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Comment by msluyter | Hacker News Reader

A lot of articles on reducing phone use coming out at the moment. For example (older, but recently updated: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/break-up-with-you...) I think a lot about the fact that we carry on our persons the most addictive device ever created.

I've recently adopted the grey scale trick -- set your phone to grey scale display mode. It works pretty well! Of course, I can always disable it if severely tempted, but it creates another hoop to jump through. I also have one of the phone safes, which I use sporadically. Ironically, having an Apple watch makes the phone safe more effective, because I can lock up the phone but still answer critical calls if necessary.

Weird that in the 23rd century, a lot of us are replaying Oddyseus, collectively tying ourselves to the mast.

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+1 for grey scale.

Other things that were hugely helpful for me:

- Turn off tap to wake on your phone. It sounds funny but having to press a button to turn on your screen will make you do it less.

- Remove social media apps from your phone. (duh). If you have to use them, use them in browser which generally sucks and will prevent you from using them for a really long time.

- Take apps off your home screen. My phone is a lot less appealing when there isnt a shiny bright a/b tested to death app icon telling begging me to click it. It takes seconds to search for and pull up apps.

- Turn off notifications for everything but calls/texts. (duh). I don't need any push notifications. Once you stop getting them you will stop looking at your phone expecting them to be there.

Cellular smartwatch (Pixel watch in my case) is great for minimizing distractions while retaining basics: calendar, note-taking, basic messaging, phone calls, maps, music (via Bluetooth) and payments. But WITHOUT the very distracting web browser and YouTube. Battery life can be pretty poor though if the phone is turned off, you really can't listen to music all day for instance.

I also use greyscale mode on phone, can set a keyboard shortcut. Some apps are also just far too colourful - e.g. Duolingo - and look better in greyscale I think.

Phone can be a productivity machine too though with a Bluetooth keyboard, phone stand. Can have full desktop environment with a keyboard and mouse and VNC client.

Seconding smartwatches. There's no reason to habitually check my phone (and risk getting distracted) when my watch tells me if I have notifications. My watch is basically a read-only beeper for high-priority notifications, so there's no fear of missing out on something important.

I don't even need a cellular watch. Just having the phone inconveniently nearby (e.g., in a backpack, or on the bathroom counter instead of a nightstand) adds enough friction to eliminate mindless phone use.

> Seconding smartwatches. There's no reason to habitually check my phone (and risk getting distracted) when my watch tells me if I have notifications.

I don't get it. This functionality is so basic that it's always been part of the phone itself. What's the watch doing?

It allows you to separate certain essentials (getting possibly important notifications, calls) from temptations that you want to avoid (twitter/X, instagram, tic tok, etc...)

Yes, that functionality is so basic that it has always been part of the phone itself. If I get an unimportant notification, my phone plays a quiet beeping sound. If I get a wechat message, my phone plays a louder ringing sound. I can tell the difference from across the room. I can tell the difference while the phone remains in my pocket. So could you. Distinguishing sounds that were never similar to begin with is not a difficult task.

What is the watch adding? Were you having trouble distinguishing calls from notifications before?

Not all notifications from the same source, have the same importance. Not only the content can vary, but also the context.

The watch isn't "adding" anything, and that's the point. It's taking away unnecessary capabilities and only giving me what's important.

If I get a message in the middle of a meeting, I can figure out if it's just my mechanic saying my car is ready to be picked up. Or if it's a severe medical emergency. All this without bothering anyone else with audible alerts or getting distracted by any number of things on my phone.

If you have your own system, that's fine. I'm not saying this solution is for everyone. All I'm saying is that it's a useful solution for at least one person in this world.

> I can tell the difference while the phone remains in my pocket. So could you.

The solution might not make sense to you, because you apparently don't have the issue. For some people, a phone making a sound in their pocket, ANY sound, or vibrating, or just merely existing, is an invitation to do some of that sweet sweet scrolling that releases the good chemicals.

A smartwatch (like the Apple Watch) is, at this moment, just smart enough to allow you to interact with simple yet "smart" (i.e. not phone/SMS) apps, like WhatsApp, maps, music, payments, tasks, exercise, but inconvenient enough so that procrastinating on your watch just isn't a thing.

The watch is doing “not having social media apps or a web browser to lose an hour with after you check the notification”.

It's definitely not doing that; once you get something important, you need to handle it by using your phone.

The problem a lot of people have with doom scrolling is that there's basically no barrier to doing so except shear will power. Making the process more inconvenient, even if just by having to stand up and walk over to the phone, can make a substantial difference. If the notification is not worth the walk over to the phone, then the notification ceases to be a prompt to go doom scroll.

Hence you do not have carry your phone with you. The watch lets you be reachable in case of emergencies or basic communications, such as audio calls.

I achieved this by disabling almost all notifications. There is only instant messaging, calendar events and bank transactions

Yep this is the primary benefit of my apple watch, i no longer feel the need to incessantly check my phone for notifications. i just glance at my watch

Another +1 for the smartwatch.

Before: Every time a message arrives the phone makes that noise, and a little lamp is lit in my brain which stays lit until I pick up and unlock the phone and look at the message, answer, etc.

After: The phone is in silent mode all the time. When a message arrives I get a little tickle on my wrist - I just glance down and see who it's from and the lamp in my brain has nothing to do anymore. I even sometimes forget to pull out the phone and answer the message later.

It's easier to leave the phone out of reach, I feel less need to have it on me. It's great having a phone which never makes a sound. If a call comes in I see it on the watch and can reject the call from my wrist and optionally send an SMS instead. And podcasts are not interrupted by annoying pings.

It's a Garmin, so only have to charge it once every 10 days or so, and there's not much to do on it.

> I think a lot about the fact that we carry on our persons the most addictive device ever created.

The device is not addictive. Some applications of the device are addictive. It may seem pedantic but I think it's an important distinction; it's the difference between, for instance, parents limiting "screen time" and parents engaging deeply with what their kids are doing on their "screens", which can range from learning programming to interacting with real-life friends to, yes, mindlessly scrolling Instagram or getting radicalized.

I've done grayscale but the truth is that I'd disable it with muscle memory over time. I got efficient.

At the end of the day I had no life and I didn't spend it on anything worthwhile so the phone it was. Once I did worthwhile things I naturally used my phone less. I'm glad you k kw your limits and it works for you, but beware your brains searches for efficiency!

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