Taming distraction and your phone

Your phone is designed to be hard to put down, and at home someone may have nagged you about it. Now the only person managing it is you. These settings and setups make focus the easy option. For the wellbeing side of social media, see the Stress, Resilience and Wellbeing module.

Why the phone is such a strong distraction

• In experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users at the University of Texas at Austin, people whose phones were in another room did significantly better on attention and memory tasks than those with the phone on the desk.
• It made no difference whether the phone was face up or face down, or switched on or off; just having it nearby seemed to drain brainpower.
• People who depended most on their phones were affected most, but only when the phone was close by.
• Practical meaning: for deep study, the phone should be out of sight and out of reach, ideally in another room.

Android settings that help

• Open Settings, then Digital Wellbeing, to see your screen time per app, how often you unlock your phone and how many notifications you get.
• App timers: in Digital Wellbeing, tap 'Set timer' next to an app and choose a daily limit; when time runs out the app closes and its icon dims until midnight.
• Focus mode: choose distracting apps to pause, then switch it on during study blocks or set a schedule; paused apps send no notifications.
• Bedtime mode: set a schedule (or have it start while charging) so your screen can switch to greyscale at night (see the lesson on waking up).
• Google notes that some school or work accounts may not support app timers.

iPhone settings that help

• Apple's Focus feature is designed to help you concentrate by reducing distractions; you can create a study Focus that silences notifications from chosen apps and people.
• In Settings, look for Focus and for Screen Time, where you can review your usage and set limits for particular apps.
• Allow calls from a few important contacts (for example family) so you do not worry about missing an emergency.
• Exact menu names change between iOS versions, so search 'Focus' or 'Screen Time' in the Settings search bar if you cannot find them.

Set up a focus-friendly study space

• Leave the phone in another room, in a locker, or with a friend during study sessions.
• Use a laptop browser with only the tabs you need, and close email and messaging apps.
• Work in timed blocks with short breaks; for example, 25 or 50 minutes of work followed by 5 to 10 minutes off. The University of Southampton library suggests online timers that let you customise work and break intervals.
• Study in a place that means 'work' to your brain, such as a library desk, rather than your bed.
• Keep a 'distraction notepad' beside you: when a thought like 'reply to Sara' pops up, write it down and deal with it at the break.

Notifications: decide what can interrupt you

• Go through your apps once and switch off notifications for anything that is not from a real person or genuinely urgent.
• Mute busy group chats during study hours and check them at set times (see the Friendships module's lesson on group chats).
• Remove the most distracting apps from your home screen, or log out after each use so opening them takes deliberate effort.
• Check your weekly screen-time report on Sunday and pick one app to cut back on next week.