Little Thief: How Smartphones Steal Your Attention, Joy, and Productivity

This mock-trial explores the hidden costs of smartphone addiction and strategies to reclaim your focus while raising self-awareness.

Colton Swabb

Aug 09, 2024

I had a sinking suspicion that something was wrong.

Something in my attention changed.

Excitement stopped coming from its usual sources.

Things I eagerly anticipated like the next iPhone release, or must-use apps, no longer captured my interest.

I realized that there was simply no answer to the question of, “What’s coming out next?” that really mattered to me anymore.

For a while, those innovations were mind-blowing.

We went from 1080p resolution to 4k OLED and my eyes delighted.

We went from iPods with dials to touch-screen smartphones in everyone’s hands.

And from there, things have plateaued.

Meanwhile, how I feel while using my device has plummeted.

Despite the relative improvements year to year, I don’t actually like my device any more than I used to.

In fact, now I feel better the less I use it.

Like a cliche breakup, it’s not the technology changes that did it—it’s me.

I’ve changed.

Now, things I used to do to hone my edge or relax deeper, like meditation and yoga became things that I need to do to stop the neuroticism from creeping up and I spend too much time worrying about what other people are doing.

Free time became scrolling time and I find myself swiping, hoping for notifications, and resisting ads behind squinted eyes.

Maybe you’re like me?

If so, you’re not alone.

Maybe it’s a consequence of living through one set of ‘unprecedented times’ after another, but my suspicion is that there’s something else going on here.

Common sense tells me that looking at a tiny box all day probably isn’t good for you.

But I began to wonder to what extent.

I realized that just having a vague sense of knowing I “probably shouldn’t use my phone quite so much” was not enough to get me to actually stop using it.

It’s too addictive, too fun.

I needed to know definitively what impact this habit was having on me to change my behavior.

What I discovered is that the impact is significant.

That engaging too much with these devices, or apps designed to connect us, can disconnect us from ourselves.

They siphon attention away, make us dumber and more stressed.

It’s an addiction that afflicts tens of millions, but there are multiple parties to blame.

A set of culprits guilty of sabotage.

The Culprits: In The Case of Cell (Self) Sabotage

The thing being sabotaged is your attention—which if sabotaged, affects just about anything else you do and want to set your mind to.

Your attention is being sabotaged, as well as stolen.

And the first and primary culprit guilty of this sabotage is your smartphone.

I wonder if the devices we use even qualify as phones anymore—with the phone app being among the least used apps on them.

I’m also not the first person to point a finger of blame toward a smartphone.

It’s now common knowledge that we are living in a mental health crisis with increasing rates of stress, overwhelm, AHDH, depression, and anxiety and it’s well known that changes in technology play a major role in that.

It’s also not lost on me that if you don’t pick up a phone it will lay there, unmoving.

So, it’s not the only one to blame.

But the reason for this mock trial is that I know on an emotional level that checking my phone, email, or anything else compulsively is bad for me.

Mentally, I want to know what’s next I want more notifications, more and more.

But each time I give in to this impulse, it’s not satisfied.

I’m just left wondering what I’ll see next time.

So, I wrote this mock-trial for me, because it’s not enough to have the vague sense and knowing that something insidious is happening here.

I needed to know exactly what’s going on in this idle time because it’s not affecting just me.

This idle time has an impact, but the question is, to what extent?

Introducing… The Case Against Your Phone

The Evidence

Offense #1: The Negative Impact of Your Phone on Your Mental Health, Well-Being and Cognitive Capacity

The major offense your smartphone commits is the most difficult one to detect the moment it happens…

But it leads to a low state later on that makes you wonder, “How the heck can this be making me feel this bad?”

To understand the nuanced negative impacts smartphone use can have on subjective elements like your mental health, well-being, and cognitive capacity researchers from China and Pakistan put together a comprehensive study titled, “Attention or Distraction? The Impact of Mobile Phone on Users’ Psychological Well-Being,” wherein they compiled the cumulative evidence from dozens of studies on the impact of cell phone use across many factors of life.¹

Their conclusion?

