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Regaining control of your attention

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Re: Regaining control of your attention

#61

Post by iak8god »

vorotato wrote: post #38
iak8god wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we pretty much agree here. For me the best way to remain aware is to periodically abstain, and the effects on my awareness persist after the abstinence.

I turned of notifications of all kinds 99% of them were not worth clicking. I do periodically abstain, but I when I do use I try to stay self-aware. I mentally keep track of how long I've spent, and what I spent my time doing. I then periodically ask if I thought the previous 15 minutes was spent doing something I was interested in or if I was just on autopilot / guided by clickbait. I still use my phone a LOT, but I…

All good tips.

I've been using QualityTime (Android only, I think: http://www.qualitytimeapp.com/) to measure and track usage daily. Seeing it quantified was a bit of a shock even though I thought I was doing a good job of mentally monitoring myself.

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#62

Post by iak8god »

sverige wrote: post #49
iak8god wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been seriously considering this lately. The camera and a location-based game that gets me out walking around periodically throughout the day are the two things I'm not sure I can give up at this point.

There are lots of feature phones with cameras. In fact, it's hard to find phones without them. No GPS was a difficult feature to find as well, but desirable for reducing the data footprint available to third parties. I go walking without a phone now.

> There are lots of feature phones with cameras.

I'd love to find one with a decent camera. I have a fairly nice and compact point-and-shoot that I bought a couple of years ago, but it doesn't have a lot of the software-assisted processing that makes it so easy to take good pics with my (midrange) smartphone.

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#63

Post by iak8god »

JamilD wrote: post #40
iak8god wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "impulse issues" are reinforced by the phone. I've very often noticed when I've set aside my phone for a few hours (the rest of the evening until bed or whatever) that I have to literally set it aside at some distance from myself because otherwise it ends up in my hand without my even consciously deciding to check it. It's like a reflex. And then once it's safely at a distance, I repeatedly experience the urge to…

As I was reading this comment, I realized that I had picked up my phone and gone on Hacker News almost subconsciously, while in a lecture at school. I don't think I'd have as strong of an outlet for constant distraction without my phone.

In a meeting today someone noted with amusement that I was both the youngest person in the room and the only one taking notes on paper instead of a laptop. This is why: I can't always trust myself to stay focused when I'm on the laptop. As soon as I'm bored or uninterested for a moment, my damned fingers will - seemingly of their own volition - flip to a browser, open a new tab, and take me to HN or worse.

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#64

Post by abandonliberty »

Go to Cuba.

Internet is only available in hotel lobbies and government parks. It runs you 3$/hr.

However, be warned that Cuba (including Havana and the resorts) is a machine designed to extract money from foreigners. While you can get by for He was right. It's nearly impossible to find an authentic experience in Havana. They'll tell you anything to make you happy and get your money. Even the family I stayed with - who I assisted with translations, technology, and donations - tried to rip me off on my last day. It's just business.

Treat it like a great retro theme park. Ride around in classic american cars, walk around entirely safe at all hours, and overpay for everything. The art, music, and architecture/decay is awesome. Just don't take it too seriously :)

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#65

Post by burkaman »

rwc wrote: post #8

Admittedly off-topic, but why add unnecessarily ignorant asides (in the first sentence to boot): "...I lived on the grounds of an old estate down in central Virginia, next to a town called — terrifyingly — Lynchburg..." ...when a 10-second Google search reveals the less-than-terrifying reality: First settled in 1757, Lynchburg was named for its founder, John Lynch, who at the age of 17 started a ferry service at a fo…

Not totally damning, but 10 seconds more would reveal that "lynching" is named after his younger brother: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lynch_(judge)

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#66

Post by graeme »

tdaltonc wrote: post #59
graeme wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We had to launch it as a web app because Apple said an app that encourages you to use other apps or your phone less is not appropriate for the app store. Really? That's the sort of app I'd pay for. Ideally, I'd spend less time on my phone, and more time on my (apple) computer. Pretty shortsighted of apple. Product feedback: I don't really know what it does, or how it does it. I accessed this on a computer, so I coul…

> That's the sort of app I'd pay for. Good new! You can! We use Stripe. I'm sure our conversion rate is a lot lower than if we were in the app store. But it's still possible for people who love it to help us keep working on it.

Oh, I wrote it before the "feedback" section. I think I'll stick with my spotlight launch method, as it removes the physical action urge entirely.

Do you think it would be useful to add a physical item nonetheless?

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#68

Post by ksk »

vorotato wrote: post #3

Regaining control of your attention doesn't mean not using your phone. It means being self-aware. The author is relying on a crutch. Not using the phone is just removing a single source of distraction, it does nothing to actually help attention regulation. It's like saying, I fixed my impulse issues by never walking in to gas stations, so now I don't have to worry about buying lottery tickets! You didn't fix your imp…

You can't tell someone they're doing it wrong if what they're doing works for them. At the very least, if you aim to convince someone of a better way, you can't lead with that statement.

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#69

Post by eru »

gph wrote: post #30
rwc wrote: post #8

Admittedly off-topic, but why add unnecessarily ignorant asides (in the first sentence to boot): "...I lived on the grounds of an old estate down in central Virginia, next to a town called — terrifyingly — Lynchburg..." ...when a 10-second Google search reveals the less-than-terrifying reality: First settled in 1757, Lynchburg was named for its founder, John Lynch, who at the age of 17 started a ferry service at a fo…

Plus it's not like Lynchburg is some tiny unheard of town. It's actually a decent sized city, and it's fairly well known for being home to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Not to mention the history both in Lynchburg and the surrounding area from Revolutionary times to the Civil War. It's like being surprised that there's a city called Reading in England. "Must be a bunch of libraries there".

For non-locals: Reading (town) and Reading (verb) are pronounced differently.

(And don't even try to guess how Leicester is pronounced from the spelling.)

Re: Regaining control of your attention

#70

Post by tdaltonc »

graeme wrote: post #66
tdaltonc wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's the sort of app I'd pay for. Good new! You can! We use Stripe. I'm sure our conversion rate is a lot lower than if we were in the app store. But it's still possible for people who love it to help us keep working on it.

Oh, I wrote it before the "feedback" section. I think I'll stick with my spotlight launch method, as it removes the physical action urge entirely. Do you think it would be useful to add a physical item nonetheless?

Do you usually access your problem app though spotlight?

If so, you could try creating a space icon linked to your problem app and give the space icon a name that will cause it to appear above your problem app in spotlight results, then search for it in spotlight a few times and see if you can get the space icon to appear in Top Hits when searched.

The principle behind all of this is to get the space icon to appear in your app launch flow where the icon of your problem app used to.

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