Six years of life with an iPhone that doesn't distract me

In 2012, I realized that I had a problem. My iPhone pulled me completely. From the depths of my pocket, he called me, as the Ring of omnipotence called Bilbo Baggins. Illumination came to me in the living room, where I sat one evening and built a railway with children. My eldest son suddenly asked:


Dad, why are you looking at the phone?

He did not have the intention of shaming me or anything like that. He just became interested. And yet, I did not know what to answer him. And really, why am I staring at my iPhone? I don’t even remember how I pulled him out - he just somehow materialized in my hands. All day I was looking forward to the moment when I could play with the children, and now, when this time has finally come, I have thoughts somewhere far away.



I froze for a second, and then began to remember.

In 2007, when the iPhone just entered the market, it was beautiful, radiant and cool, and, to put it bluntly, I really wanted to do it myself. But I had to somehow justify the purchase, so I convinced myself that I needed a phone for work. In the end, there is mail, a web browser and even a tracker for trading on the exchange - obviously a serious tool for serious people!

Therefore, I bought an iPhone and in such a simple way signed up to instantly read letters and reply to them at any time, anywhere. Neither increase nor salary increase did not shine for me, and my boss did not even insist on it. In my case, the obligation was made completely voluntarily, just because I wanted to have a beautiful little thing.

Over the years, new applications came out - Facebook, Instagram, news services, games - and I downloaded them. They were also beautiful, free, and helped me “get exhaust” from my phone. Each application contributed to the list of my obligations - mailboxes that need to be checked, ribbons that need to be scrolled. All of them stuck to the brain, as if stretching an invisible thread between my head and the phone.


All this was my own choice. I gave my attention to the right and left. And if I suddenly found that it was difficult for me to concentrate even in those moments when I was playing with children - in theory, the most pleasant time of the day ... there was no one to blame.

If you look, why do I need an iPhone?

I didn’t think about it before, but meanwhile, the answer was very simple: I wanted the iPhone to make my life better. I wanted to get this futuristic tool and dispose of it at will.

Then evil took over me and the phone. I had felt guilty about this before, but now I decided that it was enough to be tormented by the pangs of conscience, it was time to act somehow. With a frantic beating heart, I drove on the screen so that all the icons shook. And then he began to delete these damn applications. I started with those who steal time quite openly - deleted Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, deleted YouTube and ESPN, as well as all my games. Then he went into the settings and removed Safari. I felt like Dave Bowman when he knocked out a crazed HAL computer system to switch to manual ship control.

Finally, one mail remained. I love mail since I sent the first letter in my life, and that was in the early nineties. I even worked on the Gmail service on Google. Nevertheless ... it should be recognized that out of everything installed on my phone, mail was the most serious distraction. Under the guise of an imaginary need, she made me a squirrel in a wheel that always chases after someone else's priorities. So I gritted my teeth and deleted Gmail. And even went and removed the address in the settings to disable the built-in Mail service.


Seriously? Have you decided to remove Gmail? Are you completely crazy?
Cancel - Delete

That's all. Some sixty seconds from the beginning of the whole story - and the HAL was turned off, and I got complete freedom of action. It was pleasant to get even, but when the excitement of destruction subsided, I felt uneasy. My iPhone has turned into a pale semblance of what it was before. I foresaw that without applications I would be plagued by anxiety and loneliness. So I said to myself: this is just an experiment. I’ll try to live like this for a week, in the end, to establish everything anew is not a long thing.

The first few days were unusual. I took off the lock on the machine and immediately realized that there was nothing to look at. Previously, having run through all the alerts in the applications, I was briefly imbued with a sense of accomplishment. Just unlock the phone - and voila! As if a surge of energy from the sweet. And now the sweets have been taken away.

The feeling was strange, but at the same time somehow ... pacifying. It has become easier for me to keep my attention on one thing. Time seemed to slow down, and it was nice. My head was free - not attached to anything.

