steady

Focus and work · The phone

Say what you're looking for

Before you unlock the phone, say it, out loud or in your head. "Checking the train time." If you can't name it, put it down.

no timeEvidence: worth trying

A lot of unlocks have no goal you could name. The phone gets picked up because it's there and the last time paid off with something new. Evidence: decent Naming a purpose turns a reflex back into a choice for one second, which is where the choice lives.

Nobody has trialled this sentence. The habit research behind it is decent, and the trick costs nothing. Evidence: worth trying

The second half matters more: once you've done the thing you named, you're done. The feed didn't ask you to stay. Your hand did.

Source: Oulasvirta et al., 2012, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (link)

Same theme: The phone

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