Something that I have been trying to do for a while is have my phone be more of a tool and not a distraction. I want my phone to be something that when I open it up, I use it to achieve a task and then I move on with my day.
Something that I’ve been wanting to do a better job at is capturing thoughts, ideas, whether it be for blog posts, ideas about things to do with my family or around the house. Over the past year or so, Twos has become my go to app of choice when it comes to jotting things down. The ease in which you can get thoughts and ideas into Twos is one of the appeals to me. That and the search capabilities are excellent. Each day in Twos I am greeted with a new daily note that I can jot things down.
I thought what better way to achieve this goal than to set up my phone with the Ultimate Twos Setup. Here I have my phone set up in a few ways. I have it set up to where at the tap of an icon or the press of a button, I can either jot down a thing, jot down a task, or search for something.
In this post I want to walk you through how I have everything set up and how I’ve been using it in my daily life.
Home Screen
Let’s start with the home screen. I have a widget set up that I adapted through Widgy that allows me with the tap of an icon to quickly jump into Twos to either do a search (magnifying glass icon), jot down a todo (check mark icon), write something down (plus icon), or simply open the app (Twos icon). I achieve this by utilizing Twos URL schemes. Within the Widgy app, you can configure ‘Tap Actions’ to do a few things, one of which is to open an URL. I configure the tap action over each of the icons to achieve the outcome I am looking for. For example, over the magnifying glass icon, I have it configured where when I tap on it, it will run the url scheme twosnotes://search This then immediately opens Twos and pulls up the search box. I can immediately start typing in what I am searching for. I find this setup super helpful. It allows me to jump into Twos and immediately start achieving what I intended to do. If you would like to add this widget to your home screen, you can find it here.
Action Button
The action button came out with the release of the iPhone 15 Pro line. It can be configured to do many things such as turn on your phone’s flashlight, open the camera app, or open voice memos. The hidden gem here is that you can also have a Shortcut tied to it. That way, when you trigger the Action Button, it will run that shortcut automatically. I have my “Capture My Thoughts” shortcut tied to the Action Button. That way, whether my phone is locked or I am browsing, if an idea comes to mind, I can quickly capture it, send it to Twos, and move on.
Here is how I have the shortcut setup:
I start off with an Ask for Text Input action. I also make sure to have the “Allow Multiple Lines” toggled on. That way I can jot down multiple ideas in one fail swoop. I then have that followed with a Split the input by new lines" action. That way when it goes into Twos, they will be separated into their own individual thing. I have that repeat with each new item. I then add those items to my day in Twos. I also have the “Show When Run” toggled off. This way, Twos does not actually need to open on my phone of the inputs to get sent to Twos. If you would like the shortcut, you can find it here.
Now to get this shortcut to be tied to your action button, head over to Setting on your phone. You will then see a section for Action Button. Tap on that and then swipe over until you see the Shortcut option. From there, you will choose the Shortcut you would like to tied to the Action Button. Now, whenever you press and hold on the Action Button, your shortcut will run.
Share Sheet
I also find that while I am browsing, I come across things that I would love to remember. I created another shortcut to help me grab text from, for examples, articles that I am reading to then save them in Twos. I call it “Quick Twos”. How this works is that I can be reading something online or even something within an app and if I come across something I want to save and remember, I simply highlight it and then toggle over until I see the Share option. I tap share and it brings up the share sheet menu. Underneath my contacts and apps, I have my share sheet actions and the first one is my Quick Twos shortcut. I tap on it and then it adds the highlighted text to my day in Twos. Let me show you how I have the shortcut setup.
First, I tap on the small i icon at the bottom of the shortcut to bring up the details menu. I toggle on “Show in Share Sheet”. That way, when I open the share sheet, I can access this shortcut. It will then give me a Receive input action from share sheet at the top of the shortcut. I have it set to receive the following: PDFs, Text, Rich Text, Safari web pages, URLs, and Articles. I then add a Twos action to add the Shortcut Input to my day in Twos. Here, I also have the “Show When Run” toggled off. That way, I am not taken away from the app or article I am reading and the text just gets added to Twos in the background.If you would like the Quick Twos shortcut, you can find it here.
That is my Twos Utility Phone Setup. Whether I am on a walk, scrolling an article, or simply just have my phone unlocked, I can quickly get content and ideas into Twos with this setup. I have been rocking this setup now for a while and really love the versatility it provides. If you have not checked out Twos yet, I highly recommend it. You can use this link here and the code ‘mbeyer’ to get 200 coins to use toward a premium feature.
LINKS:
Twos App: https://www.TwosApp.com?code=mbeyer
Widgy App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/widgy-widgets-home-lock-watch/id1524540481
Widgy widget: widgyURL://widgy.icu/api/v1/widgy/9bc4a8e5-1d64-48ef-9e7a-63f85b23ca28
Twos URL Schemes: https://www.TwosApp.com/63cffcdc4e84e482fe4b0e31
Capture My Thoughts Shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/5d4028894fd441d09149ae89d9e7e7f5
Quick Twos Shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/901dbedfbd3b4250ba74acde28b8ad7d
Wallpaper by Basic Apple Guy: https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/clear-wallpapers