How I learnt to Break Up with my Phone

These tips actually helped me even with a brand new device

Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash

Our phones have become an extension of us and that’s scary on so many levels.

We wake up with them and go to sleep with them next to our pillows. We scroll through our social media feeds, looking for updates and waiting for notifications to blink blue or red after we’ve posted updates.

We reach for them even when they aren’t buzzing and are tempted to look at them if they are within arm’s reach.

I was no different, until I decided that things had to change.

In August last year, I came upon and devoured the book, ‘How to Break up with your phone’ by Catherine Price.

It wasn’t the first such idea I’d read. My list of bookmarked articles tells me that I’ve been saving such ideas since the beginning of 2018. Clearly I needed this much earlier than I’d imagined.

But it wasn’t until March this year that I actually began to implement the strategies she spoke about in the book.

Here are the tips that worked for me and I urge you to try these, whether you have a device already or are planning to get one in the future.

1. Turn off all notifications

Notifications are those tiny troublemakers that insert themselves into your day, breaking your concentration and making you assume that they are more important than what you are working on.

Turn them off. Your phone has a master setting where you can turn off app notifications. Do it. Now.

2. Remove apps that you don’t need

All phones come with certain apps pre-installed. You don’t need at least half of them. Start with the social media apps and remove them from the phone.

I use all my social media channels only on the desktop and I work as a blogger who needs social media! Trust me; you can do this.

3. Keep your phone in another room when you are doing deep work

That inclination to stray from your work, pick up your phone and ‘capture the moment’ for social media: nip it in the bud.

Remove the phone from the room where you’re working and focus wholly on the task at hand.

4. Charge your phone outside your bedroom

Have a dedicated space at home that you use to charge your devices. In other words, turn your mobile phones into a landline. When you need your phone, you should walk towards it and pick it up with intention; don’t let it dictate your impulses.

Add-on tip: Stop using your phone as an alarm clock.

5. Put your phone on airplane mode when you sleep

You don’t need to be accessible 24 X 7. Turn off your phone. Invest in a landline, so that people (close family) can reach you in an emergency.

6. Make a list of non-screen activities that you enjoy

I mean, literally, write down and print a list of these activities and put it up where you can see it every day.

Feeling bored? Walk over to the list, choose an activity and get to it. Don’t reach for your phone at the first signal of boredom.

Our phones have us wired to respond instantly, type impulsively and waste precious time.

Take back control of your time, your day and your attention. Don’t let the phone be in charge.