I liked so much again to completely dispose of my brain that I did not even notice how the week ended. A month passed, then another, and more. In 2013, a few months after the start of the experiment, I wrote an articleabout his iPhone, on which there were no distractions, and a year later, in 2014 - the second . Apparently, people became interested - hundreds of thousands read this story of mine, neither the previous ones nor the opuses that followed it even came close to such popularity.

Some readers pointed out (perhaps rightly) to the fact that I am a smug idiot who does not know how to control himself. But many others wrote words of support. Enough of those who also wanted to participate in the experiment. And even those who removed just a few applications said that their state of mind improved.

I shared their feelings. For my taste, even without applications, the iPhone remained an excellent device. On my own, I still upload music and podcasts. In addition, there are devices on it that seemed to be pulled straight from the Harry Potter: the Night Knight bus (Uber, Lyft), the Weasley watch (Find Friends). Using Google Translate, I can read in foreign languages. I can talk with Siri, and she (sometimes) understands me. Excellent cards and a drop dead camera also did not disappear. Yes, there is even a flashlight! In short, if I had been given such a phone in the eighties, when I was a child, my roof would have gone from happiness. An iPhone without distractions is a futuristic device that I fully control. That is exactly what I wanted from the very beginning.


I’ve been living with an iPhone for six years, which does not require my attention. And, of course, the case was not without victims. I had to give up the reputation of a person who always instantly answers requests and performs tasks. Without calling the phone, I gradually abandoned Facebook and lost touch with several friends.

But, on the other hand, advantages have also opened up. Without being distracted by a crowd of friends, I began to devote more time to my wife and children. For me, it was this consideration that became the main reason for the redesign of my own phone. But it is very personal and relevant for my situation, so I will not dwell on it.

But I wanted to make out another advantage in more detail - it turned out to be a big surprise for me.

Not being distracted means having a competitive advantage

I will be honest with you: even though everything is going well with me, I still doubt that you will follow my example and eliminate distracting factors. And I understand the reason. It looks like complete nonsense - to cut down the functionality of your phone, especially when you consider how we are used to staying in touch over the past ten years. Nevertheless, I highly recommend you do this. At the risk of seeming to be a bore (although there’s already something, it’s obviously too late to worry about this), I will point out another reason to remove applications from the phone.

Here's the thing: stopping all the time to respond to what is important to others, I finally managed to find time for those projects that were more important in my own eyes - even if they were not particularly urgent and no one demanded anything like that from me . I put a lot of effort into documenting and promoting my design sprint. Also, after many years of putting off “someday later”, I finally started writing and eventually published two books .

What share of such productivity should be attributed to the iPhone, which does not distract me? I think it's big enough. Work on large projects consists of a large number of lengthy sessions over time. You can compare this process with the construction of the pyramid: each session is like a block that you carve out of stone, and you hoist it on the others.

Let's imagine that we are with Jake's Double, whose phone is still with all the applications, we are building pyramids for speed. He reacts faster in the mail and has more subscribers on Instagram, but at the same time, it is more difficult for him to concentrate.


Jake's double is constantly responding to all sorts of little things. Whenever I manage to master a couple of blocks at this time, the distance between us grows. Whenever it is interrupted to look at the phone, it breaks the block. According to studies, it takes an average of 23 minutes to get involved in the process after something distracts us. This number may seem overstated, but, in my experience, somewhere it is.

Jake's double does not know how to put his own priorities at the forefront. I am able to focus my attention and therefore I can work on blog posts, illustrations, slide sets and book chapters - that is, what is important to me, even if no one asked.


That was the most significant change in my workflow in the last six years. My strength of will and self-control have not grown for no reason. I am far from perfect. But the fact that they don’t burn my application pocket gives me a competitive advantage over the person I was before.

Do not wait for help from the giants

Wait a minute. But Apple, Google, Facebook release all sorts of tools to reduce the time we spend in front of the screen. It turns out that the problem has already been solved?

