Weapons of Mass Distraction - how to stop your phone from sabotaging your productivity!

“Carpe Diem — Seize the Day, that’s what I’m going to do!”

How often do you say that to yourself at the start of the day? That today is the day you’re going to use your time commuting productively — you’ve decided to feed your mind by listening to that podcast, you’ll nourish your soul by listening to that incredible piece of music, you’ll enrich your world by reading that challenging book — but then your phone pings…

…and your pavlovian reaction to that ping drives the dance of your thumb to open that InstaSnapFaceTweet the moment it arrives pulling you away from the good intentions you had moments ago.

This isn’t exactly the version of yourself that you had planned to be that morning — disciplined, healthy, productive etc. — master of your phone rather than slave to its beck and call!

This isn’t just idle distraction either — this pavlovian programming of your reaction massively impacts your productivity throughout the day.

In a recent study conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder, 3 in 4 employers reported that in excess of 2 hours are lost in productivity to phone distraction every day.

Our decisions, like how often we check our phones, are informed by rational and irrational judgements, subconscious biases, and information gaps (among other factors).

These factors contribute to some interesting quirks of human behavior that have long been studied by psychologists, philosophers, behavioral economists and performance coaches like myself.

One of these quirks is the making of decisions in the moment that seem to be counter to our best interests in the long-run — like continuing to check our phones incessantly even though we know it’s disastrous for productivity and detrimental to our mental health.

So why do we do it?

Well one cause is time-inconsistency (amongst other things).

What’s that? Essentially, it’s the tension between our present and future selves; who we want to be in the future and the person we are in the moment.

Advertisers have known for years how to exploit this — but now it’s built right into the apps we use every day.

Although there is no definitive body of research on this, the current evidence does suggest that the ways that we use our devices on a minute-to-minute basis often contradicts how we wished we used them — or didn’t.

And Google, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook take advantage of this.

How?

Through push notifications, autoplaying videos, chatbots asking questions in messenger pop-ups and so on.

These relatively inconsequential functions exploit our tendency to procrastinate and our susceptibility to inertia. They get our attention, no matter how it makes us feel.

And we do feel. Apparently we feel a lot. A recent study conducted by the Centre for Humane Technology and Moment illustrates the connection between screen time and our feelings of happiness or regret.

It really does depend on the apps we use too. Of the 200,000 survey respondents most spent much more time in apps they later regretted spending so much time on. Although we know this intuitively, the survey backs this up: The way we use our phones is not time-consistent.

We may feel regret but it rarely seems to change our behavior. We still let our phones kill our productivity.

So, what can we do about it?

We might want policymakers and tech giants to do something about it — by re-engineering the choice architecture to avoid catalyzing addictive, behavior — but the solution, for those of us who want to be more productive and maintain our positive mental health, is far simpler and far easier to implement.

Three Simple Steps

Three simple steps, which involve some very small changes in our rituals and routines, practiced for just 7–10 days, can reduce most of our pavlovian reaction to our phones and increase our productivity immensely.

1.Turn off notifications — you know you don’t need them so switch them off — the phantom pings/vibrations will fade over time.

You’ll still, instinctively, check your phone for the first few days but, because the stimulus will be removed the time period between checks will gradually increase.

The anxiety of missing something will also reduce, at the same time your capacity to focus on other things will begin to increase.

2. Plan your App time — Scheduling ahead of time will greatly increase your ability to follow through with this — reducing the willpower required to manage your own behavior.

Try batching your Facebook or Instagram time for example. Create windows in your schedule explicitly to use these apps.

Not just when, but for how long. The study I referred to above reported that there is an optimal time per app if we want to avoid regret. So, keep track of your total app usage and notice when your feelings tip into frustration, unhappiness and regret — then adjust your schedule time accordingly.

3. Take Phone breaks — this doesn’t have to be a total digital detox that requires extensive planning, accountability partners and the whole shebang — no, you can just start small.

Turn your phone off (or more realistically for millennials put it in another room) 30 minutes before you go to sleep at night. Not only will your “need” to know what’s going on lessen over a few days, you’ll also begin to sleep better!

So, if you want to feel more empowered, experience more happiness and less regret, and ultimately, if you want to be more productive then try these three steps.

You’ll be surprised at how simple and how practical it is to regain control and truly seize the day!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Charlie Hugh-Jones is a Life and Business Strategist. He writes, speaks and coaches individuals and organisations all over the world on how to “Unlock the Best Version of You”.

If you’re interested in working with Charlie or hiring him to deliver a life-changing and business-transforming keynote then please visit: www.charliehughjones.com