Focus Modes

Using Focus modes to optimize productivity

Focus Modes I use:

  • Study

  • Work

  • Travel

  • Fitness

  • Personal

  • Sleep

  • Commute

  • Martial Arts

Examples of Shortcut and Automations

  1. When I reach the library the focus mode for Studying turns on automatically.

    1. Silences ringtone and alerts

    2. Notifications from certain people and apps are allowed, all others are silenced

  2. Sleep mode turns on automatically from a certain time

    1. Silences all notifications except for certain people

  3. When my phone connects to my bluetooth in my car the Commute mode turns on

    1. Connects CarPlay

    2. Opens up Maps

    3. Opens up Spotify

  4. When I connect to my charger at work my Work mode turns on

    1. Opens up my To do List

    2. Opens Opens up Reminders

    3. Opens up Outlook

  5. Going to certain locations like to gym or park will automatically turn on Fitness or Martial Arts mode depending on the location or app

    1. Starts a certain workout

Fitness on the Apple Watch from a Garmin User

Optimizing fitness on the apple watch

The built in Workout app on the Apple Watch leaves a lot to be desired. Especially coming from a Garmin.

The lack of data:

  1. Ability to customize screen display

  2. No external sensors

  3. Lack of running metrics: power, vertical oscillation and ground time

  4. Topographic map data

  5. HRV

  6. Vo2 Max

  7. Recovery

  8. Training load and planning

  9. Sync past workouts

Fortunately there are apps that optimize and make up for what the native Workout app lacks:

  1. WorkOutDoors ($6.99 one time)-I’ve found to be one of the best fitness apps I’ve used .Can do 1 to 4 above.

  2. Athlytics($29.99 per year)- Recovery time for me is really important so when the native Workout app didn’t have anything for this I was really disappointed.Thankfully this app can do 5 to 8 above.

  3. RunGap($10.99 one time)- Syncs past workouts across several fitness services. This app allows me to use either my Garmin or Apple Watch and sync the information on both. Marks off number 9 from list above.

Will these apps be the things that retire my Garmin Fenix? No but if Apple were to implement these things in their native app along with an increase in battery life to a week…then we can talk about retirement.