9 ms·

I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and i

I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation. First, I don't use any devices directly after waking up. I meditate for about 20 minutes upon waking and then try to read fiction for 40 minutes. So, all in, somewhere around an hour of no device distractions before starting my day. Slack is one of the biggest interrupting factors while coding these days, more so than IRC ever was for me, so I try to have chunks of time during the day with it closed. This is something I've struggled with recently as co-workers always expect to be able to get in touch, but often I really need 30-60 minutes of uninterrupted focus for real tasks. For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I still scroll Instagram too much. I deleted the Twitter app from my phone and will only check it from time to time on the web. I try to turn on Do Not Disturb mode in the evenings, but it's hard when you have systems that potentially could go down and things could get escalated to you. On top of that I try to take psychedelics a few times per year, not in any type of party settings, but with people that are close to me. Screens tend to turn up this feeling of disgust when I look at them in that state, so I automatically disengage with them. I find that for at least a short while after the trip my usage of distracting Internet things goes down a lot as well. Interested to hear other strategies!

overcast 10y ago
I've done the same. Facebook was closed last year, Reddit this year, Twitter never really used, but deleted the app. I've added comment blockers in all of my browsers to get rid of all of the negativity on websites, especially YouTube. I don't use any other social apps besides the occasional Instagram for business purposes. My phone goes into Do Not Disturb about an hour before bed, and I place it face down on the nightstand. I read daily before bed to wind down. I've considered revisiting psychedelics, but it's been a long time since college! I exercise daily, mostly high intensity aerobic, pushups, pullups, situps, indoor rowing, or hiking. The phone stuff is really getting out of control, and I'm not sure what the solution is for less disciplined people. Dating sucks, going out socially sucks, going to concerts sucks, all because of the pervasiveness of the modern phone.
- marmot777 10y ago
  How do people survive without Facebook? How do I keep up with what everyone's up to? Sure, there's a lot of mindless posting on there but for me the good outweighs the bad.
  - overcast 10y ago
    I really can't tell if this was sarcasm. Same way they did all the years before the invention of Facebook.
  - marmot777 10y ago
    To clarify, I know people survived before Facebook but I've been on it since I think about 2008. I really like it to be honest. It makes me sad to think of giving it up. A lot of people here are talking about a program of achieving balance. A common list item is "delete your facebook account." I can do without Twitter but Facebook I'd mourn the loss. Maybe that's part of growth though. Damnit!
    - overcast 10y ago
      I promise, you can have even more real, meaningful relationships without Facebook updates.
      - marmot777 10y ago
        How can you promise that as you don't know me and don't know how i use Facebook, right? Maybe I'm having a fun time and also projecting good energy out to others. Or maybe I'm delusional. But how do you know with such certainty that my life or any other individual's life would be better without Facebook? I understand if you observed them mindlessly posting updates about minutia and robotically liking this and that.
        tome 10y ago
        It seems extraordinarily unlikely that you as a human being have less potential for fulfillment through interacting face to face with other humans than when you do so intermediated by Facebook.
CMYK5 10y ago
One thing that has helped me is a "digital purge." I do mine on New Years Day, and I go through every app and ruthlessly un-follow/unfriend anyone who doesn't isn't contributing positively to me in some way (sometimes deleting entire apps). At the end of the day I'm offering these people direct access to me multiple times daily. If I don't get a positive outcome from these interactions, why keep them around?
- pawadu 10y ago
  Sounds like a great idea. I am going to try this!
- marmot777 10y ago
  That's something I do consistently but I've not really consciously thought it through. I just delete any apps or "unfriend" people that I determine to be a negative force in my life even in a small way. This one everyone should do even if they don't want to get into the digital 12 step program. I'm waiting to hit digital rock bottom before I quit.
- fudged71 10y ago
  I agree, a purge is a good step, although it's not a total solution. It feels like spring cleaning. The privacy/notification tools on each site update over time and so do our interests in people and topics, so it makes sense to go in and jig things around every once in a while.
gerbilly 10y ago
>I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation. - Close any social media account not used for your job. - Stop using GPS unless in dire emergencies, even in foreign cities. Buy a map, ask directions. - Read physical newspapers and books. - Text people only for coordinating where to physically meet up, no conversations. - Take up a sport and interact with your friends face to face more. - Use your phone literally as little as possible. Start with a cold turkey period, and then re-introduce slowly.
- nxzero 10y ago
  Always fun watch someone go cold turkey, since it becomes obvious to them their an infozombie really quick; reaching for a phone in their pocket that's not there every few minutes, going through withdrawals from not being able to read feeds/email, etc.
  - gerbilly 10y ago
    Somewhat unrelated, but I think it's funny how quickly these devices have turned us into their slaves. Among people who can afford a smartphone, which is a wide swath from the working poor on up, it seems like _everyone_ is swiping at their phones all day. I like to imagine them in as many variations as possible: judges, programmers, hells angels, movie stars, school children, cops, window washers hanging from a rope...[1] It then becomes fun to try to think of people you don't see using phones as much: construction workers (too busy with hands), surfers (in water and heavy surf), astronauts maybe ?... [1] http://www.boredpanda.com/portraits-holding-devices-removed-eric-pickersgill/ http://www.boredpanda.com/portraits-holding-devices-removed-...
