What’s distracting you – notifications or boredom?
One of the great things about devices like the Kindle, reMarkable, Boox, and others is that they don’t have notifications. If you’re trying to focus on reading or taking notes, it’s fantastic!
I recently picked up an iPad Mini to be my daily planner/notepad to carry around, and so far it’s been great. I have the Apple Pencil to go with it, so I can handwrite my notes on the screen. However, a major concern that people have with devices like that iPad is the potential for distraction. That’s an easy fix, as I’ve simply disabled all sound and notifications on the device. It gives me the power of an iPad (notes, calendar, Obsidian, etc) while still staying distraction-free.
That said, there is another kind of distraction lurking: boredom.
When people talk about how our mobile devices keep demanding our attention, they’re talking about both of these areas.
Notifications are the obvious one. By default, our phones are constantly buzzing for attention, usually for very unimportant things. However, boredom is also a big reason — I’ve seen a lot people that get bored (waiting in line, for example), and pick up their phone simply to see if it can distract them. They’ll pick up their phone, flip around a few screens, and sometimes just put it away. It’s their default “I need something to do”.
If I’m not careful, that second one could be an issue on the iPad. I’ve eliminated notifications, but the ability to pick it up just to poke around is still right there. The solution I’ve found is to simply limit the apps that are installed on there, so there’s not much I could do even if I wanted to. That line is really fuzzy, though.
For example, there are the very helpful apps for this use case, like:
Apple Notes: The core app for this.
Calendar: Very helpful.
Obsidian: Also very helpful.
Then there are the other reference apps that are likely to be helpful at times, like:
Notion
TickTick (todo list)
Google Drive
Then there are the educational apps that require more of my time (but could be a bit of a distraction), like:
Anki
Readwise
Imprint
Then there are the apps that could be useful “just in case”, like:
Chrome
Apple Music
Google Photos
Lastly there are the apps that are simply a (sometimes fun) waste of time:
Various games
Social media
Where should the list be cut off on a device like this? For now, I’ve added most all of them other than games and social, and it’s working well. Things like Google Drive aren’t needed often, but at times it could be helpful to pull up a file and it’s an app that isn’t going to be distracting.
It’s been interesting to sort this out, and I think I’ve found a good middle ground. We’ll see how it looks over the coming months.
What is your tool for on-the-go notes? Do you use a device of some kind, or just use the ultimate distraction-free option of a notebook and pen?