How to spend less time on your mobile phone

Do you ever feel that you spend too much time on your mobile phone?  I certainly do between WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, BBC News not to mention research on Google.  Apparently the average person spends at least four hours per day on their phone! That’s a staggering amount of time to spend but there are also benefits to spending less time on our phones.  Cutting your smartphone use by just an hour a day makes you less anxious, more satisfied with life and more likely to exercise, a German study has found.  

The bottom line is that we all need to reduce the amount of time spent on our phones every day.  But how do we do this?

Impose a mobile phone curfew

Stop using your mobile phone after a certain time of the day eg 8pm.  WhatsApp messages sent after 8pm can simply wait until the morning.  This has also the added benefit of helping you to wind down for bedtime by reducing the amount of electronic blue light that you are exposed to in the evening time.

Turn off all notifications except for phone or text messages

Turn off social media notifications, breaking news updates and any other useless reminders that apps send you to keep you engaged.  These notifications are a distraction from what you are doing and entice you to open up your phone to see what’s new.  Once you’re on your phone, you then can fall into the rabbit hole of looking around to see what else has changed since your last visit.

Set limits for apps

Within settings on your phone, use the “Screen Time” option to see your daily average time spent on the phone.  This may shock you!  You can then set daily limits for particular apps so that you can limit the amount of time spent on them.  You might even want to delete some particularly distracting apps.

Leave home without your phone

That’s a big step but the very best way to eliminate the distraction of your phone is by leaving it at home.  I can hear you saying that you couldn’t do that but would it be possible to do something as simple as going for a walk without your phone?

Stop filling in the spaces

When we are waiting in a supermarket queue, waiting for a doctor’s appointment or even waiting for the kettle to boil, out comes the phone for a quick check-in!  Instead of enjoying these “spaces” and being alone with your thoughts, we’re filling these spaces with the digital world instead of enjoying the actual world we live in.  The world is noisy enough. Let some of it be quiet.

Have phone free dates

Have you ever sat in a coffee shop and watched couples who are spending time on their phones instead of talking to each other?  Or have you been guilty of this yourself?!  At the outset, agree to put your phones away and spend your time talking to each other instead of glued to the screen.

Do something else

Simply put your phone away and do something else instead.  This could be absolutely anything – go for a walk, do the ironing, write in your journal, do a crossword puzzle, read a book, watch TV or spend time with a friend.  While texting is a great way to connect quickly with people, remember that meaningful relationships are created and sustained when we meet in real-life.

Turn your phone from colour to grayscale

Part of the phone’s problem is the addiction to screen visuals. The ‘Go Gray’ movement encourages people to change to grayscale, as these feelings of addiction will be reduced. Our brain is attracted to colourful and shiny things, so reducing the attractiveness of the phone increases your chances of breaking your urges to scroll. You can do this by looking in the settings of your phone.  Whether you do it for just an hour a day, or make a full-on switch, give it a go and see how it affects your urges to pick up your phone.

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It’s pretty clear that mobile phones aren’t going to disappear overnight so it’s up to us to build healthier mobile phone habits and try to love our phone a little bit less.  Hopefully some of these ideas will help you to be a little less addicted to our phones.

I’d love to hear what you think about this blog so please feel free to comment below.