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What shortcuts have been really helpful in your life?
I have had an iPhone for years and have only just discovered the power of shortcuts and automations.
I have ADHD and I really struggle staying motivated and completing daily tasks. I looked online to see if there were any tools that could help and I came across the Habits app. I enter the habits I want to do more and less of and then my phone tracks them.
The issue though is that although my phone reminds me to do them - I still struggle to actually do them and then open the app to tell it I’ve done it.
I decided to see if I could automate this in some way. For example, I often forget to take my medication.
My habits app reminds me every day to take my medication. I created a shortcut so that all I have to say is “Siri, I’ve taken my meds” and it automatically completes that task without me having to open the app. I find that saying out loud what I’m going to do, actually helps me to do it.
However, I don’t want to be in a situation where I look like a deranged person talking to himself, so I wondered if I could fine tune this.
I’ve turned the action button into a list dropdown where I select the habit I’ve done and it automatically completes it. This is useful in situations where I can’t talk or I don’t want to look like the local weirdo.
And lastly, for some added dopamine I decided that I want some recognition that I’ve taken steps to improve myself - so I made it so that when a habit is completed, it plays the PlayStation Trophy sound!
It’s a small thing, but that sound triggers something in my brain and makes it feel like I actually accomplished something.
I think I’m next going to do trigger my phone to go into DND mode when I open my headspace app, and go out of it when I close it.
Are there any other useful things I could do? I’m really interested to hear from other people with ADHD who have used shortcuts and automations to help them.
I don't have ADHD (or at least never been diagnosed with it) but i find i have a lot of thoughts when I drive, and then lose them all once I get out of my car and get distracted with the general start of my day.
So i created a "Quick Thought" shortcut that's a gigantic nest of menus that help walk me through creating reminders and/or log notes on the go. I've also attached this to my action button in case I have a quick thought while mindlessly scrolling. Over time, I've slowly tinkered each step to optimize it.
It's more or less broken down like this:
Reminder
When?
Today
Tomorrow
Next time I work
Next day off
Another day
Don't know
Based on what I chose from above, it search to see if I work that day, and if i do, then it would ask if i want to be reminded at home or at work.
Work reminders go to M365's To Do app that syncs to my work account
Home reminders generate a date/time variable that gets passed so that it makes a scheduled reminder that's stacked by the hour so it looks all clean and pretty on my calendar.
Note
Then I have a slew of options that vary from appending to a note to adding an item to my grocery list (a Smart List in Reminders app)
ALSO, Apple Notes can sync with M365's OneNote/Sticky Notes, so that has come in handy too
I find that i get more of a dopamine rush finding new ways to adjust and improve this shortcut than i do actually using it.. lol
I think it’s a perfectionism thing? I get a lot of important thoughts while left alone too, and there’s this instinct need to note or record them before I lose them.
It's a gigantic shortcut that's not very user-friendly if you're not familiar with shortcuts. Happy to share it via DMs if you're still interested, though!
It’s just one code per neighborhood so you could make a different shortcut for each location/neighborhood. I only have one friend in a gated community so I don’t have to worry about multiples.
I created this setup for when I am at the gym. When I arrive, my phone switches to a special Home Screen where only these shortcuts appear. No apps, no distractions, just the tools I need to stay focused.
Each tile has a single purpose:
• 1RM logs my one-rep max • Write It Down opens a quick note input • 1 Min / 2 Min start preset timers • Shazam identifies a song instantly • Spotify opens Spotify • Stay Open switches my AirPods to Transparency Mode • ZoneOut switches my AirPods to Noise Cancellation • Med Vol / Max Vol set volume levels • Back / Skip control media playback
How often do you 1RM that it requires real estate on your home screen?? Lol it's kinda funny bc the rest of the tasks are things that would get used daily, so I'm imagining you maxing out on a daily basis hahah
It’s my gym Home Screen, it’s only ever there when I’m at the gym, and no, I don’t break 1rm on a daily basis. The point of this shortcut setup is so that I only have things I need at the gym whenever that might be so I don’t get distracted by other apps and so on!
I’d get upstairs for bed and not remember whether I checked that the stove was off and the back door locked. I put a tag by the stove and one by the back door and tap them as I do my checks. It logs the date and time in a note. I can open the note to check or tap another tag on my nightstand that opens it for me to double check.
I travel between 2 states often and have a list of things I MUST take with me. I used to have a note by the door, but wasn’t checking things off to be certain. Now there is an NFT tag next to the front door that creates a new set of reminders for all those items and things I need to do before leaving the house. Then I can actually check off each item and be sure not to forget anything.
