Welcome to the sixth issue of Homescreen. Here you can find ideas, thoughts and reasons why I choose which app deserves to stay on my phone, tablet and smartwatch.
This week, I describe what’s on one of the most used watch faces: the one dedicated to fitness.
I’m writing this on my iPad Pro while walking on my walking pad under the standing desk, at 6:00 PM, after a long productive day.
Since starting this newsletter, I forced myself to review the workflows I have on my devices, and one I’ve been hating for a while is the one on my Apple Watch.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a ‘true workflow’ on the Apple Watch, but watch faces can do wonders if they’re set up correctly. The thing is, if you don’t update the setup as you change your life, you won’t find it useful anymore.
And my life has changed a lot over the past two years, and my watch faces haven’t changed that much to reflect those changes.
So I set up to review the most important watch face: the fitness-focused one.
I use the fitness watch face when the Fitness focus mode is on, which is activated when I’m around the gym and/or running a workout.
I chose an Infograph template with a white background:
On the upper-left side, I put the Fitness widget showing a summary of my Activity Ring, so I know if I’m meeting my daily goal;
On the upper-right side I have a Storytel shortcut - I have a subscription and I sometimes like to listen to audiobooks when I’m walking on having a light workout;
On the lower-right side I put the Music widget that shows what’s playing - because why wouldn’t I listen to music to pump weights 😀
On the lower-left side I put the Podcast playing widget, because I often catch up on my podcasts when I workout in the gym or take a walk
In the center, I mostly have shortcuts to tracking apps I use the most during the week:
GymLife for weight-lifting on the left;
SwingVision for tennis on the right;
Workout app at the bottom for everything else - mostly walks lately.
At the top, and all around, the Gentler Streak widget that’s very useful because it tells me, at a glance, how much I can push for the day’s training: in this case, it tells me that today I can take on a 55 minutes tennis workout because it shows ‘55 minutes’ and the tennis workout icon.
It’s so convenient because I know how much Gentler Streak works as a fitness monitor.
And the overall watch face is so convenient as well because I have everything I need for the whole fitness week, and not just for a day or a single situation. It’s very flexible, yet simple.
Thanks for reading!
If you have ideas about new apps to try, don’t hesitate to shoot an email to hey@jaack.me
