I’ve been picking up my phone less…
Working from home tends to invite the some temptations. You hit run on a process than runs for 45 seconds, you go to check Instagram, and you look up to realize the process ended 5 minutes ago. I’ve worked on ways to resist that tempation over time, and figured it might be nice to share a few.
Using Stand By
In the past, I’ve used a standing chi charger directly next to my keyboard so that I can have quick access to whatever music or podcast I’m listening to and keep my phone charged throughout the day. This was useful, but meant that I immediately saw any notification and could justify that 45-second-turned-5-minute pickup.
Now, I have a Magsafe charger that sits on the middle element of my L-shaped desk and place my phone on it in a portrait orientation. This triggers Apple’s StandBy mode, which reduces the UI to a small selection of preselected widgets. When you’re playing audio, it also shows minimal (and quite beautifully designed) playback controls. It effectively limits the distractions that might otherwise creep into the interface.
A hidden benefit, though, is that the MagSafe connection is stronger than the charger is heavy. Any time I try to take the phone off of the charger, the whole thing wants to come with it. It’s frustrating, but that’s kind of a good thing.
iPhone mirroring
When I do need to pick up my phone, I’ve been taking advantage of Apple’s iPhone mirroring feature. It allows you to authenticate into your iPhone from your Mac and control it with your mouse. If I need to check my prefered weather app or access my two factor authenticator for school, that’s often how I get it done. (That is, if I’m working at my Mac. There’s no great workflow for this on my company-managed windows laptop, of course.)
Using my iPad more
For that, I had to develop a different habit: I try to use my iPad more while I work. I have Timery widgets on my home screen while in my Work focus mode, which keeps me from starting/stopping timers on my phone. I also have Todoist widgets there for similar reasons. If I need to quickly answer an iMesssage, I’ll often do it from my iPad. Basically, I’m moving any small interactions to a device without as many embedded distractions.
Removing the background from my Always On display while locked
This last scenario might seem the least important but is also my favorite. I have a desk at a coworking space where I haven’t yet placed another MagSafe charger. I’m still using that standing chi charger, which means my Always On display stares at me the whole day when I work there.
Under Display & Brightness > Always On Display > Show Wallpaper, you can turn that off. Now, when my phone is asleep, I still see the time and my lock screen widgets but not my wallpaper. This is 100% just a mental trick, but it makes me way less likely to look at it and therefore less likely to pick it up.