People who are constantly distracted by their phones at work will just find other ways to procrastinate if it isn't handy

工作时总因手机分心的人，即便手机不在手边，也会找其他方式拖延

Putting your smartphone away at work may not be a good enough strategy to stop procrastinating, researchers said this week. While limited smartphone access led to reduced use, participants of a recent study were found to have just shifted their focus to a different device.

研究人员本周表示，工作时把手机收起来可能并不足以阻止拖延行为。尽管限制使用手机确实能减少使用时间，但最近一项研究的参与者被发现只是将注意力转移到了其他设备上。

"The study shows that putting the smartphone away may not be sufficient to reduce disruption and procrastination, or increase focus," Dr. Maxi Heitmayer, a researcher at the London School of Economics, said in a statement. "The problem is not rooted within the device itself, but in the habits and routines that we have developed with our devices."

伦敦政治经济学院的研究员马克西·海特迈尔博士在一份声明中说：“研究表明，把手机收起来可能不足以减少干扰和拖延，或提高专注力，问题并不在于设备本身，而在于我们与设备共同养成的习惯和日常行为。”

Heitmayer is the author of the study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Computer Science. The small experiment included 22 participants who lived and worked or studied in London. The majority identified as female and were between the ages of 22 and 31.

海特迈尔是这项发表在《计算机科学前沿》杂志上的研究的作者。这项小型实验包括22名在伦敦生活、工作或学习的参与者。大多数人自认为是女性，年龄在22岁至31岁之间。

They were asked to work for two days in a private, soundproof room and bring along devices they normally have with them for work. Notably, they did not make any changes to their notification settings.

他们被要求在一个私密的隔音房间里工作两天，并带上他们平时工作时会携带的设备。值得注意的是，他们没有更改通知设置。

In one test, the phones were placed directly on the participants' desks. In another, the phone was placed on a separate desk just around five feet away. When the phone was further away, researchers found it was used less, but the attention just shifted to the closer laptop.

在一项测试中，手机被直接放在参与者的桌子上。在另一项测试中，手机被放在大约五英尺外的另一张桌子上。当手机放得更远时，研究人员发现它的使用频率降低了，但注意力只是转移到了更近的笔记本电脑上。

"It's your connection with loved ones and with work. It's your navigation system, alarm clock, music player, and source of information. Unsurprisingly, people turn to the tool that does everything," Heitmayer noted. "Even if you have no clear purpose, you know it has your socials and can provide entertainment."

海特迈尔指出：“它与你的亲人、工作联系息息相关。它是你的导航系统、闹钟、音乐播放器和信息来源。毫不奇怪，人们会求助于这个无所不能的工具，即使你没有明确的目的，你也知道它连接着你的社交网络，还能提供娱乐。”

There are things people can do to fight the disruptions. They can set their notifications to arrive at certain times. They can silence their phones.

人们可以采取一些措施来对抗这些干扰。他们可以将通知设置为在特定时间接收，也可以将手机调至静音。

But, the pull is pretty strong – especially with the allure of social media apps. More than 40 percent of Americans admit being addicted to their phones, according a 2023 study from Reviews.org.

但手机的吸引力相当大——尤其是社交媒体应用的诱惑。根据 Reviews.org 2023年的一项研究，超过40%的美国人承认自己对手机上瘾。

"There is a very unequal battle fought out every single day by each and every one of us when we use our phones," Heitmayer explained.

海特迈尔解释说：“当我们使用手机时，我们每一个人每天都在进行一场非常不平等的战斗。”

"The things inside phones that are the biggest attention sinks are developed by large corporations who greatly profit from our failure to resist the temptation to use them; all of this is literally by design," he said.

他说：“手机里那些最吸引我们注意力的东西，是由大公司开发的，它们从我们无法抵制使用诱惑的失败中获得了巨大利润；所有这些都是经过精心设计的。”