Widgets: information without opening apps

Every time you open an app is a risk that you'll stay in it. A widget carries no such risk. You want to know today's schedule, how many tasks you still have open, or whether to grab an umbrella — and instead of having to dig for those small pieces of information inside an app every time, they can sit right on your home screen, visible at a glance, with zero taps.

A typical scenario

Martin just wanted to check what was on his calendar today. He opened the Calendar app, but on the way a notification from another app popped up, he switched over to it, and five minutes later he could barely remember why he'd picked up his phone in the first place. This scenario repeated itself several times a day for various small pieces of information — weather, tasks, messages — each time carrying the risk of ending up somewhere else entirely on the way to an answer.

After adding calendar, task, and weather widgets to his home screen, one glance at his unlocked phone is enough — the information is right there, with zero taps. His phone became a tool for quick checks, not a gateway to a dozen apps leading into one another. He unlocks the phone, glances, locks it — the whole thing takes three seconds instead of the minute he used to spend wandering between apps.

How to do it

1. On your home screen, press and hold an empty spot until edit mode appears — on iOS, a + button then shows up in the corner; on Android, look for the Widgets option in the menu.
2. Pick a widget for what you need: today's calendar, a task list, a note, weather — most widgets also let you choose a size (small, medium, large) based on how much information you want to see at once.
3. Stack widgets on your home screen instead of a classic grid of individual app icons — the first thing you see when you look at your phone becomes content, not just a menu to tap into.
4. Combine widgets with the tip about decluttering your home screen (tools only, no entertainment) — together they create a screen that informs you without tempting you into further tapping around.
5. For most apps (calendar, tasks, notes), widgets also work as a shortcut — tapping a specific item inside a widget takes you straight to its detail, without having to browse through the app from the start.
6. Review your widgets periodically — if you notice you never actually look at one, swap it for another or remove it entirely.
7. Don't overdo it on quantity — three or four well-chosen widgets work better than a screen crammed with information that's then hard to read at a glance.

The best tools

• Built-in calendar and weather widgets (iOS, Android) — free, part of the system, no extra installation needed.
• Widgetsmith — a popular iOS app for custom widgets (appearance, colors, specific type of information).
• Todoist or Any.do — task widgets that let you check off completed items right from the home screen, without opening the app.
• Google widgets (Android) — a set of widgets from Google (search, calendar, Keep notes) with a unified look.

What you get out of it

• Time: an estimated 5 minutes a day that would otherwise go into browsing apps for small pieces of information.
• Fewer detours: a widget doesn't require opening an app, so there's no risk of stumbling onto something else along the way and getting stuck there.
• A quick overview: one glance at your unlocked phone shows your day, the weather, and your tasks with zero taps.
• Less app temptation: the fewer reasons you have to open an app for routine information, the fewer extra chances you get for scrolling.