Breaking My Smartphone Addiction

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m struggling to remember things. I feel like I’m constantly distracted. I’m on edge and just have a sense of negativity throughout the day. When I stop to think about what might be going on with me, I can’t help but think that I’m struggling with an addiction. Last year I was able to make some progress, but I’m afraid I’m relapsing. I’m addicted to my phone. I’ve noticed myself trying to fill every moment of the day with something, anything that I can find to distract me from what’s going on. I reach for my iPhone anytime I have a free 10 seconds just to avoid any sense of boredom. I will check the news, the weather, sports scores, message boards, YouTube, email, texts, or unlock it and hope I find something on there to waste away a few minutes of the day. I’ve found myself unlocking my phone just out of habit even when I don’t have any notifications.

But I’m worn out and I’ve had enough. I hate the feeling of this addiction. Maybe you can relate? If you take a day to observe yourself and everyone around you, what do you see? We are all staring down at these little screens, mesmerized by the glow, and completely oblivious to the world around us. What should be a great tool to help us stay in touch, pay for a coffee, look up information, and sure, even enjoy a few moments of a game, has taken over our lives. At least it has mine. So a few days ago, I began to think of some ways to break my addiction and make my smartphone be a tool that works for me instead of me being a slave to it’s relentless calling.

Here are a few changes I’ve come up with:

1. I have deleted all entertainment apps, social media, and games from my phone.
2. I have turned off all notifications and badges for everything except for phone calls, texts, and FaceTime.
3. When at home, my phone is never in my pocket. It’s not on my nightstand when I sleep. It will live in the office on the desk.
4. When out in public or at work, I will try to keep my phone in a bag and not on my person.
5. During the hours of 5pm and 9pm my phone will be set to only allow family and very close friends through.
6. If I do pick up my phone, it will be with a purpose. I will not reach for it out of boredom.
7. I’m learning to embrace boredom and be comfortable with just sitting in my own thoughts.
8. I have hidden the email app on my phone. I will only be checking email once per day when I am on my laptop.
9. Instead of using my phone for 5-10 minutes to wind down before going to sleep, I am keeping my Kindle by my bedside and will use that time to read.
10. At least 3 times per week during my commute, I will be driving in silence. No podcasts, music, or audiobooks.

I’m less than a week into these changes, but it’s already freeing to not be hunched over a screen. I hope to be more mindful of my time during the days ahead and especially on the weekends, so I can have uninterrupted time with my family.

Breaking an addiction is hard. I’ve found myself several times with a twitch to pick up my phone just to “check.” On what, I’m not quite sure. But as each day has gone by, I feel myself being more content just to leave the phone in the office and know the world will keep spinning just fine without me checking on it.

If we are all honest with ourselves, this is an area we are all struggling with in some way. We all feel guilty about not seeing our kids or having them tug at our arms as we continue to scroll by post after post. We want to read more books, but instead just swipe on the next video. It’s easy to think we are so important that an email or text can’t wait, and we must respond right now (even when we are driving)! The dings and vibrations of notifications are wearing us all out. So I ask you, what small changes can you make in the next several days to put some space between you and your devices? How can you use them as a helpful tool instead of being a slave to them? How can you help break your own addiction?