Removing Distractions on your iPhone
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a solution to manage and reduce notifications, apps, and other intrusions to allow a more intentional life. Many of these things still have value, but better control of when, where, and how I engage seems to be improving my days.
Screen A
Screen B
Most suggestions are available in the current and previous iOS operating systems for iPhone/iPad and MacOS. Some screens may differ, but the principles remain the same. I’ve embedded links to videos and screenshots of my device to illustrate the tools and implementation. If you prefer to watch a single video, this video by Kayla Le Roux covers most of what is described below.
Screen A represents my base screen and shows every app in a highly organized folder structure. This allows most every notification from all apps and people. I try to limit this “state” the most and only when I have the time and energy. Mins to hours each day.
Screen B represents my “Solve Work Problems” screen and allows me to manage most common work tasks. Most of my day is spent here to allow some level of focus with an ability to connect with appropriate contacts. Hours each day.
Screen C represents my “Focus on What Matters” screen and shuts most things off allowing a hyper focused and most relaxed space. I try to switch to this once I’m doing things I choose to do either in the evening or while spending time with others.
The Concept Overview
Clean up / organize your current screens.
Use Focus Mode to identify “states” of your life to define the level of intrusions.
Use advanced screen/icon management settings to isolate and support those “states.”
Practice and refine over time.
Implementing Step 1: Clean up and Organize Screens
This step may take the most time, depending on your screens’ clutter. A clean “base” helps in steps 2 and 3. If you have many screens with random apps, widgets, and clutter, manage and clean them now. Some helpful tips and reminders:
Delete unused apps. You can reinstall if needed in the future.
Clump similar apps into folders based on type, activity, or frequency. The goal is to reduce the number of overall screens in general.
Identify the most critical apps in your life. For me, it’s Calendar, Reminders, Photos, Camera, Phone, and Notes. These apps should not be in folders and the most critical should be in the Dock bar.
Review the notifications options for all your apps in Settings. Reduce as many notifications, alerts, sounds, badges, etc. as you can.
Review any widgets that are critical and remove/add as needed. If you don’t know how Widgets work, check out this helper doc.
Implementing Step 2: Crafting Focus Modes to identify “states”
The iOS Focus option gives many options to define how your device works. Review this video and this one to understand its usage. Once you grasp its features, consider the following:
Screen C
Define a custom focus mode that makes sense for YOU. I used language like “Solve Work Problems”, “Focus on what Matters”, and “Consume” to help shift mindset in real time versus wider terms like “work”, etc.
Define who and what applications you want to engage with when you’re in that “state”. Start small and experiment with settings! I needed to revisit things several times to get them right.
Implementing Step 3: Refined Screens to support your focus
You can now leverage additional iOS features to create “state” specific screens to further isolate and maintain your focus. Here are tips on refining your screens.
Review this video, focusing on how it uses the App Library to drag multiple app instances to different screens. This method lets you create screens with only the necessary apps for a specific “state.” For example, my “Focus on what Matters” state displays only critical apps without affecting apps on my base screen.
Review THIS video and revisit your settings for each Focus mode and update which screen is the primary for that Focus mode.
Review this video to learn how to avoid viewing other screens while in a specific Focus Mode. This is the final “a-ha” moment to all the work above and once you see the simplicity it really helps with the overall concept.
Some apps, like Settings, can only be on one screen, but Search, Siri, and the App Library are always available to get access to these apps.
The apps in the task bar must be the same for all screens and cannot be changed. Defining your core apps is crucial as they can reside in that space across all screens.
Implementing Step 4: Practice and refine over time
Once you grasp the core concept, repeating for various “states” can be gradual and refined. It took me a few days to optimize and feel efficient and I continue to refine each screen as I use it daily.
iPhone 15 and up owners can use the physical Action button, while others can manage the process via iOS Control Panel settings.
For the adventurous, try the Shortcuts app with Widgets to build buttons for each screen. I tried this and found it semi difficult. Let me know if you have success.
A Few More Thoughts…
If you’ve logged into your iCloud account on multiple devices, the Focus settings are copied to each device automatically and shifting one device will shift all devices. Steps 2 and 3 still need to be done locally on each device for maximum usefulness. This is great if you use multiple devices!
There’s deeper integration with the Safari web browser, including auto-shifting between different Safari Profiles, to reduce further web distractions. Check out the Filter options in the Focus Settings to unpack this feature.
Focus mode is available on Macs but the implementation is lacking compared to iOS. The most critical feature is screen management in Steps 2 and 3.