Phone in another room

Today's action · 5 min

For one focused session today, put your phone in a different room, not just face-down on the desk.

Why it works

Ward and colleagues found that people whose phones were in another room did better on tests of working memory and problem solving than those with their phone on the desk, even when it was switched off. Later replications have found smaller effects, but moving the phone costs nothing.

Source: Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (Ward et al., 2017)