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So glad to see I'm not the only one taking drastic action after falling into the phone/attention trap. This won't work for everyone, but maybe 6 months ago I g

So glad to see I'm not the only one taking drastic action after falling into the phone/attention trap. This won't work for everyone, but maybe 6 months ago I got a phone safe (this kind of thing: <https://shorturl.at/drzMT https://shorturl.at/drzMT>, I refer to it as the "phone jail"), which I leave my phone in from bedtime every night to ~4pm the next day. And I leave the whole rig on my bedroom shelf while I go to work at the library/cafe/kitchen table. There are obvious drawbacks to this that I don't think most people would accept (especially regarding being reachable or having a way to place emergency calls). But it's been invaluable for me to make the mental space I need to finish my manuscript. Plus you can still use the phone through the holes in the cover if you need to, it's just really annoying and not very portable. In the long run, I'd like to become a fliphone guy like some other commenters here, but I genuinely do get a lot of value from having a smartphone. I just need to get away from it during working hours.

bombcar 4y ago
Getting an actual honest-to-goodness landline isn't terribly expensive, and works as a phone for emergencies. Most people wasting time on smartphones would put it down almost immediately if it had no internet access.
- TheFreim 4y ago
  I have a landline in my home, it's great. Can't get texts so people have to call, they can leave a message if it's urgent. I can leave my phone off as long as I want and still be contacted when I'm at home.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Yeah, and if you want to go the "hacker route" you can terminate the landline in a cobbled-together Asterix PBX for even more fun. You could use a VOIP number but then it would go down when the Internet goes down.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      Increasingly, “landlines” are VOIP with legacy connections.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        Yeah, the trick sometimes is ask for "burglar alarm" or "actual two-wire" or similar so they give you a real pair to the CO.
- em500 4y ago
  You don't a landline. As you mention yourself it's very hard to waste much time on a mobile phone with no internet access. OTOH, a laptop with internet can be as just much of a timesink as a smartphone. The internet, it's a hell of a drug. Can't live with it, can't live without it.
TheFreim 4y ago
> especially regarding being reachable or having a way to place emergency calls I love being unreachable, it's one of the reasons I'll often turn my phone off during the work day or leave it at home. This means I won't have a phone to make emergency calls, but I'm not really bothered by that (it's how I lived over half my life).
losteric 4y ago
I did something similar for a while, but I still found myself distracted when the phone was out of the case. I ultimately opt to simply make the phone less addictive. On Android, I used Digital Wellness to monitor how I was spending time. Then I uninstalled all the timewasting dopamine-trap apps, set limits on Firefox (10min day), disabled vibration/sound notifications except for phone calls, removed all app icons from the home screen, and set a complex unlock passcode (disabled face unlock). I also started using the phone for "harder" things, like writing long emails. At this point, my ADHD brain just sees the phone as a tool... because that's all it is. Next step is figuring out how to apply the same lessons to my laptop.

bombcar 4y ago

Getting an actual honest-to-goodness landline isn't terribly expensive, and works as a phone for emergencies. Most people wasting time on smartphones would put it down almost immediately if it had no internet access.

TheFreim 4y ago
I have a landline in my home, it's great. Can't get texts so people have to call, they can leave a message if it's urgent. I can leave my phone off as long as I want and still be contacted when I'm at home.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Yeah, and if you want to go the "hacker route" you can terminate the landline in a cobbled-together Asterix PBX for even more fun. You could use a VOIP number but then it would go down when the Internet goes down.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    Increasingly, “landlines” are VOIP with legacy connections.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      Yeah, the trick sometimes is ask for "burglar alarm" or "actual two-wire" or similar so they give you a real pair to the CO.
em500 4y ago
You don't a landline. As you mention yourself it's very hard to waste much time on a mobile phone with no internet access. OTOH, a laptop with internet can be as just much of a timesink as a smartphone. The internet, it's a hell of a drug. Can't live with it, can't live without it.

TheFreim 4y ago

> especially regarding being reachable or having a way to place emergency calls I love being unreachable, it's one of the reasons I'll often turn my phone off during the work day or leave it at home. This means I won't have a phone to make emergency calls, but I'm not really bothered by that (it's how I lived over half my life).

losteric 4y ago

I did something similar for a while, but I still found myself distracted when the phone was out of the case. I ultimately opt to simply make the phone less addictive. On Android, I used Digital Wellness to monitor how I was spending time. Then I uninstalled all the timewasting dopamine-trap apps, set limits on Firefox (10min day), disabled vibration/sound notifications except for phone calls, removed all app icons from the home screen, and set a complex unlock passcode (disabled face unlock). I also started using the phone for "harder" things, like writing long emails. At this point, my ADHD brain just sees the phone as a tool... because that's all it is. Next step is figuring out how to apply the same lessons to my laptop.