Phone addiction

Hey buddy! Well done on noticing that pattern — sometimes we can be so caught up in it that we don’t even notice what it is we’re doing.

On solutions, there are a couple of options. First, if you have an iPhone, you can use the Screen Time function, set its options to something that works for you, and ask someone to type out a password to block it and make sure they do not tell you it. Alternatively, you could do what I did, flip my phone around, close my eyes and type a random password twice. Might take a while to get there since you do have your eyes closed, heh.

For Android, there are a couple of good apps I’ve heard of — Offtime and BreakFree. Just pick settings you find good to you, that are realistic (that’s incredibly important if you’re trying to change something) and go on with it. I’ve not used any of them, so I cannot tell you how they are like.

On a more general note, you need to be committed to actually reducing phone usage. Nowadays it’s crazy hard to do it to the extent you may wish (for example, I’d love to quit my phone altogether, but there’s things you need to keep up with), which is why you should cut as much as you can and are willing to.
One thing I’m going to start trying is placing my phone in another room at night. Maybe we could do that together and see how it goes!

Best of luck, man.

lb

 

My phone is set on "Do not disturb" between 9:30pm and 7:30am, phone is always in silent mode (vibration deactivated) and also "Do not disturb" while driving.

Removed anything related to social media (anything that says "share share").

Deactivated almost all the notifications that the phone puts out, I only have one email account alerts, calendar alerts and some alerts from the bank account. Everything else can quietly go away, including WhatsApp, yes.

My phone usage has gone down dramatically and I feel I don't need it that much, other than research.

 

For me it helped to quit some of the apps I used most (9gag, social media). Quitting those was pretty hard at first, then I tried to make it easier: I allowed myself to use those apps every second day for a specific time (mine was 30min) in one go (not 5 min in the morning, 15 at noon and so on). If you don't use the apps on the day you are allowed to, the day after is still a day you are not allowed to.

F.e.: Monday allowed for 30 min, tuesday no time allowed, wednsday allowed for 30 min, thursday no time allowed, and so on.

I think this helped me because:

• I knew that I just have to be strong on one day, the next day will be allowed again (which helped to get through the 'not allowed' day
• I had to set myself half an hour of my time for browsing instead of checking every time I had the chance (No more browsing on bus stops, waiting times,...)
• Often I noticed it was not worth it to commit a full half an hour to that stupid stuff
• Having only every second day allowed destroyed my habit of using that stuff. It was really the opposite way of building a habit.

No I don't use any 9gag, social media at all anymore --> screen time reduced greatly (used to be up to 2h per day on that sites)

 

I'm struggling with phone addiction as well. Here are a few things I'm trying:

• I use greyscale option. Everything looks a little more boring without colour.
• I no longer use a playlist of guided meditations, only a timer.
• I listen to the radio more instead of YouTube.
• I bought a watch. Thinking about getting an alarm clock.
• Read paper books. Write paper journals. Keep a pen and paper at hand.

 

This is an amazing advice to anyone, regardless of whether they are addicted to their phone, or not.