5 Simple ways to reduce your Smartphone usage

For quite some time I’ve been thinking about reducing the amount of time that I was using my smartphone. 

A few months ago a friend of mine shared an app that would help me track the amount of time that I was using my phone on a daily basis. After 5 days of using this app I was blown away by all the hours that I was spending (sometimes unconsciously) using or checking my phone: e-mails, personal messages, social media, news, photos, double-checking if someone has texted me, etc. Long story short I was spending between 3 and 5 hours a day during the weekends, which seemed too much to me. Talking to different people about it I’ve realized how much we underestimate this and tend to believe that we don’t use our phones that much.

It took me a lot of practice and time, and I’ve taken some actions so I’m hoping that it will help others. I’ll share the steps I’ve taken in order to reduce the amount of time that I was using my Smartphone:

1. Life is about Moments:

"Moment" is also the name of this app. that my friend recommended in order to track my phone usage. While it sounds like a cliché, I believe it’s true: Life is about moments, those that you share with others and even those moments that you spend on your own: Thinking, meditating, creating, cooking, doing nothing or even watching a movie (without being interrupted by your phone).

Checking the amount of time that I was spending on my phone was the first step in order to find out what I wanted to improve. My goal initially was to at least decrease it from 3 or 5 hours to 1 or 2 hours max. A few years ago someone told me how important it is, in business and life, to set definite goals. It took me a few weeks, in order to make an improvement. Practicing this during my vacation and spending time on the beach was really helpful as well. I then understood that it was not enough checking the app and educating (or forcing) myself to avoid using my phone when it wasn’t necessary. Let’s face it, sometimes we might be waiting for someone, having coffee or at the airport and in order to keep ourselves occupied, we just look into our phones to find a distraction. Little by little when I was about to look into my phone, Instead of “forcing” myself, I’ve started asking “Why do I need to look into it? What is my goal?” I often found out it was just curiosity and that I didn’t need to look at it at all.

“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.” Thich Nhat Hanh

2. Deleting some Apps: Games & Social media:

I’ve started questioning myself which apps were really necessary and which other apps I could afford to live without. So I’ve decided to delete the games that I had on my phone along with the social media applications, as well as turning off notifications of the apps that I was actually keeping. I would still access social media websites from my laptop at home when needed and to interact with family and friends around the world.

3. Airplane Mode:

I’ve started using the Airplane Mode more often (Even when I was not on a plane!), for example when I was having dinner or lunch with someone I would put my phone on Airplane Mode in order to give my undivided attention to that person. This has helped me to increase both my attention to people and my appreciation of the simple moments in life. Without distractions or being interrupted.

4. Leaving chat groups:

Chat groups are a great way of communication and I’m still part of a few of them (Family, different groups of Close Friends). However, leaving some groups (politely) that were somehow irrelevant really helped to reduce the number of messages I was receiving, hence also less time looking at my phone and more time focussing on things that are really important to me.

5. “Forgetting the phone at home”:

Going for a walk, to the gym, for lunch with a friend and leaving my phone at home has been another great way to stay away from my phone; then it wasn’t the end of the world coming back home and finding a miscall, a couple of messages or maybe even no miscalls and messages at all. Obviously, the fewer messages we send, the fewer messages we will receive.

After a few weeks of practicing this, I found that even when I have my phone with me I have decreased the usage a lot and very happy to say that I’ve reached my goal!

Feel free to comment, share your experience and any action that you’ve taken in order to reduce your Smartphone usage!

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