Are You Addicted?
Smartphone users check their phones more than 150 times a day on average. So, if you believe you are addicted, you are not alone. Many people suffer from smartphone addiction.
Apps are designed to keep your attention for as long as possible. Over time, they can become quite difficult to put down. But, the longer you stay scrolling, the more money social media platforms make off of you. This gives social media companies plenty of reasons to make their apps as addictive as possible.
These are some basic signs of phone addiction:
● Craving access to phone
● Checking phone constantly
● Anxious when it is not in sight
● Restlessness
● Sleep problems
If you believe you are suffering from cell phone addiction, you will want to take the needed steps to change this right away. Your relationships could go downhill if you do not. Plus, you will feel much better the less you are on your phone. You will have time for hobbies and things that you enjoy again!
Check-In On Your Phone Usage
Before you get started with the below hacks, you will want to check in on your current phone usage. This allows you to know where you need to improve and cut back. There are many apps out there that can be used to track your usage.
“Moment” is a popular option. It tracks your usage and records how much time you spend on apps. Overall, phone tracking apps will give you a base point. From there, you can work on reducing the amount of time you spend checking it.
If you try to go into breaking a serious phone addiction without using a tool to track your progress, it will be much, much harder to overcome. By having numbers available to work with, you can also feel proud of your results.
Once you have your phone usage tracker installed, get to work on these hacks!
1. Turn Off Notifications
The first hack is to turn off your phone’s notifications. If you constantly reach for your phone the second it makes a sound, this will help you a lot. We are trained to respond to notifications- we react to each with a pleasure response. This makes our brains want more notifications.
If you want to stop bad phone habits, turning off notifications for most of your apps will help you stay productive. There will be a lot fewer interruptions ruining your focus. Plus, you will notice that you have a lot more time to yourself.
You will want to turn notifications off for:
● Social media
● Newsfeeds
● Game updates and promotions
Additionally, it is important that you turn off badges. These are the red icons that appear next to your apps when you have unread notifications. These can be just as distracting as notifications.
You will only want to have notifications on for messaging services or calls that keep you in touch with your loved ones. Plus, you may want to have
notifications for work or other projects.
It is essential that you turn off social media notifications, as these can take up most of your time. Once you do not feel pressured to check every tag,
comment, or like right away, you will find that you have much more time
available to you.
You can also turn on “Do Not Disturb” while at work. This sets your phone to silent automatically but keeps important notifications on your screen. Many people prefer this setting so their loved one’s messages and calls still make it through to them.
2. Only Keep Tools On Your Phone Homepage
Turning off notifications and turning on grayscale should have a noticeable
impact on your phone addiction. However, if you are still struggling, you can take it one step further. You will need to spend some time organizing your apps and tools.
When your home screen is cluttered with apps, games, and more, it becomes challenging to use your phone then set it aside. You might open it to respond to an important text, but suddenly you are scrolling through social media for half an hour.
To avoid this, keep only tools on your homepage. That way, as soon as you
open your phone, you can find the tool you need and close it. No more
accidentally wasting time on social media.
Some tools include:
● Apps for work
● Calculators
● Maps
● Calendars
● Fitness apps
● Memos
● Phone usage trackers
Once you have cleaned up your home screen, you will notice a major change right away. You will no longer feel compelled to open apps that you do not need to be using at that moment. That way, you can stay in your workflow and accomplish more.
Plus, without the unplanned scrolling, you should have more time to spend on hobbies and other activities that you enjoy. The difference is truly freeing.
3. Turn on Grayscale
Once you have turned notifications off, the next step would be to turn on grayscale. Doing so helps to reduce the attractive and distracting colors on your phone screen. Apps are designed to capture your attention then hold it as long as possible- even their colors are designed to pull you in.
The red badges are that color on purpose. The color red sets on an “alarm” in your head each time you notice it on your screen, which causes you to check the app. This makes every message, comment, like, or tag feel like an emergency. It starts to feel like you need to check the app right away, even if it’s just to get rid of the notification or badge.
Plus, we love to look at aesthetically pleasing images. When you notice a lot of beautiful images on your screen, you might have a harder time setting the phone down. Turning on grayscale helps reduce the attraction images in apps have. Suddenly, everything feels more relaxed and less like an emergency.
Turning grayscale on in iPhone is easy:
● Open Settings, General, Accessibility
● Tap Display Accommodations, then Color Filters
● Set Grayscale to On.
4. Put Your Phone Out of Sight
If you are still feeling the need to check on your phone, you will want to put it out of sight. Have you ever heard the saying “out of sight, out of mind”? This is true for a lot of things- if you cannot see or hear your phone, you will not feel the need to check it.
Put your phone inside of your desk or leave it in your bag while you work.
You will also want to put it away while you spend time with family and friends or relax at home. Any time you wish you had more time, simply put your phone far out of your hand’s reach. It will start making a difference.
The further away, the better. Soon, you will not feel like you need to unlock it every couple of minutes.
One of the best ways to do this is to put your phone on the charger in a
different room. If it is inconvenient to go check it, you are less likely to spend too much time on it. You will not want to have the phone near you while you sleep either. This makes it all too easy to scroll before bed or check it first thing in the morning. Sometimes, you might even want to check it during the middle of the night.
Overall, keeping your phone out of sight is going to benefit you in a variety of ways. When you are not constantly feeling the urge to check your phone, you will likely be enjoying other things in your life.
5. Delete Social Media and Games From Your Phone
If you have tried all of the above hacks and nothing seems to be stopping you from endless scrolling- it is time to delete some apps. You will want to delete the ones that keep you preoccupied the most. These apps usually tend to be games or social media, for most people.
This step is hard for many to do. You likely already know that you need to
delete some apps to get your time back, but cannot seem to find the will to do it. There are a few things you will want to keep in mind.
First, you will be getting a lot of time back by removing social media from your phone. If you are struggling with an addiction, deleting apps is often
necessary to make permanent changes to your bad phone habits. You will
feel so freer when you are not at the beck and call of social media.
Second, just because you delete an app, does not mean that it is gone
forever. You can reinstall it when you feel more comfortable using it. Your
friends will always be there. Plus, you can access a majority of social media
platforms from your desktop. You can set aside time to check your social
media- although you do not want to go overboard.
If deleting all of your social media apps makes you nervous, you can try this
rule instead. Whenever you are done using an app, delete it. That way, you
will need to reinstall it and log in to it again. This makes your app usage more mindful and meaningful. Plus, you will likely not want to go through the effort of redownloading an app several times a day.
You may also want to use your phone’s mobile web browser sometimes.
They are usually much slower than the app, so it may be frustrating to use.
That means you will spend a lot less time using it to scroll. By deleting apps, you are doing yourself a huge favor. Your use of time will be much more intentional and your mind will feel so much clearer.
Summary
If you are spending all of your time on your phone and wish you could use that time for more important things, you will want to follow our five hacks.
Here is a summary of them:
1. Turn Off Notifications
2. Only Keep Tools On Your Phone Homepage
3. Turn on Gray scale
4. Put Your Phone Out of Sight
5. Delete Social Media and Games From Your Phone
When you can get the distractions out of your phone, you will be able to use your time mindfully. Once you do that, you will start to get your time back.
However, keep in mind that it can take a while to break an addiction. If you have been glued to your phone for years, it will take consistent discipline to undo your bad habits. We recommend that you check out more of our content on how to break phone addiction if you want to learn more.
In conclusion, these five hacks are very helpful in starting you down a different path. Remember, the less you use your phone, the more time you will have!