  - marmot777 10y ago
    I can't stand when someone does that so that's the one thing I NEVER do is reach for my phone when I'm in any way engaged with people IRL. It's just annoying as fuck to talk to someone who's a slave to communication coming in through their phone.
- 10y ago
zeveb 10y ago
> Slack is one of the biggest interrupting factors while coding these days, more so than IRC ever was for me, so I try to have chunks of time during the day with it closed. I used a client which enables me to mute most of the notifications, which is pretty nice. > For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I like it, but I only check it once in the morning and once in the evening, from my desktop. I don't have any social apps on my phone, except G+ — and it's hardly brimming with notifications!
- pawadu 10y ago
  Surprisingly, I think you can fully disable G+ on Android. But somehow, G+ has never been in the way for me. It almost feels like a grown up version of Facebook.
  - zeveb 10y ago
    > It almost feels like a grown up version of Facebook. Yup, I really like it, although recently (as it's emptied out) the public communities have gotten significantly worse. 'Facebook for adults' sounds like a wonderful thing. My hope now is that maybe we can build it as a community, rather than as a product.
    - dredmorbius 10y ago
      How do you mean G+ has emptied out? Honestly curious as I've been keeping tabs on the whole dynamic of the site -- from initial high hopes to present near-complete disillusionment.
      - zeveb 10y ago
        What I mean is that the public communities seem to have lost whatever participants they had originally had. Now it's a lot like reading the comments section on the local paper's website, only with names which are more difficult to pronounce. Lots of trolling, lots of spamming, lots of Pe0PLe Wh0 ++don't__ knoW h0w to Wr1te!!!1!11!eleven!! I still have some affection for G+, but … it's kinda like the affection one has for an awkward family photo from one's youth.
ThrustVectoring 10y ago
I don't have the self-control and willingness to impose organization to safely have a smartphone without it turning into a skinner box. So, I just don't own a smartphone. I sometimes carry a flip-phone, though usually I leave it at home. It's really easy to get caught up in optimizing the process you have, rather than choosing which processes best fill your needs.
munchbunny 10y ago
I practice two small repeatable activities throughout the day: 1. Spend five minutes looking out a window, not doing anything, not talking, not looking at your phone, not thinking about work or errands, but just trying to be present. I focus on breathing evenly and relaxing my muscles wherever I feel tense, and I find that my brain appreciates the break from its usual stressors. 2. If I'm experiencing negative emotions, I take 5-10 minutes to think about why I am feeling those emotions, and what I'm going to do about it. No communication, no phone, no computer. Like the author of the article said, the goal is to let myself feel bad and move on rather than to avoid it. This is sometimes harder than other times. For example, after a breakup "5-10 minutes" might actually be a 30 minute walk through the park to sort out my feelings before going back to work. I find that both of those exercises help me reduce my emotional dependence on technology so that while I do still feel the impulse to reach for my phone, I don't find it hard to resist because I have no emotional investment in the phone, apps, etc. Also helps that all of my friends know that I am often slow to respond to texts. When there are no expectations of immediate responses, it's much easier not to feel pressured into eternal communicative vigilance.
Capt-RogerOver 10y ago
Since you already experiment with things like meditation and psychedelics, you should look more into finding out more about your psyche and feelings, and other self-development themes. Find out more about your inner being, about the structure of your (and in general, human) soul, what motivates you, what deep fears you have, in what ways are you still unconscious about yourself. There are tons of books, trainings, coaches that can help with this. Basically you should do more "self-development". There is no innate problem with facebook, slack, or computers or screens or any other similar thing. The problem is that you are getting distracted. You are not fully present with what you are doing. Thinking that facebook is a problem is just grossly misleading. When you have fixed your internal issues, you will not care how many websites or LCD screens are around you. You will do what you want, when you want it. Telling this to an average person is next to pointless, because they are so unconsciouss that they will not understand it. They have lost touch with the notion that they actually have a choice of whether to be distracted or not, they have a choice in how to feel in every single moment. Since you already experiment with the stuff you wrote about, you just might though. For someone who is in deep unconscioussness, who lacks knowledge about themselves, who is constantly distracted and who eats junk food that does not provide their brains with enough nutrition, etc. - trying to do simple dumb things like "I'll only look at facebook 10 minutes a day" - sure it might give some results. But once you've gained some basic groundedness - it just becomes ineffective to look at specific distractors, and much more effective to look at deeper issues within you that cause distraction in the first place.
- SolaceQuantum 10y ago
  What do you do if the situation you are in do not allow time to sit down and perform deep introspective behavior? I find myself very easily falling into introspection to the point where my mind often cries out for it if I go without for a while. However, my current work and the balancing of multiple careers (as a programmer, as a writer) and social obligations mean I often don't have time and feel intense stress/distress at the inability to commune with myself for long periods of time. I also know I suffered greatly in college due to similar distress. How does one find the time to oneself when the world demands ones time?
petercooper 10y ago
I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this I started a business that requires me to binge on everything I'm interested in online.
