got all the info you need in this quick n simple guide.And with that, my dearest darling, your speed-seeking Android adjustments are complete. Give yourself a hearty pat on the back and grab a well-deserved donut and get ready for your phone to roll out of the shop and rev its engine all over the world.Ready for even more advanced Android knowledge? Come check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse next. Youll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your freshly optimized phone!