The impact of your smartphone on your well-being is significant.

Negative Impact on Psychological Well-Being
- Negative and significant association with lower well-being, limiting users’ cognitive abilities, and leading to negative psychological outcomes.
- Excessive mobile phone use is linked to increased stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and exhaustion.
Contributes to Emotional Pre-Occupation
- Users’ thoughts and emotions are preoccupied with mobile phone use, acting as a third negative influence on the relationship between mobile phone distraction and psychological well-being.
Leads to Psychological Strain:
- Cognitive-emotional preoccupation due to excessive mobile phone usage leads to psychological strains such as life invasion, techno-exhaustion, and privacy invasion.

In short, using your smartphone ‘excessively’ will make you feel unwell, burnout, and stressed.

Sound familiar?

But it’s not all bad news…

The Silver Lining

This study also concluded that individuals with high attention control can easily manage their daily routine activities while remaining focused.¹

Is that you?

If so, even an hour less spent on your smartphone a day can result in significant improvement.

But if not, then at least this gives us a North Star—if we want to use our phones and not get used by our phones—we need high attention control.

But what does that mean?

In other areas of life, it means being able to choose what you pay attention to.

But some people are express ADHD more than others.

The problem is that smartphones exasperate this ‘shiny object syndrome’ and rob you of momentum and compounding focus.

Imagine all those videos you’ve seen where someone tells stories about the power of compounding interest and if you save $5 a day, how it will grow exponentially over some 30 years.

Well, there’s a different kind of compounding interest that is more important to you achieving your immediate goals and it pays off in hours, not years, and that’s the compounding interest of your focus.

Most people overestimate what they can do when they are constantly being interrupted.

And most people dramatically underestimate what they can do when they can focus for 2 or more hours at a time without distraction.

The compounding focus accumulated from DEEP work like this is the #1 thing that will bring you closer to your goals—and spending 2 hours at a time without your phone may sound completely achievable.

But for the vast majority of people, this type of deep focus is silently stolen each day and its absence is felt.

Which brings me to the second offense…

Offense #2: Stolen Momentum & Focus

If smartphones only damaged well-being and focus that would be one thing if it didn’t happen very frequently.

But the problem is, it does happen frequently.

In fact, it happens more now than it ever has.

In 2019 a study was done by the tech company, Asurion, to understand how often Americans check their phones and they discovered the average American checks their phones every 12 minutes on average.²

About 80 times a day.

If you, like most people, are checking your phone every 12 minutes it’s going to be nearly impossible for you to get into flow and get deep work done. Without having to overcome a lot of resistance and procrastination in the process to start again.

Focus is compounding and builds momentum—the first minute on a new task has infinitely more friction than the 30th minute on the same task, and that’s because of focus momentum—flow.

But you lose that momentum and start from scratch every time you look at your phone, someone knocks at the door, or you are interrupted in any way.

All work is not equal. Two hours in flow, deeply focused is worth days of a typical 9-5 conscious awareness where you’re reacting to what happens.

Now that you know what’s at stake I’ll let you know that the study that was done in 2019 was repeated in 2022 and in that time mobile phone use increased 4x.

Instead of checking their phone every 12 minutes, now the average American checks their phone once every 2 minutes and 43 seconds. About 352 times per day.³

More time at home means more time spent with the little thief.

So, if you want to build up your focus and do DEEP work again, just don’t check your phone, right?

Or if you’re really zealous, just turn it off?

Unfortunately, that is not enough to see results.

Offense #3: Covert Focus Theft

Smartphones are no petty thieves, they are sexy leather-clad, cat-esque ninja-trained super thieves of the night.

Their presence may be undetectable in the moment, but it’s felt later on.

If you want to catch your phone in the act of stealing your attention, just keep it within your field of view any time you want to get work done.

Incredibly, in a study done at the University of Texas at Austin, researchers found your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced whenever your smartphone is in reach—even if it’s off.⁴

This study reveals even though people feel they’re giving their full attention and focus to the task at hand—the mere presence of your smartphone is distracting you and reducing your cognitive capacity (i.e. your ability to fully think things through.)

