Do you know how big effect social media has on our lives? Why all phone/desktop notifications are addictive and why taking your phone to a meeting makes you dumber. A set of everyday tools and browser extensions is presented, that allows you to take back control and restore your peace of mind!

1. Limiting daily distractors
11th of December 2019 Grzegorz Miejski

2. Agenda cannot be simpler
1. Problem -> possible solution
2. Problem -> possible solution
3. Problem -> possible solution
4. Some more ideas
5. Don’t bring your phone to the meeting!
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6. “I have excellent concentration”
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7. Awareness test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

8. Key problem
Our attention is limited
we need to help ourselves to stay focused
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9. Problems we face everyday
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10. 1. Social media effects
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12. 122019 / brainly.com

13. Social media takes control over us
SOCIAL MEDIA
FOMO - Fear of Missing Out
Seeing a picture of your friends at a bar makes you rethink your chilling evening with Netflix
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15. 1. Facebook time
consumer
SOLUTION
15
For downward social comparison:
● News Feed Eradicator for Facebook
(Chrome extension)
○ staying connected with everybody
is not natural*
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

16. Biggest problem - being connected all the time
SOCIAL MEDIA
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17. Biggest problem - being connected all the time
SOCIAL MEDIA
● phone at desk showing notifications disturbs our focus at work
● taking phone with you on a meeting, makes it 100%* sure you will use it at least once!
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* artificial stats just for presentation’s sake

18. 2. Facebook steals your
focus
SOLUTION
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For FOMO:
● disable smartphone internet at work
● don’t take phone with you for a meeting
○ (or at least don’t turn on the Internet)
● expert level: disable facebook
(messenger, etc) notifications
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19. 3. Notifications are made
to be addictive
SOLUTION
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● apps are made to check them up from time
to time
● checking phone has similar dopamine
effect as casino slots* (gambling addiction)
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http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-b
attle-time/

20. Businesses use
FOMO!
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● https://optinmonster.com/fomo-marketing-examples-to-boost-sales/

21. 2. Media playing companies
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22. Youtube needs you to keep watching
Media platforms
● you only think you have control over what you watch
○ [Youtube] you actually get drowned in recommended videos*
■ 70% of watch actions come from recommendation
○ [Youtube] limiting some kind of contents*
○ [Netflix] personalize the artwork, to increase chances you’ll watch recommended
movie*
● Result: you want to watch a single thing and you stay there for hours
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● https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/01/continuing-our-work-to-improve.html
● https://qz.com/1178125/youtubes-recommendations-drive-70-of-what-we-watch/
● https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/artwork-personalization-c589f074ad76

23. Youtube needs you to keep watching
Media platforms
All elements of Youtube work this way:
● Homepage with different sets of topics
● Recommended for you
● Topics channels
● Watch next + autoplay
● Playlists
● ...
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24. Media platforms
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25. 4. Use Youtube only to
find what you need
SOLUTION
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● Distraction Free Youtube (Chrome
extension)
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● https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-distraction-free/mjdepdfccjgcndkmemp
onafgioodelna

26. Distraction Free Youtube
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27. 5. Ban addictive websites
SOLUTION
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● Youtube Video Blocker (Chrome extension)
● BlockSite - and block entire webpages
(Chrome extension)
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● https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-blocker/jknkjnpcbbgcbdbaampbjlhkcghm
gfhk
● https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/block-site-website-blocke/eiimnmioipafcokbfikb
ljfdeojpcgbh

28. 3. Online business communication
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29. Gmail and Slack notifications are as bad as
Facebook ones
Communicators
Ask those questions:
● what will happen if you would reply on slack after 1 hour?
● what will happen if you would reply to last 5 mails after 4 hours?
● what would somebody do to contact you if that was really urgent? (it rarely does)
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* stats invented for presentation purpose

30. Communicators
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31. What we do
Communicators
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What we should be doing

32. Gmail and Slack
Communicators
● multitasking is a mit*
○ mails and messages force us to switch-context
○ works as bad as context switching on our computers
● not-urgent things should be postponed
○ to keep focus on our current task!
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● https://www.google.com/search?q=multitasking+pdf&oq=multitasking+pdf&aqs=chrome..6
9i57j0l5.5768j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

33. 6. Disable all notifications
SOLUTION
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● Disable notifications for Slack and Gmail
on your phone
● Disable Chrome Gmail (and other)
notifications
○ * the only notifications enabled for
me comes from Google Calendar, to
remind me about meetings
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34. 7. Snooze Slack
notifications permanently
SOLUTION
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● can only be snoozed 1 year forward :(
● notify your closest colleagues about this
fact
○ this will let them learn what is urgent
and what can wait
● go to Slack and Gmail when you decide
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35. 4. Other focus-oriented concepts
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36. 8. Organize your work
PROBLEM & SOLUTION
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● focus on limited number of things
○ and make a plan for today
■ I do this on paper for work
■ I use Todoist for life
● work & break - stop multitasking
○ Pomodoro technique at work and
home projects
■ notify your colleagues that
you’re trying it out
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37. 9. Split work & life
Chrome
PROBLEM & SOLUTION
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● Make 2 profiles for your private and business
Chrome needs
○ let’s you differentiate between Google
accounts easily
○ don’t read home related mails at work
○ don’t read work related mails at home
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38. 10. Limit number of open
tabs
PROBLEM & SOLUTION
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● it’s a false feeling that you’re being
productive:
○ https://blog.trello.com/too-many-browser-tabs
● xTab Chrome extension*
● Great Suspender Chrome extension
○ to limit your
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● https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xtab/amddgdnlkmohapieeekfknakgdnpbleb
● https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-suspender/klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodoceb
ajanakg

39. Well, we’re all humans after all...
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40. 5. That’s the last one, I promise
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41. Extra: phones make you
dumb
OUR PROBLEM & MY SOLUTION
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● “The Mere Presence of One’s Own
Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive
Capacity”*
○ differences are not big
○ you might believe it’s worth it or not
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● https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Brain-Drain%3A-The-Mere-Presence-of-One%E2
%80%99s-Own-Reduces-Ward-Duke/354087a10697409edb63bad5466343ffc079b643

42. 5. That’s the last one, I promise
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44. Key problem
Our attention is limited
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45. Solution
We have tools we can easily use!
And just be aware of things going on in your brain!
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46. LIST OF TOOLS I USE
● Facebook News Eradicator
● Distraction Free Youtube
● Video Blocker
● xTab
● BlockSite
● Todoist
● Pomodoro technique
○ Focus To-Do
● DON’T BRING PHONES TO THE MEETINGS
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47. Grzegorz Miejski
THANK YOU