marmot777 10y ago
You seem super human to me. I can't imagine doing any of the above, well, except the last one as Ayahuasca is useful. Maybe I'll go back there with the intention of more balance. She never goes there. She didn't seem to care either way on screen time.
jsprogrammer 10y ago
Fiction books are another era's addiction, if you believe the theses being presented here.
andrewmd 10y ago
You're barking up our tree! Having experimented with many of those strategies too, we believe the best solution is to change the menu altogether. We're working on a minimalist phone to help you disconnect and be more focused, through an intentionally limited feature set and smarter notification management. All the utilitarian tools you need to navigate 2016, none of the slot machines. PM if you are interested in our beta test. We're also looking for a tech lead ;)
jstimpfle 10y ago
I shut down my facebook account seven years ago. I'd noticed fairly early on that what I did there was basically marketing myself and some stalking. I also noticed I was poor in marketing and felt ashamed of myself. In consequence my interest in stalking / following others' marketing faded, and shutting down my account was the only logical action to take. I've never regretted it. I have a smartphone, but don't use it except for texting and making calls. Since I have maybe 10-20 calls or texts a week, I usually don't take my phone to work. For me, email at work and a phone at home is enough for setting up appointments and leading a satisfactory social life. It's a great relief not carrying this nagging tracking device around with me all day. I don't understand what's the great thing about smartphones. They are much less convenient to use than a desktop or laptop for most of the things I do (emailing, web surfing, software development). (what things are so important that need the mobility or the special devices not typically found in desktops such as touch, GPS, camera? Maybe if I played Pokemon Go or had selfie-taking or QR scanning addiction...). I also totally hate when I have to share others' attention with their smartphones. Personally I've learned to embrace or even enjoy boredom, or watching out the window, or sitting in a bar drinking beer, thinking of nothing at all. I feel my head is working underneath, and I need the balance I get from doing nothing conscious. A quote from Pulp Fiction that I like: “‎That's when you know you've found somebody really special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably share silence.” However my big problem is dealing with computers at work, and sitting in front of them 8-10 hours a day, at work and at home. When I don't feel productive (most of the time -- I try to make good decisions in my software designs, and thoughts need time to settle), my time is spent randomly clicking links on news sites, HN and twitter (barely sending, mostly consuming). I would really like to be more productive and consume less unimportant news. However knowing I'm not a genious I doubt that more isolation will improve my productivity.
- beachstartup 10y ago
  this is exactly the reason i got rid of fb also. i found myself stalking people online, trying to initiate probably-unwanted communications, something bizarre and creepy that i certainly do not do in real life. it just becomes easy and abstract on social media.
jomamaxx 10y ago
Try living without your iPhone. I put it away most of the day, and don't have any email reminders. Get away with the least you can. After a while, notifications etc. become bothersome and you'll actively find ways to get away from the noise.
Osmium 10y ago
> I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this For me, it's all about latency: I try to introduce a barrier for being able to access typical time-wasting sites. If there was a way on OS X to reduce browsing certain websites to pre-broadband speeds, I'd be all on that. > For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I did this too. So glad, don't miss it at all, and actually feel like I talk to my friends more now as a result. I'm still on the fence about contributing to a community like HN (anyone looking at my profile will see a big gap of about a year). It's a nice community with useful discussions, but I'm not sure it positives outweigh the negatives for me (distraction). I also try to get my news via newsletter now, e.g. I get the top HN articles emailed to me rather than checking the website manually. That way I get to stay up-to-date without that 'slot machine' effect of just refreshing the front page when I'm taking a break. Overall, I strongly believe the Internet is addictive. I'm glad it exists. It's enriched my life in many ways. But the addictiveness is certainly real, and it's something I'm trying to actively address in myself.
- thunder_cougar 10y ago
  The newsletter thing is huge for me. I used to be really addicted to constantly checking the forums for new updates, but a weekly newsletter will sum all the important things I need to know. I try to dedicate a block of time to read it all in one go, rather than randomly clicking on links and reading them sporadically. It's kind of like having a dedicated block of time to reply to all your emails vs. replying to them as they arrive in your inbox. I find that it reduces multitasking and increases focus.
pikachu_is_cool 10y ago
I'm in the process of swapping out my phone for my old iPod Touch. It creates a lot of moments where getting access to the internet requires effort (e.g. asking people for their WiFi password, finding/knowing about public places with WiFi, looking up routes in Google Maps and screenshotting it before leaving WiFi, etc). Doesn't work for everyone, but works for me. And also I save $50 a month.
gasull 10y ago
1) Don't check email when waking up. Wait until noon. And check email only twice a day. Say in your email signature that you usually check your email twice daily, so people know what to expect. 2) Meditate. 3) Configure your phone to be in airplane mode or do not disturb as much as you can get away with it. Definitely when you sleep, but also for other times in the day. 4) Don't read news on weekdays. Save articles people send to you on Pocket, and subscribe to no more than 5 newsletters that you read only on the weekends. At the end of the weekend delete what you haven't read at https://getpocket.com/privacy_clear https://getpocket.com/privacy_clear When to multitask: When commuting, read or listen to an audiobook.

