I use apps like Strava and Gentler Streak for similar data - using my Apple Watch.
I pay zero attention to rings. I go for a 3.2-mile walk nearly every day. I work at a standing desk. That is my exercise routine; I have no desire or interest to improve my performance. I just want to be healthy now and maximize my healthspan (the years that I am healthy).
I think I should work strength training into the mix. On the other hand, I was a heavy smoker in my 20s and 100 pounds overweight until 2011, so for now I’m happy to take the W.
I’ve been using Lose It for weight loss and maintenance since 2009, btw. I know Foodnoms is more popular now, but I’ve been fine with Lose It. This is one area where I do not engage my Mac Power Users compulsive app switching.
One of the great things about the Apple Watch is the ability to trigger some quite complex Shortcuts. I don’t see this mentioned that often, so will give you a flavour of some of what I do/achieve with it.
- Say “grocery,” and the watch will ask me what I would like to add to my shopping list. Next it will ask me which category that should be assigned to. The shortcut is working with Todoist and its API. The categories align to sections within the Todoist project. The great thing with Shortcuts is, you can either just tap on one the options presented by “choose from list,” on the watch’s screen or just say them. So easy and rock solid.
- If I have things I need to follow up with my OH on, I can batch these together and they get summarised in a single text message that’s auto sent to her each evening. I just use the trigger word and dictate to the watch as things spring to mind over the day. Each gets added to Todoist with a specific label. Then, each evening a shortcut runs via a Personal Automation. It uses a filter query with the Todoist API to see if there are any tasks meeting the criteria. If there are, it produces a list of them which are sent in a text message. The shortcut also then applies a waiting label to the task in Todoist. I then have other Personal Automations run to follow up on tasks that haven’t been closed down
- The standard “ask for input,” with Shortcuts isn’t ideal when dictating a longer sentence or something requiring a bit of thought, as it’s prone to cutting out quickly. So, instead, I use a Drafts complication to capture from the Apple Watch. As most of this stuff is actionable, I want it to get into Todoist. I therefore have a shortcut run by a Personal Automation several times a day, that looks at the Workspace, “Watch Today” – any drafts created today in Inbox with the label “Watch” – and sends them to Todoist via the API with the label “drafts” applied. It then archives the drafts and labels them as processed. This all runs in the background
- I get reminded by Due at various points in the week to switch something on. When I do, I press a shortcut on my watch when I’ve done that thing. This shortcut will then set a reminder in Due by looking in a Data Jar dictionary for the duration in minutes that matches with the current day name. It will then close down the Due reminder that reminded me. It then sends a text message to my OH to clarify that this thing has happened. Finally it logs the event to a Google Sheet via a web app (basic API) where analysis takes place with a dashboard
- If ever I’d like to log something that I’ve done that was not already in Todoist, I say “tracker,” to my Watch and dictate. This then gets logged to a Google Sheet where context, such as “2 weeks & 1 day ago,” is provided
- I use Workflowy for things I need to work through, opposed to tasks. As it now has an API, in a similar manner as Todoist, I can use a trigger word to send thoughts straight into a specific place in Workflowy from my Watch
- Finally, I can even post direct to an online activity log I host, from my Apple Watch, by using Drafts. The dictated text is passed to a Drafts action running in the background which appends the details to a Markdown file via WebDav. This file is then referenced as the basis for the activity log which uses HTML, CSS and marked.js to render it. A step in the Drafts action then even builds the XML file for the RSS feed, too
I won’t bore you with more examples, of which there are many.
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I am impressed by your Shortcuts mastery. I tried to set up a simple shortcut to show a notification on my iPhone screen every day at noon. I needed Claude’s help, it took me 15 minutes and I’m still not sure I got it working.
It’s much easier to get proficient when you get good at identifying itches that could be scratched with a shortcut. Get a goal to work at and solve it. Compared to lines of code, they are quite unwieldy and cumbersome to build, but they do have the benefit of being easily run on a device you have with you all the time and is always on. I’m confident enough in my abilities now to call myself a Shortcuts expert, but it’s been a hard slog and I still have to revisit other shortcuts to remember how I tackled something before. And, as you’ve probably found, unlike code, LLMs won’t just spurt out a finished shortcut for you. There’s still that slog involved!
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