My Daily Routine in the eyes of Apple Shortcuts
How my productivity has increased over the past few weeks.
I often make the claim that Apple Shortcuts drastically improves the productivity of my day. While this claim is easy to make, I’d like to show you exactly how it makes my day productive by showing an hour to hour routine of an average day for me.
If you don’t already know, Apple Shortcuts is an application created by Apple that can be found on any recent Apple device. According to Apple,
A shortcut provides a quick way to get things done with your apps, with just a tap or by asking Siri.
In simple terms, a shortcut allows you to predefine a list of actions you’d like to run from a certain app, or list of apps. With just a tap, or by asking Siri, you can run the shortcut. To learn more about shortcuts and how they work, be sure to visit the Apple Shortcuts Publication, a small but growing publication here on Medium.
Intro
Firstly, I’d like to say that each of these shortcuts can be found on the above mentioned publication. If you’d like to download any of the shortcuts to help improve your productivity, their links can be found at the bottom.
Routines
My routine can be a bit mixed, as all of ours can. I am currently a full time student, which lends me almost no time to work during the week. I do however work 12 hour shifts on both weekend days, Saturday-Sunday, 7 am - 7 pm. During the weekdays I can be found at University from as early as 7:30 on some days, and until 5:30 on others. My longest days are Thursdays where I’m at my campus from 8:00 am until 8:30 pm.
On top of all of this, I’m attempting to transition from being a very late night owl to being an early bird. This is part of my goal to write more in the mornings, as I find less time to do so at night.
To help me with this, I’ve heavily relied on these predefined shortcuts, and if anyone else is trying to do the same thing, I highly recommend reviewing some of the listed shortcuts.
Because of my wacky routine, I like to be on top of my schedule. It helps to know which days are which, where I should be at at what times, and what’s next on my schedule.
Weekday Schedule
6:00 am
After my first alarm is turned off, my automated shortcut Daily Events is ran. Daily Events send notifications to my home screen which tells me exactly what I have on my schedule and at what time. If ran within 2 hours of an event, it also gives me the driving time to the event, which can be very helpful as well.
6:30 am
After showering, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed, I begin my writing time. At 6:30, my phone asks if I’d like to write today, and if I tap yes, it turns on Do Not Disturb for 30 minutes.
This feature drastically improves my productivity on the morning of weekdays, allowing me to get a good amount of writing time in.
7:20 am
I’m ready to leave the house. As soon as I connect to my car’s bluetooth, another automated shortcut is ran. This shortcut shows up on my phone and asks if I’d like to get coffee in the morning, to which I always tap yes. It then asks if I’d like to do my regular which is a large caramel iced coffee with extra cream (keep the sugar out, you do not need it.) If I’d like to get my regular, the shortcut buys the drink from Starbucks, and starts directions to Starbucks within the maps application.
While I don’t need directions, it helps to see your ETA depending on when you leave the house!
I used to drink only Starbucks, however I now drink Dunkin’. Not to start a war, but Dunkin’ is preferably better tasting, and better priced for a college student :)
This shortcut has been updated. It now alerts me and tells me whether I have enough time to get coffee in the morning, in case I’ve slept in or left the house late. This ensures I don’t miss my overly priced college classes.
After getting my coffee I head to school. If I need directions, I have a shortcut that can be opened which provides me with a list of directions to go to, such as school, home, work, or even to a location that’s in my clipboard. I usually don’t use this shortcut in the morning.
7:45 am
I’ve arrived at school!
My next automated shortcut takes place which is triggered if I arrive at my school from 7:00 am - 8:30 am. This automation runs a shortcut called School Events. School events not only shows me my assignments for the week, but also parses my reminders with a specific input “School.” The shortcut looks for my reminder list called school, then gives me the reminders related to that input.
This is helpful because at certain times I have meetings set up, or there’s something I need to do before my day starts.
At school
I may need to check my calendar at any point of the day. On my iPads Today View, I have a shortcut called Schedule. This simply opens up a numbers spreadsheet which has an hourly view of my daily schedule.
I’m currently working on a shortcut that can read this, and give me a simple output of what comes next on any given weekday.
I also have another automation set up on my iPad that is triggered when I connect to my school WiFi. This simply shows me my assignments from my calendar again, in case I’ve forgotten and need to work on something.
After Classes
When I’m ready to go home, I hop back in my car and another automation starts. This automation plays my favorite playlist at the time, after my phone connects to the car’s Bluetooth.
10:00 pm
During the development of iOS 10, apple released a new feature called Bedtime. With the update of iOS 14, a new feature called wind down was part of Bedtime. Wind down alerts you that your bedtime is near, and that you should start winding down to get ready for it.
I have an automation set up to trigger when my wind down time starts, which calls a shortcut called Nightly Rest.
Nightly Rest sends a notification that tells me:
- What my first event is the next day
- What time that event is
- The latest I should go to bed to still get a full night’s rest
This makes sure I get into bed at a reasonable time, and makes sure I know exactly what’s on my schedule for the next day.
Weekends
5:30 am
I get up a bit earlier on weekends as my shift starts typically an hour before my classes do on the weekdays. Daily Events is still ran, telling me typically that I have work… WooHoo!
I don’t write in the morning on weekends. I’m too busy hyping myself up for a 12 hour shift at the hospital.
However, I do read during the weekend mornings. I’ve found it prepares me for my day by exercising my mind, and it gives me things to think about. Research also suggests that by reading, you can actually increase your intelligence (who doesn’t want to be smarter?)
Apple also released one of their own shortcuts, which presents you with your news for the day from the News application. This is a great way to catch up on the world, and because it’s so simple with shortcuts, it keeps your focus on reading rather than finding an article to read. I currently don’t have this set up, but I will include a link at the bottom for this shortcut.
6:20 am
My morning driving automation goes off again, asking if I’d like coffee.
7:00 am
My shift starts, and I clock in. As soon as my iPad connects to the hospitals WiFi, I’m greeted with an alert that gives me my homework again.
My role at the hospital is a simple one, as I’m still in undergrad at my school. However, this shortcut could be rewired to give you all of your meetings for the day, or present a list of things you need to accomplish at work.
Because of my role, I have a lot of time to study and do homework at school. I consider myself lucky :)
7:00 pm
Sometimes I shop after my shift on the weekends, it can be tiresome but it saves me time on the weekdays. My grocery list is presented to me after my shift just in case.
When I’m ready to go home, I hop back in my car and my automation listed above plays my favorite playlist again. This automation is triggered by connecting to my car’s Bluetooth.
10:00 pm
Similar to weekdays, my wind down triggers my Nightly Rest shortcut.
I’m happily asleep by 10:30 pm :)
Shortcut links:
School Events is dependent on reminders, therefore I have linked the guides to each shortcut. The links to the shortcuts can be found within their respective guides.
Extras
Thanks for reading :)
