6 ms·
Apps to fight apps has never worked for me. When I'm bored/tired enough, it becomes a game to disable my own restrictions. What works for me is removing the an
by brushfoot 2y ago
Apps to fight apps has never worked for me. When I'm bored/tired enough, it becomes a game to disable my own restrictions.
What works for me is removing the antecedent completely by charging my phone in another room at night.
Now the battle is easier: Decide once a day to put it there, and track how many days you succeed.
For me that's a lot easier than having it in my pocket, where the Internet is always a couple lazy taps away. Now I at least have to walk to it if I want it, and that often "breaks the spell."
I finish work and chores hours earlier when my phone is charging in another room, without consciously doing anything else differently.
It really makes me want a 1980s-style cellphone with no screen and big physical buttons.
- yagyu 2y agoSecond this. I ended up building a nice charging station right near the entrance. It has storage for keys, wallet, and other things to grab when heading out. It has an abundance of wired and wireless chargers for all devices. Then I got a dumb (but nice) alarm clock for the bedroom. Then I noticed that a common reason to pick up the phone is to check the calendar. I ended up hanging a monitor on the wall, displaying the family month/agenda calendars. It’s read only, but it prevents a lot of device checking. Cannot recommend enough restructuring physical reality to not have device on your person at home. It also helps the kids to put theirs away and learn good habits.
- yapyap 2y agoReplacing that monitor with an e-ink device could be interesting
- skeeter2020 2y agoor buy a day planner for $3. or print a weekly TODO list and mark it up with pen/pencil
- marliechiller 2y agogreat until I add something to my digital calendar when im out and I forget to update it, or my wife adds something to her calendar and doesnt use the shared calendar :/
- dredmorbius 2y ago<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798865> (Final 'graph especially.) Addresses your first point. For the second: communication.
- hammock 2y agoWhat alarm clock did you get? Curious And great insight about the calendar. That's the #1 reason why I keep my phone near me (thereby facilitating all the unwanted behaviors)
- hbn 2y agoNot the GP but I use a simple wake up light alarm that was a game-changer for me in winters when a blaring alarm yanking me awake to a pitch-black room was not a great way to start the day, especially before going out into the -40° cold to scrape my car off. A half hour before the alarm goes off, it slowly gets brighter which I find simulates the sun rising enough to be a more pleasant waking experience. Plus I set the alarm sound itself to bird chirps, starting with 1 or 2 birds and growing into a whole chorus (I'm usually up before then)
- yagyu 2y agoTo answer the q above, this is what we have, too.
- yohannparis 2y agoI personally use the Braun, because it does not have a snooze function. Just one big button on the top to turn it on/off. Run on a single AAA battery for months. Only problem is no backlighting, so no way to read time in the middle of the night. For me that's a feature not a bug. https://us.braun-clocks.com/collections/clocks/products/bc12-classic-alarm-clock-black https://us.braun-clocks.com/collections/clocks/products/bc12...
- Sander3Utile 2y agoNot op but I just got a home-pod mini and just ask Siri “Hey Siri - set an alarm for …” or “Hey Siri - what time is it”. Added benefit of not having a glowing LED light in my room at night
- Mainsail 2y agoOkay, I've always hesitated to do this because Siri sometimes set some weird alarms for me. I'll have to give it another shot.
- swatcoder 2y ago> to check the calendar. I ended up hanging a monitor on the wall, displaying the family month/agenda calendars I hear the ancients had their own crude technology for this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(stationery) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(stationery)
- golergka 2y agoThis one will not display an invitation that was in an email you forgot to even open.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- swatcoder 2y agoThat sounds like a great feature to me
- yagyu 2y agoYou come off as snarky, but I kind of agree. We tried this first. It turns out digital collaborative calendars are pretty great for us in general, there is no chance in hell I could keep the analog one up to date, so it was definitely worth having a screen on the wall.
- MartijnHols 2y agoMy main problem doing this is with certain 2FA (like Microsoft) forcing use of their 2FA app so I have to pick it up regularly.
- reverendsteveii 2y ago>Apps to fight apps has never worked for me. When I'm bored/tired enough, it becomes a game to disable my own restrictions. You see, I've actually had some success with using Blocksite on my phone and blackholing things on my laptop by editing /etc/hosts. Of course if you have the access to put these filters in-place then you'll have the access to remove them, but the time it takes to fire up the blocker on my phone and disable it or to pop open a shell and type "mv /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.bak" is time enough for me to go "Am I actually accessing this because I care about some particular piece of content or am I just trying to plop myself into the dopameme stream?" It's not about 100% physically preventing myself from accessing these sites. It's about interrupting the flow. I used to have a problem where I'd be doomscrolling FB or TikTok in particular, realize that I haven't had any actual fun in about half an hour, close the app and exit the loop for a second, start looking for something else to do and then compulsively open the app again and start doomscrolling. Getting rid of the apps and having the web version default to being unavailable has made it so that I can still do the social part of social media with real people who send me content that I actually like and want, but I can't do the completely antisocial part of social media where robots send me content designed to piss me off and frighten me so that I interact with them and their masters get money. I think there's one common element between our two approaches though: intentionality. Whether it's opening up a second app and disabling it, or walking into the other room to physically pick your phone up, there's an intervening step that allows us the space in which to go "Do I actually want this?"