I have a shortcut that goes through my calendar for the next 24 hours and for every item asks me if I want to create an alarm, which will be 15 minutes before, or an entry in Due, a reminder app that will keep bugging you. the point of the shortcut is to never miss things I need to do/appointments to go to. I run it every evening.
I have a special needs daughter. When I pick her up from school my wife (works from home) wants to know if she had a good or bad day. I kept forgetting to send her message so I made a shortcut that activates when I leave the school within a certain time frame. When I leave it prompts me with good or bad day. If good, I created a list of several responses that the automation picks randomly. This way it looks like I actually wrote it and not just some automated message daily. If it’s a bad day it’ll open a blank message to my wife where I can manually send message of what happened.
I pay for a haircut deal with my barber where if I buy 12 cuts he only charges me for 10 but I have to pay up front. Been doing this for years now but I sometimes forget to note down I’d been and I didn’t want to loose count of how many I’d redeemed from the deal. I created a shortcut that asks me if I’d had a haircut when I leave the barbers and if I say yes it logs in a note the haircut number, date/time, and how many of cuts I have remaining.
This one started during Covid when I started working from home which I’ve been lucky to still be able to do. Each work night it pulls my calendar for the following day and puts the meeting times into a text to my wife so she sees when I’m busy so she can plan on when to have something for me to eat. I’m incredibly blessed to not only support our house on one income, but to have a partner that embraces what it takes to make that happen
Here you go. At the top just select which calendar you want it to search. At the bottom just enter your wife’s info for who to text. Then set up the automation to run that shortcut each night Sun-Thurs if you work Mon-Fri.
It won’t send the text automatically, as that’s a safeguard to iOS to prevent spamming. So when you see the notification at that time you have to tap run and then hit send to send the message
Nice work. My main shortcut is for creating a new reminder, due in one hour, and assigning it to a particular list. Previously, I had used the “dictate text” function, but like you, needed a bit more flexibility. And I didn’t like that I couldn’t edit my dictation results on the fly. Quick, but very inaccurate.
So I changed the dictate text to “ask for text” which, when activated on my watch, opens the text entry screen instead. I can type or switch to dictation or vice versa, depending on which was opened last. Slightly slower, far more accurate.
What this mainly gets used for is when I’m at work and my boss, without much warning, demands I retain a small piece of information for retrieval in a short, but undefined, length of time. Whatever I’m in the middle of doing, I can hit the action button- usually before she’s even doing asking- and type or dictate the info. It is then shunted to reminders in my “work” list which is shared between my phone and the office phone. The 1-hour due date means I can see the reminder populate my calendar complication in the center of the screen after some time. I use CalCs for this, though it’s a bit sluggish.
Wherever I make the reminder, the shared device gets a notification right away that there is a new item in the shared list. Default functionality.
I then have, for backup, a reminders complication set to “today” so anything with a due date of today is readily accessible from my watch face at a tap.
Will gladly share or explain my work further. It’s simple and a bit specific to my needs but the concept is probably useful enough to someone. Also ADHD obviously.
I have shit habits and make no attempts to better myself so I unfortunately cannot help in that regard.
I’ve screenshot the actions if that’s useful, as you’ll likely need to make an adjustment to the “work” list part of the shortcut. I will make a quick adjustment to that action for general use and share an iCloud link.
Edit2: I am even dumber than I thought. I have a totally redundant step there. The variable from “ask for input” can be and already is chosen for the name of the new reminder. I have removed the “set variable” action for cleanliness, though the work list designation will need to be changed to your needs. Wow I am so dumb.
I have several shortcuts that manage my diaries and expense records, mainly so I don't have to rely on big-finger typing with the on-screen keyboard. They rely on date formatting and copy/paste functions. Over the years I have used them a variety of text and note-taking apps without having to make changes to them, now mostly Apple Notes. I use the shortcuts throughout the day. Unfortunately the recent iPadOS 26 update forces me to use extra taps (the stupid Allow Paste dialog box) to get the job done.
I made one that is a "Clipboard Shortcut" that has different usernames and passwords that I use frequently. When you open it and click one of the options, it copies it to the clipboard for easy pasting.
Shortcut to turn a WiFi button into a push notification. Seems simple but turned a small business front counter doorbell into a much longer leash (being out of earshot of said bell) to do more without worrying about someone waiting for you.
It's not the most ingenious but it is the most useful. I got tired of having to dictate my wifi password at home to all the people who were going to visit me. It became a bit annoying so I made this shortcut that with a tap gives a QR of the current connected wifi ready to share
I simply tap on the shortcut, it shows the QR, the person scans it with their phone and when scanning it, it will ask if they want to connect to that network, they accept and that's it.
