My Favorite iOS Widget
I know widgets dropped on iOS14 a while ago and we are about to get iOS15 so, while they're not new, I wanted to share my suggestion of a widget that everyone should have somewhere that’s front and center.
Spoiler alert: it's the Screen Time widget!
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that covid and quarantine caused me to ask myself some pretty deep questions. As a result, I've started to seriously geek out on the concept of time.
I'm going to go as bold as to say that time is our most valuable resource and each of us only has a finite amount of it. To go even further, without being morbid, none of us have any idea when our time will run out making it even more precious. Yet, do most of us actually track our time? I'm sure many of us have spent tons of time building out budget documents to track our spending habits, fitness trackers to track our workouts, food logs to track our eating and even habit trackers to track our daily habits, but has anyone ever taken the time to track their time? Do you know where your time is going? Speaking for myself I can say I have not. So I started to ask myself, if time is my most valuable resource, how am I not tracking it? Why am I so willing to give it away?
This mindset is exactly why the Screen Time widget has become so important to me. While the world is such a beautiful place, we humans continue to shove screen after screen in front of our faces. Often times I'm sure we can all relate to this daily pattern: Staring at a computer screen --> taking breaks to look at our smaller screens --> to go home and sit on the couch to look at an even bigger screen --> while holding our smaller screen --> before we close our eyes to slumber and wake up to do it all again.
Now I'm sure not everyone is as extreme as the above and some, much like myself, have built habits to take a break from their screens and enjoy the world through practices such as meditation, reading, journaling, etc… - you get the point. But even with those habits, it's so easy to find yourself going down the online rabbit-hole. Whatever your feed of choice, IG, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Emails - you’ve got the picture - it takes over your time. I started to ask myself why am I so willing to give away my time when I am willing to be so protective over resources that are renewable, such as money. This is where the Screen Time widget comes into play. The Screen Time widget is one of Apple's many attempts to use technology to promote a healthy lifestyle allowing you to take control of your life vs. allowing your technology to control your life.
(FYI I will be doing a post on my own Home Screen set up soon!)
I love having this widget slapped right on my homescreen because it's always in my face. Whenever I open my phone I know exactly how much time I've spent on it during the day. It's just a great way to give myself a gentle reminder when I pick up the phone for no specific purpose, to scroll Twitter, or out of habit, to ask myself whether I really want to spend more time on this device or is there something else I'd rather be investing my time in.
The phrase Memento Mori (Latin - a reminder of the inevitability of death) has made a massive impact in my life and I truly try to live every single day as if it was stolen from death. Every morning I wake up I am grateful to be alive and I am not focused on the past or the future, but on the present. How am I going to make every minute of this new day count? So that when the day ends and I open up my evening journal ritual I can reflect, and say "this was a good day." (I am currently working on another post centered around Memento Mori and another to provide 2-3 tips on how you can better track your time).
I'm not here to tell anyone how they should spend their time, that your current habits are bad, that you are wasting your time, or that you have to live your life as I do. All I am saying is that life is beautiful, our time in this world is limited and I've personally built more productive habits that lead to a better lifestyle by being more aware and intentional with where I am spending my time.
If you made it this far, I hope that you enjoyed this post and took something away from it. I am excited to announce that this is my first post of many focused on how technology impacts our happiness, habits and mental health.
