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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

#21

Post by tonyarkles »

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…

On iOS, at least, there’s a setting where you can allow repeated calls from the same number to “punch through” do not disturb mode. I think it was introduced around the same time as auto-DND at night.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#22

Post by doctorOb »

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…

A PagerDuty family account?

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#23

Post by chmod775 »

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…

>She asked, how she's supposed to contact me if there's an emergency.

Mine's got a setting where it rings normally when someone calls me 3 (or was it 2?) times in a row. So in an emergency just keep trying.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#24

Post by [deleted] »

theon144 wrote: post #19
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.

[deleted]

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#25

Post by easton »

a_imho wrote: post #5

At that point feature phones also strike a very good balance. Personally 99.9%[1] of things I could do on a smartphone theoretically I can do 10x better/faster/more conveniently on a laptop, so I just better off postponing the action. [1] Disregarding bad actors who force you to use a phone app

Is there a TOTP app for KaiOS that works well? If so I might actually look into this at some point, the other day I thought about it and the only things I need on my phone are hotspot, Spotify and TOTP. And texting, I suppose.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#26

Post by cosmie »

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…

"Mom emergencies" aren't always first responder type emergencies. They could be family emergencies she needs to communicate with you about, or (if my mom is any indication) her being in a time-sensitive situation where she needs to rely on your expertise for something.

Or many, many "mom emergencies" that are not emergencies at all, but that she feels are.

If you're using an iPhone, you can change the Ringtone and Vibration settings for individual contacts. The setting is called Emergency Bypass[1], and it's at the very top when you enter the ringtone/vibration selection screens when editing a contact. It'll bypass both Do Not Disturb mode as well as Silent Mode. I wouldn't recommend using it for the ringtone because then literally every text/call will always ring, but turning it on for vibration may reassure your mom that she can reach you when she's in need.

I'm notorious for putting my phone on silent temporarily and accidentally leaving it like that for days at a time, and I ended up doing that for my mother. She knows how much my phone drives me crazy, and when I let her know I did that for her, her reaction told me it was more meaningful to her than pretty much any bday or Mother's Day gift I've ever given her.

I very quickly turned it off for the ringtone, because the novelty of it made initially overwhelm me with a constant stream of random messages and calls (which subsided after a while). But left it on for vibrate. Although I haven't mentioned that update to her...

[1] https://www.imore.com/how-receive-messages-specific-contacts...

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#27

Post by madcow00 »

I have tried these hacks and they simply do not work. They might for a few days, but afterwards you get used to them. For me greatest realisation was, if I do not want to work or do not have something to work, I will waste time. I can throw out my mobile, but then I will find new ways to wasting time -- surfing random websites on laptop, watching TV, talking to random people, etc. The only solution for this is to assign some work to yourself everyday and have some sort of negative consequences if you are not able to complete that work.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#28

Post by asicsp »

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…

I don't use my phone much. But I have been mindlessly browsing on PC. Last week, I started an experiment of switching off internet for 5-6 hours during work days. It's been good so far. Somedays I couldn't switch off, as my work required internet.

I did observe myself trying to reach for social media sites, refreshing pages, etc even with browser closed. I was able to change that and now take breaks more often. But yeah, like you mention, the challenge is to see if I can sustain the habit for longer period. I can already see some change in behavior around switch on/off time to catch up as much as possible.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#30

Post by codq »

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.

Yep, same here. I got my very first Apple Watch last month, and it has /drastically/ decreased my phone usage. Sometimes I go out to run errands without my phone, paying for things with Apple Pay on the watch. It's liberating.

I do still bring my phone around though, mostly for the camera.

There are some things that are infuriating about the watch though, when it feels as if what I want to do is artificially constrained by the software. Why can't I copy and paste a link to send in a message? Why can't I simply read a podcast description? Why do podcasts refresh seemingly at random?

Other than a few niggling frustrations, I'm extremely happy with the watch.

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