"Your conscious mind isn't thinking about your smartphone, but that process -- the process of requiring yourself to not think about something -- uses up some of your limited cognitive resources. It's a brain drain."

It doesn’t matter if your phone is on, or off, face up, or down.

“It’s not that the participants were distracted because they were getting notifications on their phones. The mere presence of their smartphone was enough to reduce their cognitive capacity.”

If you’re like most people, you’re so addicted to your device that your brain is trying to figure out how it can get ahold of it when it should be focusing on anything else whenever it’s within eyesight.

Just having a smartphone within sight or easy reach reduces a person’s ability to focus and perform tasks because part of their brain is actively working to not pick up or use the phone.

Is your phone in sight right now? Do you feel compelled to pick it up for no reason at all?

This effect is more extreme in people who describe themselves as being dependent on their devices versus those who aren’t.

So, if your phone is on, or off, in the same room as you are focusing it, it will steal your focus away whether you’re conscious of this brain drain or not.

But this isn’t the only thing your smartphone has been caught stealing.

Offense #4: Sleep Theft

In a study done for the National Center for Biotechnical Information titled, “Bedtime smartphone usage and sleep quality” participants with ranging levels of device dependence were measured for sleep quality.⁵

What they found is that:

Participants who spent 16 to 30 minutes using their smartphone before bed had a 2x higher likelihood of having poor sleep quality.
Participants who spent 31 to 45 minutes on their smartphones at bedtime had a 3x higher likelihood of having poor sleep quality.
Participants who spent 46 to 60 minutes only had a 2.6x higher likelihood of having poor sleep quality.
Participants who spent more than 60 minutes had a 7.4x higher risk of being poor-quality sleepers.

So, any phone use before bed significantly decreases your chances of having quality sleep.

And if you’re on your phone for over an hour, then the odds are stacked against you for getting good sleep.

Okay, enough evidence.

These offenses are severe.

Sabotaged well-being, stolen focus, cognition, and sleep.

But your device didn’t commit these offenses alone—the apps you use have a role to play as well.

So let’s introduce the accomplices.

The Accomplices

Slack, Teams, and Instant Messaging

Smartphones revolutionized the way we stay in touch with those close to us.

But they also revolutionized the way our employers and acquaintances stay in touch. And when it comes to the negative impact of device dependence, your smartphone probably isn’t the only device you’re dependent on, especially if you’re a teleworker.

Much research has been done, and paid for in defense of employers, to justify the use of IM technology in organizational management.

I.e. making sure you’re actually doing what they pay you to do.

That research has found both positives and negatives.

The positives are the benefits that come with increasing connections to those you work with and the increase in work performance that comes with collaboration.

But the negatives mirror many of the same issues that come with frequent notifications and distraction on focus, but are also compounded into more complex challenges researchers call: techno-stress, techno-complexity, techno-overload, and techno-invasion.

Techno-Stress, Techno-Complexity, Techno-Overload, and Techno-Invasion.

These are effects of IM communication in general, and not just IM communication as it relates to work. because they are treated as separate consequences by researchers.

These are a broad classification of the negative consequences of technology that co-contribute to the rising anxiety, burnout, depression, and mental health pandemic that humans face.⁶

Due to influences like these, one-quarter of workers on average feel like they can’t “turn off” from work or clearly define the boundary between their personal and working lives.⁶

These challenges are less apparent in office environments but are quickly on the rise and multiplied for teleworkers.

As for the workers who stay in the office they face another challenge from these technologies.

Presenteeism - The 12 Billion Dollar Problem

Presenteeism is the phenomenon of workers showing up to work physically, but being unproductive due to their mental health challenges which are made worse by this constant connectivity.

Since the pandemic, across all sectors, 47% of employers report ‘presenteeism’ among their employees.⁶

This comes along with an increase in lost work days to poor mental health, totaling up to over 12 billion working days lost each year to depression and anxiety in the UK alone.⁶

So, it’s becoming clear the problem isn’t just the one device in our hands.

