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Last week, I listened to an interesting interview with Jake Knapp on The Art of Manliness podcast. The conversation revolved around tips for “creating a distraction-free phone.”
It reminded me of the most useful post I read in 2018, How To Configure Your iPhone For Productivity and Longevity. It was an eye-opener for how to use the phone as a tool. More on that later.
During the interview, Jake recounts his experience as a tech nerd and early adopter and how that translated in what I call opt-in by default attitude towards new apps once the iPhone came out.
The wake-up call came when Jake’s son asked what was on his phone. A pretty harmless question if it wasn’t for the fact that Jake and his son were playing. Or at least that’s what Jake wanted to do, but he clearly was more preoccupied with his phone than his son.
This vignette will be tragically familiar to most parents. And if you are not a parent, I’m sure it happened to you when out with family or friends. (The Apple Watch is particularly devious in this regard, as it lets you check out notifications with a quick glance at your wrist.)
That incident was a turning point for Jake. He has spent the past twelve years re-configuring his phone to be as distraction-free as possible.
Without delving into the implementation details, which you can learn about by listening to the interview, the approach Jake took is what I refer to as opt-in by decision.
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