A recently published New York Times’ article featuring economics reporter Conor Doughtery, “How to Turn an iPhone Into a Work-Only Tool,” explores how this NYT reporter recognized the side-effects of constant technology use and made the necessary change of removing his cell phone’s social media apps to offset a problematic work-life balance.

In a 2018 Udemy report, 58 percent of survey respondents indicated they do not need social media to do their jobs yet feel they need social media to make it through the day. The report also points out that 86 percent of people recognize Facebook as a workplace distraction and out of the various social media sites, 65 percent ranked Facebook as the platform that distracts them the most, followed by Instagram at 9 percent, and Twitter and Snapchat at 7 percent.

To mitigate phone distraction, 43 percent of workers turn their cell phone’s off during work hours. While this tactic works for some, others, including myself, worry about the missed emergency phone calls while their cell phone is turned off. This is where Conor’s strategy comes in handy.

As a journalist, Conor keeps news apps such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, along with Audible, maps, airline, and service-oriented apps, on his phone. Everything else is disabled, including his Internet browser. He describes his largest struggle with hosting social media apps on his phone as losing track of the time spent on his apps for pleasure versus work. Now he spends his extra time on things he enjoys including skateboarding and video games.

Conor also explains that he still uses his phone a lot but not as much as he used to, given there is no more “endless stream of [social media] feeds.” While many reporters spend time on social media, he spends his time unearthing great story ideas by reading hyperlocal news, his niche approach compared to other reporters.

Reading is not the only part of Conor’s job. Interviewing is equally important, and he admits to a recent, pricey addiction to an app that transcribes his recorded interviews for $1 per minute.

It may not come as a surprise that social media is a major distractor at work. While Conor’s strategy of removing all social media apps from his phone has worked for him, there are less drastic changes one can make to diminish the urge to check your phone during the workday.

• Create an “off-limits” folder in your phone. This will help you categorize the apps you should stay away from during the day. It’s not necessarily always social media apps. For example, if you have a hard time staying away from Amazon, news or sports apps, file them in that folder. After work, give yourself a set amount of time to browse through these apps.
• Turn off your phone’s notifications. I have personally done this and can attest that it dramatically decreases the time I’ve spent on my phone during the day. When there are no notifications popping up on your phone, there is nothing that needs to be checked.
• Set up “do not disturb” times. If your phone is up to date, you more than likely have the choice to set up “do not disturb” times. Take advantage of this and stop the distraction.

 As the urge to continually check our phones increases in today’s social media frenzy, adopt personal guidelines to keep yourself on track during the workday.