Taming the distraction machine in your pocket
to be more present. here. now.
This matters because in a global attention economy the brightest minds in the best companies all over the world compete for one thing: your attention. You don’t stand a fighting chance if you don’t take precautions. You are simply outnumbered and outgunned by orders of magnitude. You may think that you don’t have to check your phone if you don’t want to. After all, you have free will, right? Right. However, we all have a finite amount of discipline we can exert each day. Using it all to resist your phone is not a smart allocation of it. You will lack discipline in other areas like healthy eating, physical exercise, or studying.
In an attention economy the less distracted are happier and easily outperform the rest, because while everyone is busy consuming by scrolling their social media feed, working on their high scores, and catching up on the latest season, the less distracted invest their time in their relationships, their mental and physical health, and their personal development.
Here are a few measures I took to make me feel less like a slave to my phone.
Mental hacks
- Call it what it is: a “distraction machine”. This helps me particularly first thing in the morning when I feel the urge to check what happened overnight on social media. Do I want to pick up my distraction machine or enjoy some peace and quiet while making a coffee? Framed this way, it’s an easy choice.
- Remember, you define the relationship with your phone. You don’t have to react to every single sound it makes. You can simply acknowledge it, pause, and choose not to engage.
- Consciously decide on a healthy usage frequency for yourself. Ever notice yourself rechecking a stream of content, like your email or social media, shortly after just having consumed it? These services are designed that way — to hog your attention, to pull you back in. This messes with your attention span (e.g. focussed work or reading a book) and your ability to create or relax. Choose how often and when you want to use applications and give your brain some idle time for original thoughts the rest of the time.
- Consciously decide on maxims you want to live by. Write them down. Review them frequently. One of mine is: “Minimize consumption. Maximize learning and creation.”
Put it out of reach
- Charge it someplace else than next to your bed, so you are not as tempted to check it when already in bed or right after waking up. I know, I know: “But it functions as my alarm clock.” Just get an alarm clock. We’ve got this sunrise alarm clock and we love it.
- Put your phone away in a drawer out of sight during quality time with family and friends. When you pull out your phone with your loved ones present, the message you are sending them is: “Whatever is happening on my phone — someplace else — is more important than you are.”
Make it less tempting
Ever picked up your phone to do something, then got distracted by something and wondering after a few minutes why you picked up your phone in the first place? This is your phone using you, not the other way around.
- Arrange your apps for your intended usage patterns. Only keep apps you regularly (i.e. every week) actively (i.e. you initiate) use on the first page — everything else goes in folders on the second page. Turn off notification badges for apps in folders. While you are at it, why not weed out all those apps you don’t use anymore?
- Turn off “raise to wake”, so you are not tempted to check your phone when all you wanted was to pick it up to put someplace else.
- Turn off Siri suggestions, so you are not tempted to do something else when using the search feature, which you will use more often, now that most of your apps are within folders on your second page.
- Turn off notification previews, so you are not sucked into notifications when all you wanted was checking the time on your lock screen. If you do want to see the previews you just have to put your finger on the home button.
- Activate triple-click shortcut to switch to grayscale mode. Once you take all the bright colors away, your phone is way less appealing. I turn that on whenever I feel too distracted by my phone.
Make it less intrusive
so you are not in a constant mode of distraction. Gain back your ability to be productive by focusing on the task at hand.
- Turn off all notifications from apps where not a human is trying to reach you, e.g. someone tagged you in a picture, soandso just started following you, here is what you missed etc. These are all consciously designed to exploit how our brains work by giving us a dopamine hit and get us addicted.
- Keep it in “do not disturb” mode all the time: no sounds, no vibrating. People in my favorites list can still call me, but they know to only do so if it’s really really urgent.
Notice triggers when you are distracting yourself
but not necessarily want to. You may do so out of habit, instead of making a conscious decision.
- Notice when you reach for your pocket to get your phone out. For instance, waiting in line at the grocery shop, waiting at the corner for a friend, or waiting for the subway. Ask: “Do I want to be distracted or am I just a little awkward right now?”
- Notice when your thumb is hovering over the screen — not quite sure which app to open next. Try putting your phone away and be present instead.
Dare greatly
- Leave the house without your phone. Try it when taking out the trash, then when going to the bakery, then venture out further. It sounds scary, I know.
Business
- “If all you have is a phone, everything looks like an app.” Is an app the best product or service you can provide, or is it just what everyone else is doing at the moment?
- Consider following a tech Hippocratic Oath: “First do not distract.”
Now, put away your phone, lift your head, have a look around. Listen. Smell. Taste. Be present. Here. Now.