- DrawTR 2y agoyup. it basically becomes a ulysses pact with myself to attempt to make it so i can't just undo the restrictions i set up. what good are the blocking attempts if you can disable them when you get bored? you have to set them up with the intention and foresight that you will try to disable them
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoSame. When I'm home it becomes a "home phone" and stays on the charger. I also keep it across the bedroom so I need to get out of bed to turn the alarm off.
- littlecranky67 2y agoYou can use lockmeout.online to ultimately lock yourself out of your phone for a given timespan (i.e. 4 hours). No cheating, no way to "disable" your own restriction once you set it active. Works by changing your unlock PIN to a random 16 digit combination and will withhold it for you during your preset time lock.
- smugma 2y agoI think you meant to use e.g. (for example) rather than i.e. (in other words)
- nozzlegear 2y agoThis is the only thing that worked for me as well. Installing browser extensions and distraction-blocking apps helps for a couple days, but ultimately I'd start cheating and would uninstall them. Leaving my phone on the charger in the bedroom after 5pm completely removes the temptation. If somebody needs to reach me, they can call my wife or just leave a message for me to check in the morning. I've been doing this for several months and it's worked wonders for my attention span, my sleeping habits and my vision.
- HPsquared 2y agoA smart watch means you can still take calls with the phone hidden away or turned off. It's my preferred compromise.
- DamnInteresting 2y ago> It really makes me want a 1980s-style cellphone with no screen and big physical buttons. If you're using an iPhone, you can use Assistive Access to disable a lot of stuff, making it functionally simiilar to a flip phone: https://support.apple.com/guide/assistive-access-iphone/set-up-assistive-access-devcd5016d31/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/assistive-access-iphone/set-... There's probably an Android equivalent, but I can't speak to that.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- timbeccue 2y agoThe big downside that keeps me from using it is that you need to whitelist the contacts you want to be able to call/text, and can’t add new contacts in assistive access mode. Sad, because it otherwise looks perfect as a distraction minimizer.
- weast 2y agoI am currently working on a phone designed to reclaim the digital toolbox nature of the smartphone- access to maps, messages email etc, but with an e-paper display. There are some (albeit not so interface friendly) e readers with SIM cards, but I think there is great power in just having a screen that doesn't vibe with the oversaturated video and image based distractions we are so used to lugging around with us all the time. One of the most interesting things about a hardware based restriction is that it entirely avoids the game of turning on and off apps or deinstalling them. Even if you want to respond to a message in your DMs in Instagram, it will work, but the temptation to pull up the Reels or For you page just isn't there when it's all black and white and choppy. Mind you we are super early stages but the idea feels promising and by my own testing I have really found it to be a much more pleasant phone experience. I'll post some links here if people are interested.
- CharlesW 2y agoAre you thinking about a clear USP vs. the Light Phone II/III?
- thinkling 2y ago> I think there is great power in just having a screen that doesn't vibe with the oversaturated video and image based distractions we are so used to Similarly (easier but less drastic) I’ve seen people turn their phone to grayscale mode to make the device less engaging and remind you that it’s a productivity device, not an entertainment device. On iOS you can do this through the Accessibility settings. (Settings > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > Color Filters on, Grayscale
- Modified3019 2y agoIt’s possible to create a (greyscale) color filter toggle, as well as time based or app open/close activation with the iOS “shortcuts” automation: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W32pf_97onM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W32pf_97onM
- lying4fun 2y ago
- anothertroll456 2y agoAlso what I do. Or try to do.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoWhat about on call? Can it somehow wake you in case of an emergency?
- skeeter2020 2y agoI agree with this. No computer or screens in the bedroom, read a paper book; no phone - "but my alarm!" you cry - buy a sony dream machine at the goodwill for < $10. Go for a short trip outside the house without your phone, walk a few blocks, drive somewhere without your phone or GPS, buy a paper map - whatever; it's scary and so liberating! You will feel amazing self-sufficiency.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- guiambros 2y ago> Apps to fight apps has never worked for me. When I'm bored/tired enough, it becomes a game to disable my own restrictions. OneSec [1] is the only one that worked for me. It's quick enough that I'm not tempted to disable it, yet annoying enough that makes me think twice if I really want to open app X for the third time today. Also it's just a polite nudge, rather than a full block, or condescending messages saying "you've hit your time limit for today" (that make you feel bad and make you want to immediately disable the thing in the first place). Wish parental controls were designed with the same principles. [1] https://one-sec.app/ https://one-sec.app/
- ryangs 2y agoI like this. Testing the browser extension now and pretty happy with it (after tweaking so returning to a tab has a grace period). I was using StayFocused, which is okay, but too tempting to just disable it (and annoying if I need to access a blocked site for work purposes).
- YinglingHeavy 2y agoIt's as if no one realizes their phone as a monochrome mode, which can be set as an 'accessibility' shortcut via simple button press. Black and white kills the dopamine cycle and brings color back to your real life.
- SamuelAdams 2y agoI do this a lot when I am around my 6 month old daughter. We can already see a very clear difference in her engagement and curiosity when she sees a colored phone versus a monochrome phone. She grabs for the phone less and quickly returns to previous activity if she notices a monochrome phone.
- alexey-salmin 2y agoI guess it depends, grayscale changed nothing for me, I barely noticed the difference. Or you're talking about literal black-and-white, as in 2 colors no grey?
- Terr_ 2y ago> What works for me is removing the antecedent completely by charging my phone in another room at night. A half-measure for this would be to arrange your charging-setup so that you can't use and charge the phone at the same time. For example, USB cables long enough to reach the nightstand, but not long enough to comfortably hold the phone in front of your face.