Shortcuts to shortcuts

To write every day, I need ideas. And the thing with my ideas, is that they can come up anytime, anywhere. So when I have an idea, I need to write it down immediately, wherever I am. This is what I do:

• Pick up and unlock my iPhone
• Search for the notes app
• Tap the icon to open the notes app
• Go to my articles folder
• Create a new note
• Write down my idea

That’s actually 6 steps, which I wish was only one. Inspired by the book Effortless, I figured I might be able to create a shortcut for it with Siri Shortcuts. Maybe it could even work with my Apple Watch instead of my iPhone.

I hadn’t used the Siri Shortcuts app before, but it’s Apple, so I expected it to be intuitive. That wasn’t the case: I couldn’t figure out how to create the shortcut I wanted and I got impatient. Luckily there’s this other kind of shortcut we all use when we don’t know how something works: Google.

I searched for “new note within folder shortcut ios” and quickly found the answer on a forum. Someone even shared a shortcut to the shortcut. That was a nice delighter!

All I had to do is click the link, which opened a preset in the Siri Shortcuts app, and then change one variable to make it work for my preference (to create the note within a specific folder). I tried it and it worked.

What had been six steps was now reduced to just two steps, with zero touch needed:

• Pick up and unlock my iPhone
• Say: “Hey Siri new article” and then the idea, which turns into the name of a new note within my articles folder

Unfortunately, this particular shortcut doesn’t work on my Apple Watch. Hopefully it will work in the future, so I can reduce the process to just one step. Still, I’m pretty satisfied with the shortcut. I have already used it multiple times.

If only I could also say: “Hey Siri, publish this note as an article on my Medium account.” Does anyone happen to know a shortcut to this shortcut?