My Home Screen - January 2024

I’ve written before about my home screens. Find all articles at the homescreen tag. (At the time of writing there’s only one other article there, but I intend to update it now and again, as I fiddle with it constantly.)

Main Home Screen

This is my default Home Screen. I also have one that I use at night time; I’ll come on to that in a bit.

There are some visible differences from last time. For example, I’ve moved Obsidian and Todoist into the Dock, reflecting how I actually use my phone most often.

Widget Changes

• I’ve replaced the Awesome Habits widget with a bigger Carrot Weather one, because I get more value from that through the day. (Awesome Habits is still useful at night though, see later.)
• I’ve replaced the Kindle widget with Albums, because I like the album covers being the full size of the widget, and I listen to a lot more music than I read books right now.

App Changes

• GoodLinks is an app I’ve used for a while, but I’m consolidating all my Read Later usage into it rather than using Safari Reading List.
• Kindle is now an app icon because, although I don’t have space for the uninspiring widget, I still need encouragement to read more.
• I’m trying Fitbod because I need to be more active. I like the app, but I need to know I can actually fit using it into my life enough to commit to the high subscription price.
• Google Photos and Duolingo are still used, but are Night Focus apps now.
• Huckleberry is much less useful now that my children have gone past the point where we need to track their sleep.

General Usage

I still use only one Home Screen, and then a combination of Spotlight search and the App Library for finding everything else. I find the suggestions in the App Library pretty decent, and search works way better for me than browsing deep through screens or folders.

I tried again with Focus Modes and I like the setup I have now. Work mode, which I won’t share here, has my work calendar and work apps on the Home Screen, letting me get quicker access to apps that I use during work times.

Night focus lets me change my phone to reflect how I use it at night time, once my kids are asleep. Or when I’m sitting up with the younger one when he won’t go into his cot…

Night Focus Home Screen

The Fantastical widget is replaced by Todoist, to let me glance at what I still have to do this evening.

Night Focus is where Duolingo and Awesome Habits come back as widgets. I need the big visible reminders for the various habits I’m tracking, including learning French. But being realistic, I can only use them in the evening.

Similarly, Mail and GoodLinks aren’t as useful as Fitbod, which I can use much more easily in the evening, or Disney+, which I watch a lot of at 3am.