---
date: 2017-07-11
modified_at: 2019-05-20
tags: [productivity, social-media]
description: Uninstalling WhatsApp to save 40 minutes daily and focus on deep, goal-oriented work by separating core activities from less important distractions.
---
# Today I uninstalled WhatsApp to save 40 minutes a day

I've been trying to drop w'app before, but still use it 40 minutes every day. I
came from 60 minutes every day, but I removed all notifications last month, and
that took off 20 minutes.

Today, I decided to totally drop it, forreals. Dropping WhatsApp means one less
place to look through irrelevant stuff, and that can save a lot of time. I will
probably still have some unproductive conversations every day, but since I
remove whatsapp from my life, there are going to be less ways to get to them.

> Important conversations on whatsapp the last month: none


Even for meeting people I didn't need whatsapp the past month.
I had a few meetings, but they went over or were arranged by other communication
tools like skype, messenger, slack and e-mail. I'm certain that of all
communication tools, whatsapp is by far the least productive and most
procastrinative one.

I strongly believe in direct communication as opposed to chat because language
is just a small fraction of the total message that comes across when
communicating face-to-face. Chat, in its turn, is a small fraction of language:
it are mere written words. Where are the tone, the body language, and the facial
expressions? Right, in the real world.

Separation of concerns for control over time commitment
I want do be goal-oriented to be more productive at least 8 hours a day. My
goals:

 * make the app
 * finish my last course for this year
 * do client work
 * get newsletter ready

My core activities I wish to completely separate from the less important stuff:

 * deep, hard, goal oriented learning = Learn React
 * deep, hard, goal oriented work = Code React, improve the report, Client
   transition to Ghost CMS, set up the news letter

Other activities that I wish to do on the side, after 8 hours of deep, hard,
goal oriented work and learning:

 * Soft learning (browsing through interesting stuff, reading interesting books)
 * Talking (networking and socializing)
 * Sharing (presentation making, writing, video editing)
 * Planning and strategizing (work and life)

So let's go for some deep, hard, goal-oriented work now, and stop writing. Bye!

P.S. What about you? I bet that reading this wasn't deep, hard, goal-oriented
work for you. Let me know how you arrange to be productive for yourself.