Everything is okay in moderation, but my phone usage has become OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE! Every time I hear my phone beep or vibrate I get a little anxious and it probably has created a slight separation anxiety in my everyday life. I know whatever notification pops up, it’s probably not an emergency or even important BUT there’s still an itch to just check out what it is.
The Bad habits I’ve developed because of my social media / smart phone addiction include:
- During social gatherings, unconsciously ignoring my family and friends by looking at a screen and not being present with them in the moment.
- Looking at my phone while at work and checking for notifications in between tasks.
- Wasting tons of what could have been productive hours on never ending scrolling through my Instagram and Facebook feed and having accomplished NOTHING. (I can watch dog videos literally for hours on end, lol)
Here are the steps I’m taking to lessening my time on my phone and social media:
1. Avoiding using my phone first thing when I wake up.
First thing upon waking is leaning over to check my phone. Scrolling through emails and my Instagram and Facebook feeds. I am a pretty horrible offender and what innocently starts out as 5 minutes of browsing quickly snowballs and turns into 1-2 hours of time wasted. This is no lie.
Action: placing my phone on the other side of the room so it’s not immediately next to my bed.
This makes me physically jump out of bed to force myself into ACTION to get ready and start my day.
My old habit included having the phone next to the head of my bed, turning off the alarm, and continue scrolling through the news feeds all within the warmth and comfort of my cozy bed and blankets. It’s hard to get out of being comfortable and cozy.
2. APP BLOCKER APP
The biggest change in my behavior has been made with the help of the App Blocker APP that my boyfriend recommended. By force of habit, this app that you can download on your smartphone allows you to set time limits for specific apps at whichever times you choose. Once you have met your day’s limit you will be forced out and blocked.
For now , I am limiting myself to my most heavily used and abused apps such as Instagram and Facebook to only 15 minutes between 7 am – 9 pm. And honestly IT WORKS!!! So, once my 15 minutes of allotted time is up, it automatically closes the app. If you try to open it again, it will close again immediately and you can see how many times you’ve attempted to log back in.
In my first day of downloading the app , I maxed my attempts at 21 times which was pretty horrific.
This app alone has TRULY helped me to prevent wasting time at night before bed and in the morning after waking and getting out of bed, and browsing at work when I shouldn’t be.
Other tips I have heard others use to limit their time on their smart phones:
Eliminating Facebook from their phones. Deleting the Facebook app entirely may help you because it forces you to only browse on your PC or mac. This also hides useless notifications that pop up throughout the day.
Disabling E-mail notifications from their phones. Email is important, but if you are like most people, you have multiple email accounts sending you notifications for an avalanche of unimportant emails. The simple fix? Just turn off email notifications. This applies to your personal emails, I don’t recommend this if you have an important work email linked to your phone.. your boss may be wondering why you’re not replying to them.
I hope these recommendations help you in becoming more productive in your everyday life. What do you do to stay productive?
Written by: A Z Flor Huerta
Edited: Vince R. Jison
