5 Easy Ways to Eliminate Your Phone as a Distraction

With busy lives, the added stress of social media and the FOMO makes going about your day very difficult. You check your phone for one notification and voila! Somehow 3 hours go by. Productivity stays at a standstill. You keep reading for ways to increase your productivity and decrease your distractions, but then somehow again end up on sites that do nothing more than help you waste your time.

“To be honest, I think cell phones were invented by the devil.”

– Joe Hill

Using your phone for hours distracts you from your work, stops you from being productive, gives you FOMO, negatively influences you, creates a false sense of a perfect lifestyle, etc. I could go on listing the adverse effects that using social media has on us, but that is for another time.

Don’t get me wrong; I understand the advantages. I also understand how important social media is for entrepreneurs who are building a presence online. My point here is the moderation of the usage. We all know, using something more than intended does more harm than good. You might go to do some work, but somehow you get sucked down the rabbit hole. It has been said, through research, that a typical office worker needs at least 25 minutes to get back to their original work after an interruption.

“Cell phones are so convenient that they are an inconvenience.”

-Haruki Murakami

Honestly, this is not the only distraction you have in your daily life. The people around you have a huge effect on your productivity and your life in general. Social media is the same, following all the rich lifestyle influencers can negatively affect you, and you then go about your day feeling sad or inferior about your life and yourself.

Let’s talk about ways to eliminate the distractions from your life that you bring upon yourself.

1.  Carve out blocks of time

Setting blocks of time just to work or just use social media, is a good idea, because of the fact that, the other stuff doesn’t interfere with the decided task. Use the block method to set your calendar. Like, say8 AM to 9 AM is blocked for breakfast. 9 AM to 12 AM for work, and so on. You should set blocks for everything that you need to do daily, this way you can add new tasks around it. You can even go ahead and put these on your calendar so you can stay on task.

You can work with full concentration because you know you will soon be able to check all those posts you like. You can also browse through the net with no guilt in mind because you know you will be getting back to work soon.

2. Turn off notifications

The continuous pings you hear are the biggest distraction throughout the day. You get so used to it that sometimes even the ringing of our doorbell leads us to check our phone for notification. It is very important to shut it down for the period of time you are working.

When it is even remotely associated with work, it is much easier to convince ourselves that we have to check it. Most of the times, it isn’t that urgent. When you use the blocking method, you anyway won’t be away from your phones for long, so it will put your mind at ease that you are not missing anything crucial.

3. Use apps to block apps from using the internet

Sometimes I do need to keep my phone beside me. I cannot just turn off the internet, because some apps I need to use require an internet connection. This was when I discovered that there are apps that block the apps you don’t want to use from using the internet connection.

I use Focus for Mac to block some of my apps from getting internet like WhatsApp and Instagram, and then use the other apps with no notification distraction. This makes the functionality of my phone more flexible for me. Freedom is also a good option.

4. Use web applications

Phones are very convenient to use, which is why we can spend so much time on social media. While working if you feel the urge to use any of the sites that aren’t work-related. If that app has a web application, instead of using the apps of your phone, use the web application on your PC or laptop.

Some features on the app don’t work on the web app, and usually, they are the ones that keep you hooked for long, like the chat feature on Instagram. This way, you will only check the necessary thing, and because using web apps can be a bit of a hassle, it becomes easier to shut the site down.

“Technology offers us a unique opportunity, though rarely welcome, to practice patience.”

-Allan Lokos

5. Use your phone as a reward

I recently wrote an article about tips to overcome laziness. One of the points I talked about was setting a reward for yourself for finishing work. You can use your phone as a reward for working hard without distractions. Rewards are great incentives to get results. Also, this isn’t even a reward that will have a lot of negative effect on you like promising yourself a pastry later would.

The anticipation of browsing the internet will make you work faster, and when you are using social media, you will feel like you earned it. This removes any kind of negative feeling associated with using your phone.

“Cell phones, mobile e-mail, and all the other cool and slick gadgets can cause massive losses in our creative output and overall productivity.”

-Robin S. Sharma

In today’s digital age, it is difficult to not use your phone for long. It has sort of become a lifeline for many people, especially small businesses. But, you should know where to draw a line. Knowing when to put your foot down on your own habits is essential for growth. Recently I stopped using Facebook for a while and realized how it was affecting me, mostly in a bad way.

Unless you realize your problems and unless to accept them as problems, you won’t be ready to face them. Once you have zeroed in on your issue of constantly checking your phone, you can apply small measures to cut back from the habit.

Increasing productivity seems to be a hot topic with everyone. While we apply measures to increase productivity, we forget to make changes to our current lifestyle. Adopting new helpful habits is good, but evaluating your current habits from time to time is also much-needed.