Fighting our smartphones ability to make us dumber

The more we use smartphones, the dumber we become.

Research  has found that having a smartphone physically nearby actually causes us to perform worse on tasks than those who’s smartphones were in another room. In other words, the mere presence of your smartphone reduces your cognitive capacity even if you’re not conscious of the affect.

Source: How Not to Let Smartphones Make Us Dumber but Smarter

I like the approach to time wasting apps and the promotion of RSS feeds in the article, but I was surprised that there wasn’t any mention of controlling your notifications. In addition to the steps outlined in the article, I would also go in and turn off all notifications for apps, except for the badge on the icon (on iPhones).

My phone is usually in silent mode (and it is set to NOT vibrate on notifications) but I also turn off most of the notifications for apps, except for badge icon.