I find google calendar, navigator, and evernote in my pocket more productive than not having them.

Here is the tip, you can disable anything you consider unproductive in the smartphone.

I find them terribly constricting. If you don't conform to the constraints that are forced upon you by the ecosystem and the device then you are at the mercy of the ecosystem and the device and this is nothing but bad news when you hit a problem or need to do something free-form.

I too used Google Calendar, but it's terribly complicated to enter an event in on an Android device accurately, the web interface is clunky and the sync isn't reliable if you're in a poor reception area. Same with evernote and any notetaking software (google keep as well). It's impossible to take notes on the fly quickly without observing the device otherwise you end up listing garbage and missing the stuff going on in front of you. Then occasionally you might find a picture says a thousand words - which you're instantly stuffed with. Your focus is 80% on the machine and 20% on the problem when notetaking on a computer of any description.

I carry a little notebook (3 for £1 in Tiger here in the UK) and a mechanical pencil (doesn't need sharpening and has a rubber - Rotring Tikky box of 10 for £11.99 on ebay) for notetaking.

As for scheduling, I know what is when (don't underestimate the power of thinking about this rather than contracting it out) and for navigation, I'll scribble out a diagram before I leave of where I'm going. Gotta use that geography GCSE for something.

And no you can't disable everything unproductive on a smartphone. I tried it and my device slowly switched all the features back on again. I decided that the following process should apply:

1. Start with what you need.

2. Add what you want.

Point 1 turned out to be a dumbphone (calls and SMS) and 2 never materialised.

Including the large screen and short battery life?

Hah, I did the same :) While I still have some phones lying around for dev, I personally use an old Nokia dumbphone. No distractions anymore, plus nearly 4 weeks without need of a recharge!

Yep Nokia C2-01 here.

I don't get 4 weeks (people keep phoning me still) but I'm managine 7-9 days which is better than 7-9 hours!

Couldn't just turn off all the pointless attention eating notifications and enjoy the useful features?

On a similar note, I started removing apps which made me waste my time. Facebook was one of those apps for me.

Yeah I removed everything and I ended up with the same feature set as a Nokia C2-01 so I bought one.

The only two things I missed (for a bit) was:

1. Email. Turns out people don't have to be replied to instantly and they accept that after a bit.

2. Music. Turns out the C2-01 does a rather good job of this as well after I realised it and stuffed a 4Gb Micro SD in it.

I solved this issue by never unmuting my phone. Not even for phone calls (unless im expecting an important call). My phone doesn't tell me when to use it. I do it the other way around. I check my phone maybe 2-3 times a day. When I wake up. Once a little after lunch. And once at night.

The main thing you have to do is not feel like its your job to immediatly attend to any contact. Treat your phone like a laptop. Emails you should reapond to in 24 hours. Text or phone calls don't need to be answered. Your phone saves your call logs for your convenience. Just get back to that person when you have a free chance. Our ancestors survived not being able to talk to any one at any moment. We don't have to either.

I've been doing this for a while and, while it infuriates some people, I've found it to be very freeing. Mailbox is a great way of dealing with email, and Do Not Disturb lets me allow certain important calls through if I need to. I enjoy the feeling of being in control of my phone, rather than at its mercy!