How to Balance Phone Use
You have decided it’s time to change your phone habits. You want to be in control of your phone and not let your phone control you any longer! You want to be a good role model for your children. You are ready to step out of the norm and take action! I’m cheering you on in this new venture and fighting the phone addiction battle right alongside you. Let’s do this! But how?
How to Balance Phone Use
Here are a few things I have done that I find helpful in keeping my phone use in check. I, actually we (my husband and I), did not implement all of these habits at one time. It has been a couple of year journey of adding new techniques to minimize our digital use so that our lives aren’t consumed by our phones. I say that to say don’t be overwhelmed by this list. If you are new to digital minimalism, then start small (no tech at dinner) and add to it.
1. Find someone to keep you accountable. Ideally, this would be your spouse, but if they aren’t available or want to participate with you then reach out to another family member or friend or me. I’m always here to help (call, text or email me).
2. No tech at the dinner table. We used to be bad about carrying our phones to the dinner table “just in case” someone was trying to reach us, but we realized that it was too distracting from our family time. So, we made the rule that no phones (or any device) would be allowed at dinner time. This allows us to be fully present—listening and communicating.
3. Buy an old-fashioned watch or wall clock. I used to claim that I needed my phone to know the time, but in reality, it was just an excuse to check other things on my phone when I was checking the time. So, I bought an analog wall clock for our living room and a wristwatch for myself.
4. Don’t sleep with your phone in the same room. I thought I needed my phone as an alarm clock, but I learned that having a phone in the same room as you while you are sleeping actually causes more restless sleep than peaceful sleep because it’s hard for your brain to completely turn off in anticipation that it might miss an alert. If you use your phone as an alarm clock, then I suggest buying a cheap alarm clock in place of your phone. You won’t regret it!
5. Set up “Do Not Disturb” hours on your phone. Even with your phone in another room while you sleep, I suggest turning on “Do Not Disturb” so that you don’t accidentally hear a call, text, or notification while you are trying to rest. You can have that set to run at certain hours on repeat (mine runs from 8 pm-6 am daily so I don’t have to remember to turn it on). If you are someone’s emergency contact and need be available to them, then add that contact to your favorites; if that person calls twice then it will ring even on “Do Not Disturb.”
6. Turn off all notifications on your phone. This might sound crazy, but it will you to not check your phone so often if you aren’t hearing it ding all the time. Social media apps should definitely be turned off, but I have also found it enjoyable to turn off Gmail notifications too. This helps me to not feel like things are urgent—they can wait, it will still be there tomorrow.
7. Setup “Downtime” hours. If you go to General > Settings > Screen Time > Downtime you can set a schedule for time away from your screen where only the apps and phone calls you select to work during those “downtime” hours will work. So, you might want to set your “downtime” hours for when you get home from work so that no apps are interrupting your family time.
8. Setup “App Limits.” This helps keep you in control of how much time you are actually spending on your phone instead of allowing the time to slowly creep back up. General > Settings > Screen Time > App Limits > Add Limit and select which categories or apps you want to limit your time on.
9. Switch to a “dumb” phone. If you just need a complete detox from your phone, then do like my husband did and switch to a dumb phone for a few months or forever. You can check out his journey here. I haven’t done this yet, but I am tempted to just reset my mind; however, it would be hard for me to give up my camera and maps.
These helpful tips might seem extreme at the moment, but once you start to minimize your time on your phone you will begin to enjoy the time off your phone more.
Comment below to let me know how you minimize your phone time. Which helpful tips are you finding most useful? Do you have any helpful tips to add?
