Workflow: Ride Home
For more than a year now, I’ve been riding my bike to work as an alternate means of transportation, with the express purpose of doing my workout and my commute at the same time. Early on in my bicycle commuting journey, I picked up a bike mount for my iPhone, since I like to track my rides on Strava. Usually, there’s not much on my phone to look at, but the bike mount helps me to quickly see a text message that comes up, or check my pace in Strava.
One evening a number of months ago, I realized while preparing to ride home that I do the same list of things each day when leaving work:
- I text my wife to let her know I’m on my way
- I open the Strava app so that I can track my ride
This list probably seems really simple, but every so often, I forget one of the steps, and usually I was trying to do it once I had gotten everything ready (helmet on, reflective vest on, lights turned on, pannier bag on the rack, etc).
Quick and Easy Workflow
Enter the Workflow app. This app essentially allows you to chain together various actions to get more (or less) complicated things done in iOS. To make my bike riding scenario just a bit easier, I created a workflow that could be run from a Today Widget that essentially did the two items I listed above.
It’s actually quite simple. Now, all I do is swipe over to the “Today” screen, tap on the “Ride Home” workflow, and a text message window comes up, addressed to my wife, with the message waiting for me to edit or send. Once I send the message, Workflow opens Strava, and I can start my ride. Cool! 👍🏻
If you’re interested in using this workflow for your ride, I’ve shared it here.