Tell HN: A simple method to regain your attention around cellphones

There’s the usual discussion about how easy it is to continuously and mindlessly browse HN, Twitter, Reddit, etc.

It often starts with a simple checking out what’s new and devolves into longer periods of browsing. I noticed that this begins almost subconsciously, as an impulse.

What I started doing is that every time that I feel the impulse, the urge of checking the cellphone, I stop for 10 seconds and bring that urge to consciousness.

This is related to Kahneman’s thesis of two separate systems. After 10 seconds, I ask myself if I really want to check that page, that app. Usually, I do not and avoid it completely.

It can be useful to log all these urges throughout the day. You should see that the number per day will decrease.

Have you tried anything similar? With what results?

1 comment

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hashimotonomora 4y ago ↗

Screen Time on my iPhone has not been effective. One of the reasons I think is that the prompt “15 more minutes” is immediately available, and the automatic consciousness system taps that button automatically, as part of the same urge. If there was a 10 second delay and a message “Take a step back, breath, and really think if you want to allow this app”, it’d work much much better, as the thinking system would be brought to decide.