You know what would make my life really distraction-free? Ban Hacker News on every device I have access to for a prolonged period :)
Your plan seems not to be working. :)
My year with a distraction-free iPhone
21–30 of 189 posts
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of disabling the browser completely it would probably be more prudent to use a white-list of websites which the iPhone allows as well: Restriction -> Websites -> Specific Websites Only
or just exercise some self control! I don't have to hide the kitchen knives in case I stab guests... It's not that's hard to ignore an icon.
> It's not that's hard to ignore an icon.
That depends on the icon:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131127043932/marvelmovi...
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#23Why doesn't this guy (or anyone else like him) get a non-smartphone. I have a BlackBerry10 device and rarely use apps. Partly because the platform was missing many big name apps, but mostly because I don't want or need such things. I really don't understand why this guy has an iPhone.
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#24As someone who owns a dumb flip phone, it's funny to read someone's enthusiastic account of their life-changing experience of... living exactly the way I do. But on the other hand, I get it. This sort of thing (facebook, hacker news, freaking imgur ) sucks up so much of my time (albeit on the desktop), and for what? Occasional interesting tidbits, and frequent annoyance and frustration? Some of it is straight-up bad…
A stripped-down smartphone has quite a few advantages over a dumbphone. Notice which apps are installed: Google Maps, subway maps, Rdio, Uber, Instacart. As he says, these things are like living in the future.
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#25In a similar vein, I almost always have my phone set to silent without vibrate. This small change has made a huge difference in my interaction with my phone. I reach for it less and just generally think about it less. The downside is people are sometimes annoyed at me not reacting to calls/messages immediately. I should probably experiment with the iOS Do Not Disturb feature, but it hasn't been too big of an issue so…
Same here. I set my main ringtone to silence and only a few contacts can actually ring my phone. I disable almost all notifications and my phone's on do-not-disturb from 10-7 every night.
Maybe my laptop needs a hosts file to block "infinite" sites. Of course, I'm on one right now...
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#26Why doesn't this guy (or anyone else like him) get a non-smartphone. I have a BlackBerry10 device and rarely use apps. Partly because the platform was missing many big name apps, but mostly because I don't want or need such things. I really don't understand why this guy has an iPhone.
As another commenter said, look at the apps he has Google Maps, Uber, Rdio etc... The only thing I'd be completely lost without would be Google Maps, but I had that on S60.
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#27I would have commented on this but I made my iPad distration free and now its only good for serving coffe anymore! So I am not really using it right now for reading this blogpost and I am not really commenting on this right now, sorry :(
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#28I have a now 4 year old iPhone 4. It is incredibly slow, crippled by ios 7.1, so slow that Facebook is useless and I only use safari when I really need to look up something. I call it my Comm, because that is what I use it for, communication. iMessages, Whatsapp, FB messenger, hangouts all work relatively well. My iPhone is essential distraction free because it is too slow to distract me, ill look up while waiting, talk to someone, even meditate while waiting for my iPhone to load.
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#29A tip I got from Perry Marshall was to put productive apps on your home screen, and throw apps like Facebook, Instagram etc at the back of your phone.
For example, by only leaving apps like Kindle, Audible, or Bible on my home screen, I'm much more likely to do something productive when I'm looking to fill in a few minutes waiting somewhere, rather than checking Facebook which will be a waste of time.
Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone
#30I'm going to only allow the use of notepad on my PC. I will have all the productivity. Wait... typewriter.