Here’s an interesting idea from a friend of mine and former writing colleague, Thomas Wong. Thomas has recently started his own site, called His Dork Materials. He posted an interesting piece yesterday titled IOS Across Two Devices – in which he describes his new approach to getting the most of each of his iDevices, as well as his MacBook Pro.

Here’s a little introduction to what he’s doing:

One mental trick I’ve come up with has been to blur the lines between my iPhone and iPad by arranging both sets of home screens the same way. This means the same folders, same apps, and same layouts. Basically, I’m trying to reduce the friction of switching between iOS devices by making them look a little more similar. Not all the apps are the same, mind you, but I’ve spent a few weeks experimenting with this new home screen layout, and I quite like it. I’ve chosen services and apps that sync nicely across the cloud …

I think this approach may make a lot of sense for anyone who is a power user of both an iPhone and an iPad. It’s not an idea that works well for me – but that’s only because my usage pattern is so heavily stacked in favor of the iPad. My iPhone is used almost exclusively as just a phone and camera these days – nearly everything else I do with a mobile device is done on my iPad.

I also differ from Thomas in that I no longer use a laptop. I used MacBook Pros for many years, but over the last few years my MBP very rarely left my home office. It was a desktop computer in everything but name – and the iPad was my portable computer. At the beginning of this year I bought a new iMac, confirming my iPad’s role as my mobile computer.

What do you all think of Thomas’ idea of arranging his iPad and iPhone screens the same way? Have you ever tried anything similar?