What’s on my Phone? (2026 Productivity Setup)

In 2006, your device was a phone that could occasionally send texts. In 2026, it is a multimedia hub that occasionally makes phone calls. And that has been one of the huge differences over the last 20 years in the way that we used our devices. These little things would fit in our pocket and occasionally it would ring and we'd pick it up and we'd answer it, and the battery lasts for weeks. Today, we're worried about charging. It's a distraction device and it's just has really so many purposes in our lives that we're so scared of losing it. However, today what I want to do is I want to share with you how I use my cell phone or my multimedia hub. The reason being is is because I have a specific use for my phone, as we still call them, even though we don't make many phone calls from them. And I get a lot of people asking me, how do you use your phone? How do you have it set up? So today I'm going to share with you exactly how I have it set up, why I have it set up that way, and perhaps you may be able to learn something from this so that your phone no longer becomes a multimedia distraction device. So when I got my first iPhone, I was travelling around on the public transportation system in Seoul. The whole point of this device, and this revolutionised pretty much everything that I was doing back then, it gave me a tool that I could collect appointments, collect tasks, it could collect pretty much anything I needed to collect into this one device. Now back then, I think this is 2009, I was using a simple Franklin Planner digital to-do list on my phone. I also was using Apple Notes because that was really the only option that we had until later in 2009, and of course my calendar. That was it, but I was collecting stuff while I was with a student. If they wanted to make an appointment, I could add it into my phone. It was revolutionary and Steve Jobs was right when he said a revolutionary device. Now as things changed, I moved up and although I've only recently moved to the max size phone, I was pretty much doing that all along and my transition with apps and everything to Todoist and Evernote and obviously still using Apple's calendar. But that's been my usage, so it's always been a collection tool, but today I don't use the public transportation system. I don't even live in Seoul anymore. I live on the east coast in a nice beautiful city called Gangnam, and now my needs for the phone are slightly different, but still I see my phone as primarily a collection tool. It's what I use when I'm walking my dog. It's what I use when I'm at the supermarket. It's what I use when I'm driving in the car. I want to share with you today my iPhone screen setup, just perhaps to give you some ideas about how you can use your own and how you can set your phone up. So let's get started. So on my home screen, I've taken full advantage of Apple's customisation tool. So I have a dark blue background, but I also have the dark blue iPhone. So iPhone 17 Pro Max is the one that I have. Now on my phone, what I've got is on the home screen, I've got the apps that I frequently use. The ones I use the most. Now I've got plenty of other apps that I use, but these are the 10 apps that I am using pretty much every single day. Now as you can see on here, I've got my phone and I've got my photos and my clock at the top. I've then got Safari and I've got settings. I mean I have tried taking off settings thinking, well I don't, once I've set it up, I don't need to use it. Well I do. I'm forever going into settings to change this or change that, particularly with Wi-Fi and stuff like that. So I set that up. Then I have my two productivity apps, if you like, my Evernote and my Todoist. Then I've got my music, which is Apple Music, and I've got BBC Sounds on there. And then I've got my Cars app, which of course I need. And then I have my little secret content idea collection button. Now this is an Apple shortcut that goes to Apple Notes. Now I've tried to set this up with Evernote, with shortcuts. I've tried to set this up with Drafts and Evernote, but unfortunately the Drafts Evernote connection seems to be broken and it has been broken for several months now. So I've given up with that temporarily. I still have Drafts. I would still use it if they fix the Evernote to Drafts connection. I've done loads of videos on that and I will put a link to those in the show notes below if you want to learn more about that. But this therefore is connected. This content button is set up for me to add a task to Apple Notes. Now it goes to a specific note called Content Ideas. So all I have to do if I have an idea when I'm walking my dog is all I have to do is just tap that button and it will give me a little dialog box at the top and the keyboard. I can type or I can use dictation to get the content idea in there. Now the thing is I'm forever having ideas not here in the studio or in the office. I always have ideas when I'm out and about, when I'm walking. In fact, actually, if you stop and analyse where you get your best ideas, the chances are it's never going to be at your desk. It's always going to be when you're driving or when you're out and about walking, perhaps when you're at the gym. That's where we have our best ideas. Therefore, I need to have it connected so that I can collect whatever I need quickly as it enters my head and then I can forget about it because I know it's gone to a central place. Now one of the best things I've discovered about my phone is actually on the widget screen. Now I've forgotten what they call this off the top of my head. I think it's just the widget screen or maybe the dashboard. Here I actually keep the things I may need occasionally. So I like to see the weather, of course, it's cold here in Korea right now, and I like access to my appointments. What is my next appointment? And then underneath that I've got add tasks. Now this is a Todoist widget where if I tap that it's going to open up my inbox and I can quickly add a task. It's just another way of getting stuff in. Remember I use my phone as a collection device. Next to that is our family grocery list, as you would call it in America. We call it shopping list. My wife and I share this note and I basically we just add anything that I, because I'm the one responsible for going to the supermarket, need to pick up at the supermarket. Now this is great because I don't need to actually open up my phone. I don't have to get my face in the right place. All I have to do is swipe across and it will tell me right there the things that are on my shopping list. If I need to go into the shopping list, all I have to do is press the button and it will open up that shopping list. Underneath I have my AI application of choice which is Gemini. That's underneath that and then Evernote widget underneath that because occasionally I do need to go in and do a quick search to find the actual note that I'm looking for or need. That's all in there. And then beyond that, over on the second screen, I have what I would describe as my maybe other stuff. So we have in Korea, I suppose the equivalent of WhatsApp is something called KakaoTalk. I don't use messaging services very often. One of my policies has always been to keep my messaging applications to the minimum so that I'm not distracted by other people. And I have things like iWork which the folder I call iWork which has pages, Ulysses. It also has Twist which is the communication system we use within my company. And that's it. I just keep basically the, I suppose, utilities in there if and when I need them. And that's it. That's all I have on my phone. It's organised in a way that means I've got quick access to the things that I need quick access to when I need quick access to it. And then just the kind of like the playful ones like my social media guilty pleasure of choice is Pinterest. I love it because there's no comments or anything like that. It's just images of things and I'm quite a visual person so it's great. It's just there. I love to play around in Pinterest at the end of the evening. And that's on my second screen so it's not tempting during the day. And that's it. That's all I have on my phone. It is there to help me to collect ideas. It's also a bit of a reference tool if I'm out and about and I need something. It's very rare that that happens, but if I do I've got Evernote on here. I can quickly access using Evernote's phenomenal search to get stuff in there. And that's it. That's what I have on my phone. Now I did mention earlier about Drafts. If you want to learn more about how I used to use Drafts, and I am assured by Drafts that they will get the Evernote to Drafts connection fixed in the future. I just don't know when. As soon as that does, Drafts will be back on my home screen. I hope this has been interesting for you. Remember you can do this with your phone, particularly using an iPhone. You can customise it any way you like. This is the way I have it customised. I do have an alternative for a different case. And just for those of you who are curious, the case that I am using is just Apple's tech woven navy blue case. It's just got a wonderful solid feel to it. And that's it. That's all I have with my phone. It's superb. I love carrying this with me because it just gives that reassurance that wherever I am in the world, I've got something that I can quickly capture my thoughts, my ideas, and everything else. And it never fails to astound me as to how quickly I can get stuff into my system. And then when I get back home, there it is on Apple Notes, on my Quest, on my computer, where I can then use that for creating content like this. So if you want to learn more about how I have other things set up, then this video up here is the one to watch next.