FOCUS MODE
Smartphones have become an inseparable part of our journey. We can have anything and everything on our mobiles. Smartphones have completely changed humans day to day life. As all invention has their pros & cons, the smartphone has it too. It has become one of the major forms of distraction and a time-consuming tool. It can also be used as a productive tool. APPLE have completely changed the usage and capabilities of a smartphone. I have to admit this I am a Serious APPLE Fanboy. I have been using iPhone for the past 5 years. I love the way the company play with software with incredible update and features. One such feature was released with IOS 15 which they called Focus Mode. It’s a feature that allows us to set limitations, Block notifications. It’s like creating more than a couple of spaces in your mobile Because the notification tone or screen is one of the most distracting things. most of us only know when we took the phone and start scrolling, we don’t notify how much time we have been using it.
Started using the focus mode a couple of months ago, but it has been launched for more than a year. It’s been amazing since I started using it and my phone has become a productive tool instead of a distracting one. we can create several modes as per we needed. It took me a while for me to learn how to utilize it properly. I am gonna share my focus mode with you which I have been using in my day-to-day journey. Currently, I have created 3 focus modes for various purposes and scheduled them for various times. Scheduling the mode will motivate me to do things for which I have structured the mode. There is some common application in all 3 modes. which I used all the time.
MORNING MODE :
As the name defines I have created it for the morning work schedule. It’s Scheduled from 6:00 am — 9:00 am. Most of my morning will have writing, Checking emails, and journaling. It has 6 apps and one widget on the Home screen.
Google Calendar: I am not a calendar person, But now I am practicing using it daily. So I have added it as a widget at the top. I plan events in between my work hours and try to complete them.
Spark: It’s a Mailing app. I have used this application for a year now. I just love the application, Every morning after Journaling I check emails for 20–30 minutes. Most of my emails are newsletters from great creators across the globe.
Telegram: I use telegram for my work stuff. As I work in a Share Market-Based company my work start at 8 am. So I have added it to the Morning page. Telegram is our communication platform between collogues.
Economic Times / Google News: I have a couple more news apps on my mobile but these two are the most used app so I added them to the morning home screen, where I read them for 10–15 mins every day.
WhatsApp: My messaging application. To the best of my memory, I started using it in high school. it’s one of the good and easy messaging apps.
READ/WRITE MODE :
Mode is scheduled from 6:30 pm — 8:00 pm. Apart from Scheduled time, I turn it on whenever I sit to write or read. my writing time gets various sometimes (like now), but mostly I read at the same time.
GoodReads: Social Cataloging website/ application where we can find tons of books. It has a little description of the book and reviews from various readers all over the world. whenever I see a book, search for the book on Goodreads and then decide to buy it.
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Apple Books: One of my favorite reading applications. I read most of the eBooks in this app. It’s so easy to use and has some cool features.
Twitter: I started constructively using Twitter this January, I follow writers, entrepreneurs, and great philosophical pages. Some of my writing ideas were born from tweets or while reading some tweets. Once I get an idea I research it and start writing.
Medium: Platform where I publish my articles. Posting my writing online started with medium, I came to know about this platform during the lockdown. where I can post my writing for Free and create an audience. I used Medium also to read the article. there are many awesome writers and articles on medium
Matter / Instapaper: This application allows us to save the link of blogs, and articles from various websites. I save the article to this application when I find it interesting to read. Now I am shifting to Matter because It has some cool features like Exporting the highlights of the entire article, taking notes and more. Instapaper is minimalist and so easy to use.
Substack: My newsletter is published in Substack. I started publishing newsletters in August, so I used this application to post & check newsletters’ responses. It also has tons of newsletters across the globe.
Apple Notes: I use apple notes to write down sparking ideas, quick notes. Later I will transfer to Notion.
PHOTOGRAPHY MODE: This mode doesn’t have any schedules. I turn it on when I start taking pictures. Mostly I turn it on when I shoot in indoors. It helps me to be in a creative space without any distractions.
Lightroom: Primary photo editing application, once I finish shooting I transfer images to my mobile. I use presents sometimes or I edit on my own.
Canvas: I started using canvas a month ago, it’s an amazing creative space. I am started using it to create posters and Instagram stories. I am exploring it more now.
Picsart / Snapseed: I use Picsart for photo collages, merging two images. Snapseed for removing disturbing objects from the image and adding more focus to a particular portion of the image.
VN: It’s a video editing app. I create a short video that gets posted on Instagram. VN is the app that I use to edit my video. It has all the basic and essential features to edit a video.
Unsplash: Application which I use to search for shooting ideas. once I see some interesting thing then I add my thoughts to it and start taking pictures. I have suggested unsplash to many people. It’s an amazing app for quality images.
Spotify: I know it’s not related to photography. Mostly I hear songs or some beats when I take photographs, So I have this on the home screen.
There is the main space where It has all the applications irrespective of the modes. The space is ON when others are in not use. Its don’t have any restriction. This is where all the social media, content watching applications are placed. I used it at night or in the afternoon. It’s when I take nap and check social media.
Notion: Most used application. It’s my all-in-one content management application. It’s in all the modes. I come to about the notion in lockdown, I started using it. I write articles, newsletters, book notes, book lists, my ideas and everything in Notion. Its have been suggested to most people. It has tons of templates for different use cases. I just love this application.
