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Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

maximevaillancourt.com

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Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#11

Post by janandonly »

jackvalentine wrote: post #9

I actually haven't seen or touched my phone in over a week. It's plugged in hidden away in my apartment but my Apple Watch seems to last a whole day if it's on the office wifi and I can take calls/do some really light texting/look at my calendar but using it for anything long winded is too much of a chore. I'm hoping this cures me of using the phone to fill every tiny moment of downtime.

When the LTE Apple Watch will be launched here in the Netherlands I’m hoping to try the exact same thing

Yes, we are still waiting on iWatch’es with LTE enabled...

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#12

Post by chmod775 »

My phone is always on completely silent mode. It doesn't even ring when someone calls me.

Instead when I've got a call the LED blinks and people know I'll call them back once I've got the time and notice it.

For messages (whatsapp, mail, whatever) I generally only catch up on them once a day.

I don't know how other people can tolerate allowing others to annoy them whenever they feel like it, or deal with the incessant notification noises.

Especially software developers, mathematicians, etc. How do they have time to think and focus when they're interrupted every few minutes?

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#13

Post by kwhitefoot »

> Enable grayscale display mode to reduce the enticing effect of the apps icons’ bright colours.

Or you could just not have any icons on the home screen at all.

Use T-UI instead:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/ohi.andre.consolelauncher/

I actually find it much easier to use than the icons. I just type a few characters, sometimes just one, usually only two or three and T-UI finds the app for me.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#15

Post by nottorp »

chmod775 wrote: post #12

My phone is always on completely silent mode. It doesn't even ring when someone calls me. Instead when I've got a call the LED blinks and people know I'll call them back once I've got the time and notice it. For messages (whatsapp, mail, whatever) I generally only catch up on them once a day. I don't know how other people can tolerate allowing others to annoy them whenever they feel like it, or deal with the incessan…

Yeah seriously. Why isn't it obvious that the way to resist distractions is to turn ... them ... off?

For communication, async is the key. For mindless entertainment, cut off any way said entertainment has of interrupting you. Even Android allows you to turn off notifications now...

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#16

Post by separateside »

thanks a lot for this! I will try to use it! It will turn my phone less appealing, I drown too much into it. These two are awesome. Actually when I bought a new phone with no notification light my screen time decreased x2.

Disable notifications for most everything. Delete social media apps and mindfully using them on the laptop/desktop instead.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#18

Post by 4ggr0 »

chmod775 wrote: post #12

My phone is always on completely silent mode. It doesn't even ring when someone calls me. Instead when I've got a call the LED blinks and people know I'll call them back once I've got the time and notice it. For messages (whatsapp, mail, whatever) I generally only catch up on them once a day. I don't know how other people can tolerate allowing others to annoy them whenever they feel like it, or deal with the incessan…

I do the same, but recently my mom asked me a question I didn't really know how to answer. She asked, how she's supposed to contact me if there's an emergency. I countered that I don't think that I should be the Single Point of Contact for an emergency, because that's the job of the Police, Ambulance etc.

I thought about this question a lot, in the end I think it's a classic "But what if the worst case happens"-situation, and that my mom and I both are right in our own ways.

What do you think, HN?

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#19

Post by theon144 »

NalNezumi wrote: post #2

I've seen hacks like this, and have used them myself too. However, suggesting this to friends (and myself) I see two things that undermines the process, that the metric used here does not catch. 1. Usage over a long time span is usually not a "decline" but a "wave-like" pattern. aka rebound, or substitution. You remove one distracting app, stay productive for a week or a month, then rebound to same or another app. Re…

Thank you! I definitely observed a similar pattern using distraction blockers; it worked for a while, but after a while I just ended up wasting just as much time, except on different websites or on devices where the blocking wasn't enabled.

The real "cure" is just mindfully deciding not to open "unproductive" apps and sites. Otherwise, my time-wasting workflow (hah) just naturally adapts after a while.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#20

Post by theon144 »

4ggr0 wrote: post #18
chmod775 wrote: post #12

My phone is always on completely silent mode. It doesn't even ring when someone calls me. Instead when I've got a call the LED blinks and people know I'll call them back once I've got the time and notice it. For messages (whatsapp, mail, whatever) I generally only catch up on them once a day. I don't know how other people can tolerate allowing others to annoy them whenever they feel like it, or deal with the incessan…

I do the same, but recently my mom asked me a question I didn't really know how to answer. She asked, how she's supposed to contact me if there's an emergency. I countered that I don't think that I should be the Single Point of Contact for an emergency, because that's the job of the Police, Ambulance etc. I thought about this question a lot, in the end I think it's a classic "But what if the worst case happens"-situa…

I rely on the "let call through if it rings twice within 5 minutes" feature and I let calls on selected contacts through. My family almost never calls me unless its urgent (we communicate over IM and other channels), so this solution is almost as perfect as it can be, I think.
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