overcast 10y ago

I've done the same. Facebook was closed last year, Reddit this year, Twitter never really used, but deleted the app. I've added comment blockers in all of my browsers to get rid of all of the negativity on websites, especially YouTube. I don't use any other social apps besides the occasional Instagram for business purposes. My phone goes into Do Not Disturb about an hour before bed, and I place it face down on the nightstand. I read daily before bed to wind down. I've considered revisiting psychedelics, but it's been a long time since college! I exercise daily, mostly high intensity aerobic, pushups, pullups, situps, indoor rowing, or hiking. The phone stuff is really getting out of control, and I'm not sure what the solution is for less disciplined people. Dating sucks, going out socially sucks, going to concerts sucks, all because of the pervasiveness of the modern phone.

marmot777 10y ago
How do people survive without Facebook? How do I keep up with what everyone's up to? Sure, there's a lot of mindless posting on there but for me the good outweighs the bad.
- overcast 10y ago
  I really can't tell if this was sarcasm. Same way they did all the years before the invention of Facebook.
- marmot777 10y ago
  To clarify, I know people survived before Facebook but I've been on it since I think about 2008. I really like it to be honest. It makes me sad to think of giving it up. A lot of people here are talking about a program of achieving balance. A common list item is "delete your facebook account." I can do without Twitter but Facebook I'd mourn the loss. Maybe that's part of growth though. Damnit!
  - overcast 10y ago
    I promise, you can have even more real, meaningful relationships without Facebook updates.
    - marmot777 10y ago
      How can you promise that as you don't know me and don't know how i use Facebook, right? Maybe I'm having a fun time and also projecting good energy out to others. Or maybe I'm delusional. But how do you know with such certainty that my life or any other individual's life would be better without Facebook? I understand if you observed them mindlessly posting updates about minutia and robotically liking this and that.
      - tome 10y ago
        It seems extraordinarily unlikely that you as a human being have less potential for fulfillment through interacting face to face with other humans than when you do so intermediated by Facebook.

