A phone that continually distracts you from the really important

This material I have read about a month ago. It is so much changed my idea of ​​what to do and what the phone does not have to, I completely rebuilt to work with him. Now he never distracts me from my work, and any contact with the phone is possible only if my conscious desire to do so - I just take it in your hand and look at what is out there needs my attention. So, the word Jake Knapp, who came up with this method.

When people see my iPhone, then say something like "Oh, man, some kind of a virus on the phone with you?" It does not have a browser, no e-mail, Twitter, Instagram and, of course, there is Facebook. And it looks like this.

But no, the phone is not broken. I deliberately made it so. It was supposed to be a week-long experiment, but the last month and I will not go back. Try this very simple.

I can not be infinite in his pocket

IPhones and Androids - wonderful phones. They are amazing. They give access to infinite information lying in the palm of your hand. But there is a problem: I do not have any attention to all this - the constant switching between tabs and browser responses to emails on the tiny screen. The ability to check email and do a million other things, not only in moments of sitting at the computer does not seem to me such a wonderful. I began to suspect that around there are more interesting things I could do.

Perhaps your level of self-control is beyond me or you just found a way to cohabit with it. I decided not to rely on willpower.

Check email, I checked Twitter, read the news. Think about what has happened there is something interesting in the world, did not think whether someone about me. Each time taking your phone with sound notifications, or just taking it mechanically, I thought, "Damn, really there is nothing interesting in the world of IT?"

I began to realize that my attention and it was not so good before, just beginning to dissolve. In my head constantly there is a storm of thoughts about small things for me. And why should I? When I read something on the Internet, it was a feeling of incompleteness and dissatisfaction, because I knew that there is more information and it is - not productive and not cool.

week experiment

So I came to the experiment - for seven days, I decided to turn off everything that is somehow annoying and distracting me.

DELETED: Twitter and Instagram, as well as anything that has a news feed

Another important fact about me: I do not have the most glamorous life. I once ate 100 food in the restaurant, and 97 of them were the same burrito from the same place. It is one block from my work. Boring things, huh?

So I think what I felt when I saw your dishes heaped on Instagram? Think about what it was like for me to read your tweets with SXSW when I was changing diapers. This is not my deal, but many people become unhappy when reading all these threads. So I held the finger on the Twitter icon to until she began to twitch, and removed it. And with him Instagram and Facebook. iPhone even asked me, "Are you sure you want to remove the app and all of its data?" Yes, I like very much. And I understand that you can install these applications in just 15 minutes and get all of this data. Since I did not lose anything to enter usernames and passwords, if I want it badly.

BAM! Nothing on my phone that would make the flow of news, not survived.

DELETED: email

Another obvious problem was the e-mail. When I check the mail every time to remind ourselves of the tasks to be performed by replying to the letter, but I never knew how to type as fast to really respond to these emails. I did not like that I always saw the unfulfilled task, but in fact they could not perform with your phone.

Mountains outstanding problems did not give me joy and self-confidence, exactly like the pictures cool food, I have not tried it for 16 years. But worse than the dam in the Inbox may be the case if you are not completely new letters - it means that you are a loser?

Disable email on the iPhone a little more complicated. I easily remove the Gmail app, but the standard Mail app can not be removed. So I went to Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars → Gmail and delete your account.

DELETED: Safari

Then I realized that the greatest stimulus was always... the Internet itself. Remove Safari is impossible, but it can be disabled. Go to Settings → General → Restrictions and activate these Camye bans. Place the code that you will not forget. This is the place where you want to turn off the phone function when sending it to the people to whom you do not believe. I myself do not believe it!

I disabled Safari.

Boredom - this is not so bad

It is difficult if I had all these seven days? No, it was easier than I thought. I, frankly, did not even notice they have passed. I finally fell in love with the iPhone, a disabled person.

Sometimes, in moments of downtime, I grab the phone to check the "What's New" and do it after months, but did not see anything on the screen, just put it back in his pocket.

Testing boredom was a special and pleasant state. For example, nothing happened when I was on the court with his son and did not have any news and it was excellent. I could just look at him or into the void and it too has its own meaning.

When I went to the bus, then I did not have the book in your phone (as well as, Pocket, RSS, news feeds soc. networks) and I just saw passengers. Hell, I finally started to listen to music and anything at this point not to do. It is also very nice.

What if I really need a _____________?

The astute reader will notice that any of a disconnected telephone elements can be easily restored. You can install any application, set up email and include Mail, or Safari. If you happen to any fire event (you need to check the ticket purchase code or find the phone number to me), I can always turn on the app and get the data. But, how to make an application activation is very tedious, I will not do it just because I'm bored. When I'm done with the need to fire, then disable the app again.

Where Am I a hypocrite?

Okay, I wrote this post on Medium (approx. LH: Closed for registration experimental blog platform from Twitter), so I'm a geek. I really love the things of himself close to the phone. I'm probably the last person on earth who discontinue the use of e-mail. I love e-mail and use it in Gmail at work.

On my laptop I read Twitter, mail, news. But only for him. Some people ask me why I do iPhone. Maybe once I refuse him, but to me it is hard to believe. The camera in it is excellent. Maps, geo-reminders, weather forecast, Find Friends help me know where my family members. All these things give me the feeling that I'm living in the future. Not that I do not like the iPhone, but I just need half of its capacity.

A photo: Shutterstock