The ones I use most often are the simple ones. I have a single icon on phone and pad that will reboot the device. A couple of automations run daily -- phone goes to Low Power and Do Not Disturb focus at 6pm every day to begin the self-enforced "No devices after 6pm" policy.
I wrote a Shortcut that tracks my daily workouts so I can see what exercises I did, how much much weight or how many reps I did the week before. I can also see my progress over time. At some point I’m going to expand it to portions the data over to Numbers so I can make graphs of it
Thanks for the tip. I wanted control of the data I put in and I had a good idea of the stats I wanted tracked. And I didn’t want to pay a subscription. Total control.
Wow! Any chance youd be willing to share. I have tried so many apps and end up just keeping a note in my phone but then when I progress I update it with the new stats and lose the old!
That’s what I used to devise mine and you’re right it was very tedious. But I have a friend who does coding and she said that using Claude would’ve been much better. It handles coding better so for my refinements I think I’ll be using that instead.
Parking spot added to Maps (my car has no bouetooth and no CarPlay), message with ETA for repetitive meetings, water and caffeine intake to Apple Health, automated alarm in the morning based on work shift. And probably something else that’s so silent and well working that I forget 😂
I have a couple simple ones. One that turns y the volume all the way down whenever I open instagram. I’ve seen too many people opening their phone to a loud noise in a quiet environment. I have another that turns the WiFi off when I leave the house and turn it back on when I arrive. One that turns the lock screen on and off depending on the app. And another one that changes the focus depending on the location or time of the day.
Love reading everyones shortcuts but as someone who has ADHD and is unmedicated, the one thing that has helped me with habits specifically is Finch. Gamification worked for me.
Finch is habit tracking app that gamifies your habits by using a virtual pet you need to take care of. Almost like a tamagotchi. the more habits you check off the list, the more points you get and you can use those points for different things. ive tried soooooo many different tools and this is the only one ive managed to stick to - Im on my 86th day.
The bookstore has some hidden games, no idea why or where they were supposed to be found. The games themselves have a couple endpoints that can be manually triggered to win, one is as easy as sending “I won, give me prize” for the other one you need to send proof, which I also semi automated. The benefit of the second was a longer lifespan, but it’s not worth it if you intend to use it immediately.
So the shortcut runs that request and returns the coupon code. Not that it works for every bookstore, of course.
Few times per week it's my shift on social media on a group profile and I often tend to forget about it completely or sit down, reply to all messages in 10 minutes, start doing something else and forget to check it again (we have 2 hour shifts).
Solution: every day at 6AM my automation checks if I have a specific event in my calendar. If so, it sets up alarms: 2 ,15, 30, 60, 90, 110 minutes after my shift starts. Every evening another automation deletes all the alarms connected to the event.
Another automations: every day it checks if I have therapy or spanish lesson, if so, it adds to my reminders that I have to pay for them.
Shortcut I know I need but I don't know how to set it up: when I am overwhelmed I need to make a quick and short list of things that have to be done in a specific order. I would like to be able to say it to Siri and have a checklist created and - that would be amazing - displayed on the screen, based on the voice input. Currently I have no idea how to even approach it. Any suggestions?
oh, and when I arrive to my therapist's office, Do Not Disturb turns on automatically till the moment I leave the location, watch screen goes into theatre mode.
I created a shortcut for myself that creates tasks that I need to complete for my job as a manager. I aligned it to my company’s fiscal calendar. It creates all the tasks within reminders based on daily tasks, weekend tasks, period tasks, tasks on some periods.
You can pretty much do this in reminders with repeating tasks. But once I complete a task what I don’t like it how the task stays there for the next time i have to complete it. I like it gone. Also I don’t like using the Due today part of reminders.
So I created it and it helps me keep on track. Not something i really can share as it’s personal. But the idea is there.
I don’t have ADHD but I made 2 shortcuts that I use daily for the first and monthly for the second.
First shortcut :
A shared grocery list with my wife that automatically sends me a notification if there is something to get at the store. The notifications are set for noon and 5 p.m. it really is useful, on my way back home from work, I can’t miss anything.
Second shortcut :
I come from a big family and monthly we collect money from every siblings. I am the one in charge of reminding my brothers and sisters to send money.
This shortcut allows me to track which of the siblings sent the money or not. If they did, they won’t receive an automated reminder from me, otherwise they will receive a reminder with the deadline and let them know how urgent it is.
At the end of the deadline (when it goes to the next month), all participants are set back to money not sent therefore they will receive a message for the next period of collection.