CMYK5 10y ago

One thing that has helped me is a "digital purge." I do mine on New Years Day, and I go through every app and ruthlessly un-follow/unfriend anyone who doesn't isn't contributing positively to me in some way (sometimes deleting entire apps). At the end of the day I'm offering these people direct access to me multiple times daily. If I don't get a positive outcome from these interactions, why keep them around?

pawadu 10y ago
Sounds like a great idea. I am going to try this!
marmot777 10y ago
That's something I do consistently but I've not really consciously thought it through. I just delete any apps or "unfriend" people that I determine to be a negative force in my life even in a small way. This one everyone should do even if they don't want to get into the digital 12 step program. I'm waiting to hit digital rock bottom before I quit.
fudged71 10y ago
I agree, a purge is a good step, although it's not a total solution. It feels like spring cleaning. The privacy/notification tools on each site update over time and so do our interests in people and topics, so it makes sense to go in and jig things around every once in a while.

gerbilly 10y ago

>I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation. - Close any social media account not used for your job. - Stop using GPS unless in dire emergencies, even in foreign cities. Buy a map, ask directions. - Read physical newspapers and books. - Text people only for coordinating where to physically meet up, no conversations. - Take up a sport and interact with your friends face to face more. - Use your phone literally as little as possible. Start with a cold turkey period, and then re-introduce slowly.

nxzero 10y ago
Always fun watch someone go cold turkey, since it becomes obvious to them their an infozombie really quick; reaching for a phone in their pocket that's not there every few minutes, going through withdrawals from not being able to read feeds/email, etc.
- gerbilly 10y ago
  Somewhat unrelated, but I think it's funny how quickly these devices have turned us into their slaves. Among people who can afford a smartphone, which is a wide swath from the working poor on up, it seems like _everyone_ is swiping at their phones all day. I like to imagine them in as many variations as possible: judges, programmers, hells angels, movie stars, school children, cops, window washers hanging from a rope...[1] It then becomes fun to try to think of people you don't see using phones as much: construction workers (too busy with hands), surfers (in water and heavy surf), astronauts maybe ?... [1] http://www.boredpanda.com/portraits-holding-devices-removed-eric-pickersgill/ http://www.boredpanda.com/portraits-holding-devices-removed-...
- marmot777 10y ago
  I can't stand when someone does that so that's the one thing I NEVER do is reach for my phone when I'm in any way engaged with people IRL. It's just annoying as fuck to talk to someone who's a slave to communication coming in through their phone.
10y ago

zeveb 10y ago

> Slack is one of the biggest interrupting factors while coding these days, more so than IRC ever was for me, so I try to have chunks of time during the day with it closed. I used a client which enables me to mute most of the notifications, which is pretty nice. > For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I like it, but I only check it once in the morning and once in the evening, from my desktop. I don't have any social apps on my phone, except G+ — and it's hardly brimming with notifications!

pawadu 10y ago
Surprisingly, I think you can fully disable G+ on Android. But somehow, G+ has never been in the way for me. It almost feels like a grown up version of Facebook.
- zeveb 10y ago
  > It almost feels like a grown up version of Facebook. Yup, I really like it, although recently (as it's emptied out) the public communities have gotten significantly worse. 'Facebook for adults' sounds like a wonderful thing. My hope now is that maybe we can build it as a community, rather than as a product.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    How do you mean G+ has emptied out? Honestly curious as I've been keeping tabs on the whole dynamic of the site -- from initial high hopes to present near-complete disillusionment.
    - zeveb 10y ago
      What I mean is that the public communities seem to have lost whatever participants they had originally had. Now it's a lot like reading the comments section on the local paper's website, only with names which are more difficult to pronounce. Lots of trolling, lots of spamming, lots of Pe0PLe Wh0 ++don't__ knoW h0w to Wr1te!!!1!11!eleven!! I still have some affection for G+, but … it's kinda like the affection one has for an awkward family photo from one's youth.

