{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/use-environmental-friction-before-self-control-when-the-trigger-is-always-within-reach",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0895",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Use environmental friction before self-control when the trigger is always within reach",
  "summary": "Willpower is a strange default when the environment can remove thousands of tiny decisions.",
  "kind": "question",
  "body": "Combine the digital RCT evidence with workspace design: put the distracting route physically or technically outside the focus context. Leave the phone in another room, block mobile internet, or make a distracting site desktop-only during focus blocks. Measure whether attention improves instead of assuming inconvenience is automatically good.",
  "limits": [
    "Accessibility, caregiving and on-call responsibilities can make physical separation inappropriate; design exceptions."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-digital-home-office-environment"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-754613206B7D5210"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "The 2025 mobile-internet RCT provides causal evidence that reducing constant smartphone internet access can improve sustained attention in the studied sample.",
      "source_id": "RS-754613206B7D5210",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Accessibility, caregiving and on-call responsibilities can make physical separation inappropriate; design exceptions.",
      "locator": "See source record"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "A distracting phone or website sits one gesture away during every difficult moment of work."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Accessibility, caregiving and on-call responsibilities can make physical separation inappropriate; design exceptions."
  ],
  "example": "Leave the phone outside the office for a 60-minute coding block while allowing calls through a watch or separate emergency channel if needed.",
  "check": "The focus block contains fewer self-initiated digital switches without blocking essential communication.",
  "question": "What distraction is one tap or glance away? · Can the environment remove that route during one work block? · What essential function needs an exception? · Does the change improve sustained work in practice?",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-754613206B7D5210",
      "title": "Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being",
      "url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11834938/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-112961CC8EF10888",
      "title": "Make the environment carry more of the focus load",
      "url": "/collections/make-the-environment-carry-more-of-the-focus-load"
    }
  ]
}