Our attention spans are finite and our motivation limited. That’s why, to be effective at your desk job, you should avoid being a dopamine junkie (social media).
For this reason my phone is normally behind me while working or a different room, with only phone calls/sms being forwarded to my smartwatch. To not see my phone or think about it. Making it easier to get into a flow state for work.
Software TOTP
Google Authenticator works like any other software based authenticator with a time based token. This works wonderfully since you can even have this on your laptop, allowing you to not switch devices, making it easier to stay focussed on the task at hand.
There are benefits to having it on a secondary device, but we’re now just focussing on productivity.
Microsoft Authenticator
MS authenticator only works on iOs or Android, thus it needs to be your phone. The device I intentionally avoid picking up, because this breaks my attention span.
For work, I was using Software TOTP. But the security department decided to disable Software TOTP for the MS suite. Forcing me to use MS Authenticator. This required me to login using the app around 5 times a day, making deep work infeasible, since that made me automatically go through all messaging apps.
Beside this, every time you login using MS auth., your company logs the location your phone was accepting the request.
Workaround
How I solved it is by; - disabling notifications for MS auth. - disable background data for MS auth. - disable background usage for MS auth.
making it a passive item on my phone, just as a backup. Avoiding your company to track your location through your phone.
Every time I now get prompted, I choose Authenticator not available, which will send and SMS, which will appear on my smartwatch, avoiding me to touch my phone.