5 things I set on every Android phone to increase my productivity

Story Time: The plan is to check my email, and suddenly, I’m watching a video on YouTube Galaxy S26 reviewJumping between different apps based on the tons of information I receive, and checking the results of the last F1 race – go km. What should have taken me two minutes turns into an hour of mindless online activity, and worst of all, I forgot to check my email in the process.

The phone is a wonderful tool, but it can also be a distraction. And since I have a habit of bringing it up frequently without thinking, I try to reduce it as much as possible by setting up five things on every Android device I use. While these don’t stop my trips into various rabbit holes 100% of the time, they do reduce them and in the process save me a lot of time and mental energy that I can use for other activities, thereby increasing my overall productivity.

I’m a Pixel user, and in my opinion the Pixel UI is the best Android skin ever, I prefer third-party launchers. I used Nova for a long time but moved to Niagara Launcher about a year ago, and I’ve fallen in love with it.

The whole purpose of the launcher is to make my phone feel more minimalist – less cluttered. And less colorful, because it always grabbed my attention very quickly, prompting me to start exploring the vast digital world in front of me.

Niagara helps me tremendously in being more conscious about when and how I use my phone. My home screen is nothing more than a list of the eight apps I use regularly. The whole thing – apps and wallpapers – is black and white, which doesn’t trigger my monkey brain as much as a colorful layout. I can access my phonebook through a dedicated button on the homepage, and to search online I just have to swipe up and type.

It’s rare that I jump into the actual app list without any real purpose because I have to tap the right side of the screen to access it, and even then, it’s much less attractive to the eyes than the standard Android launcher, as it’s nothing more than a long list. Also, I hid the status bar completely so that I don’t see all those icons at the top whenever I unlock my phone. And Niagara lets me bundle my notifications, so that non-urgent notifications come every six hours instead of every five minutes.

For me, this translates to a more mindful experience with my phone. It doesn’t appeal to me like the standard Android launcher, so I feel less addicted to my device than before.

I don’t see myself walking away from this niagara launcher Despite being a paid app, not anytime soon. I mean, there is a free version available, but I rely on specific features that are behind a paywall. The good news is that it’s not too expensive, with an annual subscription coming in at $14. A lifetime pass is also available for $43.

I’m trying to reduce the number of apps I use. I really am. But for now, the list is enough, and lots of apps also means lots of information. This means my phone beeps every five minutes, and because I try to reach for it whenever that happens due to my lack of self-control, I lose focus on the task at hand – which hinders my overall productivity.

I have a two-step system that helps me with this, and it has been working brilliantly for some time. I’ve already talked briefly about the first one, which is the bundled notifications feature in Niagara. The launcher bundles non-essential notifications from the apps I select and shows them to me every six hours. These include notifications from apps like Amazon, online publications I love to read, like the Financial Times, and my favorite weather app. This is quite an extensive list.

The second step in my amazing system is to move forward Settings > Notifications > App Notifications And start customizing. For example, I like YouTube, but I dislike its notifications. I don’t really need an app to send me a daily recommendation for a video it thinks I should watch. Then there’s Google Photos, an app I’ve been using for a long time but recently abandoned. I’ve always disabled the “Memories” notification because the app displays my most unpleasant images several times a week.

And don’t even get me started on all those Chinese e-commerce apps like Teemu. While it’s great to receive notifications when my order has been shipped, I can definitely live without all those promotional notifications that tempt me to “crack the golden egg” to see what products I’ve won as gifts, only to then realize I’ll get them if I purchase something of similar value first.

My goal here is to only allow the information I actually want to receive. Like when someone sends me a message on Signal or an important email, when an event is about to occur on my calendar, and when a pre-configured trade takes place in my stock trading app.

So everything that’s important gets done, but those less important notifications get lumped together and I can check them every six hours. The rest I turn it off to keep my sanity and it’s working. I think.