It’s any device and the web of things that keeps us connected to parts of our lives, which bleed over into every waking hour and results in our disconnection, to ourselves.

In this trial, there’s one more accomplice, which has been found guilty before…

Email - The Trendsetter

Email has been around since 1971, and it’s received its share of negative flack since long before the smartphone emerged.

Researchers have even found that excessive email use can lead to structural changes in the brain and often goes hand in hand with impairments in reasoning ability, and depression.⁷

And email, especially significant multiple-times-per-day email use can lead to many negative consequences from additional stress to reduced cognitive function.⁸

Excessive email use leads to:

Stress, burnout, and detriment to work-life balance.
Increased cardiovascular disease risk from frequent stress response and elevated blood pressure.
Musculoskeletal disorders from years of prolonged sitting.
Reduced cognitive function from constant task-switching.

This has been well-known and we’re only now seeing email was just the first trendsetter for techno-stress.

Then they put it on our phones making it easier than ever to pursue inbox zero.

Whatever way you look at this there are multiple culprits, multiple offenses, and multiple reasons to think twice about checking your email or opening your phone.

The Verdict

So, what does this all mean?

And what can you actually do to reduce the negative impacts of smartphone addiction?

For many people, going cold turkey and cutting off contact with their employers just isn’t an option.

So, if you want to perform your best, and feel your best, self-restraint and attention control are your only real options.

Not easy.

It’s like saying if you want six-pack abs just diet and exercise—of course, most people know that, but there’s more to humans getting what they want than instructions they should follow.

The verdict isn’t that you’re better off without your phone, and you can decide that for yourself.

The verdict is, that your phone is a great tool but a terrible master.

And based on the evidence you would be justified in putting your phone in ‘device jail’ but would that be enough to see an improvement?

Now that we know the impact our devices are having on us, what can we actually do to reduce that impact or eliminate it?

Some Smart Solutions

Limit smartphone use by 1 hour per day. (Bonus points if that hour is just before bed).⁹

Your instinct, like mine, maybe to completely exile your phone.

However, research shows that baby steps and reducing your phone use by even 1 hour a day can have a significant effect on mitigating its negative effects.

And if you suffer from poor sleep quality, that benefit is multiplied when that 1 hour without devices is the hour before sleep.

Switch to ‘Do Not Disturb’ by default.

Many of the problems with smartphones stem from their frequent interruptions. And then the way we are conditioned to seek out these interruptions as distractions once we get addicted to them.

You can reduce this effect simply by switching your phone to ‘Do Not Disturb’ by default.

Most people will not take the time to go through the settings of each app and turn off notifications—and app companies are incentivized to make this more difficult to do.

And you probably don’t want to turn off all notifications—so instead, put your phone into ‘Do not Disturb’ and set up emergency contacts that can still reach you.

That way you can be in touch at a moment's notice for emergencies and your loved ones, but you’re not available to anyone or anything that wants your attention.

Batch Processing.

Building off the concept of turning off notifications and only responding to notifications when you decide to check your phone—and not the moment they come in—it can also help to treat all of your online communication like this and respond in batches.

Instead of being always available, schedule specific times for ‘Batch Processing.’

Batch Processing just means you build up messages, emails, and notifications and only check them and respond to them at set times.

Personally, I commit to checking my phone and email 3x a day—which is about 100x less than the average for most people.

I check once at 11 AM, after my first deep work session.

Then again after lunch, for anything that requires a same-day response. (Some times I skip this one.)

And then one last time at 4 PM before logging off and planning my next day.

This way, nothing falls through the cracks—and I’m also never reacting in the moment to crises that want to steal focus away from the tasks I set for myself the day before.

Convince Your Subconscious First

These are strategies to succeed and increase attention-control. But to actually follow through with them you need self-control.

Which is exactly what these sticky devices destroy.

Can you follow through on the rules you set for yourself?

For me, it comes down to what I know and believe.

The more I know about why something is good for me, it convinces my subconscious and eventually there is less resistance to action—I just act.

