The Ultimate Selfie Filter

I have found the ultimate selfie filter.

If you've ever told yourself that you don't have time to study the Bible or get on to things you wish you could do, then a fantastic litmus test for where your attention is going can be found with the "Screen Time" iOS widget.

NOTE: this just applies to iOS. I'm sure Android users will be able tell us they already had this feature since the early 90s.

Screen Time Widget

iOS widgets were introduced in 2014 with iOS 8, but got a serious upgrade in 2020 with iOS 14 and the ability to add widgets to the home screen of your iPhone device. The "Screen Time" widget is incredibly simple - it shows you which apps have been open on your unlocked screen throughout the day. It lists the apps and how many many minutes of screen time they've used that day, giving you a brutally honest reflection of where your attention is going.

This is a very different to the battery usage report that tells you which apps are using up your precious battery power. But instead is a direct indication of where your eyes have been looking.

How Does It Work

There are three widget sizes available that use either 4, 8 or 16 block spaces - I prefer this 8 block widget as it gives me just enough information to see which apps are taking up my attention.

Here is how it looks on my iPhone today:

On the right side I can see that Audible has taken up 37 minutes of screen time, Instagram has taken up 29 minutes, Google Maps 15 minutes, and Bible Memory 11 minutes.

Clicking on the widget opens up the "Screen Time" report within iOS Settings allowing me to scroll through previous day's and I get some nice graphs.

At the time of writing this post it is only in the afternoon, so I still have time to try and reduce the amount of time Instagram is taking up and direct that towards some reading apps like Kindle.

Of course this doesn't mean that I have spent a consecutive amount of time staring at these apps. This is a cumulative report that tallies all the total little instances I've spent looking at these apps on my screen.

It doesn't take in to account scenarios like passive consumption - for example I spend a like of time listening to audio on Overcast and Audible, but as my phone is often locked when I listen it won't be counted as screen time. But regardless, whenever I tell myself I don't have time to work on a certain project, pick up on some studies I've been doing or do other productive things - this is a great way to see if that is actually true or if I've been distracted by infinity pools.

So I should delete all the apps that are unnecessarily taking up my time? Maybe.

Or I could do things like make them harder to access, or allocate time to use them, or log out of social media apps every time I use them deterring my inclination to scan through them when bored.

But at least I can see areas I want to grow in, and how much time I could realistically be placing elsewhere.

If you constantly tell yourself you don't have time to study the Bible, I want to encourage you to be daring enough to try something similar and see where your eyes are really going