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Comment by rchaud | Hacker News Reader

Delete every recreational app on your phone. Also delete anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo.

Put some ebooks on your phone and read those. Stop mentally associating the phone with the infinite novelty generated by algorithmic social and YouTube feeds.

Do not open your web browser unless you have a specific search query in mind.

Disable all notifications except for the calendar and clock.

Treat your phone as if it had no online connectivity. When you open the phone, use it to organize your notes and structure your thinking, or to look at photo gallery. Begin thinking of it as an extension of your brain instead of a bottomless anti-boredom device.

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> Also delete anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo

Since when is Duolingo passive consumption? I've learned two languages to fluency and Duolingo was my main source of practice. If language learning is your goal, Duolingo is a great app to keep around.

Congrats! I'm actually quite surprised because you must be the first person that learned a language using Duolingo. Most people I spoke with said they only learned how to answer Duo questions, not the language itself.

I’ve used Duolingo quite a bit as a part of my Norwegian training, and to brush up on my French now and then. It’s definitely been effective for me. And I’ve seen others become tourist-proficient in languages with no training aside from Duolingo.

I definitely don’t consider it passive consumption.

Duolingo is golden for brushing up languages you have previously learned, yet forgotten

During my German B1 test I met a person who had only used Duolingo for learning the language. They had successfully passed most of the test... except for the spoken part, which they had already failed once and which Duolingo doesn't really help you with. And based on what I heard, they probably failed it again. So I guess you can learn something with it to a decent level.

On the other hand, I once had trouble repeatedly failing a German lesson so I gave the phone to my German girlfriend. She failed the lesson too, probably because she was answering as a German and not as a Duolingo user.

I didn't exclusively use Duolingo. I also got real world practice. But Duolingo was great for practicing in free moments, and for about 1-2 hours every day. Something that was hard to match with real world conversation partners.

I always tell folks that Duo is a good place to start learning but you need to augment/replace it with other methods/tools after learning basic pronunciation and grammar.

> Put some ebooks on your phone and read those.

This was the biggest improvement I did to improve my "phone time".

I realized I was only kidding myself if the actual goal was zero screen time. Being unproductive and just killing time by yourself isn't a bad thing, but if you spend that time reading something substantial instead of news and Twitter beefs you don't hate yourself afterwards.

Are there some recommend Ebook Apps or just Kindle?

I just use Apple Books and download epubs or buy Books from their store. I’m not too picky to be honest, I just need the words on the screen and I’m good to go

I made a rule with my phone - only read content that was created > 1 year ago. This immediately rules out Facebook, Twitter, and (usually) WashPost/NYT. I am left with academic papers and books. (Podcasts and audiobooks are ok.)

Sometimes more of a guideline than a rule. I make exceptions for new works from authors I enjoy, or longform recommended web articles.

Isn't Duolingo the exact opposite of passive consumption. It's virtually a spaced repetition app that requires you to answer questions.

Ebooks are great, but I find I read a LOT more with a cheap e-ink ebook reader than I ever did on the phone. I've got the Nia by Rakuten Kobo at this point, which retails for $100; the Nook Simpletouch was great too until my wife disappeared it. Where the phone is great is with audio forms of consumption (which allows you to keep it in your pocket while you continue to take in whatever you choose to consume). Granted, if you decide to listen to drivel, that's what you'll get, but the amount of educational audio out there between podcasts and audiobooks is staggering at this point.

> anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo

I took 4 1/2 years of Spanish in high school and college, and I feel like I've learned more in 60 days on Duolingo.

I try to use pencil and paper before getting on a computer. You stop thinking with images when you do this.

I was so distracted by other apps that I created an anti-to-do list application for myself (no features or notifications, etc.).

If somebody wants the simplest possible to-do list at the menu bar, I'm running a beta test right now; https://vanka.me/redline

I broke down and bough Analog[0] for something like this. The idea of paying so much for some index cards and a block of wood was a bit crazy, but the cards were the exact design I'd want. Looking around all over, I wasn't able to find anything else quite like it. If feels like holding the Apple Reminders app on paper. The wooden holder I thought was a gimmick, but I got it anyway... I actually kind of like it. Similar to your app in the menu bar, it's always there on my desk to bring me back to the task at hand. The whole thing reminds me a little of how I did GTD back in the day, but with a lot less rules to follow.

Funny enough, Analog has this idea of Today, Next, and Someday... which were they exact 3 lists I had finally settled on in Reminders after realizing every other system I looked at was too complex. So the move was pretty seamless. For now I'm still keeping my Next and Someday lists in Reminders.

[0] https://ugmonk.com/pages/analog

For the ebook suggestion, I am LOVING Readera pro where it syncs all the files and reading positions across devices via google drive. Makes it so easy to pick up any of my devices and keep reading. I love to read but it is so hard to start doing because of all these other easier 'distractions'

> Do not open your web browser unless you have a specific search query in mind.

I'd counter this one. I've too often caught myself watching something, talking to friends or reading a books and being captured by the need to just quickly google that thing triggered by what I am doing at the moment. Most of the time you don't really need to know that information, your curiosity gets the better of you. Instead, maybe just make a quick note and stay in touch with that you're doing instead. Otherwise your life just becomes an endless list of interruptions prompted by needing to know that "one thing".

occasionally when im having strong willpower i will force myself to not google whatever random fact i need to know. it’s almost physically painful at first, but then after a couple days my brain starts feeling much better

Fascinating. Books can qualify as passive consumption but duolingo categorically cannot be!

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