Systems and methods for operating a portable computing device having a broad set of functionality, such as image or audio/video capture capabilities, are provided. One or more specialized modes are provided in a portable computing device, such as a smart phone, for intelligently disabling any distracting functionality of the portable computing device with respect to a target subset of functionality possessed by the device and invoked during operation of a specialized mode. In various embodiments, the special mode for operation of a portable computing device in accordance with the invention is such that functionality that is likely to interfere with a time capture event of the device is disabled or mitigated during operation.