Less screen, more life: an honest guide to curing phone addiction
From a phone addict to a person who now has a screen time of under one hour a day: How I did it and how you can too.
Always in your pocket, always there. An addiction unterestimated by many. Many wouldn’t even call themselves addicted.
5 Signs you are more bound to your cellphone than you think:
-In waiting periods you tend to feel the need to use your phone
-You haven’t felt the feeling of boredom in a very long time
-You often find yourself doomscrolling without any awareness of the time passing
-When you go on your phone, muscle memory kicks in and you find yourself on an app you didn’t even want to use (f.e. Instagram, Tiktok)
-You neglect your chores and dutys because you don’t feel the motivation to do them
What you should do right now:
-Minimize your social media apps/Minimize your social media contacts
This felt like a big step, but I want to encourage everyone to give it a go. As soon as you delete your most used social media app, I promise you, you won’t regret it. As soon as I deleted my most used socials, I was surprised to find myself not missing them.
And I found out why I didn’t miss them: because I could never really take anything out of it. All that these apps were doing to me was wasting my time uselessly.
And I know what you’re thinking now: But how will I know what the people are doing?
Let me ask you a question: Does it really matter what Cassie you went to high school with is doing right now? In my opinion, humans shouldn’t always be able to know what everyone around them is doing. Knowing this comes with a lot of stress, of which we already have enough of in this world.
If you aren’t ready to delete a social media app yet, I would suggest you to minimize your social media contacts to a smaller number. This will make you notice how little you actually miss knowing what other people are doing. I’m not talking about your friends or your close relatives but the type of people you don’t even know, or you’ve met like once in your life.
-Turn your notifications off
Go to the settings of each social media app (if you haven’t deleted it yet) and turn off any push notifications that are recommended.
Doing this helps you not get distracted by your phone when you don’t use it at the time. Push notifications are designed to try and keep you on the phone as long as possible. The notification pops up, you get interested or feel like missing out if you don’t click on it and you give in. So turn them off and start by deciding yourself whether you want to go on that app or not. This gives you more control and less space for addictive habits.
-Leave it at home!
Whenever you go out without your phone, you’ill notice at the end of the day that you didn’t even miss it. A phenomena I’ve been dealing with: not even noticing that my phone stayed home.
I am aware that it can be harder nowadays to not take the phone with you when going out of the house, since many people are dependant of it. But in cases where you don’t NEED to always be
3 Tips for along the way
-> 1: Let yourself be bored!
For me, when I first started my journey I was very motivated. Along the way, I had times when I was extremely unmotivated and bored. But I have learned that exactly this boring part is the one where you create new interests and habits.
-> 2: It’s a lifestyle
You really need to actively choose other activities over your phone. Everyone can grab their phone and just do nothing. The difference is if you put yourself against it or not. Do anything in your power to change your behaviour: make it your personality, tell your friends, make rules on when you’re allowed to use the phone, decide not to take your phone with you.
-> 3: Be patient with yourself
Decreasing your screen time is a longer process and can hardly be done overnight. So give yourself time to actually form new habits.
Your new life without an addiction: What awaits you?
->You’re going to be happier
-> You’ll feel life more than ever
->You’ll be 100x more productive
->You’ll suddenly feel like you have too much time
->You’re going to be able to do more deep work
->You’ll be able to concentrate for longer
->You’ll feel more confident
->You’ll sleep longer and better
->You’ll get more creative and ideas will come flying towards you
And so on…(:
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