My "Distraction-Free” Writer's Deck

I’m not a shopper. Ever since I quit my job as an unhappy marketing manager six years ago, I’ve fought hard to avoid buying things that aren’t absolutely necessary for my well-being. That’s why I still wear the same shorts I had in college. That’s why I own only two pairs of shoes. That’s why I’ve used the same phone for more than seven years.

Despite my grudge against consumerism, I’m a sucker for products that promise a “distraction-free” lifestyle. Whenever an app claims it’ll help me laser-focus on a single task, I jump on the bandwagon and enter my card number. I sometimes even search for “distraction-free” in the App Store just to see if there’s anything new that fits my taste. I hunt for that phrase like a dog chasing a squirrel.

Over the years, I’ve bought or tried numerous apps, including iA Writer, Ulysses, Paper, Cold Turkey Writer, Simpletext, Typora, Bike, MarkEdit, FocusFlight, Endel, MyNoise, and BrainFM. I’ve even coveted devices like the MicroJournal, BYOK, Xteink, FreeWrite, and Pomera. At one point, I had more than ten writing apps on my Mac. I was a hoarder. I felt sick because I knew none of these apps could cure my lethargy or grant me the sense of purpose I was searching for.

Whenever I see stacks of unopened books on my shelves or a long list of blog post ideas in my journal, I get anxious, feeling that I’m not spending enough time on what truly matters. In those moments, I blame Instagram, YouTube, or any website that evaporates my precious time and attention.

I wondered if it’d be possible to live without a computer and the internet. I realized that no matter how hard I try, I can’t get locked in to a single task when using my MacBook or iPhone. If I wish to fill my life with reading and writing, then I don’t actually need all these gadgets. In fact, they’re the distractions I need to get rid of.

Since yesterday, I’ve tucked my MacBook away in a cabinet and transferred my SIM card from my iPhone to a flip phone. I’m writing this post using iA Writer on a ten-year-old iPhone connected to a Bluetooth keyboard. Surprisingly, the phone still works quite well, although the old version of iA Writer crashes whenever I try to open a new file in landscape mode (a cute bug).

Did I achieve a “distraction-free” lifestyle with this setup? Maybe one step closer. In the last two days, I’ve written more than I did in the hundred days since my daughter was born. Was this kind of obsession necessary, or even healthy? Absolutely not. I’m just happy that I didn’t buy another app or gadget to fix my lack of focus, and instead, simply built my own writer’s deck.