Second, and directly related to that first point, I’ve been trying to jump right to the app I need without any stops in between. You might think you’re unlocking your phone and opening the home screen just to check the weather or just to reference your to-do list, but once that magical distraction portal is open, who knows what might happen?Ī simple “Is it going to rain tonight?” might become a distraction-filled plunge into social media or Googling random things.

But I found that the lock screen widgets offered a bigger benefit because than just that because they helped me change two less-than-productive phone behavioral patterns.įirst, I’ve been trying to open the phone less because opening your phone up is an attention trap. Sure, there’s a fundamental benefit to putting some information on your lock screen: you don’t have to unlock or open your phone to get that information. They’re Not Just Useful, They Can Help You Focus Lately, however, I’ve been attempting to change some phone-related habits, and I didn’t realize how much lock screen widgets could help with them. But when the lock screen widgets arrived, my attitude was, “Who cares? I already have widgets.”

It took me a bit to adopt those too, and when I finally did, I found them genuinely useful. Way back in 2020, with the release of iOS 14, iPhones finally got home screen widgets. Even being aware of them, I’ll admit I didn’t pay them much attention.

Todoist desktop widget