What is My Life Dots?

My Life Dots is a free online wallpaper calendar builder for your iPhone lock screen. Choose a grid style — daily habit tracker, monthly calendar, year progress, or life in weeks — and it generates a custom wallpaper image. It updates automatically every midnight using iOS Shortcuts. No app download, no account, no subscription required.

What is a wallpaper calendar?

A wallpaper calendar is a phone wallpaper that displays a live calendar grid — showing days, weeks, or year progress — directly on your lock screen or home screen. Unlike a widget or an app, a wallpaper calendar is always visible the moment you pick up your phone. My Life Dots creates wallpaper calendars that show your habits, year progress, or entire lifetime as a simple dot grid.

What is a year progress wallpaper?

A year progress wallpaper shows all 365 days of the current year as a dot grid on your iPhone lock screen — completed days fill in, remaining days stay open. My Life Dots generates a year progress wallpaper that updates automatically every midnight via iOS Shortcuts, so every morning you see exactly how far through the year you are without opening any app.

How does a habit tracker wallpaper work?

A habit tracker wallpaper places your daily habit streak directly on your iPhone lock screen as a dot grid. My Life Dots generates this as a wallpaper image — not a widget — so it is visible every single time you pick up your phone without any taps. The wallpaper updates automatically at midnight via iOS Shortcuts to reflect the new day’s progress.

What is “life in weeks” and why does it matter?

The “life in weeks” concept — popularised by Tim Urban of WaitButWhy — visualises your entire lifespan as a grid of small boxes, each representing one week. Most people have around 4,680 weeks in a lifetime. Seeing how many are already filled in, and how many remain, creates a calm but powerful sense of time-awareness. My Life Dots turns this into a live wallpaper that updates every week automatically.

Is My Life Dots free?

Yes. My Life Dots is completely free to use. You can create and download a wallpaper calendar at mylifedots.com with no account required and no subscription. Optional premium themes and styles are available for users who want more customisation options.

Does My Life Dots require an app download?

No. My Life Dots runs entirely in your browser at mylifedots.com — nothing to download from the App Store. You create your wallpaper in the browser, download the image, and set it on your iPhone. The automatic daily update uses iOS Shortcuts, which is pre-installed on every iPhone, so no third-party app is ever needed.

Is My Life Dots a Pretty Progress alternative?

Yes. My Life Dots is a free, browser-based alternative to Pretty Progress and similar habit tracker wallpaper apps. Unlike Pretty Progress, My Life Dots requires no App Store download, is completely free, and combines daily habit tracking with year progress and life-in-weeks views in one wallpaper. It works on any iPhone via iOS Shortcuts with no subscription.

Wallpaper vs widget — which is better for habit tracking?

A wallpaper is better for passive awareness. It is visible every single time you pick up your phone — before you open anything. A widget requires you to actively look at your home screen. For habits you want to stay top-of-mind throughout the day without active effort, a lock screen wallpaper like My Life Dots is more effective. You check your phone 80–150 times a day — your wallpaper gets all of that attention.

How is My Life Dots different from Left or WeeklyDots?

My Life Dots is the only tool that combines all four modes — daily habit tracker, monthly calendar, year progress, and life in weeks — in one free web tool with no app download. WeeklyDots offers life-in-weeks only. Left is a widget app (not a wallpaper) that requires an App Store download. My Life Dots works instantly in any browser, is completely free, and produces a wallpaper rather than a widget.

How do I set up the automatic wallpaper update on iPhone?

After creating your wallpaper on mylifedots.com, open the iOS Shortcuts app, create a Personal Automation triggered at midnight daily, add a “Get Contents of URL” action using your My Life Dots wallpaper URL, then add “Set Wallpaper Photo” set to both Lock Screen and Home Screen. Disable “Ask Before Running” so it runs silently. The entire setup takes about 5 minutes and runs automatically every night forever.

Does My Life Dots work with iOS 26?

Yes. My Life Dots is fully compatible with iOS 26. The wallpaper creator works in Safari on iOS 26, and the iOS Shortcuts automation for automatic midnight updates works with iOS 26’s Shortcuts app without any changes to your existing setup.

Blog

Your Life in Dots — What It Means and How to See It on Your Lock Screen

June 11, 2026

What "your life in dots" and "life in dots" mean — and how to turn the concept into a personal dots calendar wallpaper on your iPhone lock screen with LifeDots.

Every week of your life is a dot. Not a metaphor — a literal square on a grid, one per week, from birth to a typical lifespan of about 90 years. That is roughly 4,680 dots. Half of them may already be filled in.

Your life in dots is what happens when you stop thinking in years and start seeing time as something you can count on your lock screen.

What does "your life in dots" mean?

The phrase comes from the life in weeks idea — popularised by Tim Urban — where each week of your life is one box on a grid. Life dots are the same idea, simplified: every dot is one week. Filled dots are weeks you have lived. Empty dots are weeks still ahead.

When people search "your life in dots" or "life in dots", they are usually looking for one of two things:

A visual way to feel how finite time really is
A tool that turns that visual into a dots calendar on their phone

LifeDots does both.

Why dots work better than dates

Calendars show days. Planners show tasks. Neither answers the quiet question: how much of my life have I already used?

A dots calendar compresses decades into a single glance:

You see the shape of a life — not just this Tuesday
Procrastination feels different when a week is a visible unit
Goals become seasonal, not vague

It is not morbid. It is clarity — the same reason people hang year-progress bars or habit grids on their lock screen.

From concept to lock screen

The best life in dots setup is one you actually see — not buried in an app you forget to open.

Pick your birth date so the grid knows how many dots are filled.
Choose a layout — life in weeks is the classic dots calendar view.
Set it as your lock screen so every unlock is a gentle reminder.
Optional: use iOS Shortcuts to refresh the wallpaper automatically at midnight.

The LifeDots wallpaper creator handles all four grid styles — habit tracker, monthly, year progress, and life in weeks — in one free web tool. No app download required.

Who this is for

Anyone who searched "life dots" and wants something more tangible than a quote
People who tried productivity apps and stopped opening them
Students, founders, or parents who want a calm nudge — not another notification
Anyone comparing dots calendar tools and wanting one that also tracks habits and year progress

How to use your dots calendar well

Put it on the lock screen, not just the home screen — you see it before anything else
Glance daily; reflect weekly — ask whether this week moved what matters
Pair the visual with one priority per season, not ten competing goals
Revisit the grid when life shifts — new job, new city, new chapter

Closing thought

Your life in dots is not about counting down. It is about counting in — making each week visible enough that you choose it on purpose.

You do not need another dashboard. You need a dots calendar on the glass you already touch 100 times a day.

Create your life in dots wallpaper — free, takes under a minute. Want the full philosophy? Read our life calendar wallpaper guide.