"If you’re anything like me, this is hard because you’re worried about missing out on knowledge, but the learning and development happens from doing." I relate. Thank you!
These are all fabulous. I use many of them to help me focus as well. One thing that truly helps me is a timer. I set a timer for 20 or 40 minutes and I make my brain gain progress on one thing during that time. I have been doing it since I was a teen. Has always helped me a ton. Thank you for sharing your insights. 🧡
That's awesome! I know that works well for a lot of people! I have never really been able to stick to a pomodoro style timer. I find I prefer to set myself up for deep work and then stay in it for several hours.
It really depends on the kind of day I am having. I can certainly find myself drifting and obsessed for hours…but if my brain is not wanting to cooperate, the timer seems to help. 🧡
I turned off voicemails a few years ago. Not attempted to do the same for notifications, but when I get my new iPhone in a month or so, I might try that.
"Stick to just in time learning" is SO hard for me -- I regularly have 10 tabs open with deep smart intellectual things I'm going to read during my breakfast or lunchtime reading sessions...someday. But thanks to your nudge, I'm going to close them out and pretend my computer crashed and lost them. :)
I definitely need to close my tabs more often. I sometimes get worried that I'm going to forget something, until I close the tabs and realize that if I need something, I can just look it up in my google drive or wherever and be fine 😅 Just-in-time learning is a great one that I need to do more often, instead of getting stuck in a rabbit hole I need heavy machinery to climb out of.
Love this article. Today I was motivated to see what I could do for 205 minutes instead of hypothetically checking my phone. 25 mile bike ride for 115 min. Meditated for 20 min. Read for 30 min. Still have time to spare for myself instead of looking at my phone. Thanks Casandra!
I really enjoyed this. I especially like the idea that productivity is not necessarily about squeezing one more thing into an already packed day. Sometimes the smartest thing we can do is clear away the noise.
Since I started writing regularly, I have learned that I do much better when I simply sit down and write instead of spending half my day organizing how I am going to write. 😂 I can make a beautiful list, rearrange the list, lose the list, find the list under a dog, and still not have written a single sentence.
For me, choosing the one thing that really matters that day is probably the best advice here. If I get my story written, I feel like I accomplished something meaningful. Everything else can line up politely and wait its turn.
Although in my house, “delegate” usually means asking my husband, Dad, three dogs, and a cat for assistance. So far the cat has the strongest management skills and the dogs have filed no productivity reports whatsoever. 😂
Hahaha, my cat mostly keeps encouraging me to take more breaks!
In terms of just doing the thing, rather than planning how you’re going to do the thing, I sometimes tell myself, “You don’t have to do xyz, but you can’t do anything else.” 😂
The suggestion of turning off voicemail broke my brain a little bit. I was like, "Wait, you can do that?!" ... and then I went and did! Between that and turning off most notifications, I'm already having to look at my phone way less 🙌
I love this! I used to waste time clearing out emails I've gotten. And lately, all I do is click and sort all emails into a single folder/filter I look at when I have time. And that hasn't happened in a couple of weeks, so those emails are out of my way lately haha. I only leave in my inbox emails I know I need to handle. It has saved me so much time.
I also could care less about inbox zero - waste of time to try and achieve especially considering I’ve believed this for years and now have 100K+ unreads 😈
"If you’re anything like me, this is hard because you’re worried about missing out on knowledge, but the learning and development happens from doing." I relate. Thank you!
These are all fabulous. I use many of them to help me focus as well. One thing that truly helps me is a timer. I set a timer for 20 or 40 minutes and I make my brain gain progress on one thing during that time. I have been doing it since I was a teen. Has always helped me a ton. Thank you for sharing your insights. 🧡
That's awesome! I know that works well for a lot of people! I have never really been able to stick to a pomodoro style timer. I find I prefer to set myself up for deep work and then stay in it for several hours.
It really depends on the kind of day I am having. I can certainly find myself drifting and obsessed for hours…but if my brain is not wanting to cooperate, the timer seems to help. 🧡
I turned off voicemails a few years ago. Not attempted to do the same for notifications, but when I get my new iPhone in a month or so, I might try that.
Thanks for your post Casandra.
I hope I never get this busy…
I'm definitely a pretty active person with a lot of hobbies :)
"Stick to just in time learning" is SO hard for me -- I regularly have 10 tabs open with deep smart intellectual things I'm going to read during my breakfast or lunchtime reading sessions...someday. But thanks to your nudge, I'm going to close them out and pretend my computer crashed and lost them. :)
If it makes you feel better you can bookmark them all and then never look at the bookmarks like I do 😜
I definitely need to close my tabs more often. I sometimes get worried that I'm going to forget something, until I close the tabs and realize that if I need something, I can just look it up in my google drive or wherever and be fine 😅 Just-in-time learning is a great one that I need to do more often, instead of getting stuck in a rabbit hole I need heavy machinery to climb out of.
I can definitely relate!
Nice list, Casandra.
Would love to contribute with the pieces I wrote about putting pur smartphones on grayscale mode.
It was extremely helpful to reduce usage.
Oh interesting! Feel free to share here :)
There you go:
https://open.substack.com/pub/giacomofalcone/p/how-to-reduce-smartphone-addiction?r=1exjmj&utm_medium=ios
Love this article. Today I was motivated to see what I could do for 205 minutes instead of hypothetically checking my phone. 25 mile bike ride for 115 min. Meditated for 20 min. Read for 30 min. Still have time to spare for myself instead of looking at my phone. Thanks Casandra!
I love this so much!!
I really enjoyed this. I especially like the idea that productivity is not necessarily about squeezing one more thing into an already packed day. Sometimes the smartest thing we can do is clear away the noise.
Since I started writing regularly, I have learned that I do much better when I simply sit down and write instead of spending half my day organizing how I am going to write. 😂 I can make a beautiful list, rearrange the list, lose the list, find the list under a dog, and still not have written a single sentence.
For me, choosing the one thing that really matters that day is probably the best advice here. If I get my story written, I feel like I accomplished something meaningful. Everything else can line up politely and wait its turn.
Although in my house, “delegate” usually means asking my husband, Dad, three dogs, and a cat for assistance. So far the cat has the strongest management skills and the dogs have filed no productivity reports whatsoever. 😂
Hahaha, my cat mostly keeps encouraging me to take more breaks!
In terms of just doing the thing, rather than planning how you’re going to do the thing, I sometimes tell myself, “You don’t have to do xyz, but you can’t do anything else.” 😂
The suggestion of turning off voicemail broke my brain a little bit. I was like, "Wait, you can do that?!" ... and then I went and did! Between that and turning off most notifications, I'm already having to look at my phone way less 🙌
I had the same response when my friend told me he did this over a decade ago 🤣
Terrific post! So actionable, Casandra! I enjoyed it
Thank you, I'm so glad!
This is true. I turned off nearly all notifications January 2026 and it's led me to a much more productive year.
It's such a game changer!
I love this! I used to waste time clearing out emails I've gotten. And lately, all I do is click and sort all emails into a single folder/filter I look at when I have time. And that hasn't happened in a couple of weeks, so those emails are out of my way lately haha. I only leave in my inbox emails I know I need to handle. It has saved me so much time.
Amazing! Fortunately, the world doesn't end if we miss some emails.
I also could care less about inbox zero - waste of time to try and achieve especially considering I’ve believed this for years and now have 100K+ unreads 😈
Epic!! 🤣