Have you ever banished your smartphone to another room to help you focus on work? It’s a popular productivity hack, but it might not work as well as we think. New research from the London School of Economics suggests it might not be the silver bullet many of us hope for.
The study, published in Frontiers in Computer Science, reveals a surprising behavior pattern: when we place our phones out of reach, we don’t magically become more productive. We just find other ways to take breaks. This challenges common assumptions about phones being the main culprit in our distraction struggles.
The Smartphone Dilemma
Smartphones have become essential tools for managing both work and personal life, but they’re often blamed for destroying our focus and tanking productivity. Some companies have gone as far as banning personal phones during work hours. These policies usually backfire, though, creating anxiety among employees who worry about missing important messages.
This study takes a different approach to understanding distraction by looking at how the physical distance between people and their phones affects their behavior. Building on existing research about how proximity influences our interactions with objects (a phenomenon well-documented in studies about food consumption), the study investigated whether keeping smartphones at a distance might help workers stay on task.
The experiment followed 22 participants through two five-hour work sessions on their computers. During one session, participants kept their smartphones within arm’s reach on their desks. In the other session, phones were placed about 1.5 meters away, forcing participants to stand up to use them. Sessions were recorded on video (without audio for privacy), and participants could use their devices however they wanted, with just one rule: return phones to the designated area when not in use.
Your Break Time Finds a Way
The results weren’t what many productivity gurus might expect. When phones were kept at a distance, participants did use them less, about half as much time (15 minutes versus 29 minutes) and roughly a third as frequently. But this didn’t translate to more work getting done. Instead, people simply switched their break activities to their computers, spending about twice as much time on computer-based leisure when their phones weren’t easily accessible.
The overall time split between work and leisure stayed remarkably consistent regardless of where phones were placed. The pattern of switching between tasks throughout the day also remained virtually unchanged across both scenarios.
This indicates that phones serve as a preferred “target” for leisure and distraction, diverting attention from work devices. When phones aren’t easily available, leisure is taken over by the main work device.
When you deliberately stash your phone to avoid social media distractions, you might still find yourself opening Amazon or news websites in your browser instead. The desire for mental breaks persists no matter which devices are available.
Interestingly, participants seemed somewhat aware of this behavior. In surveys after each session, they accurately estimated how often they’d used their phones when the devices were kept at a distance. But when phones were within reach, they significantly underestimated their actual usage, suggesting we’re less conscious of our phone habits when devices are easily accessible.
Rethinking Digital Distraction
Notifications played a surprisingly small role in smartphone interactions. Participants received very few disruptive notifications overall (a median of just 0.5 per session), and these alerts didn’t significantly affect how much time people spent on their phones. This challenges the common belief that notification management is key to reducing distractions.
Simply banning or restricting smartphone access in the workplace isn’t likely to increase productivity since employees will find other ways to take breaks. Instead, the research points to the importance of helping workers develop better self-regulation skills and finding healthy rhythms of work and rest.
Participants who first experienced keeping their phones at a distance tended to use their phones less frequently, even when allowed to keep them close during the second session. This hints that the experience of distancing from smartphones, combined with increased awareness from the study itself, might have made people more mindful of their device habits.
Our relationship with technology at work is more complicated than simple “use less tech” approaches can address. Our phones aren’t necessarily the problem. What matters more is understanding the natural human need for periodic breaks and how our work environments shape our attention patterns. Companies and individuals would benefit more from acknowledging these patterns rather than demonizing specific devices.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The experiment used a within-participant design with 22 participants (15 women, 6 men, 1 non-binary person, average age 25.2 years) from the London School of Economics. Each person completed two five-hour work sessions on separate days. In one session, phones were kept within arm’s reach; in the other, phones were placed 1.5 meters away. Sessions were video-recorded, and participants completed surveys about their perceived phone use. After the second day, “replay interviews” helped accurately categorize activities as work or leisure-related.
Results
When phones were kept at a distance, participants used them half as much (15 vs. 29 minutes) and three times less frequently. However, neither overall work time nor leisure time changed significantly between conditions. Participants simply shifted their break activities to computers when phones weren’t easily accessible, using computers twice as much for leisure. The pattern and frequency of switching between tasks remained consistent across both conditions. Participants accurately estimated their phone use when devices were distant but underestimated usage when phones were within reach.
Limitations
The study’s sample consisted primarily of young adults with more women than men, potentially limiting generalizability. The laboratory environment lacked real-world distractions typical in workplaces. The research measured time allocation rather than work performance or productivity. Participants used personal devices rather than work-issued equipment, which might behave differently in professional settings with monitoring tools or software restrictions. The study also didn’t capture notifications that didn’t lead to interactions.
Discussion and Takeaways
The findings challenge conventional wisdom about smartphone distraction at work. Restricting phone access doesn’t increase productivity because users find alternative distractions. Workplace policies banning smartphones may be misguided if the goal is productivity improvement. Notifications played a minimal role in distraction patterns, suggesting habitual checking is driven more by internal factors than external alerts. The observed “order effect” suggests awareness of device habits may help reduce unwanted checking. Effective productivity approaches should focus on helping workers develop better self-regulation and understanding natural work-break rhythms rather than demonizing specific devices.
Funding and Disclosures
The researcher declared no financial support was received for the research, authorship, or publication. No conflicts of interest were reported, as the study was conducted without commercial or financial relationships that could be interpreted as potential conflicts.
Publication Information
The study, “When the phone’s away, people use their computer to play: distance to the smartphone reduces device usage but not overall distraction and task fragmentation during work,” was conducted by Maxi Heitmayer. It was published in Frontiers in Computer Science on March 28, 2025. The research received ethical approval from the London School of Economics and Political Science, with data collection in June and July 2022.