
A roadblock to productivity is the smartphone on your desk - ingve
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/smarter-living/be-more-productive-hide-your-phone.html
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whizzkid
This is more like papering over the cracks.

Let me tell you a story; I rarely spend time with my uncle nowadays (We are
far far away from each other unfortunately). In one of those rare occasions,
we sat down and had lunch. It was a delicious food with nice conversation,
then his mobile phone rang. He pressed NO. I told him he can talk. He turned
me and said "No, I am eating and speding time with you now." This really blew
my mind. He really had his priorities and applied them accordingly. He than
later on called the guy and said that he was having lunch and meeting me, thus
could not talk.

If you dedicate your time to a thing, try to enjoy that time. If you find
yourself distracted then it is not the phone that is the problem. Let it
distract you.(for real) because it is probably not more important than the
notification you got.

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thinkingkong
In addition to removing the distraction altogether, a friend recently showed
me you can put your phone display into "Greyscale" mode.

This has an immediate effect of being less pop-y and engaging. Big red banners
are meaningless. The lack of colors make you want to engage less. It truly
broke a bunch of odd habits for me.

Worth giving it a shot.

[https://gist.github.com/jj1bdx/a514530f4f67a744526644527a12f...](https://gist.github.com/jj1bdx/a514530f4f67a744526644527a12fcf6)

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jedberg
I tried that for a week. Couldn't get used to it. I found that too many apps
use color for important distinctions, which they shouldn't because of
colorblind people, but it is what it is.

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hawski
My Nexus 5x doesn't have option to enable gray-scale, but I tried color
correction settings for color blindness. Colors are there, but a bit washed
out for Protanomaly. Will see how it goes.

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frostwhale
While I fully agree with the article, what exactly is it trying to tell me
that everyone didn't know? Is it just saying that your phone is a distraction,
and that distractions make it harder to focus? I'm just unsure what part of
the article anyone would disagree with.

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superhuzza
'The mere presence of your phone — even if it’s powered off, and even if
you’re actively and successfully ignoring it — “reduces available cognitive
capacity”'.

I thought this was interesting. Our focus is so sensitive that knowing it's
within physical proximity is distracting. I bet most people wouldn't have
guessed there is a difference between 'in a drawer' and 'in another room'.

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xte
Well... My workflow is desktop-centric, I do not use social networks, WhatsApp
etc. So... One reason to "hide" my phone is to avoid/reduce data collection
via speaker mic (cameras are already covered with a sandwich of insulating
tape+tin foil).

Otherwise all I can receive are calls or mail notification at the same rate of
dunst notifications so...

IMO a real roadblock to productivity is knowing their desktop, their tools and
use them instead of being used by tools OEM...

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lostgame
That’s tough to avoid when you’re a mobile developer for a living. :P

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jplayer01
Reddit on my desktop says hello.

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drivingmenuts
I solved that problem by keeping the cats, funny, jokes, etc. on my home
computer. My work machine just has technical Reddits that don't require or
inspire much response, just a mental note.

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sosilkj
sounds great but I'm still expected to monitor slack and email all day.

