Are you addicted to your phones? If so, you’re not alone. Studies show that we use our phones excessively–an average of 80-150 times a day.
There’s an ongoing debate on whether this is a healthy habit or not, even though 91 percent of millennials report having a healthy relationship with their devices. The millennials surveyed said that their devices have created better work-life balance, contributing to better communication and relationship-building.
Phone addict
1. Put the phone physically out of reach
What we know is our phones will distract us even if they’re in sight but we’re not using them.
Relying on your willpower is a losing game, so get it out of sight and reach. You can start with putting your phone in the trunk or glove box while driving, since that will have an immediate effect on your safety.
2. Try a digital detox
Go smartphone-free for 24 hours. You might reach for your phone like a phantom limb and feel cranky when it’s not there. It’s called withdrawal.
When you take away the rewards we’ve been trained to crave, you will feel twitchy and anxious, and it’s totally normal.
Take a break from all optional technologies in your life, and at the end, reintroduce only the technologies that add value to your life. But you should continue checking your work email so you don’t get fired; someone with a spouse deployed overseas with the military should still use FaceTime to communicate, for example.
3. Find a replacement
A digital-minimalist approach is never going to stick if you’re left twiddling your thumbs for 23 percent of your waking hours. Enjoy activities like, crafts, basketball, poker with friends, hiking, reading, playing an instrument, whatever. This step should feel fun, but it’s also non-negotiable: If you take away all digital distractions before you’ve started filling the void, the experience of a digital declutter will be unnecessarily unpleasant at best and a massive failure at worse.
4. Let technology help solve your problem
What you may need now is a little hair of the dog. First, acknowledge (and get over) the irony that you might need apps to help protect you from apps. It seems weird to use technology to help with technology.
There’s a whole industry of apps to help people monitor screen time (Moment, RescueTime), block apps or schedule sessions with them (Freedom), or schedule social media posts so it looks like you’re online when you’re not (HootSuite). Since last year, iPhones even have settings to track and curtail your screen time.
As for the phone itself, some people go back to using a so-called “dumb phone,” or one that has limited internet capabilities. A less drastic approach is to tinker with your settings to convert your screen to black and white. Smartphones are a lot less appealing when they look like an old-timey television instead of a bowl of candy.
5. Figure out what you’re feeling
The emotional component is something we don’t give enough attention to. Reaching for our phones is an efficient way to not feel unpleasant emotions. (Remember how boring and socially awkward it was to ride an elevator before smartphones?) But they also muffle the happy moments in life if you’re too busy scrolling to notice the world around you.
So, get mindful about your phone use. Take a breath and ask yourself why you’re picking it up in the first place. Are you bored, anxious, curious, happy? When you’re done using it, do you feel better or worse? Thirty minutes dinking around on Instagram instead of going to sleep at night is probably going to feel disorienting and vaguely depressing.
6. Reconnect with your smartphone gradually
To consistently be able to stop looking at your phone, your phone will have to become a tool again instead of a temptation. (Tool: using the map to navigate in a new city or the camera to take a picture. Temptation: posting that picture on social media and then compulsively refreshing to see who is liking it.)
Habits do take a while to form and to break. Don’t beat yourself up if you slip. If you spend too much time on a website, that’s okay. Go back, reorganize and start again.