The lock screen is the screen you see most, usually before you have decided to do anything, which makes it the best place on a phone for a vision board. Putting one there takes about two minutes. Keeping it worth looking at takes one more idea.
Why the lock screen
You wake the phone dozens of times a day to check the time or a message. A picture of your goal there is seen every one of those times, without opening an app and without choosing to. A board inside an app is seen only when you go looking for it, and the days you most need it are the days you will not go looking.
Pick one picture first
One photograph of one goal. A collage of twelve images on a phone screen reads as texture, and the clock and notifications cover a good part of it. Make it specific and, if you can, your own: the place, the finish line, the thing the money is for. What to put on a vision board has ideas sorted by goal.
Crop it to portrait with the subject in the middle of the screen. The top is where the clock goes and the bottom is where notifications stack.
On iPhone
- Open the photo in Photos.
- Tap the share button and choose Use as Wallpaper.
- Move and pinch the photo until the subject sits below the clock, then tap Add.
- Choose whether to use it on the home screen as well. A lock screen that is bright and a home screen that is blurred or dimmed is a good pair.
The exact wording moves between iOS versions, and the shape has stayed the same for years.
On Android
- Open the photo in your gallery app.
- Open the menu and choose Set as wallpaper.
- Pick Lock screen, or Home and lock screens.
- If your phone has an always-on display, look at it there too. It is the version you will see most.
Wording differs between manufacturers, and every recent Android phone can do it.
Keep it current as you make progress
A still wallpaper looks the same on day one and day thirty whether you did the work or not. Within a couple of weeks your eye skips it, the same way it skips a poster on the wall.
The fix is a picture that changes as you do. In Reveal the Dream your goal photo starts covered and each daily check-in uncovers one more piece. Take a screenshot of your reveal in the app, crop away the buttons, and set that as your lock screen. Do it again once a week and the lock screen shows how far in you really are. It works on the free version and on any day of a journey, finished or not.
To be plain about it: Reveal the Dream has no Lock Screen widget on iPhone and no lock screen widget on Android. The live version of the reveal is the home screen widget, which updates the moment you check in. The screenshot route is how the lock screen gets it. The habit tracker widget page sets out what the app can show on the lock screen on each platform.
The check-in countdown on the iPhone Lock Screen
iPhone can show one live thing from the app on the Lock Screen: the countdown to your next check-in. Turn on "Countdown on the Lock Screen" in the app's Settings. It is off until you do.
It appears when your next check-in is a few hours away and you open the app, because iOS only lets an app start one of these while it is open, and it clears once the check-in has opened. On an iPhone with a Dynamic Island it shows there too.
Android has no equivalent on the lock screen. The nearest thing is the countdown notification, which you can turn on in the Android app's Settings. Whether it shows on your lock screen depends on your phone's notification settings.
The short version
Choose one specific photo and crop it portrait with the subject in the middle. Set it as your lock screen wallpaper from Photos or your gallery. If you want the picture to track your progress, use a screenshot of your reveal and refresh it weekly, keep the live version on your home screen widget, and on iPhone turn on the Lock Screen countdown.