Let’s be straight up about it. The majority of us are really, really, really attached to our phones at this point. If not totally addicted. Statista reported that the average US smartphone owner checks their phone over 47 times A DAY.
We’re make sure that they’re on the table at dinner, we take them with us to workout, to the bathroom, and everything in between. We’ve got our heads inside them talking to people via messaging or social media when there are literally humans physically sitting in front of us that we should be talking to instead.
The use of mobile devices in the world work to simultaneously connect and separate people from one another on a daily basis. You can FaceTime your parents from across the world but at the same time can’t get through an hour's meeting without checking your phone for texts, calls, or notifications.
While you may think your relationship with your phone should be one that reflects your own personal needs, feeling the urge to check a digital device every 10 minutes isn’t exactly an ideal way of life.
So, if you’re like us and are starting to get sick of how often you check your phone, it might be time to consider how to beat the addiction and become more aware of what’s going on around you.
Here are 6 easy tips to help you break your phone-checking habits and spend less time staring at screens.
Delete Apps
We all find ourselves in situations where we’re bored or lose concentration and start tapping away at our phones. More often than not, there are certain apps we’ll go to that are also usually the ones that distract us most. Games, social media apps or shopping apps with their colorful icon on the home screen easily draw our attention, and then we find ourselves down the rabbit hole for hours doing, well not much at all.
So how can we avoid this temptation? Pretty easily actually – by deleting them. At least move them off the home screen if total deletion sounds too radical. Then the theory of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ will come into play. By moving all of your most addictive apps to the second page of your screen where it’s harder to open them spontaneously, you’ll be less inclined to get lost inside them.
You could also try grouping such apps in a folder such as ‘Games’ or ‘Social Media’ so they’re always that one extra step harder to find and access. Making these apps less accessible will reduce the time you spend using them and in turn, help you use your phone less promoting better digital habits. The BlockSite app can also help with controlling the apps that distract you. With BlockSite you can block the apps that steal your focus and waste most of your time for set time frames when you need to concentrate on other things. Check it out here.