Put your to-do list on your lock screen
A lock-screen to-do list shows the few things you need to do right on your iPhone lock screen, in a widget or a Live Activity, so you can see them at a glance and check them off without opening an app. Since iOS 17, widgets are interactive, so a single tap marks a task done. NanoDo is built around exactly this: three things a day, on your lock screen.
What a lock-screen to-do list is
Your iPhone lock screen is the screen you see most, dozens of times a day, without unlocking anything. Since iOS 16 it can hold widgets, and a to-do widget puts a short list of tasks right there. You glance at your phone and your next thing is already in front of you, with no app to open and no list to scroll. For a small daily list, that is often all you need: not a place to store tasks, but a place to see them.
Widgets, Live Activities and StandBy
iOS gives an app a few different places to show your tasks. They overlap, and the names are confusing, so here is the plain version.
- Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets. A widget is a small panel on your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Since iOS 17 widgets are interactive, so a button or checkbox works with a single tap and the app never has to open.
- Live Activities. A Live Activity is a live, updating card for something happening now. It shows on the Lock Screen and, on newer iPhones, in the Dynamic Island at the top of the screen, so your current task stays visible even while you use other apps.
- StandBy. When your iPhone is charging on its side, StandBy turns it into a small bedside display. Your widgets, including a to-do widget you can tick off, show in large, glanceable form.
- The point of all three is the same: get the next thing out of the app and into a place you already look.
Why a glanceable list beats one behind an app
A task you have to open an app to see is a task you can forget. Out of sight really is out of mind, especially when the app sits in a folder behind a badge you have learned to ignore. A list on your lock screen removes the two steps that quietly kill follow-through: remembering the app exists, and deciding to open it. The list is just there, the way the time and your notifications are just there.
It also keeps the list honest. A lock-screen widget has room for a few things, not forty, so it nudges you toward a short daily list by design. The constraint is the feature.
What to look for in a to-do widget app
Most to-do apps now ship a widget, but they vary a lot. If the widget is the reason you are choosing, look for:
- Interactive, not just a preview. You want to tap and check off from the widget itself. Some widgets only show the list and still make you open the app to do anything.
- Built for a short list. A widget that mirrors a 200-item project is unreadable at a glance. The best ones show a few things for today.
- A Live Activity for the one that matters. Keeping a single focus task in the Dynamic Island is more useful than a wall of tasks you tune out.
- Calm by default. No red badges, no overdue counters bleeding onto your lock screen. A glanceable list should lower the noise, not add to it.
Where NanoDo fits
NanoDo is built around the lock screen rather than bolting a widget onto a bigger app. You pick three things in the morning, they appear on your lock screen and in a Live Activity, and you check them off with a tap, without opening anything. That is the whole app. It runs on iOS 18, costs €4.99 once, and has no account and no subscription.
If a glanceable, few-things list is what you want, it is built for exactly that. If you need a full task manager with a widget on the side, a bigger app will suit you better.