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My year with a distraction-free iPhone

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Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#81

Post by relate »

superasn wrote: post #59

I think the biggest problem with the smartphone are the PUSH notifications. Disable them and your life becomes instantly better. If deleting apps is a big leap for you then I think disabling all push notifications is the second best thing you can do.

I couldn't agree more, it makes a huge difference - especially for e-mail.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#82

Post by nicholassmith »

nicky0 wrote: post #78
geden wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Meditation is also about controlling distraction.

But surely you can meditate on the bus without needing an app.

I think the point is it helps make it easier to achieve the desired state, which makes it worthwhile having on his phone in his 'select' pick of apps.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#83

Post by nicholassmith »

I had my iPad replaced recently, had some issues restoring it as my backup state was inconsistent and ended up going for a full 'clean' device. It was interesting, for the first 4 weeks I had barely any apps on there outside of Kindle, Instapaper and Tweetbot. I used it about the same amount of time, but generally I'd focus on one thing for longer periods of time. I'm tempted to go down that route when I get a new iPhone this month, sounds like it's worked well for other people.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#87

Post by pqs »

My strategy is to disable notifications. Thus, I only open the apps when I choose to (WhatsApp, Twitter, etc.). Apps that are specially addictive belong to the second screen, in a folder (Twitter, etc.). This way I have much more control over my phone habits.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#89

Post by vindia »

kareemm wrote: post #48

Tried this, and one of the big difficulties is that I send email to my todo list manager to create todos ("pick up milk", "Email person about important_thing"). I don't want to give this up, but can't find an app that only sends email. So when I opened Mail to send a todo email, I'd see all the new emails that were begging to be read. I could create a new email account that I use for sending only, but that seems like…

You could use something like Captio or Squarespace Note (see http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/open-write-and-send-5-alternati...)

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#90

Post by baddox »

dredmorbius wrote: post #72
baddox wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why turn the ringer completely off? Surely it's worth getting "distracted" by communication from friends and family. The only reason I can see this as a good idea is if you get a lot of bogus calls, or you know people who call/text you a ton.

I remember a time when people were reachable by location. You could call me at home and reach me early mornings (but that's rude), evenings, or weekends. Or at work at my desk. This was a time when toll charges were high enough that unsolicited calls were something of a rarity. That's definitely changed (and lack of caller-ID on landlines is all but unbearable now). There was even a time when answering machines didn'…

Perhaps I've just gotten lucky with sales calls, and either have few friends or courteous friends. I get one sales call a month, from my university alumni association, which I ignore. I talk on the phone or FaceTime with family approximately weekly, but that's on the weekend, and planned casually through email or SMS before hand. The vast majority of my communication with friends is asynchronous through email/Facebook/Twitter or semi-asynchronous through instant messaging, neither of which provide real-time distraction.
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