Turn off most of your notifications. Seriously, just do that first.
I counted my phone buzzes once. Embarrassing number. Gloria Mark at UC Irvine has this research—takes about 23 minutes to refocus after each interruption. You do the math on how much focus that costs.
Why Willpower Won't Work
If resisting notifications feels impossible, that's probably the dopamine thing making distractions extra grabby. Not willpower. The science says so, but honestly it just feels like betrayal.
Willpower won't fix this. Remove the trigger instead.
Here's the Boring-But-Useful Part
Set up Focus mode. Let through family and calendar alerts. Block Slack, email, Instagram, texts.
- iPhone: Settings → Focus → Work
- Android: Settings → Digital Wellbeing → Focus mode
Takes 10 minutes maybe.
The first few days you'll still reach for your phone constantly. That's a tangent, sorry—point is, after a couple weeks you stop. That's it. That's the whole thing.