I know you can go to Control Centre, tap the little line on top of the media card and tap the AirPods to connect to it. but that is 3 steps. For the people that are lazy like me, here is how you can do it in 1 step.

The fastest way I found to reconnect my AirPods is using the shortcut app. Here is how:

1. Connect your AirPods to your IPhone or Ipad

2. Open Shortcut and tap the Automation tab

3. 2. Tap Add Action on the top right

4. Tap "Create personal automation"

5. Tap "Open App" at the bottom of the list

6. Tap choose and select an app you want to use to connect to your AirPods (like Music or Podcast, it's really up to you)

7. Tap Done and then Next

8. Tap "Add Action" and tap "Scripting"

9. then tap "Set media playback destination"

10. Under the new action, tap Iphone and select your AirPods.

11. Now tap next

12. Set "Ask before running" to "OFF" and tap "Done"

Now when you need to quickly connect your AirPods, simply start the app and if your AirPods is in range, it will switch to it automatically. Great for people like me that also use their AirPods on their Mac and AirFly at work