Note 10+ and nova launcher.
All my apps in the reachable arc of my thumb ahaha
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What’s the weather widget?
Dark Sky. Would highly recommend. I think it’s about 3 quid a year. Theres a widget for the hour too for predicting rain which is fairly accurate and helps me decide if and when to go on a lunch time walk.
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Thank you 
Here’s mine. Everyone else is getting iPhone 11’s and Pixel 4’s and I just picked up a good deal on a new iPhone XS Max 
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I really want an iPhone 11 but can’t justify it as my 6S Plus is still working perfectly. Got a new battery in it last year for £29 and it’s like new again.
Nice wallpaper!
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I am sensing a theme here with that and your forum avatar 
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haha yup first child will do that to you 
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Congratulations! 
I’ve been interested in the work of Tristan Harris for a while now, he’s an ex-Google Design Ethicist who set up the Center for Humane Technology to try to counteract some of the tricks and psychology that the big tech companies use to keep us clicking and swiping.
Via Tim Ferriss’ 5 bullet Friday newsletter, I stumbled upon a Medium post by Better Humans that references and develops some of the ideas for reclaiming your smartphone that Tristan espouses. The article is well worth a read if the ideas interest you, but in essence the approach is to put tools - that is apps you drive rather than those that drive you - and apps that do something you want to achieve (read more books, meditate, intermittent fasting etc) on the home page; turn off all except important notifications (those from people and very carefully chosen apps); and switch off the intrusive and attention demanding badges on ALL icons. I set things so that people notifications (imessage, whatsap etc) and bank stuff (someone is spending my money, LOOK!!!) are the only things that can wake my phone, anything else that I deem worthy of having notification privilege gets to add to the notification centre pull down but not the lock screen and nothing gets to set a badge. That way I check notifications when I choose to, rather than them grabbing my attention on their schedule. Everything else has notifications switched off - as the man says, they’ll get you on email if it’s important. And turn off notifications on email - you ALWAYS have email, check it twice a day or something, don’t allow it to interrupt your flow, batch it.
I spent a few hours re-arranging things on my phone and this is the result:
The idea is that I usually hold my phone with my right hand on the lower right and my left hand higher up on the left, so the tools I place fall naturally under each thumb. The dock gets 1password, 'cos it’s important, evernote 'cos that’s my brain dump and camera 'cos I like taking pics and doing that stimulates me being aware of what’s going on around me.
My second screen looks like this:
The reason for this is interesting - internet companies spend a lot of time working out how to catch your eye, as you sweep back and forth across your screens looking for eye candy to grab your attention, you are being driven by them not your own priorities. So we put the eye candy apps on the second page of sub folders and pick the least interesting icon from the category to place on the first page. This sets you up so that you have to deliberately seek out the app to use it, either by delving into the folder or using search. Both methods cause you to invoke your language centres, higher functioning areas of the brain, rather than the reward seeking emotional centres that are triggered by colour and slot machine apps. The idea being that once your slow brain is involved you are more likely to decide not to spend the next hour playing games or swiping instagram.
I’m going to try it out for a while and see how it goes, but I’m already finding it way less distracting and now when I do a spot of insta or such like, it’s because I’ve chosen to do so rather than it catching my eye as I open the phone to look for something more important.
Anyone else doing this?
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I’ve been doing something similar in that I only see apps I want to use, rather than the ones which want to use me. Notifications are turned of for nearly all apps. The only exceptions are iMessage, WhatsApp, Monzo, and Phone.
Like you, I’ve removed all badges from the icons, and this one action has made my life so much better. I really recommend it.
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Yes, that is the most significant thing for me - I just couldn’t leave icons with badges, I had to deal with them.
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Lack of widgets is mindbogglingly interesting!
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I think you can do this with makeovr.io. I’ve not used it myself, but it is a way to create empty space on an iOS device home screen.
Yep I use makeovr
Have new lockscreen pic that I’m loving every time my phone wakes up. Ya gotta love elephants!
From here:
elephant love