As mentioned in the previous section, all important notifications are received, but I have control over exactly when they arrive. I use Android’s Modes feature for this, and it’s fantastic.

For example, I use a lot of apps for work. Slack, Asana, Gmail… it’s a relatively long list. Notifications are enabled for these, so I’m always notified when a colleague sends me a message, an urgent task gets created in Asana, or I get an important PR (press release) via email. However, when I take the day off, I don’t want to be surrounded by all that information because I won’t act on it until I get back to my desk the next morning.

This is where the Mods feature comes in. My day is divided into three modes. Work mode runs during work hours and blocks personal notifications that might disrupt my workflow, like Signal messages. When I turn off the watch, work mode kicks in and runs until 10 p.m., disabling work-related notifications so I can focus on my personal life. And Night Mode runs from 10 PM to 5 AM, basically turning off all notifications — so my phone doesn’t beep at night — and turning the display to grayscale, which is a signal for me to put it down and go to sleep.

In short, Android’s modes increase my productivity by keeping me focused on work. When I work, I work. Information related to my personal life has been reduced, if not completely eliminated. After work, work-related notifications go away, so I can focus on my personal projects and live my best life. And during the night, the phone is basically nothing more than a paperweight, as I’m only allowed to call family members in case of an emergency.

The combination of Niagara Launcher, notification management, and Android’s Mode feature keeps me from picking up my phone without thinking and being distracted by it, but once I do and am in an app, those safeguards no longer mean anything. This is where the app’s limitations come into play.

Apps can be addictive, and we all have our favorite apps. For me, it’s YouTube, because I love watching educational content on all kinds of topics to pass the time. Or I can talk to AI chatbots about projects I’m working on. I get locked in like this and only get out of it when my partner calls and asks me if I’m already there to pick him up from work. Oops.

App limits solve this problem for me because I can set a limit on how long I can use the app per day. Once the time is up, the app closes and is grayed out on my phone so I can’t open it again. Sure, I could technically override this in Settings, but I never do that – that defeats the entire purpose of the feature. When the limit is reached, it’s a sign that I’ve done enough and now I should do something different. More productive.

This helps me because I tend to forget that time exists while watching videos, but it’s not for everyone, as some people are naturally more conscious of these things. If you want to try it, go ahead Settings > Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls > App Timer And to set a timer, tap the hourglass icon next to the app of choice.

I use Android’s quick settings a lot. Just swipe down and turn on Bluetooth, turn on hotspot mode, or perform any other task quickly and easily without having to look into the Settings menu. The problem is that quick settings can be all over the place when setting up a new phone, and most people leave it as is. Not me.

I’ll be honest – it’s not as impressive as everything else on this list. It won’t change the way you use your phone, but it does save me small amounts of time throughout the day, and that time adds up. instead of going Settings > Network & Internet > Hotspot & tethering > Wi-Fi hotspot Whenever I want to share my connection, I simply swipe down and tap an icon. Done. The main thing is to make sure the right toggles are actually there when you need them, which is why I always organize my Quick Settings so that the functions I rely on most are front and center. The good thing is that icons can be enlarged and minimized in Android 16, making it easier to differentiate them based on importance.

In my case, a single swipe down brings up four big icons: Internet, Bluetooth, VPN, and Mode. These allow me to instantly turn on Bluetooth or switch devices, turn on the VPN I use frequently, access all the modes I use most, and check my Internet connection and its settings. An additional swipe down reveals eight additional icons, including the flashlight toggle because I keep dropping things under my bed, the location toggle, the hotspot button, and more.

Everything I need is there and nothing more. With the simplicity of Niagara Launcher, most of the things I use my phone for can be handled directly from the homepage, which speeds things up, making me a little more efficient throughout the day.

My phone is still like a rabbit hole waiting to happen. But with these five things established, when I pick it up to check my email, I actually check my email — and put it back. Most of the time, at least.

This is my story, and now I want to hear your story. What do you usually set up right away on a new phone, and how does it increase your productivity? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.