I’ve written here repeatedly that the first step to getting great work done in less time is to eliminate distractions, and most importantly (these days), to turn off your phone. But it turns out turning your phone off isn’t actually enough to stop it from distracting you.
According to a recent study by McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, just having their phones within sight, even if those phones were turned off, distracted participants and reduced their cognitive capacity when compared to those who left their phones in another room.
I know this is the kind of advice that many people, especially students, are likely to ignore. We’re all so connected to our phones that the suggestion to voluntarily turn it off, much less to abandon it alone in another room, might feel like we’re being asked to cast off a vital organ.
But why not try an experiment? The next time you’re doing important work, completing a college application, writing a college essay, etc., try powering your phone off and leaving it in a different room. Close your email, find your quiet space, and just focus for an hour or two. Unless you’re a heart surgeon, a volunteer firefighter, or in another line of work where a call could be an actual emergency, what’s the worst that could happen? You miss a call or text and return it a few hours later. And you’ll probably do better work in less time, leaving yourself more time to spend however you’d like, with or without your phone.
Apparently, our phones actually need to be out of sight to be completely out of mind.