These 5 iPhone Features Helped Me Minimize Distractions at Work

Are you often tempted to scroll through social media or jump into group chats to read new texts and memes? I have been using these various iPhone features to minimize distractions while working. So, check them out and see if they help you.

1 Work Focus Mode to Block Notifications and Calls

Work is a Focus mode that helps me block all unimportant notifications and calls on my iPhone while ensuring I still have access to other work apps and time-sensitive calls.

To set up Work Focus, head to Settings > Focus > Work. Tap Choose People or Choose Apps to begin selecting which contact and app you want to allow notifications from.

Next, in the Customize Screens section, you can choose which Lock or Home Screen to display when Work Focus is enabled. As the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind,” so I find it best to hide iPhone Home Screen pages with distracting apps.

Further down, you’ll see an Add Schedule button, which lets you specify when you want your iPhone to automatically turn on Work Focus.

Since my working hours are flexible, I prefer manually enabling/disabling Work Focus by opening the iOS Control Center, long-pressing the Focus icon, and tapping Work.

2 Scheduled Summary to Get Notifications Later

Besides Work Focus, I use Scheduled Summary so that I won’t get an alert whenever a friend likes or comments on a story or post. My social media notifications are delivered in one go as a summary during my lunch break or at the end of the day.

To receive notifications as a Scheduled Summary, go to Settings > Notifications > Scheduled Summary. Toggle on Scheduled Summary, specify the time, and toggle on the apps you want to receive a scheduled summary from.

As an extra tip, some additional methods I use to control overwhelming iPhone notifications include disabling the red notification badge and turning off notifications for non-essential apps entirely.

3 Grayscale Filter to Make My iPhone Boring

Social media entails a colorful world where fashion OOTDs, food recipes, memes, stickers, and gradient text bubbles galore. The vibrant display of everything naturally attracts our attention and encourages doomscrolling.

To tone down the exciting colors and make my iPhone less distracting, I turn my iPhone’s display to black-and-white. Then, it’s almost like I’m looking at a piece of paper with text rather than a fancy screen.

To apply a grayscale filter on your iPhone, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters. Toggle on Color Filters and choose Grayscale.

4 Screen Time to Limit My App Usage

Admittedly, sometimes I sneak in a couple of minutes here and there to scroll social media to see what my friends are up to and enjoy a cat video or two. Therefore, I use Screen Time to help limit my app usage.

Let’s say I only let myself use Instagram for 15 minutes daily. When those one or two minutes of scrolling accumulate and add up to 15 minutes, Screen Time locks me out of Instagram, and I get reminded that I shouldn’t use the app until the next day.

To set up Screen Time, go to Settings > Screen Time > App & Website Activity > Turn On App & Website Activity. Then, tap App Limits > Add Limit.

In the example below, I’m limiting my use of Facebook and Instagram, so I tap Social and select those two apps from the list. Tap Next, scroll the time limit to 15 minutes, and tap Add to save the app limit.

On some days when I’m heading to a co-working space with a trusted friend, we swap iPhones to set up a Screen Time password for each other, too. This way, neither of us can bypass the Screen Time reminder without the other person unlocking it with the password.

It’s a fun way to keep each other accountable to focus at work. To set up a password, go to Screen Time > Lock Screen Time Settings, key in the iPhone owner’s Apple ID in case passcode recovery is needed, and tap OK to save.

Besides limiting apps, I also use Screen Time to help me block specific websites on Safari that may distract me, like news and entertainment magazine sites.

5 Custom iPhone Shortcut to Balance Work and Breaks

Using Screen Time to avoid doomscrolling may feel like going cold turkey sometimes because I’m reminded to wait until tomorrow before I can use the app again. So, I created a handy iPhone shortcut that lets me get a short social media fix in between bursts of productivity.

The shortcut starts a 2-minute countdown for my break, locks my screen when it’s up so I get back to work, and then starts a 30-minute work countdown to indicate the next mini-break when I can scroll again. This method helps me focus because I know I can give in to distractions at a later time.

To create this shortcut, go to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation. Select App from the list, tap Choose to select the app you want to limit. In my case, I selected my greatest weakness: Instagram. Then, tap Done, check Is Opened and Run After Confirmation, and tap Next > New Blank Automation.

Tap Add Action, then search for and select Wait. Tap the 1 second field and long-press the + icon to increase it to 120 seconds.

Go back to the Search box, look up and select Lock Screen. Next, head to the Search box again to find and select Start Timer. Tap the Duration field, type 30, and tap Done. Then, tap Done in the top-right corner to save the shortcut.

Your iPhone is both a productive and distracting device. Given that it’s indispensable in almost all aspects of our lives, it’s important to manage how we use it, especially at work.

To minimize distractions and avoid doomscrolling on my iPhone, I focus on ensuring that my notifications won’t constantly pop up to tempt me, impose device limits to control my usage, and make my iPhone appear less engaging in general with the grayscale filter.