My goal to say No more often this year is one that I’ve been working towards for some time. For the last 6 months or so, I’ve been down to one screen of apps on my iPhone. My home screen, though, is constantly evolving as I need it to. This series will document how my home screen evolves over the course of the year.
The Dock
Calendar– While I have a calendar widget as well, I still default to using the full calendar app to check my calendar. Being able to access that quickly is super important to me because it’s one of the most important things I do on my phone.
Messages– I’m guessing this is the one thing I do the most on my phone (though I could probably try to empirically prove that as true).
Overcast– My preferred podcast app. I listen to lots of podcasts. Moving Overcast into my dock has made it much easier to hit play more quickly.
RELATED: My Top 5 Must-Listen Podcasts + 3 Podcast Listening Tips
Safari– For privacy reasons, Safari is now my default browser everywhere.
The Right Side
Given that I’m right handed, the five apps on the right of the screen are my secondary dock. (They’re the easiest to reach with my thumb.)
Day One– For journaling, which I rarely do on my phone.
Todoist– For managing all of my life. I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Mail– Only my personal email makes it to my phone (sorry work), so I mostly use this to read newsletters that come to me
YNAB– The budgeting app I’ve been using for just under a year now!
HabitShare– This is how I track the daily goals I set for the month.
The Folders
There are some apps that are functional to have, but I rarely use. I’ve buried these into folders. My existing folders are:
- Apple- Default apps that come with the phone that I don’t use
- Pictures- Apps used for editing or adjusting photos and videos
- Finance- Mostly apps used for payroll, banking, investing, and monitoring credit
- Entertainment- GoodReads is buried in here and I use that pretty often. Otherwise, just a collection of stuff that is “fun”
- Travel- Maps, airline-specific apps, and TripCase, which I love
- Fitness- Mostly tracking-related apps, but I recently added the CrossFit Games app, in preparation of the Open!
- Lifestyle- A collection of apps that I don’t want on my home screen, but don’t belong in another category
New Additions
In the last month, I’ve added Furbo and Refining Fire to my app list, as well as the aforementioned CrossFit Games app.
We were gifted a Furbo for the holidays and the app allows me to interact with it.
Refining Fire is a bible verse app with a Watch app.
Let’s see if they stick around.
I’m really fascinated by looking at other people’s home screens because I really think it speaks to how people use their phones. What’s on your home screen? What are your must-have apps?
Emilie is an Army Wife, Data Engineer, and CrossFitter with a love for working through her thoughts in this space on the internet. She lives with her husband Casey and their pup Bo in Savannah, GA.