How I Saved my Relationship with my Phone

We all know the feeling. Unlock phone, forget why you unlocked phone, lock phone, put it down, unlock phone, forget why you unlocked phone…

What was wrong with me?

Whenever I unlocked my phone, I scrolled through apps for something to do. That was it. No big crash or bang. It wasn’t me looking at my screen-time report. I just kept scrolling.

So I decided to make a change and use my phone less.

I’m forever seeing people post their new years resolutions as “use my phone less” or “be less dependant on my phone”. But vague resolution seldom offer good results. So all I did, was change a few Phone Settings.

I found hundreds of articles saying they had the solution! So here’s my summary of the best, and the ones I used.

1. Turn off badges

You know those little red bubbles with numbers on? Turn them off.

(It’s useful to keep it on Messages and Messenger, but that’s it! Everything else is gone.)

2. Turn off notifications

If your phone doesn’t light up, you’re not tempted to pick it up.

(All the sites I found said turn them all off. Again, I kept messaging apps on, otherwise a phone is pretty pointless.)

3. All apps on one page

All my apps are now on one page. Obviously they don’t all fit, so everything else is just in a folder on it’s own.

What’s the point of this? If you want an app, you have to search for it! If you don’t know what to search for, you shouldn’t be on your phone.

4. Make your phone boring

My background used to be a picture of my boyfriend and my pet rabbit looking adorably into each other’s eyes. Now, it’s a plant.

If your phone is less interesting, you’ll use it less!

And that’s it…

That’s all I did. I changed 4 things, and I now use my phone significantly less.

I don’t waste time looking for something to do. I unlock my phone to do something, do it, then carry on with my life.

Although this approach isn’t as forceful as many other suggestions you read online, it works for me. and, hopefully, it’ll work for you.