8 tricks to make you look at your smartphone less often

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

To have access to everything you need, but at the same time not to be distracted by unnecessary features of smartphones, use these tips.

We are all to one degree or another dependent on our mobile phones, but we still have to use them. Therefore, we have to figure out how to prevent numerous applications from stealing our precious time. A few tricks can help with this, which will be discussed below.

1. Stop checking your phone in the car

Put your smartphone in the glove compartment or put it into a special driving mode, which is available on some Android devices, as well as on iOS 11 and even on Windows Phone.

Alternatively, you can download the Drivemode app on Android. It allows you not to look at the screen, but to focus only on the road. At the same time, the program has many different functions like a music player and the ability to respond to messages with a voice.

2. Hide your phone when watching TV or reading

When you are in a state of vigorous activity, keep your smartphone with you. But as soon as you are at home, move your mobile device away. Leave it charging and try to treat it like your home phone. The less often you check it for notifications, the lower the likelihood of going headlong into social networks for an hour or two.

If you still had to get up and read the message, leave the device where it was. Don't put it in your pocket.

3. Turn off notifications

This is especially true for those notifications that do not require an immediate response. Call and SMS notifications can still be left on. But everything related to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, feel free to deactivate. The same goes for mail.

After downloading a new application, immediately turn off notifications in it. Let it be better that you once again have to manually open the program, but it will not distract you with constant reminders of something insignificant.

4. Limit the time you use the device

Taking your smartphone in hand, first of all, set a timer, which will remind you that it's time to do something more useful. On Android, you can use the QualityTime app for this.

When the timer runs out, turn off your phone completely if possible. This measure may seem drastic, but try it at least once and see what happens.

5. Do not reach your smartphone while standing in line

It would seem, what else can you do in an endless line to the doctor, other than checking countless social services. But if you really want to become more creative and think wider, then you will have to get rid of your smartphone even in such moments.

Put your phone in another pocket so that you don't constantly pull it out unconsciously. Set a background image that will remind you to hide the device, and update it weekly. Try to take an interest in what is happening around you in the real world.

6. Don't use your phone in bed

Give yourself a mindset not to pick up your phone while you're in bed, whether it's evening or morning. To block unnecessary functions at certain times of the day, use the Freedom apps for iOS or Offtime for Android. They will help deny access to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can make sure that you still receive important notifications.

If you are actively working in the media or with social networks, then this method may seem unrealistic. But you can still use it: for example, if you need to send a tweet, move to the computer for a while.

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7. Break the vicious cycle of checking alerts

Once you've finished browsing your mail, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so on, it's great to start over. Learn to check only one application at a time, and then immediately remove the phone.

It's hard to get out of the habit of peeking into apps one by one, so try to make this process less automated. Close programs when you are finished using them so that you have to download them again next time. Remove distracting services from your home screen by placing them in folders.

Try to remove one social application for a day or a week and check if you really need it. Do the same with another similar service. If you can get rid of even one distraction program, then that's great.

8. Don't Think It Will Be Easy

Finding the perfect balance is hard. These are the tricks that you really need to focus on. At the same time, applications will literally strive to take as much of your time as possible in one way or another.

You will have to look for more and more new ways to distract from the phone in order to devote time to something more important. You will understand that there is no quick fix. You can only try constantly.