Minimizing Distractions by Giving My Phone a Home
While spending so much time at home, I found myself being on my phone even more — often averaging 3.5hrs daily according to screentime. While there’s lots of good with having your phone nearby, I found it as a constant source of distraction. There are many studies out there discussing this topic so I won’t go there. Needless to say, I was looking for a better way to keep me away from my phone.
This is what I eventually came up with:
Following a mixture of methods from James Clear’s Atomic Habits and Marie Kondo — I wanted to find a home for my phone, somewhere far from me. I decided to give my phone a resting place nearby my front door along with my keys. Honestly, when you’re at home all the time, there’s not much reason to have your phone in your pocket. I’ve since transitioned to using my computer to check emails and other endless scrolling black holes to keep me a bit more focused — though this doesn’t always work.
The Requirements
Since it was near my front door, I wanted something that 1) looked beautiful, 2) could keep my phone charged, and 3) hold all my other everyday carry items.
If you followed my other projects, you know I love crafting out of walnut and maple. I decided to use walnut on this project. Wasn’t long until I started to figure out what I wanted to make. A Qi charger was a simple way to always keep my phone charging. Lastly, I wanted to add a tray to hold all my other items. Those items may fluctuate over time, so I opted not to have special compartments for each.
The Build
I purchased a Qi-Charger and got everything all measured up and ready to start modeling it out.
A Simple charger on one side and a large open tray on the other. The bottom needed to have the charger carved out and enough room for the cable to run.
A few iterations on Fusion360 came out with this:
A caliper was used to measure to perfectly measure the pocket for the charger. I added a finger slot for the charger cable and a channel for the wire to run.
Most surfaces were rounded out with various round over bits — though I may remake it with flat surfaces to give it a more masculine appeal. Not sure yet… But I do like the smooth rounded edges.
Here’s the end result after rounding all the edges and finishing with my homemade beeswax.
Living With It
I’ve only just started using it but I love how my phone is always charged. I almost feel inclined to always have my phone docked. I’m considering engraving “Dock here for family time” to further enforce this behavior. I’ll report back on how much this reduces my screentime.
