Make Your Phone a Study Ally: Put Your Dream School and Goals on Your iPhone Home Screen
Set up your iPhone Home Screen so your target school and study goals are the first thing you see. How to write goals that work, where to place them, how to keep social apps at a distance, and how to set up a goal widget.
You sat down to study, and a few minutes later you were scrolling social media. Almost every student has been there.
If giving up your phone isn't realistic, you can make your goal the first thing you see every time you unlock it. This guide shows how to put your dream school and study goals on your iPhone Home Screen so your phone reminds you to study instead of distracting you.
Why goals on your Home Screen work
You open your phone dozens of times a day, and the Home Screen is the first thing you see each time. If it says "Admitted to [your dream school]", you get a moment to remember your goal before opening a social app.
Goals written in a notebook only work when you open the notebook. On your Home Screen, you see them without trying, many times a day. The point is not to remember your goal, but to make it impossible to miss.
How to write goals that work
Long sentences get skimmed. Keep it short enough to read at a glance.
- Name the school: a specific name like "[University] — admitted" feels more real than "get into college".
- Add numbers: "SAT 1450" or "50 vocab words a day" lets you tell whether you hit the goal.
- Add a deadline: a countdown like "Exam in 60 days" makes today's work feel necessary.
- Separate the big goal from today's goal: "[University] — admitted" and "Today: one full practice test" make the next step concrete.
- Add one line that keeps you going: a favorite quote or a personal motto works.
Where to put it, and keeping social apps at a distance
Place your goal on the first page of your Home Screen, in the top row where your eyes land first. A larger widget size keeps it from getting lost among the icons.
It also helps to move social and video apps to a later page or into a folder. That small extra step cuts down on mindless opening, so you spend more time looking at your goal than at the feed.
Setting up a goal widget
You could make a wallpaper image with your goal, but you'd have to remake it every time the goal changes. A widget updates as soon as you edit the text. Here's how with MotiWords, a goal and quote widget app.
- 1Open MotiWords and type your goal, such as "[University] — admitted"
- 2Choose the font, text color, and background
- 3Touch and hold an empty area of your Home Screen, tap "+", and choose MotiWords
- 4Pick a size (small, medium, or large) and place it on your Home Screen
When you stop noticing your goal
After seeing the same words every day, your eyes start to skip over them. Small changes help.
- Update the numbers after every practice test or exam
- Change the text color or style so it looks fresh
- Add several goals or quotes and rotate them daily with the MotiWords carousel
- Pick a built-in quote (Japanese and English quotes are included) that fits your mood
Summary
Cutting your phone out completely is hard, but making your goal visible every time you unlock it is easy. Put a short goal with your target school and a number on the first page of your Home Screen, and move social apps a little further away. Your phone becomes a reminder to study.
If you want to show your goal as a widget, give MotiWords a try.
MotiWords
Your goals and words,
on your iPhone home screen every day.
Just type it in. Display as a widget where you'll see it every day. No sign-in required. One-time purchase.