How to set up your phone for a better, happier, and more productive life

Did you notice? Your screen time is inversely proportional to your life satisfaction

This is probably true for you: your screen time is inversely proportional to how satisfied you are with your day, and consequently with your life. A phone often serves as the ultimate escape mechanism, and configuring it thoughtfully is among the best effective ways to improve our lives.

In this premium post, you will learn how to set-up your phone so that it works for you, and not vice versa.

In this post you will learn:

• How to create a home screen that helps you achieve your goals

• How to set-up a notification system that minimizes distractions while keeping FOMO in check

• How to set-up greyscale automations, so that your phone turns black & white when using social media

• The habits and set-ups needed for healthy social media use

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Create A Home Screen That Helps You Flourish

Here are general suggestions on how to arrange your home screen:

• Make addictive apps less visible & harder to open

  • Constantly change where they are so you don’t open them from muscle memory

  • Put addictive apps in folders so that they are harder to access

  • Remove them from the first page

  • Use search and type on your keyboard to open apps, instead of tapping on the icon, to be more intentional

• Have positive alternatives easily accessible

  • Have your to-do lists visible, so that you always know what else you could do. They do not have to be about productivity, they might be lists for movies to watch, recipes to test, places to visit, hobbies to try…

  • In your main page, put apps that facilitate activities you want to spend more time on in your life: a meditation app for cultivating a mindfulness practice, the kindle app to read more, the nike running club to work on your cardio…

• Create an inspiring layout

  • Use folders that reflect your values, instead of having folders with names like: “Meditation”, “Health”, or “Social”, mine are “Calm Mind 🪷”, “Fit Body 🏃‍♂️”, “Meet People 💜”…

  • Choose an inspiring wallpaper, maybe one with a meaningful quote, or of activities you want to engage with more often

• Make habits easy to track

  • Screen time widget

  • Habit widgets

Home Screen Example #1

In this I arranged my home screen to align it with my values. Each folder represents something that I value, and why the apps inside are there. “Meet People” for messaging apps, “Calm Mind” for meditation, “Fit Body” for training apps… I keep the screen time widget to keep myself accountable.

Home Screen Example #2

This is my current set up. Here I arranged my home screen with widgets to keep me on track with my life and goals. The Reminders and Habit widgets make sure that I always know of important tasks that I could be doing. Not having apps on the home screen makes me search for them using the keyboard, so I don’t mindlessly open on them.