5 ms·

One huge distraction-enabler is the fingerprint sensor. It makes things too easy for me - I put my hand in my pocket, put my finger on the sensor, and by the ti

One huge distraction-enabler is the fingerprint sensor. It makes things too easy for me - I put my hand in my pocket, put my finger on the sensor, and by the time it's in front of my face I can be mindlessly browsing reddit. So I would add the following tip: disable the fingerprint sensor if you have one (also face recognition, etc), and replace it with an inconveniently long password. This way you really need to think about whether it's worth the time to open your phone.

BartBoch 8y ago
You can always set your fingerprints for the other hand instead. This will force you to switch hands which requires more complexity.
- kgdinesh 8y ago
  Interesting. I'm gonna try this and see.
hawski 8y ago
I have one on 5" phone. I lately think that I would gladly go back to my old Moto G 1st gen that actually works better now on LineageOS [0] than before on original ROMs. It's smaller - it fits my pocket. It is a bit less convenient to stare at the screen, but now I think that's good. But sadly it has broken SIM slot. Maybe I will sell my phone and just buy something smaller, used with good LineageOS support. Or maybe something even more inconvenient - at most 10" 3g laptop. [0] But last April Fools' "joke" was really testing my nerves and I'm still not settled on this.
antisocial 8y ago
I installed space recently and I use it just for Twitter. I don't have any other distractions. I think it has been useful so far. http://youjustneedspace.com/ http://youjustneedspace.com/
gkya 8y ago
Reddit, the serial time-killer. Removing it from my phone was a tangible life improvement. And on desktop, I've moved everything to multis so that my reddit homepage is empty like a desert, so that I have to choose what to see purposefully from the sidebar. Thus I don't compulsively go to reddit and get lured by a sea of interesting links. This has helped cut the time I spend on reddit by, well IDK, I don't spend more than about an hour or two a week on it anymore.
- radix07 8y ago
  I have been using protopage.com, which is basically what iGoogle was back in the day. I just drop in the RSS feeds for the top posts from subs I want to check out and have it limit the number of posts. I do that with HN and a few other sites as well. Although would be nice to be able to set a minimum refresh rate so newer stuff wouldn't pop up on refresh.
bllguo 8y ago
this is a cool tip, especially considering the security implications! afaik, police can coerce you to unlock with fingerprint, but not to give up your password
taserian 8y ago
I have a small velvet bag that I use to keep my cell phone safe from scratches in my pocket. You can keep the fingerprint sensor on, but drop it in a similar bag with the sensor at the bottom; that way, you keep the fingerprint security, but there's an extra step involved before you can use it.
airstrike 8y ago
Delete the reddit app and logout. Have a really long password so you're too lazy to type it in. That's my trick. Used to spend hours and hours on reddit... now I'm just stuck on HN :(
- coatmatter 8y ago
  That's what I did a while ago and haven't wanted to look for it again - the app was always terrible anyway. On my desktop/laptop, I now log out more as well to not have the orange notification show up if I 'accidentally' browse to the front page. For Twitter (which I think is more 'addictive' due to the greater pool of talent about compared to hivemind posts), I need to open up my password manager and it's quite a process to log in again compared to a saved browser password (especially with two factor authentication) - quite often that hurdle is enough to have me reconsider idling away. By the way, did you know the Twitter app requires about 5 taps or strokes before you can log out? They really try to hide that one from users.

BartBoch 8y ago

You can always set your fingerprints for the other hand instead. This will force you to switch hands which requires more complexity.

kgdinesh 8y ago
Interesting. I'm gonna try this and see.

hawski 8y ago

I have one on 5" phone. I lately think that I would gladly go back to my old Moto G 1st gen that actually works better now on LineageOS [0] than before on original ROMs. It's smaller - it fits my pocket. It is a bit less convenient to stare at the screen, but now I think that's good. But sadly it has broken SIM slot. Maybe I will sell my phone and just buy something smaller, used with good LineageOS support. Or maybe something even more inconvenient - at most 10" 3g laptop. [0] But last April Fools' "joke" was really testing my nerves and I'm still not settled on this.

antisocial 8y ago

I installed space recently and I use it just for Twitter. I don't have any other distractions. I think it has been useful so far. http://youjustneedspace.com/ http://youjustneedspace.com/

gkya 8y ago

Reddit, the serial time-killer. Removing it from my phone was a tangible life improvement. And on desktop, I've moved everything to multis so that my reddit homepage is empty like a desert, so that I have to choose what to see purposefully from the sidebar. Thus I don't compulsively go to reddit and get lured by a sea of interesting links. This has helped cut the time I spend on reddit by, well IDK, I don't spend more than about an hour or two a week on it anymore.

radix07 8y ago
I have been using protopage.com, which is basically what iGoogle was back in the day. I just drop in the RSS feeds for the top posts from subs I want to check out and have it limit the number of posts. I do that with HN and a few other sites as well. Although would be nice to be able to set a minimum refresh rate so newer stuff wouldn't pop up on refresh.

bllguo 8y ago

this is a cool tip, especially considering the security implications! afaik, police can coerce you to unlock with fingerprint, but not to give up your password

taserian 8y ago

I have a small velvet bag that I use to keep my cell phone safe from scratches in my pocket. You can keep the fingerprint sensor on, but drop it in a similar bag with the sensor at the bottom; that way, you keep the fingerprint security, but there's an extra step involved before you can use it.

airstrike 8y ago

Delete the reddit app and logout. Have a really long password so you're too lazy to type it in. That's my trick. Used to spend hours and hours on reddit... now I'm just stuck on HN :(

coatmatter 8y ago
That's what I did a while ago and haven't wanted to look for it again - the app was always terrible anyway. On my desktop/laptop, I now log out more as well to not have the orange notification show up if I 'accidentally' browse to the front page. For Twitter (which I think is more 'addictive' due to the greater pool of talent about compared to hivemind posts), I need to open up my password manager and it's quite a process to log in again compared to a saved browser password (especially with two factor authentication) - quite often that hurdle is enough to have me reconsider idling away. By the way, did you know the Twitter app requires about 5 taps or strokes before you can log out? They really try to hide that one from users.