How I Use My iPhone’s Focus Modes to Stop Getting Distracted at the Gym

There’s a stereotype of the phone-obsessed gym rat hogging equipment while they “just sit there and scroll on their phone.” Excuse me, I am logging my sets and trimming my training videos and, um, scrolling Reddit, and yeah I kind of got sucked into TikTok somehow? And there’s a work email, crap, it could wait until after but I’m really curious what it says. Just a sec while I open it…

Yeah, I’m not the only one who can get a bit distracted during a training session. You’re probably doing it too. So I’ve always loved this tip from powerlifting coach Claire Zai about setting a “focus” on your phone for when you’re working out.

How your phone can actually help you focus during a workout

Your phone probably has a focus mode feature. I’ll demonstrate with my iPhone, but Android has this as well. (Look for “modes” in your control panel). Create a fitness mode, and either set appropriate triggers or simply keep it available to turn on manually when you’re working out. Here’s more on how to set up focus modes on iOS.

With a focus mode, you can:

• Only have certain apps on your home screen (you’ll choose ones that are fitness-related, of course)

• Silence notifications from work or social apps (you’ll get those notifications when you exit the focus)

• Set up a wallpaper with something helpful or inspirational, like a list of your goals or a motivational quote

• Add widgets that you’ll find useful during your workout

Here’s one example, above. I have a widget that lets me start my most common Apple Watch workouts, one for my recent YouTube Music playlists, and one for commonly used interval timers. I also have icons for some of my commonly used fitness apps, and a calculator for when I need to find percentages for certain workouts. I chose a photo of weights for my wallpaper to remind myself that I’m in fitness mode.

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Here’s another one I used to use, which is a bit more inspirational. I had a list of goals on the cover of my training journal; the lock screen here has a digital version. On the home screen, above the apps, I have a widget from the Countdown app telling me how many days until my next big competition.

You can trigger the fitness mode to turn on anytime you start a workout, or at a certain time or location—say, when you arrive at the gym. Or you can just start it from Control Center (swipe down from the top right corner of your phone) and tell your phone to keep it on for one hour, for the duration of your current calendar event, or until you turn it off. And now you have everything you need to get your workout done, without the distractions.