Even at work, our phones are usually within reach. But does removing them from our desks help us be less distracted by them? A researcher, asking people to place their phones just out of their reach, put it to the test. The results showed that participants didn’t spend any less time pursuing leisure activities when their phones were further away from them, and that they switched between work and leisure tasks just as often.

If you just put away your phone to read this, chances are you’re not alone. Our phones are an endless source of distraction, and we interact with them every four to six minutes. This is often driven by habit as well as notifications, leading to a disrupted flow of activity while we’re trying to be productive.

A new study published in Frontiers in Computer Science investigated if placing smartphones just out of our reach while we’re at work influenced device use for activities not related to work.

“The study shows that putting the smartphone away may not be sufficient to reduce disruption and procrastination, or increase focus,” said the paper’s author Dr Maxi Heitmayer, a researcher at the London School of Economics. “The problem is not rooted within the device itself, but in the habits and routines that we have developed with our devices.”

Device vs distance

In the study, 22 participants were asked to work for two days in a private, soundproof room to which they brought the devices they usually have on them for work, a laptop and phone at a minimum. They did not change notification settings, and the notifications they received were in no way controlled by the researcher. Two settings that only differed by the distance between participant and their phone were explored: in the first, phones were placed on the desk participants were working from, in the second, the phone was placed on a separate desk 1.5 meters away.

Limited smartphone accessibility led to reduced smartphone use, but instead of becoming less distracted, participants shifted their attention to their laptops. Across conditions, participants did not spend different amounts of time on work or leisure activities.

In addition, the results showed that phones were the preferred device for distraction. “It’s your connection with loved ones and with work. It’s your navigation system, alarm clock, music player, and source of information. Unsurprisingly, people turn to the tool that does everything,” Heitmayer pointed out. “Even if you have no clear purpose, you know it has your socials and can provide entertainment.” While computers can fulfill the same functions, using one is less haptically pleasant, and they are not as handy and portable.

“In my research I want to shift the discourse beyond device-centric debates,” Heitmayer said. “The smartphone itself is not the problem. It’s what we do with it and, frankly, the apps that generate and reinforce these habits.”

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Made to distract

To optimize time spent without distractions, notifications can be set to arrive at specific times or be silenced altogether. Any way that helps users be more mindful with their time is a step in the right direction, Heitmayer said. Despite these strategies, he cautioned that, realistically, we’re not stopping to pick up our phones anytime soon. “Whenever there is a small break, people check their phone, regardless of whatever system they have in place. And then there’s the socials, which is an entirely different beast.”

“There is a very unequal battle fought out every single day by each and every one of us when we use our phones,” Heitmayer continued. “The things inside phones that are the biggest attention sinks are developed by large corporations who greatly profit from our failure to resist the temptation to use them; all of this is literally by design.”

Heitmayer also said that in the future we should focus on protecting users, particularly young ones. “These devices are incredibly useful and can facilitate learning and creativity, but they come at a cost that most adults struggle to manage, so we simply cannot ignore this.”

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