Too often, I get my phone out to make a quick note, and then I get distracted by something on the screen and forget the thing I was going to write down in the first place. That’s why I try to reduce the distractions on my phone as much as I can. I allow notifications from only the bare minimum of applications, and have reduced the number of visible apps and widgets to remove the clutter.
Here’s what my setup looks like.
Lock screen
I keep my lock screen widgets minimal: just the battery status of my AirPods and my watch, to not forget to charge them, and the temperature, so I don’t need to check the weather app if I just want to know how hot or cold it is.
I use a randomised photo from my library as background, as a nice little reminder of somewhere I’ve been, but I’ve switched it to black and white and turned off the depth effect to make it less attention-grabbing.
Home screen
I use a simple dark grey background on the home screen, but I refuse to go as far as using monochrome icons. Struggling to recognise what’s what is the opposite of a minimal phone setup to me!
I keep my main apps on a single screen, and I make a point of not filling the whole screen. Everything else is hidden away in the app library.
Lastly, a calendar widget on this screen ensures I don’t miss anything important, since I rarely open the calendar app.
Today view
In the today view, I keep a single, non-scrolling screen of useful widgets: the weather, the status of the public transport lines I use for my commute, the balance of the montly allowance I pay myself, my step count, “find my husband” for checking how far away he is when I’m waiting outside a restaurant, and a world clock to see the time where he is when he’s travelling.
Control centre
Finally, I keep the control centre to shortcuts I use frequently to things that are otherwise hidden away elsewhere, like network controls, the torch, brightness, screen lock and low energy mode.
So, there you have it. My phone setup is neither the best looking nor the most minimal, but it does what I need it to.