Removing distractions from my life

I get distracted easily. Here are some ways I've removed distractions.

This website

is for reading text and learning. So I took out all the things that aren't necessary for that. Actually, the only thing necessary to read the text is the text, but some CSS and a sans-serif font make it easier to read.

When writing a post, I take out words that don't change the meaning of a sentence, and pick simpler words. I don't speak like this normally. It's a bit hard!

My computer

Web browsers are for looking at webpages, not looking at tabs. So I hide tabs. (Code editors are for writing code. Notes apps are for writing notes... .)

I like to have less things on screen. Things are distracting.

Movement is distracting too. I've turned off cursor blinking.

I wanted to turn off animations on my browser, but that also disabled smooth scrolling. I found rigid scrolling was more distracting. So I left animations on.

My phone

I got a phone quite late (2016). It sucked me in right away. I reached for it to play games and scroll through memes whenever my hands weren't busy. It was really bad.

I knew this but I didn't care about it much at first, because back then I didn't feel like doing other things with my time. Now I want to respect my time more, so I've tried strategies.

It's not enough to say "I won't use my phone". If it's sitting there, I'm thinking about reaching out to grab it, instead of thinking about something else. This includes sleep. If I'm in bed but my phone is there, my mind will be jumping all over the place thinking about the social and parasocial relationships that live in the screen.

I used to turn the phone off completely and leave it in another room. That worked well.

But when I'm working, I need it for 2FA and phone calls. And when I'm in bed, if I have a fun idea, I want to write it down. If I don't write it down, either the idea will keep me awake, or I'll forget it in the morning.

I use GrapheneOS profiles for this. I have an everyday profile; a work profile; and a sleep profile. The work and sleep profiles only have absolutely necessary apps installed.

My home

TODO write this when i DO IT