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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

#41

Post by MivLives »

asicsp wrote: post #28
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 y…

I've been coding a bunch on a Pinebook Pro. Using the browser is painful. Not painful for looking up documentation/stack overflow/other sources. But on a JS heavy site it's miserable in comparison to a Chromebook, my phone, or any other computer I own. I'm much less likely to go on Mastodon/Reddit if the experience isn't enjoyable from a usage perspective.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#42

Post by BlueTemplar »

asicsp wrote: post #28
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 y…

Damn, I spent a week and a half on HN... again !

(Noprocrast setting, here I come !)

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#43

Post by runjake »

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 think that the key here is persistence and self-forgiveness for setbacks.

You have a setback and return to mindless browsing. Don't drop it all. Note it mentally, review how it happened, make any necessary adjustments, forgive yourself and get back on track.

Some weeks will be total trainwrecks, but the key is to get back on the track, back onto your long-term game plan ASAP.

Gradually, your behaviors will shift with this persistence.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#45

Post by xuhu »

arkitaip wrote: post #36
theon144 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's amazing how quickly we adapt to get around hindrance, even if that's something we created for our own benefit. I wonder how you could get around this? Maybe a huge blacklist and deliberately messing with sites randomly to the point it become too much of an issue, e.g. making sites load very slowly; breaking css, images randomly, etc. Something like netflix's chaos monkey?

I use userstyles to browse in black and white, 11px regular font, and no images:

    https://userstyles.org/styles/137906/s-somesites-black-white
    https://userstyles.org/styles/107911/o-small-text-hide-images
Less colorful websites -> less time browsing.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#46

Post by justinlloyd »

I'd take a feature phone if they gave me the features I need. I use a smartphone, with almost no distracting apps. The distracting apps are ones I worked on, so I carry them as portfolio pieces. Beyond that, I spend maybe a few minutes a day interacting with my phone. All notifications are turned off. No social media apps. Almost all Google apps disabled/uninstalled. It is refreshing.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#47

Post by zentiggr »

xuhu wrote: post #45
arkitaip wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how quickly we adapt to get around hindrance, even if that's something we created for our own benefit. I wonder how you could get around this? Maybe a huge blacklist and deliberately messing with sites randomly to the point it become too much of an issue, e.g. making sites load very slowly; breaking css, images randomly, etc. Something like netflix's chaos monkey?

I use userstyles to browse in black and white, 11px regular font, and no images: https://userstyles.org/styles/137906/s-somesites-black-white https://userstyles.org/styles/107911/o-small-text-hide-images Less colorful websites -> less time browsing.

That would actually make browsing far more pleasant for me. MMMV.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#48

Post by zentiggr »

Zecc wrote: post #37
intrepidhero wrote: post #35

This is a good list of things to try. But data from the first week isn't very telling. I'd be more interested in how its going a month from now. I do a number of things the OP does to try to curb "wasted" time. I would add the following: I have no social media on my phone and the only game is: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ Really hard to get addicted to but enjoyable enough if I actually want…

> I have no social media on my phone and the only game is: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ > > Really hard to get addicted to but enjoyable enough if I actually want to spend a few minutes playing a game. Every morning I empty my bowels while playing Filling. Or the occasional Range or Light Up.

Flood, Untangle, Pattern(10x10), standard 15 size Fifteen, Net at 7x7 or 9x9.

So much appreciate that these got an Android build. Installed on every phone I've ever had.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#49

Post by NalNezumi »

runjake wrote: post #43
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 think that the key here is persistence and self-forgiveness for setbacks. You have a setback and return to mindless browsing. Don't drop it all. Note it mentally, review how it happened, make any necessary adjustments, forgive yourself and get back on track. Some weeks will be total trainwrecks, but the key is to get back on the track, back onto your long-term game plan ASAP. Gradually, your behaviors will shift wi…

self-forgiveness is definitely a key, but also analyzing the failure fairly is also tremendously helpful. Trying to remove all distraction, and going on/off on a "wave-like" rebound pattern is very common, and sure persistence might help for some.

A slightly more fool-proof approach is to try to do a introspection on "how" and what part of the distraction you are coming back for, and gradually remove these.

For example, I had problem with Facebook long time ago. I tried to delete it from phone, block news-feed on browser with extension, but still couldn't get rid of it entirely. After a bit of introspection, I realized checking facebook is actually not a problem at all, getting stuck on it was. So, I took my time to analyze what part of facebook did steal my attention. I pin-pointed it down to a couple of news pages, group & liked pages, and about 90% of my friends posts. So I blocked all the news pages, groups & linked pages, unfollowed 90% of my friends.

I still check facebook, but each time I check it, its about 20-30 sec MAX, and since the content is 99% boring or insignificant, it doesn't steal my attention at all. When facebook became this to me, deleting it (and NOT re-installing) from the phone became a very painless process.

Hacker News is my new hit though.

Re: Turning my smartphone into a boring productivity tool

#50

Post by theon144 »

arkitaip wrote: post #36
theon144 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's amazing how quickly we adapt to get around hindrance, even if that's something we created for our own benefit. I wonder how you could get around this? Maybe a huge blacklist and deliberately messing with sites randomly to the point it become too much of an issue, e.g. making sites load very slowly; breaking css, images randomly, etc. Something like netflix's chaos monkey?

I've tried delays too, but it ends up being almost the same, because I just associate opening reddit/hn/youtube on my computer with the delay and discomfort - so I open it on my phone or another computer.

If there's a way to circumvent it, it just becomes muscle memory at some point later.

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