The Ultra Simple, Yet Productive iPhone Home Screen Setup

page after page of random ass icons in

no particular order, you cowards.

All right, hope you've been well. I'm

going to be diving into my iPhone setup.

I am on iOS 26, the latest and greatest,

and I'm going over three main

principles. My setup around simplicity,

efficiency, and productivity. Put

another buzzword in if you'd like. But I

was chatting with a buddy and we really

geek out on people's setups, each

other's setups, other setups, whether

it's around your favorite hack, widgets,

automations, or maybe you're just doing

the minimalist setup. I think all of

them are awesome. And please, if you

have an idea, put it in the comments

whether on any of those. If you have an

idea, I want to see it. I'm really

interested and I'm going to I'm going to

pin the best idea down below. So, let's

dive in. Now, on my phone, on the top

section, I start off with two widgets.

And these are the things that run my

life. Every time I open the phone, I

know what's going on. And there's some

no-brainers. They're nothing fancy, but

it is the calendar and the reminders

widget. And both of these kind of do a

couple things all at once. So, with the

calendar, yes, I can see holidays,

birthdays, events, but I also see what

day it is, the 17th. A lot of you may

have the calendar icon, app icon on your

homepage. And the beauty of that is it

always tells you the day, right? It

changes. So, Friday the 17th. The widget

already does that. So, I can see it. And

if I click into it, just like the app

icon, it goes straight into my calendar.

So, it's it's kind of doing three things

at once. Same thing for reminders. I see

how many things I have going on for the

day. I can just move over to one, click

it, and say it's done. Or I can uncclick

it. You don't have to go into the app to

click these and manage it, which is

awesome. You will see like sell battery.

That is actually something I have set to

today. The other ones are past due and

that's actually up in the calendar as

well. So, if you don't have a lot of

items in your calendar or reminders app,

a later version of iOS actually has now

combined them. That makes it so awesome.

So, you can just save everything in one

place. So, think about that when you're

doing your setup. And obviously if

you've seen before, you can make these

small, larger. I kind of have the middle

sizes, but again, the top half of this

screen runs my life. And then going down

to the bottom, these are all the apps

that I use the most. It's a mix of

communication, things for work, and just

things that I enjoy using. So we have

your kind of standards, messaging, maps,

photos, yada yada. I do have Messenger.

I hate it. And here's why. I have it

because it's used often. My a lot I have

a lot of friend groups or people at work

that message me on that and they don't

use SMS. Sometimes I think that hey I'm

not going to bother them that much so

I'll use this one. That's fine. But I

will say for all other social media apps

of the last few weeks I have deleted

them off my homepage off my screens.

They show up in the app library at the

very back. So if you scroll you'll see

you know all your other stuff here. But

I have taken them off the homepage and

this is by intention. Facebook,

Instagram, I was I was finding that I

was spending way too much time on there

scrolling and no matter what I did with

the Facebook app, there was always like

a number one or three or five of, you

know, unread notifications, right? And

I'd go into that app, I'd fine-tune it

to only show me notifications for things

I want to see. And no matter what, I

swear it's built to keep making you open

it over and over and over again. So I

just said, "See you. I will go into the

app a couple times a day now if I get a

notification or I want to check it

before bed. But this has changed

everything. I no longer go in it. I

recommend it for you. Uh but moving on,

I do have Outlook and Slack. So these

are for work and since I'm working 5

days a week and I I'm running around the

office a lot. It's very helpful to have

those there. Reminders, notes, those my

my whole life revolves around those

apps. So those are definitely there.

Then on your home row, you know, basic

phone, email, Safari. I will say I have

one folder and this is kind of like next

tier apps that I want on my home screen.

I want quick access but I don't I don't

need within one click. So in there I

have music, podcast, YouTube, the files

apps. So files I'm using more and more

and that's the Mac version, the Apple,

you know, iPad uh iPhone version and so

I'm keeping a lot of my bills on there,

documents, archives of other files that

I need to keep. But Google Drive, I I

still got to keep it. That is where, you

know, Excel or Sheets uh lives and it

does so well at databases. Keeping uh

track of my finances. I I run a a scout

group, so the agendas, the scout list,

being able to share those files with

other adults. Uh it's just too handy.

And Google does it better than

everybody. Apple has a lot of catchup.

And I I frankly don't think they'll ever

go mainstream, especially with people on

Android and other things like that. So,

I have to have both, but that's fine.

And just some other apps again that I

want one click away. So, that is the

homepage. It's it's it's very again

efficient, simple for me. It's not

overloaded with a lot of things I don't

use. Moving to the second screen. I've

broke this out into two areas. And let

me explain that. So, the top half is now

this is just kind of my secondary stuff.

Things that I want organized, I want

within quick access, but I may not be

using every day. So, my finance folder,

you know, if I got to pay off my four

credit cards, I know all the apps are in

there. If I want to do my monthly

expenses, I know all the apps that I

need are in there. So, that stuff I'll

check. I'll look at how the market's

doing, yada yada. For this sky one, I I

just simply forget all the names of

these apps. the aurora, aurora alerts,

space weather live. And so I use these a

lot when I'm going out and doing

photography and I want to know the

conditions or the night sky or how to

get the Milky Way, maybe something to do

with the weather. You know, some of

these weather apps have advanced

functions and the stock Apple one. So, I

just keep it all in one area so it's

easy to reference and and that works for

me. Photo and video is kind of the same

thing. You know, there's a lot of apps

you can have and I may I have a couple

others loaded on my phone, but the ones

that I enjoy and find most use of, I

just keep there so I don't have to go

digging for them and and just again some

other things that I'll find useful. Now,

the bottom half, this is where I

separate my YouTube kind of hustle apps.

