4 Ways To Reduce Distractions From Your Phone
You need a quick break from what you're doing. You grab your phone to check something for only two minutes before you plan to get back to work.
16 minutes later you're watching some video or reading some thread about how some Chameleons actually have tongues longer than their bodies.
Sound familiar? Ok, maybe not specifically about Chameleons, but you get the idea.
Or maybe you weren't even seeking out the distraction, but your phone buzzed yet again and it was too hard to resist the urge to check it.
The reality is, our phones are one of the biggest killers of productivity. But they don't have to be. In this post, I'll share with you four simple ways to reduce distractions from your phone.
1. Turn off all notifications
This is likely the easiest and most pain-free step you can take to reduce the number of distractions your phone produces. Other than some phone calls or possibly texts, you don't need to be notified every time something happens. We all know how hard it is to resist the urge to check your phone every time it buzzes or when you see that little red dot on one of your apps.
It's much better to simply check things one your phone when you want to check them and not when your phone tells you that you should.
The first step is to simply turn off notifications on your lock screen and your app badges. This includes the ring/vibration your phone gets when one of those notifications would pop up as well.
2. Leave your phone on "do not disturb" during working hours
There are very few real emergencies in life, and because your time is valuable, you don't want to minimize your productivity during working hours. One of the best things you can do to help you reduce distractions is to set your phone to "do not disturb" doing working hours. This way, your phone doesn't control your day at all.
For me, this means not I don't even get notified of even calls or texts. The only way to know if someone called or texted me is for me to open up my phone and see if I have any notifications for calls/texts (which again, are the only badge notifications I have on my phone).
The only person who can get through to me when do not disturb is turned on is my wife Christina. Everything else can wait.
If you're worried about missing important work-related updates, you can proactively tell your staff or people who might need to reach you about this change. For example, the staff at New City Church where I lead knows that if they really need me, they should call me twice back-to-back as my phone will ring the second time.
Don't let the .01% of time there could be an actual emergency dictate your day. And for me, if there were an actual emergency and I don't pick up, the chances are high they would contact Christina who would then call me and get right through.
3. Put it somewhere you have to physically move to access it
So you have turned off all your notifications and turned on do not disturb. This is great, but how do you break the habit of checking your phone every time your mind wanders off or you want a quick distraction? Make it harder for you to get distracted.
An easy trick is to put your phone out of reach so that you can't grab it without thinking. The best thing you can do is to put it somewhere that you have to physically get up and walk to get it. This could be on the other side of your office or in a completely different room.
Not only does this make it less likely for you to check your phone unnecessarily, but it shows you just how addicted you can be to checking your phone when you don't need to.
4. Take email off your phone
Other than social media, email can be one of the biggest unintentional time wasters.
That's right, email is a time-waster. We fool ourselves when we think checking email = gettings things done.
Email is simply interrupted distraction. It's people asking things of you and wanting you to do things for them. Of course, there is a time and place for that, but it isn't every 15-30 minutes.
I'm a huge of keeping my inbox at zero emails (click here to see how I do it and how you can do). Ironically, one of the ways I do that is by checking my email less. For me, this means only checking it twice a day during scheduled times where I know I can deal with all of it at once (around lunch and at the end of my workday). This means having email on my phone is unnecessary.
There is no such thing as checking "a few emails" because you will undoubtedly also see things in your inbox that you can't get to at that moment, but will take mental space in your brain as you think about what all is sitting in your inbox.
In fact, I often found myself checking my email on my phone for a quick something to do, even when I shouldn't have been working. The best way to resist temptation is simply to avoid it altogether.
And remember, no real emergencies happen via email anyway, so you don't need it on your phone.
Let your phone be a resource, not a master
Our phones can be a massively helpful and productive tool, but only if we use them intentionally. Small distractions may seem like they only take a few minutes here and there, but the brainpower and focus it takes to switch from one thing to another significantly reduces productivity.
The fewer distractions you have during your workday, the more focused and therefore productive you will be. Be the boss of your phone instead of it being the boss of you.
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