Your phone is stealing your attention and time. Here's how to get them back.

A lot of people find that external distractions can be a major impediment to getting things done. And a major source of frustration for many of us is the mobile phone. Alerts and messages are part of the problem, but so are those social media apps that are literally designed to get our attention and hold it for as long as possible. If you have never experienced losing a decent chunk of time to mindless, almost endless scrolling on your smartphone, then you are a better person than I.

Not uncommonly, when delivering a session that incorporates some key productivity tools, I tackle distraction head-on. With regard to smartphones, I start with easy wins such as putting the phone in flight mode, or at least keeping it face down and with audible alerts off. However, for those who are really serious about ‘detaching’ from their phones for a period of time, I recommend keeping it out of sight, preferably in another room if possible. This is because this is what I’ve found works best, but there is even some research which supports this approach.

In a study conducted at the University of Texas, nearly 800 smartphone users were asked to complete a series of cognitive tasks requiring full concentration. Some participants had their phones on the desk in front of them, some had them in their pocket or bag, and some had left them in another room entirely.

The results were clear: cognitive performance followed a clear linear pattern, with the closer the phone, the worse the performance. And crucially, it didn't matter whether the phone was switched on or off, face up or face down. The mere presence of the device was enough to reduce available cognitive capacity.

The lead author of this study, Adrian Ward, referred to the tendency for this reduced capacity as ‘brain drain’. The idea here is that our brain is actively working to avoid picking up the phone. That suppression process - the continuous low-level effort of resisting a pull we may be barely conscious of - consumes precisely the cognitive resources we need for the task in front of us.

Leaving our phone in another room may be a useful tactic when working from home, but it is perhaps less practical at work. But even here, it would likely help to have the phone in a bag or drawer that, again, is not in our sight line. Even better if we have to get up to retrieve our phone, as this adds a little more friction.

However, there are times when we may feel we need a phone physically with us for some functionality, but without certain distractions from apps such as X, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp. App blockers (e.g. Freedom and Screen Time) do exist, but the issue here is that unblocking is relatively easy to do. Can we add some more friction here?

One potential solution is a device called Brick, which allows us to have our phone with us but also creates some physical separation from apps and alerts that might distract us. I have no relationship or affiliation with the company that makes this device, but I am a user.

Brick is a physical device and accompanying app that allows you to block self-selected apps. Blocking is initiated by opening the app and then tapping the phone against the Brick device. Unblocking requires the phone to be tapped against the phone again. What this means is that one can ‘brick’ their phone from some elements, but still retain perhaps critical functionality.

One application of this might be to ‘Brick’ our phone before leaving for work, and leave the Brick device at home. Another might be to Brick our phone when working from home, and leave the device in another room.

But there are personal applications too. For example, when I go for a walk, I like the ability to take photographs, particularly as some of these may end up in my gratitude journal app at the end of the day. So I am not tempted to stray into my email app or YouTube while walking, I will Brick my phone and retain, essentially, only the phone and camera functions. It also occurs to me that Brick could be used to disable certain functions on a child’s phone at certain times. This way, a phone can still be a useful communication device, but without the risk of, say, excessive social media use.

While I do advocate keeping our phones out of sight and physically separated from us, this will not work for everyone, particularly where we may need key functionality. This is where the Brick may fit in and allow us to essentially physically separate ourselves from apps that can steal our attention and time.

Brick costs $59/£54/€62 at the time of writing and, again, I have no affiliation with the product.