A simple hack to make your phone less addictive

Our smartphones are designed to be addictive. No surprise there.

App designers use variable intermittent rewards (eg. notifications) to get us hooked -- the same principle used to design slot machines.

The more variable the rate of reward, the more addictive the app.

Most of us need a smartphone for work, so we accept the disruption. But most of us underestimate the disruption it causes.

On average, people look at their phone 85 times a day (twice as much as they think). It takes you 23 minutes to get back into a state of flow after an interruption -- your phone is killing your ability to get things done.

To turn the odds in your favour, try turning your screen to greyscales. For iPhone users go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Colour Filters > and select "Grayscale"

It's a simple yet powerful hack that can have a profound impact on your productivity.

This is one of more than 100 productivity solutions that we have in Building 20's (www.building20.co) ever-expanding library.

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