Capture now, review later: a habit for using your phone less

Most phone checks start with something real to do. Splitting capture from review keeps the real thing and drops the twenty minutes after it.

where the time goes

Ask yourself why you picked up your phone, and the answer is usually reasonable: to write something down, check a date, or look something up. The trouble is what's waiting once the phone is unlocked. Before you know it, a ten-second job becomes a session thanks to addictive nature of smart phones.

Willpower is a poor defence against that, because the reason you picked up the phone was a good one. What works better is giving the good reasons somewhere else to go.

separate the two halves

Putting a thought down takes seconds, and it has to happen the moment you have it or the thought is gone. Dealing with it (scheduling it, answering it, deciding about it) doesn't need to happen then, and usually goes better later, in a batch, at a desk.

Most digital minimalism advice is about removing apps. This is the other half: once the apps that pull at you are gone, give the reasons you still reach for your phone a faster, duller place to go.

how to set it up

The tool matters less than the rules.

1. Pick one place every thought goes. One inbox, not a notes app plus a reminders app plus texts to yourself.
2. Make capture fast and boring: one action, nothing to scroll, nothing waiting for you when you open it. A text or a voice memo is ideal.
3. Don't organise while you capture. Organizing is the review's job.
4. Pick a review time, and keep it.
5. In the review, decide each thing: do it, schedule it, send it somewhere, or let it go.

doing it with void

void was built for exactly this. Capture by voice or text, from any device. Each memo is sorted while you go on with your day, and then a summary email arrives on the schedule you choose.

If you want the habit to stick, turn on "hide memos until the email summary is delivered" in Settings. New memos stay out of your list until the summary has gone out, so there's nothing to check in between.

what it isn't

The void doesn't replace deleting the apps that pull at you or turning off notifications. Rather, it gives you one less reason to engage with your phone in the first place.

read more

• notes and reminders on a dumb phone
• capturing by voice or text
• summary emails