Using Shortcuts & Streaks to Build Systems and Habits

Building up new systems and habits can be really hard work — especially when there are so many other things to do that we enjoy! But a little bit of automation and a few apps can really go a long way to helping you set yourself up for success.

Avoid Early Morning Surprises

There’s nothing worse than a meeting you’ve forgotten about, or missing a crucial errand you need to do first thing because it slipped your mind. You can use the Alarm trigger inside of Shortcuts automations to tell you what’s on the agenda for today when you stop your alarm.

Timed Prompts

Setting a reminder to go off at 9:30pm to remind you to do your wind down routine is a great start, but if you can automatically play calming music, and open your wind down routine list as a prompt, then somehow things feel easier — for adults as well as children!

Inside Shortcuts, go to the Automations tab and create an automation with a time trigger. Then, inside of this you can play your favorite playlist, or a sound from Dark Noise, and add an action to open your list. Nothing happens automatically when the time is reached, you just get a prompt. So if you’re having a movie night, then you can just wait until you’re done and ready to wind down before you get down to work.

Mark Your Habit as Complete

If you use Streaks, our favorite habit tracking app, then you can easily mark your habit as done automatically! Use the Shortcuts actions to mark your habit as complete. You can also use the automation triggers for ending a workout, or opening an app to really make it feel easy. You can even add another automation using the time prompt from above to prompt you to open the app when it’s convenient.

Improve your Exercise

Some people love exercise, and some people hate it. Nearly everyone gets exasperated from fiddling around trying to start their playlist and put their phone in the right place when they start a workout, so use the Shortcuts automations triggers to automatically start your music, podcast, or audio book playback when you start an Apple Watch Workout. As an added bonus, automatically pause when you end the workout!

Driving Automation

If you have a car with CarPlay, then you can run an automation entirely automatically when your iPhone connects to your vehicle. For the rest of us, you can try using a Bluetooth device as a trigger, or for people with cars like mine (no Bluetooth), an NFC tag stuck in your phone mount to tap as you dock your iPhone can work as the trigger. Get your next calendar appointment and ask if you want directions to it, and then open those in the map app of your choice. You can even play your favorite driving playlist or podcast playlist if you like.

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