20 habits of attention hygiene: how to use technology, but do not allow them to select their time and attention

Technology captures our time and attention, and this is no longer just not funny, it's sad, even depression , anxiety and bipolar disorders. I regularly publish research on the impact of technology on mental health on Habré and in my telegram channel, and during this time a certain amount of observations have accumulated.

Ok, Google, and what to do in a world where technology is a link for our professional, social and personal life? Is it possible to use techniques of ethical design and attentional hygiene to improve being?

Approaches

You can approach the solution radically: cut off any connection, buy a clamshell phone and throw out an iPhone, take a vacation, make yourself a digital detox , drive to Vipassana or go to Phangan.

You can accept the fact that this is a new reality: the world is accelerating, the vertical tanning bed is not the limit of progress, technologies are progressing, there is no privacy. It's time to put up with it. And pharmaceuticals do not sleep, she has a blue pill for any occasion ...

This is all cool, but I would like less drastic measures. For one reason or another, for myself I chose to live in the most technologically (re) saturated point of the Earth, in San Francisco, and from this the retention of the boundaries of my time, attention and energy became for me a daily practice.

I get a buzz from the fact that I have access to the latest technology, but I also dragged the fact that I have friends with whom I can meet at any time; lectures and workshops for which I can easily fall in the evening; the possibility of writing texts about what interests me every couple of days; in almost any weekend I can go to nature or to travel by car.

The middle way is close to me, without extremes. To organize it, I had to thoroughly experiment, optimizing my time and technological space.

10 habits that have taken root

I have a small set of practices that allow me to take control of the technology. I will give them below:

1. Screen Time: the default is 0 minutes for all dopamine-stimulating applications. I need to invest time to enter the password and allow the application for 15 minutes, after which it again falls into the banned list. It's like a speed bump - it creates barriers, reduces speed and reduces the time I spend in programs.
2. The minimum set of applications on the phone. 10 messengers? 6 social networks? 7 banking app? No, thanks, one for a group is enough.
3. Key communication in 1-2 channels: Telegram for all major conversations, SMS / Apple Messages for American contacts and close friends.
4. Limit your Google and Facebook products. These companies make money by advertising, for this they need to optimize products around engagement metrics and duration of use. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft make money by selling physical products, apps, and subscriptions. Other things being equal, I use products from the last group.
5. All working applications are on the computer. On the phone, only basic applications for communication, navigation, money exchange, etc.
6. Top 3 applications on my Screen Time statistics are deleted from the phone. Created myself three hours a day. Magic!
7. Notifications for phone and SMS only. By default, turned off in all other applications.
8. There is a second phone that I use for attention-cost applications. For example, with it, I run Instagram and update Facebook. Access to it is limited.
9. Applications on the phone are grouped by basic principles / Jobs To Be Done: conversation, movement, reproduction ¯_ (ツ) _ / ¯, recording, concentration, exchange of funds, time management, and self-care.
10. Browsers are divorced and equipped with attention-saving plugins. Chrome for work, Safari for personal projects. And there and there a set of plugins for access restrictions (in time, resources, part of the site, method of perception): UnDistracted, Stay Focused, Decreased Productivity, Mercury Reader, AdBlock. There are many such decisions, but good ones can be counted on the fingers, so if it is interesting, I will write a separate post about this

10 useful practices that have not taken root

1. Remove all notifications. Part of the notifications is important, so I included them only in important applications.
2. Black and white mode on the phone to hide the color of red notifications. The latter attract attention and create interruptions in work, leading to loss of focus. Instead of the black and white mode that can be selected in the settings, I reduced the number of applications and those that are allowed to be notified.
3. Remove all notifications from Lock Screen. The same considerations.
4. Delete all social media. Instead, he limited his stay, started a separate media phone, where he needed to be from time to time.
5. Voice messages instead of text. Not caught on, first of all, because in Western culture it is not customary to dictate the message.
6. Complete blocking of all attention-costing applications using Freedom, Self Control, etc. Too hard approach, and in this sense I'm a vanilla guy.
7. Call applications only through Spotlight (iOS) or Search (Android) . Some of the applications really call it that way, but all the main ones are arranged in little folders, which are named after the basic principles / Jobs To Be Done.
8. Dark Mode on default sites. In theory, the “dark mode” should reduce the number of bright websites, but in fact it does not work well with different features of display sites.
9. Meditation applications. As you know, mindfulness meditation allows you to get more control over the quality of attention and affects your emotional state. He started with Headspace five years ago, but when the practice became more serious, he began to meditate himself, with the usual application-timer.
10. Timers by the method of tomato . 25 minutes work, 5 rest, repeat. After the fourth rep, make a long break. For someone it works, but as it turned out, not for me.

And how do you save your time and attention?