Modeless
I’ve spent a lot of time and effort making my devices work contextually, adjusting how they function based on whether I’m working, spending time with family, sleeping, writing, or doing something else entirely. Apple offers a robust set of features for this sort of thing:
- Focus modes allow you to change who can contact you and which apps can notify you at any given time. They can also be used to show different Lock Screens, Home Screens, and Apple Watch faces depending on which mode is active.
- Focus filters adjust what information apps can show you based on your Focus mode, such as hiding your work email or calendar when you’re at home.
- Safari profiles contain different sets of account logins and bookmarks that you can switch between as needed.
- Shortcuts automations can run in conjunction with these other features to adjust just about anything you like, including device settings, the lighting in your home, and more.
These features can be activated and switched between based on a variety of triggers, including the time of day and your location. The feature set is truly comprehensive, giving users the ability to finely control every aspect of their devices to fit whatever context they’re in at the current moment. And despite the power of these features, they’re also easy to set up and intuitive to use.
I’ve used all of these options extensively over the years. I never went deep enough into the Focus system to create custom Home Screens and Lock Screens for every area of my life; after all, my core apps don’t really change from context to context. But when it comes to muting notifications, filtering information in apps, and switching between accounts in the browser, I’ve been all in.
My Work Focus mode would kick on as soon as I arrived at the building, allowing group chats with coworkers to notify me and switching to my Work Safari profile so I could access my Google and other accounts for work. When I left work, my devices would automatically switch to my Personal mode, muting work texts and emails. My Freelancing mode would grant access to other accounts and tab groups in Safari. My Writing mode would block out everything except texts from my wife and open my writing app automatically. Exercise, Mindfulness, and Sleep modes would automatically activate when I needed them, muting notifications altogether. And when it came time to record a podcast, my Podcasting mode would not only mute notifications from everyone except my co-host; it would also turn off my air conditioning and open my notes for recording.
I created modes for everything so that no matter what I was doing, my devices were always perfectly in sync with my needs and availability. It kind of felt like magic.
All of that changed recently, though, when I wiped out all of my Focus modes and Safari profiles across my devices. That’s right: I’ve gone modeless.
I want to stop for a moment to note that I am not being prescriptive here. I am not saying that these features are bad or that you shouldn’t use them. I’m not even saying that I’ll keep my devices this way forever. But it’s a new approach I’m trying after years of the same, so I thought I’d share it.
Several factors influenced my decision to de-contextualize my devices:
- My life has become less segmented as of late. I used to constantly switch between personal time, work, freelancing, podcasting, and more, with each context needing its own setup, but things are more simplified now. I pretty much divide my time between work, personal time, and sleep, and that’s it.
- I’ve found myself spending more time fiddling with my settings than the time I’m actually saving by using them. Whether I’m using a finalized OS release or a beta version, I find that keeping the Focus system running smoothly requires some amount of maintenance – often, toggling settings like automations and filters off and back on to get them working again when I notice they’ve stopped.
- Even when everything works exactly as expected, I still find myself sometimes needing to do mini context switches or blend aspects of different contexts, such as checking my personal Audible account while I’m in my work Safari profile, and that can be painful when I’ve set up such a rigid system.
- The filtering features of Focus modes, which are meant to keep irrelevant information out of sight, can be easily bypassed. I developed a bad habit of turning off the filters to check work messages all the time anyway, sort of defeating their purpose.
After realizing I was signed out of a website because I was in the wrong Safari profile (again), I thought to myself, “What if I didn’t have to switch? Could a more unified approach work?” After pondering that idea for a couple of days, I decided to give it a try.
I started by moving all of my Safari bookmarks into my Personal profile, trimming the ones I used the least to keep the list to a manageable size. I’m probably the only person in the world who cares about this, but I’ve found that having 12 favorite websites in Safari looks the best across devices because it divides evenly by the number of sites in a row on my iPhone (4), iPad mini (6), iPad Pro (12), Vision Pro (6), and Mac (12) with no blank spaces. Yes, this is the kind of thing I spend my time figuring out.
I also had one Safari tab group that I wanted to keep around for work, so I moved it over to the Personal profile as well. With everything consolidated, I was able to delete my Safari profiles, simplifying my setup into a single set of bookmarks, tab groups, and history.
Then, it was time to clean up my Focus modes. I was planning to delete every mode except for Do Not Disturb, giving myself a single option for muting notifications anytime I needed to, but I found out that detailed sleep tracking on the Apple Watch requires the Sleep mode to be active, so I left it on the list as well. I went from nine Focus modes down to two, though, so it was a major simplification. (In case you’re wondering, I don’t use the Driving mode because CarPlay blocks most notifications on its own, and I’ve never tried the Reduce Interruptions mode because I don’t want AI anywhere near my notifications. I’ll handle them myself, thanks.)
It’s been about a week since I made this change, and so far, I’m quite happy with it. I’m no longer spending time fiddling with settings or switching between modes to access the information I need, so ironically, removing Focus modes has meant I’m spending less time on my devices. I’m having to exercise more self-control, choosing to let some messages and notifications sit without being dealt with while I’m spending time with my family, but I think that’s a good thing. And I enjoy having a simple Do Not Disturb toggle when I need it. The all-or-nothing approach to notifications seems to be working for me.
The only real pain point I’ve run into is dealing with websites where I have multiple accounts, such as Google and Amazon. Their built-in account switchers help to a point, but they’re still not as elegant as using Safari profiles to keep things separated. If needing a couple of extra clicks to access my work’s YouTube Studio page is the worst of my problems, though, I’d say things are faring well.
When life changes come your way – whether you’re happy about them or not – they serve as opportunities to rethink things. This has been one of the results of rethinking things for me, and I believe it’s part of a positive trend. Less compartmentalization and more cohesiveness. Less tinkering and more living. No modes, just me. Yeah, I think that sounds pretty good.
At least, for now. Who knows if it’ll last forever? If there’s one thing we can be sure of, it’s that none of us can predict what the future holds. But for the time being, the modeless life is the one for me, and I’m making the most of it.