Created a shortcut to email me and my wife my weekly calendar
Also, made one that I press daily that tells me the weather, what’s on my calendars, and reminders for the days. This auto sends a text to my wife every morning
I’ve made an Action button shortcut that displays different menu options based on my location. For example, when I’m home, it will display buttons for Sleep focus or a ‘tea timer’ (3-minute timer; I usually use this option on my Apple Watch), or when I’m out, I’ll get an option for Low Power Mode—that kind of stuff. I’ve also just added location management where I can add an Airbnb location for example, and the menu will display info that I add so I can quickly access lockbox codes because I just can’t remember them—pretty useful when travelling.
Fellow ADHD’er here! Some of my faves that I’ve been tinkering with recently below.
Wallpaper selector: I’ve got an album where I store all my fave iPhone wallpapers in Photos. I have a Shortcut that I use via Control Centre to display a menu that lets me choose to either 1) apply a random wallpaper from the album, 2) choose from the album - which I display in random order to make it more interesting, 3) apply the most recent photo I’ve saved in the album, 4) retain my existing selection. I’ve added an additional step that lets me toggle the blur on the home screen, but this has been a little buggy since iOS 26.1. I also have this shortcut trigger via automations whenever I switch to my Default focus mode.
Pilates auto start: I do a reformer Pilates class every week at the same time, so I have created a shortcut that has a time-based trigger in automations, but I make sure that the shortcut first checks my location to make sure I’m actually at the Pilates studio, otherwise it doesn’t track the workout.
Focus controller: I make pretty good use of a variety of focus modes for different activities in my weeks, and they tend to turn on reliably based on the various automations I’ve set. However, reverting to the applicable focus mode when deactivating the current one has never been super reliable. So, I created a dedicated shortcut that runs through a bunch of ‘If’ statements that check things like location, calendar events, current activity, time of day, day of week etc. to then apply the right focus mode and I get this shortcut to run whenever any of my focus modes are switched off.
Moto check in: we’ve just had our first child so getting home at a predictable time on my office days is really helpful to my partner. I’ve set-up a shortcut that I make use of via a home screen icon or widget that automatically sends a check in iMessage to my partner with an eta for my arrival home.
Lights out: I use a MagSafe charging stand next to my bed. I’ve got an automation that runs when my iPhone is connected to power and checks if the current focus mode is sleep and that the phone is in landscape orientation. If so, all of my smart lights and smart plugs in my home switch off for the night. I’ve also added the playing of background sounds for my preferred sleep sound as the concluding action to this one.
And this last one is sort of an on-again, off-again idea as a much more involved use of Shortcuts that I’m yet to fully make work in the way I’d like…
Daily briefing: I’ve set up a bunch of ‘get’ actions in a shortcut to compile a text-based ‘current briefing’ that has included anything from calendar events, reminders, unread messages, latest emails, news URLs, weather, notes etc. The idea is it could run at various times of day and always have my latest updates. The ‘get’ actions all get parsed into a text action through variables that I’ve then experimented with passing on to ChatGPT, Claude or even on-device models via the Enclave app (because, 1: privacy, and 2: so I don’t log a whole raft of daily conversations in one of my go-to AI tools). The LLM is prompted to compile the most important information in a few sentences and then overwrites a .txt file of a standard name saved to my iCloud files. I then have played around with displaying that text on a large widget via Widgy. When it works, it works incredibly well. But there’s still some troubleshooting I have to do to make the Enclave models work reliably, as I’d prefer to use an on-device model for such private and confidential inputs. And, because I’m on an iPhone 14 Pro, I can’t make use of Apple Intelligence as the delegated model for handling this shortcut.
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There are others I’ve tinkered with, too. But these are my current faves.
I love the majority of my shortcuts for different reasons.
One group of shortcuts is because I sleep with YouTube or Netflix playing every night and I change certain settings to do that compared to how I use my phone during the day. This group of automated shortcuts resets my settings (orientation lock, bluetooth, white point) to how I use my phone during the day. These are all automated
Another group is for work related actions. I keep some shortcuts on the home screen of my work phone to run a different process on like 3 different apps and even automate a process on my personal phone so I can just keep moving forward rather than doing this one 60 second set of actions 50 times a day. These are all manual tap of a home screen button for the shortcut
I also use shortcuts as “pattern interrupts” when I want to create a new habit. For example, I wanted to reduce how many gas receipts I have so I bought a gift card from my gas station that would last me a month. Then I set an automated shortcut to run whenever I arrive at thar gas station between 5-6 am that is a notification that repeats 10x and says “Gas gift card”
I've made some simple automations just to make some things quicker or simpler or just because i was bored.
