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…