Yes friends, as the incredibly hyperbolic
title of this video implies, you can indeed
organize your iPhone home screen in such a way
that it will transform you into an ultra powerful
work robot with super-powers of productivity.
If that weren't the case, why would I
and so many other supposedly productive
people on the internet spend so much time
organizing their iPhone home screens?
It just wouldn't make since. So, lets begin.
Before we jump into my current set up, I think it would
be good to contrast it with the previous one.
So here's a shot of my old home screen.
Not terrible, but not really great either.
Aside from the game the game sitting
in the home screen that shouldn't be there,
there is a lot of visual clutter.
Alright, lets move on.
The main thing you'll notice with my current
iPhone set up, is that it consists of only one screen.
I've chosen not to fill the whole screen up with apps.
Instead, I've realized that leaving
some space looks a lot nicer.
Instead of trying to fill up every single
slot with an app, I've narrowed my choices down
to the 16 apps that I use most
or that are most useful to me.
The rest of the apps live in one of four folders:
Work, Play, Go, and Sift.
Choosing these four categories took a lot of thought.
My conclusion after thinking about it for a while
is that besides the many apps I have
related to transportation and travel,
most preform actions that either help me get
things done or help me have fun.
The ones that don't fit live in the Sift folder,
which I thought was a better word than junk or other.
My home screen app choices are also
set up to maximize my efficiency
and keep me from playing with my phone more than I need to.
On the productivity side, I have apps like
To-Do List, Google Calendar, and pomodoro.
By the way, the specific pomodoro app
I use is called Pomodoro Timer,
though there are a lot of other ones to choose from.
The second ideal, reducing phone time,
is why you don't see Safari on the home screen.
I'm trying to get in the habit of
writing down ideas of things I want
to look up so I can do more concentrated research later,
rather than interrupting whatever it is I'm doing right now.
That's why an app called Drafts lives in my dock.
It allows me to open it and immediately start writing.
After that, I can easily export my note
into Evernote, and process it later.
I also don't keep Facebook or other
social media apps in my home screen.
I found that keeping them in the folders
actually discourages me from using them too much.
Tweetbot and Instagram are the only ones that get a place
on my home screen, as I post on them regularly,
but I don't really find myself
scrolling through them very often.
A couple of other things I've done to reduce distractions:
For one, no apps are allowed to have badge notifications
except for the Text message and Phone apps.
I've also massively cut down on
actual notifications my phone will send me,
and lastly, my phone goes into
do not disturb mode from 11PM to 6AM.
So absolutely nothing will get a hold of me
unless it's somebody calling for the second time.
Alright, so maybe you watched this video
and you're thinking to yourself,
"Wait a minute, that guy made a speed reading
video last week, and he promised me another
speed reading video this week.
So, where's the speed reading video? Hmm?"
Explanation.
So this being Wednesday as I record this,
tomorrow morning I'm hopping on a plane
to go down to Charlotte, North Carolina
for a conference called FinCon,
and unlike most of the conferences I go to,
at this one I happen to be speaking.
Given that, most this week has been
dedicated to designing that presentation,
creating my slides, practicing it because
unfortunately, unlike YouTube, I can't just do takes
over and over again until I get it right,
and hence, there wasn't enough time left over
to make that follow up video at a level
of quality that you guys deserve.
So, hopefully you enjoyed this shorter video.
I'll have the next video in the speed
reading series out next Thursday
when I'm back from North Carolina.
I'm gonna get back to practicing
my speech before my plane takes off,
and yes, before you ask, there will be a video
coming soon on how to make better presentations.
So, look forward to that, and in the mean time
if you've got tips of your own on setting up
your smart phone in a more productive way
or you have app recommendations,
leave 'em down in the comments below,
and I will see you in the next video.
Hey guys, thanks so much for watching this video.
If you wanna get ne videos every single week
on being a more effective student,
click the big red Subscribe button right there.
You can get a free copy of my book on earning
better grades by clicking the picture of it,
and also if you'd like to see the companion
blog post for this video with a summary and links
to any of the apps and resources I mentioned,
click the orange logo right there.
Last week, as I mentioned, was the first video
of my series on speed reading.
So, if you didn't happen to see it,
click the thumbnail to watch it,
and also, if you'd like to connect with me
I'm on Twitter @TomFrankly or you
can leave a comment down below.
Thanks for watching.