Welcome to the fourth issue of Homescreen. Here you can find ideas, thoughts and reasons why I choose which app deserves to stay on my phone and my tablet.
This week, I describe one of the main pages of my iPad Pro Homescreen.
After about 4 years with a combination of MacBook Pro and iPad Pro 11”, in September I decided to scrap everything and sell my iPad, shelve my MacBook and get a WiFi + Cellular iPad Pro 13” (M4) to replace both.
I would still use (a lot) my Mac Mini M1 as the main desktop computer, but I found out that when I travel I want and need to be way more focused. With this setup, I have few cables that I need to get in the bag, and I can switch from reading an article or a book to working and typing in seconds. This matters a lot to me.
I sacrifice the few times I find myself coding on a laptop for extreme portability and ease of use.
Over the next few weeks, I moved some apps around and I preferred positioning widgets instead of apps icons. If an app has a widget, I’l very likely use it.
The main page that I set up is what I call the Start Page: it has the most important things I need to look at when I open up the tablet:
The Reminder widget that filters the tasks for Today: I can toggle off completed tasks just by tapping without opening the app, it’s so convenient;
The Parcel widget filtered by Active Deliveries: I’m using and paying for Parcel (3,49/year until last year, now 4,99/year) for about three years now, and I like it because I can connect Amazon and it recognizes most of the tracking codes directly. I have a lot of shipments either in or out every week (because of my Pokémon TCG side hustle and the fact that I like to sell my used things instead of throwing them in the trash) and I always need to be able to check where are my shipments;
The Music widget with my most recent playlists: I love listening to music when I write or work in general, and it’s even better doing it when I’m in a lounge, bar o during a flight. I just put my AirPods in, tap on one of the items and go;
The Calendar widget with the biggest view about all my calendars and meetings: I don’t like this view very much (I prefer the widget from Fantastical), but it’s free and I don’t usually look at meetings when I’m traveling, because I use my iPhone and notifications on my Apple Watch;
The Battery widget: because of course, when traveling it’s important to know if the AirPods case’s battery is draining out, and I don’t want to stay without headphones during a noisy flight!
This seems like a very simple list, but I got here after doing a lot of turnarounds and long paths. I’m not ‘ashamed’ of choosing and using simple apps because I believe complex apps and setups is for the mid-curve, and when you try everything, you just want to get back to simple things.
Not every page on my iPad is this simple, but I try to make them as simple as possible: no shortcuts, no workflows or automations like IFTTT (and I’ve used that for very long, believe me). Everything needs to be seamless, otherwise it’s us working for the computer, and not the computer working for us.
Thanks for reading!
If you have ideas about new apps to try, don’t hesitate to shoot an email to hey@jaack.me
