The distraction sitting in your pocket

Are we just prone to being distracted or is something you have on you right now causing you to lose focus?

Right now, in your pocket, your purse, or right in front of you on the table, sits the most powerful productivity tool most of us have ever owned. But is your smartphone actually the source of your distraction, or is it just the most convenient outlet?

A 2025 CNN article recently explored whether the phone itself is the problem or if other factors are at play. Madeline Holcombe—a writer focused on “Wellness”—referenced a study from the journal Frontiers in Computer Science:

"As easy as it may be to blame smartphones for time spent on distractions, people get distracted with or without them,” Holcombe writes. “While users, unsurprisingly, engage more with the smartphone when it is easily accessible, the amount of time spent on work and non-work activities... does not depend on the smartphone’s accessibility."

Is something like this right in front of you right now?

The study's author, Dr. Maxi Heitmayer—University of the Arts London senior lecturer of psychology and London School of Economics and Political Science researcher and visiting fellow—noted that when phones were taken away, the small study group simply shifted their procrastination to their computers instead.

"While users, unsurprisingly, engage more with the smartphone when it is easily accessible, the amount of time spent on work and non-work activities and the fragmentation of their workdays does not depend on the smartphone’s accessibility." 

Procrastination and distraction are family traditions

Does this mean we’re prone to procrastinate no matter what is in front of us? Honestly, that makes a lot of sense.

I think of my mom staying up late talking on the wall-phone or watching TV before finally sitting down to paperwork at the kitchen table around 11 p.m. That habit of putting it off until the last minute is ingrained in me—it’s what I saw growing up. My dad did it, too, often falling asleep in front of the TV while tasks remained unfinished. For them, a task didn’t seem urgent until the clock was truly ticking down.

Back then, the distractions were different, but the behavior was the same. The "tech" was just a corded phone and a box TV.

Think about this “old school” example the next time you’re spending time with your kids, sitting down to a meal or watching a youth sporting event while scrolling away on your phone. I hope I will.

The battle in your pocket

Banning phones from classrooms, workplaces or kitchen tables might not be the magic bullet we think it is. Dr. Heitmayer suggests that focusing on our habits and behaviors around technology is the real first step.

"There is an open battle for your attention that is happening in your pocket,” Heitmayer said. “I think these are the single best tools that we’ve invented. But also on there is the free software that harvests our attention."

Is that why I just stopped typing to solve today’s Wordle? Probably.

89% of the problem is... us

Phones aren’t the only culprits. The world is filled with distractions, and often, we go looking for them. Heitmayer cited his own 2021 study showing that 89% of the time, disruptions are self-triggered.

"It’s not the phone vibrating or lighting up or making a sound. It is you thinking, ‘Oh, I have missed something.’ And so, people check it."

We check the screen not because it asked us to, but because we’re hunting for that instant gratification loop. We are hard-wired for it, and the smartphone is just the most efficient delivery system for that kind of animalistic need.

Lesson learned

I’m taking a page out of my own book today: I need to put down the phone I’m using to compose this post and take a walk. I need some fresh air courtesy of Mother Nature.

I hope to capture some of that beauty. Luckily, I will already have my phone in my hand to take photos of it.