The Impact of Phone Use on Deep Work and Focus

Every time you sit down for deep work, you find yourself scrolling on your phone, responding to emails, or socializing with friends and coworkers.

Your phone is your biggest distraction to your focus, but what exactly can be done about it?

If you want to get the most out of deep work sessions, put your phone on do not disturb, keep it out of sight, and create an environment conducive to a flow state and free from distractions.

Keep reading for the tools and techniques to manage your phone use and distractions and improve your focus during deep work.

How Phones Impact Productivity & Focus

How often are you knee-deep in a project or task before checking a notification on your phone, then trying and failing to return to the same level of focus?

Getting as immersed as you were before checking that text is nearly impossible.

According to recent research, phone use negatively impacts memory recall, and simply having your phone nearby makes your brain work harder to inhibit distractions.

Data from these studies also show that people perform better on memory tasks with higher accuracy when their phone is not in their immediate environment.

Essentially, You could focus a lot better and perform at a higher level of accuracy without your phone nearby.

So how can you develop good phone habits to improve your focus and work performance?

Use Your Phone to Improve Productivity

Your phone isn’t all bad.

It is the relationship you have with your phone that poses the problem.

Even though cell phones are a significant distraction, you can still use them to help you be more productive.

The key is to use your phone in a way that encourages you to do work instead of mindlessly scrolling for hours.

For instance, to manage your phone use, you can use:

• Productivity Apps

• Do Not Disturb and Other Phone Modes

• Phone Organization Techniques

Essentially, you use your phone to help you get more work done rather than prevent you from doing any work.

Productivity Apps

The perfect line-up of apps to optimize your productivity will be for you to decide.

But, here are the standard apps I use to keep me productive:

• Duolingo: Try learning a new language whenever you have some free time.

• Audible: Instead of binge-watching Netflix, you can listen to podcasts and audiobooks.

• Notion: If you want one place to track your habits and manage projects, Notion is a great app.

• Apple Notes: You can use Apple Notes to quickly capture ideas, write to-do or shopping lists, and keep track of important information like account login information.

• Google Calendar: With Google Calendar, you can schedule events, tasks, reminders, and even appointment schedules with Google Workspace!

• Google Sheets: Similar to Notion, Google Sheets makes it easy for you to track habits, manage project timelines, and update databases.

• Brain.fm: On the days when you have emergency projects or deadlines, the ‘Deep Work’ setting on Brain.fm makes it easy to get right to work and stay focused.

Regardless of your chosen app, it should encourage productivity and focus, even if it’s solely idea capture or time-tracking.

Do Not Disturb & Other Modes

If productivity apps are a gateway into the rabbit hole of distractions on your phone, you can use Do Not Disturb to help mitigate interruptions from notifications.

Currently, there are four ways you can minimize notification interruptions from your phone:

• Do Not Disturb

• Focus Mode

• Work Mode

• Airplane Mode

Do Not Disturb is excellent when you don’t want to be interrupted for specified periods, like the duration of your work hours, deep work, or family time.

Airplane Mode takes Do Not Disturb to another level by blocking cellphone reception and wifi connections. This is an excellent option for when you want to eliminate all possibility of being interrupted.

Focus and Work mode can be automated by:

• Schedule

• Location

• Opening certain apps

This is an excellent option if app notifications, team messages, or business phone calls constantly bombard you.

Use whichever Do Not Disturb mode that works best for your situation. If you still need to be reachable, allow the notifications of certain people in Work Mode instead of using Airplane Mode.

Phone Organization Techniques

Do you have a particular system for organizing the apps on your phone, or do you swipe through endless pages of apps on your home screen?

When you open your phone, are you presented with time-sucking apps like Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and TikTok?

One of the most underrated ways of controlling your social media and phone use is to not have any social apps on your phone's home page.

Instead, you can organize your phone so that:

• Productive Apps are on the home screen

• Social Media Apps are nested in a folder or on the third or fourth home screen

• Any apps not recently used are offloaded

Digital Devices are a part of our everyday lives.

Just as a cluttered workspace is a cluttered mind, the same applies to your phone.

Reclaim your time by organizing your phone in a way that encourages you to be productive instead of wasting time on social media apps.

Final Thoughts

Leveling up your performance starts with improving your focus and quality of work.

And the best way to improve your focus is by eliminating as many distractions as possible in your work environment.

Creating systems around controlling your phone use can eliminate distractions from notifications, messages, and constant phone calls.

You can also reduce anxiety and optimize your cognitive performance by putting your phone in your bag or completely removing it from your work environment.

As the attention economy becomes more prevalent, your ability to focus can be your greatest superpower!

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