I would not say that. My expert opinion as an iPhone addict is that these newfangled timer applications are too difficult to configure and too easy to ignore, and the limits that they set by default are much more generous than necessary. What about the fact that Jake's Double will spend on Youtube not two hours, but an hour a day or receive notifications after 15 minutes of sticking on Instagram? From the call of the Ring, he will not go anywhere, he will not stop spoiling the blocks of the pyramid. Slightly weakening the pressure does not mean gaining freedom.


“You spend too much time with the phone!” - “Yes, I know ...”

If the phone supplants the activities and people that are important to you from your life, do not make any compromises. Take the situation into your own hands and design just the phone you need.

Start with a two hour experiment.

You do not have to immediately make the final decision and forever part with all the distractions. Just try to understand how you will feel in such conditions. I advise you to go to the end and remove all applications that require your attention in order to experience a sense of simplicity and clarity that arise when absolutely nothing attracts you to the phone. Do not forget: installing everything back is easy.

Here is an action plan:

1. Understand exactly what you want to pay more attention to.

I set myself the goal of being more attentive to children. You may be motivated by the desire to give more time to loved ones, work projects or hobbies. Whatever you choose for yourself, to know the reason is a good help, because it is not so easy to force yourself to remove applications!

2. Adjust expectations.

Tell your colleagues and friends: “I want to focus on one important matter, so I won’t answer right away. If something urgent - call. "

3. Uninstall applications on social platforms.

Do not forget that you can always log into your account from another device or reinstall the application, if at all.



4. Delete news services.

It may seem frivolous to you not to follow the endless chain of “breaking news”, however, in fact, taking pauses is both permissible and useful .



5. Remove streaming video services and games

Nobody forbids you to still watch TV shows or play, just add an additional barrier - the need to download the application again or switch to another device.



6. Remove browsers.

Here you have to delve into the settings of the phone. On the iPhone you need to go the following way: Settings → Screen time → Content and privacy → Allowed programs, and disable Safari.



7. Remove mail and other tools for “productive” communication

This step may be the most difficult (I had it), because these applications are directly related to work. Of course, a small percentage of people - for example, doctors or technicians working on call, and representatives of other similar professions - are really required to respond instantly. But the rest should ask themselves: can this not be postponed until tomorrow? You can familiarize yourself with the study , which showed that you will work more efficiently (and get less nervous!) If you start checking messages less often.

Wait two hours and listen to yourself

Two hours is enough to experience a sense of freedom. But if you want, you can extend the experiment until the next morning, or for a whole day, or even for a week. But no matter how long it lasts, be sure to take the time for the activity that you have chosen for yourself as a focal point in the first stage and observe whether changes in the level of attention occur. I think you will also notice that focusing has become easier, although, of course, all people are different.

If all this sounds too radical, start small - remove only a couple of applications that annoy you the most, and see how much you can hold out.

Whatever method you choose and no matter how long you install, a telephone without distractions is not a monastic vow. If you do not like, return everything as it was. If some application is desperately needed, just install it back - it only takes a few seconds, and when done, you can delete it again (or leave it if it does not bother you). I uniquely reinstalled remote applications for various reasons. Each time I worked with her for several minutes with pleasure, and then I removed and felt a surge of relief that I could concentrate again.

In general, this is the whole point: to control what my attention is spent on. Over the past six years, it has become increasingly common for me to be more attentive to my wife and children when we are together. More and more often I feel like the father I dreamed of becoming. I repeat: I do not say at all that everything is perfect with me now. There is a whole world around me, full to the brim with distractions, and every second I have to struggle with temptations in order to keep focus on what matters. And yet now, when I no longer have a portal to infinity in my pocket, the chances of succeeding have increased.

You may have more willpower than mine, but if you feel like you are following your phone, do not accept the conditions that the settings page offers. Remove apps and take control.