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Damn, I should get my smartphone out of the bag and start using it, and develop a TikTok habit. Then I can put it away again, and my productivity will double!

Damn, I should get my smartphone out of the bag and start using it, and develop a TikTok habit. Then I can put it away again, and my productivity will double! Which is to say that I find this claim highly unlikely. You're very lucky to have such immense latent productivity that was just waiting for the smartphone dam to burst.

madmask 2y ago
I noticed something similar. Productivity does go up if you don’t replace social media with other forms of entertainment. After a while one gets bored and starts doing more stuff, either work or hobbies
safety1st 2y ago
You can choose not to believe me if you want. Yes, turning the phone off doubled my productivity. I can't imagine why you wouldn't believe this, if you've ever had coworkers, and observed them spending half their time on their phone at work. It's a distraction which hampers sustained attention and deeper thinking - as well as eats up actual minutes of time, some raw percentage of your work hours inevitably goes into garbage content on the phone instead. I find the people who are skeptical about the idea that the phone frustrates doing deeper thinking, are often the ones who have never done it. This is why they don't see the value in it.
2099miles 2y ago
I don’t get this comment. Double is common hyperbole, but like do you think tiktok habits don’t degrade other productivity? It’s a known phenomenon that smartphones kill boredom and boredom promotes things like sleeping and productivity.
- fakedang 2y ago
  Smartphones kill boredom by replacing it with their own productivity killer.
ArnoVW 2y ago
Being interrupted by people at your desk is a known productivity issue. Why would phones be different ? When I work at home or during evenings when I can focus for long duration my productivity explodes. I have no issue believing the level of impact.
andai 2y ago
You can waste time without a phone and you can do programming fairly productively on a phone (I lived without a laptop for 6 months, did everything in Termux!). But there's a right tool for every job, and the phone is designed to steal your soul (attention), designed to encourage mindless consumption, and interrupt you as often as possible. This is part of a bigger principle I've noticed where I can rely on sheer willpower, or I can simply make a small change to my environment (e.g. move the phone to another room) and that's a much more efficient way to achieve the same result. It's partly about reducing the Temptation, and partly about setting a strong intention / setting a strong message to yourself. If you're serious about getting some real work done, then why are you even looking at your phone? Eventually you can get to the point where wasting time in any way starts to feel gross and you catch yourself more and more, but for most people it takes a bit of recalibration to get there.

madmask 2y ago

I noticed something similar. Productivity does go up if you don’t replace social media with other forms of entertainment. After a while one gets bored and starts doing more stuff, either work or hobbies

safety1st 2y ago

You can choose not to believe me if you want. Yes, turning the phone off doubled my productivity. I can't imagine why you wouldn't believe this, if you've ever had coworkers, and observed them spending half their time on their phone at work. It's a distraction which hampers sustained attention and deeper thinking - as well as eats up actual minutes of time, some raw percentage of your work hours inevitably goes into garbage content on the phone instead. I find the people who are skeptical about the idea that the phone frustrates doing deeper thinking, are often the ones who have never done it. This is why they don't see the value in it.

2099miles 2y ago

I don’t get this comment. Double is common hyperbole, but like do you think tiktok habits don’t degrade other productivity? It’s a known phenomenon that smartphones kill boredom and boredom promotes things like sleeping and productivity.

fakedang 2y ago
Smartphones kill boredom by replacing it with their own productivity killer.

ArnoVW 2y ago

Being interrupted by people at your desk is a known productivity issue. Why would phones be different ? When I work at home or during evenings when I can focus for long duration my productivity explodes. I have no issue believing the level of impact.

andai 2y ago

You can waste time without a phone and you can do programming fairly productively on a phone (I lived without a laptop for 6 months, did everything in Termux!). But there's a right tool for every job, and the phone is designed to steal your soul (attention), designed to encourage mindless consumption, and interrupt you as often as possible. This is part of a bigger principle I've noticed where I can rely on sheer willpower, or I can simply make a small change to my environment (e.g. move the phone to another room) and that's a much more efficient way to achieve the same result. It's partly about reducing the Temptation, and partly about setting a strong intention / setting a strong message to yourself. If you're serious about getting some real work done, then why are you even looking at your phone? Eventually you can get to the point where wasting time in any way starts to feel gross and you catch yourself more and more, but for most people it takes a bit of recalibration to get there.