ThrustVectoring 10y ago

I don't have the self-control and willingness to impose organization to safely have a smartphone without it turning into a skinner box. So, I just don't own a smartphone. I sometimes carry a flip-phone, though usually I leave it at home. It's really easy to get caught up in optimizing the process you have, rather than choosing which processes best fill your needs.

munchbunny 10y ago

I practice two small repeatable activities throughout the day: 1. Spend five minutes looking out a window, not doing anything, not talking, not looking at your phone, not thinking about work or errands, but just trying to be present. I focus on breathing evenly and relaxing my muscles wherever I feel tense, and I find that my brain appreciates the break from its usual stressors. 2. If I'm experiencing negative emotions, I take 5-10 minutes to think about why I am feeling those emotions, and what I'm going to do about it. No communication, no phone, no computer. Like the author of the article said, the goal is to let myself feel bad and move on rather than to avoid it. This is sometimes harder than other times. For example, after a breakup "5-10 minutes" might actually be a 30 minute walk through the park to sort out my feelings before going back to work. I find that both of those exercises help me reduce my emotional dependence on technology so that while I do still feel the impulse to reach for my phone, I don't find it hard to resist because I have no emotional investment in the phone, apps, etc. Also helps that all of my friends know that I am often slow to respond to texts. When there are no expectations of immediate responses, it's much easier not to feel pressured into eternal communicative vigilance.

Capt-RogerOver 10y ago

Since you already experiment with things like meditation and psychedelics, you should look more into finding out more about your psyche and feelings, and other self-development themes. Find out more about your inner being, about the structure of your (and in general, human) soul, what motivates you, what deep fears you have, in what ways are you still unconscious about yourself. There are tons of books, trainings, coaches that can help with this. Basically you should do more "self-development". There is no innate problem with facebook, slack, or computers or screens or any other similar thing. The problem is that you are getting distracted. You are not fully present with what you are doing. Thinking that facebook is a problem is just grossly misleading. When you have fixed your internal issues, you will not care how many websites or LCD screens are around you. You will do what you want, when you want it. Telling this to an average person is next to pointless, because they are so unconsciouss that they will not understand it. They have lost touch with the notion that they actually have a choice of whether to be distracted or not, they have a choice in how to feel in every single moment. Since you already experiment with the stuff you wrote about, you just might though. For someone who is in deep unconscioussness, who lacks knowledge about themselves, who is constantly distracted and who eats junk food that does not provide their brains with enough nutrition, etc. - trying to do simple dumb things like "I'll only look at facebook 10 minutes a day" - sure it might give some results. But once you've gained some basic groundedness - it just becomes ineffective to look at specific distractors, and much more effective to look at deeper issues within you that cause distraction in the first place.

SolaceQuantum 10y ago
What do you do if the situation you are in do not allow time to sit down and perform deep introspective behavior? I find myself very easily falling into introspection to the point where my mind often cries out for it if I go without for a while. However, my current work and the balancing of multiple careers (as a programmer, as a writer) and social obligations mean I often don't have time and feel intense stress/distress at the inability to commune with myself for long periods of time. I also know I suffered greatly in college due to similar distress. How does one find the time to oneself when the world demands ones time?

petercooper 10y ago

I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this I started a business that requires me to binge on everything I'm interested in online.

marmot777 10y ago

You seem super human to me. I can't imagine doing any of the above, well, except the last one as Ayahuasca is useful. Maybe I'll go back there with the intention of more balance. She never goes there. She didn't seem to care either way on screen time.

jsprogrammer 10y ago

Fiction books are another era's addiction, if you believe the theses being presented here.