So, for me, that’s always step one.

To thoroughly convince myself one way or the other, so I’m not deliberating or denying the impact something is happening.

And now that you’ve read this far, your subconscious is being convinced of what is good for it.

The subconscious is the level that real behavioral change takes place.

And if you’re someone who struggles with online ‘always on’ communication, distraction, and techno-stress, then your subconscious has a role to play there, too.

Apps to Install Into Your Brain

Your phone without the apps you use wouldn’t be nearly this addictive.

Some even advise installing apps that limit how much you use other apps.

You do need to install the right apps, but on the computer a lot closer than your hand—your brain.

People 100 years ago weren’t having panic attacks when they couldn’t find their phones because they didn’t have them.

They weren’t feeling phantom vibrations or even sitting still for long at all.

And that didn’t stop them from meaningful work, having deep connections, or living good lives.

They ran different apps in their minds.

They perceived the world in different ways, which is exactly what we need to do.

Instead of imagining a world without smartphones or technology—we have to author a new story of how we can live with them without losing ourselves to them.

The truth is smartphones and technology aren’t inherently addicting.

You don’t see household pets scrolling on your phone when you leave them lying around. And if you don’t pick your phone up, it will just stay where it is.

They are specifically addicting for humans because they give us easy avenues to express what we already want to do.

It’s why we’re willing to tap our fingers on hard glass for hours at a time each day.

We’re driven by our desire to seek novelty, connect with others, and have something familiar in our lives. Which dictates our behavior.

And it’s “OK” to do that when you have stories, or beliefs, that support you in using technology wisely.

Myths and New Models That Lead to Technological Flourishing

Devices aren’t equally addicting to everyone, just like how not everyone wants to please others, and not everyone struggles with boundaries.

People who have these problems in other areas of their lives, will have them with devices too, and addiction to technology will be worse for them.

Because of something they believe, subconsciously, which makes technology, even more, addicting and sabotaging for them.

Here are a few popular myths that make techno-stress worse for some than others:

“If I don’t get right back to someone or reply to a message right away, I will be letting them down.”

The truth is: if you’re reactive you will do your worst work. You should go into a day knowing already what is most important that day. Handle messages and get back to others, but only during times you designate that work for your schedule.

You can’t be there for everyone at the same time.

There’s also a perceived obligation here. And as I mentioned earlier, ‘Presenteeism’ is where you’re not just responding to what’s happening, but burning a lot of mental calories contemplating how you’re being perceived about it.

I find it I start giving in responding to one thing immediately, I’ll continue to do it out of a sense of ‘let’s just get this out of the way’ and the next thing I know the day is half-over.

Most people do not expect an immediate response. And if anyone asks why you’re not getting back to them immediately, defend your right to do that.

“I’m afraid if I’m not online I will miss out on important information, events, or social connections with others.”

The truth is: that you’re not the only one who is chronically online but not fully there. Everyone else struggles with a similar problem. You can be more present after you’ve dominated your goals for the day. Don’t halfway to do two things.

Not all time is created equal and focused time is worth a multiple of unfocused time.

By splitting your focus between ‘what you should be doing’ and ‘being available’ you’ll end up spending your whole day stretched between the two and never getting into flow doing what you set out to do.

What I do to overcome this is avoid my phone and email at the start of the day and use an alarm to tell me when I can. For me, this is around 11 AM and then I respond to everything then, with patience, because I’ve already done something today.

Then, you can schedule time to connect with those you want to over a call and this will actually benefit your relationships. You can use your messages to communicate asynchronously in-between, without the expectation they will get immediate responses—knowing you will connect at a set time.

“At my most productive I am constantly connected.”

The truth is: that it’s impossible to be constantly connected while giving your full focus to anything else.

Remember how your brain is seeking out your device, even if it’s turned off and flipped upside down?

You don’t know the level of focus you’re missing, because you, like most people, are constantly operating without it.

Connecting is a state of being, doing is an action. Act when you’re doing. Connect when you’re being. Don’t try to do both at the same time.

