Overcoming Phone Addiction

Addicted to your phone? Of course not, right? Phone addiction isn’t serious, not as much as drugs or alcohol. Those are the real addictions… right? Wrong! Addiction is addiction, and anything that controls your though process is going to have a negative impact on your life. So take control of your phone habits, now, and bust the addiction.

A few months ago, while sitting at women’s small group, a church friend mentioned how she conditioned her mind to read the bible more effectively. She first explained how she has a game on her phone that she plays while using the bathroom, and it’s come to a point that if she opens the game at a different time, she suddenly needs to use the restroom. Her example, though intended to explain how we could train our mind to read the bible “better” if we linked it with something else, got me thinking.

It got me thinking… Do I have a bathroom game? Do I instinctively reach for my phone when sitting on the toilet, or as soon as I wake up, or at some other point in my day? The answer is yes. We all are. It has come to a point where our phones are linked to everything we do, and it’s only going to get worse.

I understand, smart phones are more than just calls and texting. We use them for work, we use them to read, we use them for artistic expression. Phones can be used to track appointments, set reminders, and take notes. It’s a plethora of information at our finger tips. Now that it syncs with basically everything, from our watches to home security system and even serves as a remote for the television, it’s not surprising that our phones are in our hands more often than not. It makes sense.

Before you overcome phone addiction, admit you have phone addiction…

First thing’s first, admit there is a problem. Just like a person going on a diet needs to understand how much they are eating before they can begin restriction, you need to understand just how often you are on your phone. Thankfully, there is a great function on iPhones (and Android as well, I’m sure) that allows you to look at how long you use the phone each day. It also breaks it down into category. Maybe you spend 13 hours each day tied to your phone, and 8 of them are social media. That should quickly alert you that social media is the root of your addiction.

The Screen Time feature also indicates which app is the first app you open when you wake your phone. Are you reaching for the phone and going straight to Instagram? This might let you know which apps take priority of your digital attention.

Before you can combat the addiction you need to be fully aware of where your addiction lies, so you can bust the excuses. Claiming you’re using your phone for work won’t hold up if calls and emails are on the bottom of the utilized app list, beneath Podcasts and Games. Honesty is important; you cannot lie to yourself if you’re trying to give full effort.

5 Tips to Overcome Addiction to Your Phone

1.  Turn off Notifications. The very first thing I did to conquer my addiction was turn off notifications. This means the sound alerts, the banners on the lock screen, and the little red numbers on the app icon. Without alerts constantly pinging to tell you something happened (perhaps someone commented on your Facebook post, or you received a new email) you wouldn’t know. Therefore you wouldn’t have picked up your phone. Turn off the sounds for every app, and only allow Lock Screen banners for the important apps. Apps that consistently have that obnoxious red number, like Mail, get turned off completely. Don’t give yourself any reason to think you need to check something on your phone. Phone calls and text messages are truly the only app that needs to notify you, since that is literally their purpose.
2. Turn on Do Not Disturb. I started using the Do Not Disturb function at night, but soon began leaving it on throughout the day as well. Not only does it override all sounds (except for phone calls), but it also visually blocks all banner alerts from popping up when the screen is asleep. The alert is still on your lock screen waiting for you to turn on your phone, but it doesn’t wake the screen to alert you. The screen stays in sleep mode unless you wake it to see what’s there, which shouldn’t be much since you’ve already turned off notifications.
3.  Utilize Screen Time limits. The iPhone has a brilliant built in function that monitors and tracks phone usage, and allows you to set up limits for phone usage (with password!) as well as individual app usage. I set screen time limits between 8am and 8pm for any recreational app, including all social media. This is a wonderful way to bust the mindless scroll. Using the 15 minute reminder breaks the scroll. Sometimes that mindless scroll is what transfixes us into spending literal hours on the phone.
4.  Leave your phone in the car. There are times when you might need your phone in the grocery store, but you will never need your phone in the gas station while you prepay or while standing at the pump. Get in the habit of leaving your phone in your car when you are not at home. If worried about staying in contact or safety, consider an Apple Watch with data, to maintain a line of communication without your phone. This might mean going old school on some of the tech upgrades we’ve picked up, like writing your grocery list on paper instead of using the Notes app. Or using a planner instead of the Calendar app. Bonus Tip: Make a habit of charging your phone in the other room. Don’t make it easy to sneak a peek while its charging!
5. Hide your Social Media Apps. When in doubt, out of sight out of mind. This might mean tucking them into a folder, or dragging them to a back page. Anything to get them off the main screen where they are easy to access. Periodically, go on a full social media cleanse, and delete the app completely. Once you reclaim life without social media, you realize what it actually means to be social.

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