Sorry, hiding your phone won’t stop your procrastination

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter???? Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Bad news for people hoping to solve their workday procrastination by leaving their phone in a desk drawer: new research indicates you’ll probably still find something to distract you. According to researchers at the London School of Economics, the issue isn’t our electronic devices themselves, but the way our usage of gadgets has essentially rewired our brains.“In my research I want to shift the discourse beyond device-centric debates. The smartphone itself is not the problem,” Maxi Heitmayer, the co-author of a study published March 27 in Frontiers in Computer Science, said in a statement. “It’s what we do with it and, frankly, the apps that generate and reinforce these habits.”To investigate these interrelated issues, Heitmayer and collaborators asked 22 volunteers ranging in age from 22–31 to spend two, five-hour work shifts in a private, soundproof room. They were also asked to bring their everyday elect...