And so, with a later version of iOS, we

were able to now move the icons anywhere

on the screen. It's not just from the

top to the bottom. So, for example, I

got things and that's keeping my to-dos

of video ideas, things I want to create

shorts on and and this is an important

distinction.

Everything from my life personal, that's

where I'm using reminders, the stock app

within Apple. Everything for kind of

quote business, I'm doing things. Now, I

know in reminders you can create

multiple lists. You can use tags and

that's a good way of separating things,

but I honestly love both apps and I've

already paid for things and I I want to

keep learning more about them and using

them and and and finding ways to

optimize. So, just keeping the world

separate in two different apps really

keeps it clean. It's very easy to manage

and that's my hack there. I also use

Bear and that's just kind of for my

script. So, I'll put some rough notes in

there and I kind of keep that archive

going. Obsidian. I've been using that to

just kind of do on the-fly notes. And

this is kind of inspiration for new

videos, maybe quotes I've heard,

articles I've saved, and I just keep

building all of that into there. If you

want to see a video on Obsidian someday,

I'd be more than happy to. I will say

I've jumped between Notion, Obsidian,

and then the Apple apps trying to figure

out kind of my ideal system. But that's

where I am today. And then buy me a

coffee. Hey, go in the description, buy

me a coffee. That's kind of like my

Patreon. if people are liking my videos,

it's a way just to say thanks. So, I got

that and obviously my YouTube studio as

well, so I can see how my videos are

doing. But that's that's my my apps in a

nutshell. I do do uh kind of like that

blurred out background in the back. You

know, if you hold um on the background,

you can see this edit in the left

corner. So, you click edit, you can hit

edit wallpaper, and this is where you

can turn that blur on and off. So, I

just got some mountains. It's the same

thing as my lock screen, but just

enabling that gives me a little bit more

legibility I guess uh for my app icons.

And then I guess on that same theme uh

on the icons, I always go dark. So

again, if I go to edit at the top here,

I can go to customize. And you could

have the default, you can have the

clear. So that's new in iOS 26. I'm not

as big of a fan because I think the

color just helps me hone in a little bit

easier on what I'm trying to find. You

know, you can tint them. So, I know some

people have done some cool themes, you

know, in the past. Uh that's not quite

my my jam, but uh I I love the dark

ones. And I will say I have automatic

settings on my phone. So, when it's

daylight, I have the day settings. When

it's dark, I have the dark settings. And

I actually I I like both. Um, I've tried

all dark mode all the time and it's just

not easy in the eyes for me to to read

things, especially during the day. But

the dark app icons at all times I think

look sharp. They stand out and so that's

how I keep it. And so again, whether

it's my iPhone, my iPad, I never have

more than two pages of apps. One, two,

one, two. If I need to find something, I

know I can go to the app library and

find it. But a lot of these I I just

don't open. I keep them in case I need

them. If someone sends me a Tik Tok that

I I need to see, sure, great. Um, if I

want to look at my health data,

workouts, whatever, I know it's there.

And just search is so fast right now. If

I pull down and start typing Amazon, I

can get into that app lickety split.

There's no reason to have the Amazon app

or a lot of apps, Netflix, whatever,

taking up space on my homepage when you

can get to them literally within three

taps. you know, pull down am and it

shows. So that's my hack. I go to the

library if I need to hunt something

down. I can look at things in

alphabetical list or I can just search

for it and everything is basically a

click away. And then on my home screen,

I keep it simple. So again, I apparently

I'm have the mountains right now and I

don't have the blurred out version. I

like seeing the photo and whether it's

my kids or whatever, it's there. At the

top I have the weather right above the

time. That's not there by default, but

they have the date, the time. You can

click that to get straight into the

weather, which is nice. Just quick

access. Although, usually I'm just

looking on my Apple Watch, which also

works. And then on the bottom, I have an

automation. This one I find really handy

uh when I go places in my vehicle. I can

click it. And how I have it set is to go

to my favorite playlist in Apple Music

and shuffle the songs. I'd usually be

finding myself going to work and I'd

open music, then I go to the playlist,

then I go to favorites, then I hit

shuffle. This one shortcut does it all

for me, which makes it so fast and easy.

Or if I want to listen to music at home

on the HomePod and transfer the music

over, that works great, too. And then

the other button I keep is to start a

new to-do in the things app. So, if I

have an idea for a video, I can quickly

get it in there and I don't have to

forget about it. Go into my phone and

all that jazz. Now, there were stock

icons on here for the camera and

flashlight. I have the latest iPhone 17

Pro. Are we on 17? Holy cow. We just

keep on moving along. But this phone

already has a button on the side for the

camera. It already has another toggle

that I have set to the flashlight. And

so with having those buttons on the side

that I can easily get to the flashlight

or camera, I also don't need those, you

know, icons on the screen. Now, I could

find a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, you

know, shortcut or widget to put on the

home screen, but there's not anything

that's kind of screaming at me that I

need right now. But the flexibility is

there if I need it. So, that is my home

screen, my pages, my widgets in a

nutshell. Th that's the system. If you

again, if you have something that you do

that you enjoy that you find efficient,

I want it in the comments. I want to

read about it. I hope this was helpful.

Thanks again for watching and we'll see

you in the next one.