DaylistHow to See Your Tasks Without Unlocking Your iPhone
Unlock → find the app → open it → read the list. Four steps is three too many when you just want to know what’s next. Here’s every way to make your to‑do list visible the moment you look at your phone — no Face ID required.
1. Lock Screen widgets
Add the Reminders widget (or your task app’s) to the strip under the clock. Glanceable: yes. Complete: no — you get one or two truncated lines, and anything beyond that requires unlocking. Fine for “what’s next”, useless for “what’s today”. See our widget‑free guide for the full breakdown.
2. Notifications on the Lock Screen
Timed reminders sit on the Lock Screen until you interact with them. But they arrive at their scheduled moment, not at your glancing moment — and one swipe removes them permanently. Our reminders guide covers making them stickier.
3. Live Activities
Some apps pin your current task as a Live Activity. Larger than a widget, but designed for temporary things: iOS expires them, they compete with timers and music, and they show one task, not a list.
4. StandBy mode
On iOS 17+, an iPhone charging sideways shows widgets full‑screen (Settings → StandBy). Genuinely useful… while your phone is docked on a charger. The other 95% of the day it doesn’t apply.
5. The wallpaper: visible on every single glance ✅
The Lock Screen wallpaper is the only surface that is always present the instant you tap or raise your phone — before unlocking, before notifications, no matter when or where. Put your task list in the wallpaper and “checking your list” stops being an action. It’s just what happens when you look at your phone.
📱 Daylist makes the wallpaper your list
Daylist renders your tasks into a designed Lock Screen wallpaper — up to 8 tasks with checkboxes, completed ones struck through, and a “tasks remaining” count at the top. A one‑time Apple Shortcuts setup keeps it in sync automatically: open or close the app and the wallpaper rebuilds in the background. Raise your phone, and today is simply there.
The comparison in one breath
- Widget: always visible, barely informative.
- Notification: informative, gone in one swipe.
- Live Activity: nice, temporary, single‑task.
- StandBy: great on the nightstand only.
- Task wallpaper: whole day, every glance, can’t be dismissed.
They stack, too — keep a widget for your calendar and let the wallpaper carry the list.
Glance. Know. Do.
Daylist shows your whole day the moment you raise your iPhone.
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