andrewmd 10y ago

You're barking up our tree! Having experimented with many of those strategies too, we believe the best solution is to change the menu altogether. We're working on a minimalist phone to help you disconnect and be more focused, through an intentionally limited feature set and smarter notification management. All the utilitarian tools you need to navigate 2016, none of the slot machines. PM if you are interested in our beta test. We're also looking for a tech lead ;)

jstimpfle 10y ago

I shut down my facebook account seven years ago. I'd noticed fairly early on that what I did there was basically marketing myself and some stalking. I also noticed I was poor in marketing and felt ashamed of myself. In consequence my interest in stalking / following others' marketing faded, and shutting down my account was the only logical action to take. I've never regretted it. I have a smartphone, but don't use it except for texting and making calls. Since I have maybe 10-20 calls or texts a week, I usually don't take my phone to work. For me, email at work and a phone at home is enough for setting up appointments and leading a satisfactory social life. It's a great relief not carrying this nagging tracking device around with me all day. I don't understand what's the great thing about smartphones. They are much less convenient to use than a desktop or laptop for most of the things I do (emailing, web surfing, software development). (what things are so important that need the mobility or the special devices not typically found in desktops such as touch, GPS, camera? Maybe if I played Pokemon Go or had selfie-taking or QR scanning addiction...). I also totally hate when I have to share others' attention with their smartphones. Personally I've learned to embrace or even enjoy boredom, or watching out the window, or sitting in a bar drinking beer, thinking of nothing at all. I feel my head is working underneath, and I need the balance I get from doing nothing conscious. A quote from Pulp Fiction that I like: “‎That's when you know you've found somebody really special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably share silence.” However my big problem is dealing with computers at work, and sitting in front of them 8-10 hours a day, at work and at home. When I don't feel productive (most of the time -- I try to make good decisions in my software designs, and thoughts need time to settle), my time is spent randomly clicking links on news sites, HN and twitter (barely sending, mostly consuming). I would really like to be more productive and consume less unimportant news. However knowing I'm not a genious I doubt that more isolation will improve my productivity.

beachstartup 10y ago
this is exactly the reason i got rid of fb also. i found myself stalking people online, trying to initiate probably-unwanted communications, something bizarre and creepy that i certainly do not do in real life. it just becomes easy and abstract on social media.

jomamaxx 10y ago

Try living without your iPhone. I put it away most of the day, and don't have any email reminders. Get away with the least you can. After a while, notifications etc. become bothersome and you'll actively find ways to get away from the noise.

Osmium 10y ago

> I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this For me, it's all about latency: I try to introduce a barrier for being able to access typical time-wasting sites. If there was a way on OS X to reduce browsing certain websites to pre-broadband speeds, I'd be all on that. > For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I did this too. So glad, don't miss it at all, and actually feel like I talk to my friends more now as a result. I'm still on the fence about contributing to a community like HN (anyone looking at my profile will see a big gap of about a year). It's a nice community with useful discussions, but I'm not sure it positives outweigh the negatives for me (distraction). I also try to get my news via newsletter now, e.g. I get the top HN articles emailed to me rather than checking the website manually. That way I get to stay up-to-date without that 'slot machine' effect of just refreshing the front page when I'm taking a break. Overall, I strongly believe the Internet is addictive. I'm glad it exists. It's enriched my life in many ways. But the addictiveness is certainly real, and it's something I'm trying to actively address in myself.

thunder_cougar 10y ago
The newsletter thing is huge for me. I used to be really addicted to constantly checking the forums for new updates, but a weekly newsletter will sum all the important things I need to know. I try to dedicate a block of time to read it all in one go, rather than randomly clicking on links and reading them sporadically. It's kind of like having a dedicated block of time to reply to all your emails vs. replying to them as they arrive in your inbox. I find that it reduces multitasking and increases focus.

pikachu_is_cool 10y ago

I'm in the process of swapping out my phone for my old iPod Touch. It creates a lot of moments where getting access to the internet requires effort (e.g. asking people for their WiFi password, finding/knowing about public places with WiFi, looking up routes in Google Maps and screenshotting it before leaving WiFi, etc). Doesn't work for everyone, but works for me. And also I save $50 a month.

gasull 10y ago

1) Don't check email when waking up. Wait until noon. And check email only twice a day. Say in your email signature that you usually check your email twice daily, so people know what to expect. 2) Meditate. 3) Configure your phone to be in airplane mode or do not disturb as much as you can get away with it. Definitely when you sleep, but also for other times in the day. 4) Don't read news on weekdays. Save articles people send to you on Pocket, and subscribe to no more than 5 newsletters that you read only on the weekends. At the end of the weekend delete what you haven't read at https://getpocket.com/privacy_clear https://getpocket.com/privacy_clear When to multitask: When commuting, read or listen to an audiobook.