he didn’t trash his iPhone but instead put it in the kitchen cupboard. He likes to use it when exercising so that he can listen to music and run his Nike+ fitness tracking app.

PRACTICE: DUMB DOWN YOUR SMARTPHONE

But when it comes to reporting and commentary, you should constrain your attention to the small number of people who have proved to be world class on the topics you care about.

A well-known journalist recently told me that following a breaking story on Twitter gives him the sense that he’s receiving lots of information, but that in his experience, waiting until the next morning to read the article about the story in the Washington Post almost always leaves him more informed.

Where Jennifer dedicates most of their social media attention these days is Twitter, which they believe, at this current moment, to be the most important service for professionals.

Instead, Jennifer logs on to Facebook maybe once every four days or so to see what’s going on with their close friends and relatives.

Jennifer now tries to keep friend engagementfn2 below the Dunbar Number of 150—

PRACTICE: USE SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE A PROFESSIONAL

I’m not talking about occasionally blocking some sites when working on a particularly hard project. I want you instead to think about these services as being blocked by default, and made available to you on an intentional schedule. If you don’t need social media for your work, for example, set up a schedule that blocks these sites and apps