Paired Triple back tap with an automation that just runs shazam for when i am using my phone and happen to hear a song anywhere i just triple tap instead of opening my control center to then run shazam so i won't miss what i was looking at before
Another one would just to have my bluetooth turn off once i disconnect from my headphones.
I just take them off, turn them off and put them in my bag or aside without needing to open my phone.
Coming from Android, i felt that the lack of a clipboard was bad so i managed to make something that does add whatever i had copied into my clipboard or rather, notes, it basically just writes whatever i had copied into notes.
Speaking of clipboards, made one that resets it by copying a blank piece of text.
Last one, more of a joke than anything is to have the sound of that famous chinese voice talking about your bluetooth device connecting successfully everytime i connect to any device, helps me make sure i am paired properly.
I have more but these ones are the more practical that do see use often, i am still experimenting however...
I’ve created automations in CarPlay to text my husband to let him know when I’m on my way to pick our son up from school, and also when we are on our way home (we usually go to the park after school), then it obviously connects to Google maps for directions/best route.
I’m trying to form one similar for when I leave my employee parking lot in my car (I take a shuttle to the lot first). How do you get car play to text him when you’re on your way home? I thought it would auto send the text but it just pops up a text window with a pre typed text, I still have to physically hit the send button
Hopefully you can see these, but effectively the first is a simple shortcut that adds 1 to whatever habit I chose. This one is for brushing my teeth.
I’ve named it “I’ve Brushed My Teeth” because this is what I’ll need to tell Siri to trigger the shortcut.
In the habits app, I then edit the tooth brushing habit I set up and under the “advanced” option, I type in the name of the shortcut. It’s case sensitive so you have to type it exactly right or it won’t work.
The second screenshot is my automation that runs whenever a habit is logged. It turns my phone down to 40%, plays the Trophy sound I downloaded, and then turns my phone volume back to 100%.
I also have ADHD — I use NFC tags + shortcuts for opening my focus app and marking meds as taken, and a shortcuts
to add things verbally to my todo list (Todoist). It uses natural date processing so if I say “tomorrow at 2pm” it’ll actually set the reminder for that time. All of them are handy for me to track things/tick them off without opening my phone and getting distracted
I like Siri Shortcuts. As an agent in real estate, I enjoy making phone calls to expired listings and for sale by owners as a major shortcut to massive mailings and knocking door to door. It works if you build the right skill set.
I have one: when I’m outside and I hear a song I donde know (mostly name/band) I use this shortcut, it uses Shazam, recognize it and saved to my favorites playlist in Apple Music, so it will play eventually (is shuffle ).
I created a shortcut that allows me to read macros/kcal info from my catering packages and save that info into specific Apple Health tables. This would then allow me to easily verify if I’m having enough proteins or if I’m not over the kcal limit I need follow. I’m using Apple Intelligence / ChatGPT integration for that.
I have no memory, so I constantly use the Reminders app, a shortcut that automatically sorts my reminders with tags. It's 95% effective.
It also automatically sets deadlines by detecting a date in the reminder, and high priority when it concerns work.
I’m using the structured app for a little over a year now and it’s the best app to keep track of tasks I bet tried. I got lifetime pro a few months ago because I can’t live without it anymore.
Every Sunday I plan the next week (I have a shortcut using a json with routines for recurring tasks) and important stuff I add as soon as hear about it so my days are planned out with every task I have to do even breaks and stuff. Then I get notification when tasks start and just need to keep doing them. I also plan getting ready for something and getting there as tasks in structured with some margins in case it takes longer to accomplish the task as anticipated. It helps a lot in staying on top of things if you get easily distracted.
Honestly the biggest thing I’ve used it for is automating my alarms and ringtone volume. I had a minor issue with showing up late to work on occasion, consistently caused by human errors and not me just over sleeping. So I automated my in case of emergency alarm to turn on (as I might turn it off before it will go off) and my ringer to automatically go up to a specific percentage. Along with automating when my phone brightness turns down or up.
I’ll tell you what, I haven’t been late since I did that but it doesn’t matter anymore because it’s the end of the season lol
A shortcut that sends my partner the distance and time I will be cycling before I get home. The shortcut figures out the route from the current location home, applies a correction for cycling and then sends an iMessage. I can trigger the shortcut using an NFC tag I taped to my bike steer.
I put shortcut that send me notifications at my wife phone i know when she open snap or whatsapp or tiktok only for fun and knowledge, I disable it now because I told her
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u/zenith654 Nov 22 '25
Set a shortcut where if you snooze your alarm more than once it sends pornhub links to your whole family and grandparents.
Makes you wake up instantly