How to Make Your Phone Less Distracting and More Productive

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Nobody wishes to spend more time on their phone. Nobody feels satisfied to realize three hours have been wasted scrolling through social media, especially when it was only supposed to be a fifteen-minute break. Without a doubt, nobody wants this habit to perpetuate through the rest of their lives either. The amount of time the average person spends on their phone each year equates to almost sixty days straight. That number should feel like a punch in the gut, and if it does not, maybe a greater perspective will help. Extrapolating this figure across the average lifespan equates to almost a decade of our lives. The majority of the time we spend on our phones is taken up by three categories: Messaging, Social Media, and Web Browsing. Most of the time, these three categories are unproductive and distracting. So, how do we change this time-suck of a habit? There are several strategies that can be implemented, but it will not be easy. Unfortunately, smartphone apps are designed for addiction. Cutting yourself off will be a formidable challenge, it will take discipline and determination. However, the benefits of changing this unhealthy lifestyle are immense. As previously mentioned, you will not wish you spent more time on your phone after you change your habits.

How to Make Your Phone Less Distracting

Schedule Your Day

One of the often-overlooked methods to curbing your distraction habit is scheduling your day by the hour. This includes allowing yourself time to give in to distractions. While this may seem counter-intuitive, it actually helps with becoming more productive. Rather than checking your phone on your own volition, a specified time to check your phone will encourage productive work when you cannot check it. Additionally, if you plan your day by the hour, you can more clearly see which tasks you are sacrificing in order to give in to distraction.

No Notifications

The smartphone was invented to simplify our lives on our own terms. Unfortunately, we now live by other peoples’ terms. When receiving an email notification on your phone, you are expected and pressured to respond promptly, not on your own time. Additionally, notifications from social media shift our focus and attention from important tasks to whoever liked our latest post. This is not simplifying our lives on our own terms; it is complicating our lives on others’ terms. We are letting other people distract us and influence our attention. It is time to use the smartphone for what it was intended for, and let it enhance our lives rather than hinder it.

The best way to do this is to reduce the number of notifications you receive. Notifications from social media, mobile games, and texts are not essential. One may argue that texts are essential in case of emergencies, which is a fair argument, and that suggestion may not apply to everyone. However, if it is truly an emergency you will likely receive a call, not a text. The best way to help with text notifications is an autoreply. This is one of my best productivity tips and I use it every day. Whenever I am working, I turn on my “Do Not Disturb While Driving” mode on my phone, which enables an autoreply function (you can activate this function in settings if you use an iPhone). My autoreply currently reads “This is an autoreply. I am currently doing something that requires my full attention and focus. I am not good at ignoring distractions, so I will not see your message until my task is completed. If it is urgent, please call me. Otherwise, I may not respond for a while. Thank you for understanding.”

Another helpful tip regarding notifications is to remove all badges from your apps. Badges are the little red circles in the corners of the app icons and folders that show the number of notifications you’ve received for that app. Removing badges helps you regain control over when you check your phone.

Remove Distracting Apps

Obviously, this can work wonders on curbing your distraction habit. Simply removing the applications adds enough friction between you and distraction to make you avoid giving in. If you cannot remove distracting apps due to communication issues, relocate them to an inconvenient section of your phone. For example, if you use folders, put your most distracting apps on the last page of a folder. If you have several pages on your phone, put your most distracting apps on the last page. If you have an android phone, you have a slight advantage. You can remove the app from your home screen entirely.

Usage Tracking Apps

If you have never seen the analytics of your phone usage, this will probably be a wake-up call. You can reap a multitude of benefits from usage-tracking apps. You can track your progress over time. If you are effectively using your phone, you will probably see your usage go down as the weeks pass. Or, you can see which apps you are spending more time on. Hopefully, the distracting apps will take up a much smaller piece of the pie as you get better at avoiding distraction. Lastly, you can put a time limit on your most distracting apps. This prevents mindless scrolling and the classic “Uh oh, how did three hours just pass?” realization.

Put Down Your Phone

The average person touches their phone 2,617 times per day. Maybe, just maybe, that is a bit unnecessary. Leave your phone in a different room when you’re working. If you’re going on a walk, leave your phone at home. When going for lunch with a friend, don’t take your phone with you. After practising this habit for a while, you will eventually stop reaching in your pocket expecting a phone (you will probably do this the first few times you go somewhere without your phone). This will reduce your dependence on your phone, making it more difficult to give in to distractions.

Productive Stimuli

The first tip recommended allowing for specific times to give in to distractions, rather than avoiding them entirely. If you are starting to feel less dependent on your phone because of this, try to engage in a productive distraction instead. Rather than using your phone when allowing distraction, try these stimuli instead:

Read
Exercise
Clean
Easy Chores
Go for a Walk
Talk to Co-workers and Friends
Meditate
Journal
Listen to Music, an Audiobook, or a Podcast

Other Helpful Tips to Avoid Distraction:

Don't take your phone to bed
Use a smart speaker when you can
Try grayscale (removes the novelty and 'flashy-ness' of your phone)
Rearrange your apps (more difficult to mindlessly click on a distracting app)
Turn off your internet

How to Make Your Phone More Productive

Download (a few) Productivity Apps

Luckily, your phone does not have to be the bad guy. The smartphone was invented to be an assistant, so let’s allow it to live up to that potential. There is a wide variety of productivity apps that you can download, but do not download too many. If you download too many, then these can just be distractions in disguise! There are only a few essential productivity apps that you should download. I recommend a to-do list, a calendar, and a productive distraction. Pretty much any to-do list or calendar app does the same thing and serves the same purpose. But, a productive distraction is up to you and your individual goals. If your goal is to be more mindful, consider a meditation app. If your goal is to be more knowledgeable about a topic, an audiobook or podcast app may help. The sky is the limit for productive distraction apps, but try to make sure that you do not download too many, as they too will become unproductive distractions in disguise.

Make Use of Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb

These two basic functions are built-in with every phone you can purchase now, and they are some of the greatest tools you can use to become more productive. As previously mentioned, “Do Not Disturb While Driving” is an excellent tool to use due to its autoreply function. Airplane mode will cut off your Wi-Fi and data usage, making it more difficult to mindlessly open distracting apps. Make use of these two functions because they might be the only productivity tools you need on your phone!

Use Your Phone to Add Value to Your Life

The age of the internet has allowed extremely talented and creative people to influence the world. Furthermore, it has also allowed people to cultivate talent and creativity of their own volition. The internet has become a self-perpetuating system of individual thoughts, talents, skills, and mentors. Take advantage of some of the tools people have created. There is a huge selection of apps that are made to help you become a better person and accomplish your goals. I recommend downloading a podcast app and an audiobook app first. These tools are not typically distracting because they contain long-format entertainment. You do not get an instant dopamine hit from these apps most of the time. These two apps can turn your commuting time into learning time. Many other apps help cultivate a skill with repeated practice (be careful with these too, they can become distractions as well). Apps like Duolingo, Mimo, and many others can greatly improve your skillset. Rather than time-wasting apps, use productive apps to add value to your life.

Conclusion

Your phone is not evil, but it can be a huge distraction. Unfortunately, we have lost control of our attention because of these devices. Hopefully, some of these tips help you regain your control. Smartphones were invented to be convenient to their users, not to other people. Turn your phone into a productivity tool, not a distraction.