In 2019, I made a change that seemed small at the time, but it’s profoundly impacted my productivity: I turned on Do Not Disturb on my phone—and never turned it off.
That’s not an exaggeration. Ever since, my phone has been on Do Not Disturb 24/7. Only a few people can punch through that firewall. Everyone else? I’ll check missed messages and phone calls and reach out later if necessary.
This isn’t about being unreachable. It’s about being intentional. The practice was suggested as part of a leadership training at Improving.
Intentional Tech: Tools That Serve You
We often think of productivity as doing more in less time. But I’ve found it’s far more powerful to reframe the question: What are we optimizing for?
For me, productivity is about protecting my focus so I can solve meaningful problems and do deep thinking. That means stripping distractions down to the bare minimum.
Take my phone, for example. When I unlock it, I don’t see a wall of apps or unread notifications. I see a phone—because that’s what it is—a tool for making calls (well, I know, I’m old…). The apps I do need, like the one I use to track my daily walk or reading habit, are right there. Everything else—email, chat, etc—is pushed to the far end of the phone, buried where I have to make a conscious decision to go looking.
Organize With Purpose
Not everything belongs in one place. I keep practical information—like records of my cars and motorcycles—in simple digital folders. But for deeper thinking and learning, I rely on Obsidian (or whichever tool may serve me in that moment).
When I read, I don’t just capture quotes. I create connections. And I’m deliberate about it. I don’t want AI to auto-generate those links for me. I want my mind doing the work—making sense of what I’m learning, drawing connections between books, ideas, and experiences. Because the value isn’t just in the notes. It’s in the relationships between them.
And those relationships evolve. When I revisit a book a year later, I might see new connections I couldn’t have imagined. That’s not machine learning. That’s human learning.
Productivity Isn’t a Feature—It’s a Practice
I’ve been talking more with teams about designing workflows and setups that support deep work. For developers, this might mean refactoring their code or embracing test-driven development. For consultants, it might be about writing better user stories or aligning more closely with stakeholder goals.
And sometimes, it’s as simple as rethinking your desk setup. I work with multiple monitors, but I’ve learned that more screens don’t always mean more productivity. It depends on how you use them. (I wrote more about that in my post “Multiple Screens May Not Make You Productive”, if you’re curious.)
The key takeaway is this: tools don’t make you productive. How you use them (and what you use them for) does, if they support a good why.
A Gentle Nudge
If there’s one thing I hope readers take away from this, it’s that productivity isn’t something that happens automatically. It’s something we have to design for. On purpose. Every day.
So the next time you pick up your phone, open your laptop, or sit down to read—pause and ask: What am I optimizing for right now?
The answer might just change the way you work.