Hidden Factors

The big problem with phones is not that they are perfect devices.

It’s that they are designed to be very addicted to humans.

They take advantage of systems in our brains and in our psychology that have been there for thousands of years and use that to direct behavior.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent researching this, making products easier to use, and in the process, easier patterns to stumble into.

The problem isn’t the phone alone, it’s the ways it gives us to express parts of ourselves that become problematic.

If you want to completely fix your relationship to technology this is the level of depth you need to take your self-awareness to.

So, I’ll end this mock trial with some truths that can put a lot of this into context.

It’s not just that phones cause a mental health crisis.

But also that our mental health crisis expresses itself through the ways we use our phones. And that’s something we can measure, and learn from.

That’s the point.

So, if you feel particularly affected by the techno-stress of modern-day, ask yourself, if any of these apply to you…

Do you want to please others?

If so, you may feel compelled to respond immediately when they reach out. You see your response time as a reflection of how well you do your job. Or you feel like if you can’t solve every problem you can at least be as available as possible. Which actually hinders your ability to focus and solve those problems.

Are you afraid of missing out?

Especially if your work is online and your company uses Slack or Teams to stay connected. There are always more messages. Conversations that happen if you happen to be online for them. You will miss out on many of them if you’re not online for them. The question is, is that a bad thing? They will be there later.

Do you secretly expect things will fail and want to be there to solve the inevitable problems when they appear?

You may think, I don’t want to be available all the time. But I know if I’m not, there will be problems and fires to put out so I may as well save time and be there when they pop up.

Hopefully, the evidence in this letter has shown you that you can’t just ‘be available’ without paying a significant cost. And more importantly, if you expect bad news that says something about you.

If you’re in a situation where that’s true and there is a daily fire to put out, then this is a wake-up call for the effect that has on you and perhaps you need a bigger change than less time on your phone.

Many people who struggle with these challenges, will also often struggle with focus.

But the thing to realize is that that attention isn’t gone.

It’s just going somewhere else—seeking out ways to please others, avoid FOMO, and anticipate problems.

Unearth Bigger Problems, Ignite Bigger Transformations

For me, realizing the problem wasn’t how sexy my phone screen is, or how well-designed its apps can be, but rather the hidden factors inside me that latched onto these easy temptations.

The issue isn’t just Facebook—it’s that sometimes it sucks to feel lonely.

The issue isn’t just Instagram—it’s that I compare the edited highlights of others’ lives to the reality of mine.

The issue isn’t just Slack—it’s that I can forget to set, or honor my boundaries.

The issue isn’t just Email—it’s my addiction to good and bad news.

Those are bigger problems to solve, but they didn’t just start existing.

They’ve been there.

But it was only when I put my phone on trial did I realize that I was also to blame.

I thought a mock trial was a funny context to put all this research together and create an argument to enlighten myself. And it has had that effect—since writing this letter, I’ve begun putting my phone in a box on the same floor of my house that I’m on.

So it’s around, but I have to seek it out.

(This comes with the added benefit of me actually knowing where my phone is instead of seeking it out of a couch cushion multiple times a day.)

But what I didn’t expect was the clarity that would come through of these things which were affecting me . I wanted to blame my device, or work, but my problems weren’t created by those things.

They just shine a light on those parts of me.

Which on the one hand, is embarrassing.

But on the other, I realized the little thief that steals my attention and focus can also be a powerful tool for me—revealing where I choose to give it.

Sources:

Chu, J., Qaisar, S., Shah, Z., Jalil, A., Liu, X., Guo, J., Liu, Q., & Zhang, D. (2021). Attention or Distraction? The Impact of Mobile Phone on Users' Psychological Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.612127/full¹.
Asurion. (2019). Americans Now Check Their Phones 96 Times a Day. Retrieved from https://www.asurion.com/press-releases/americans-check-their-phones-96-times-a-day/#:~
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Asurion. (2023). The New Normal: Phone Use is Up Nearly 4-Fold Since 2019. Retrieved from https://www.asurion.com/connect/news/tech-usage/³.
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