If you are like me, well, then you probably spend too much time on your phone. Between texting, emailing, and Tik Tok my screen time seems to increase every week. The average consumer spends about 4.5 hours on their phone every day. This means every week we spend over a day just on our phone…imagine how much more productive we could have be. In 2021, around the world, consumers recorded a total of 3.8 trillion hours on their phones. Every week, I tell myself I am going to spend less time on my phone; however, that has yet to happen. In today’s Tech Tuesday, I am going to give you some tips and tricks to spending less time on your phone…and hopefully next week these tricks will work for me as well.
1. Turn off Your Notifications
On average, we receive 60 to 80 notifications everyday. Notifications can be quite distracting. Researchers at Florida State University found that just merely receiving a notification can be just as distracting as actually responding to a text or phone call. When participants knew they had a notification, even if they ignored it, their performance on their task decreased.
If you would really like to see where you spend the most time on your phone, you can check which applications you spend the most time on in your settings. To check, go to your settings and click battery. Once you are there, you will be able to see your battery usage which shows the time you spent on each app.
I understand it is not feasible to silence every notification. You would not want to miss that important call from your kid or email from work; however, you can silence apps and social media push notifications. In Samsung and iPhones, you can silence your app notifications by going into your settings, going to notifications, and tapping the app you wish to silence. It may not be a big change; however, any little bit helps.
2. Turn on Do Not Disturb and the Focus Feature
Another way to silence notifications is by turning on your ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature. The ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature stops notifications, vibrations, and alerts from lighting up or ringing your phone when it is locked. Again, I understand that you may not want to mute all of your notifications, which is why Apple has introduced a new feature on their phones and iPads known as the ‘Focus Feature.’
The Focus Feature allows you to customize what notifications you do and do not want to show up on your phone. You can create individual Focus’s such as work, personal, driving, gaming, etc. Whenever you are doing an activity, you can hit the related focus and your device will automatically filter out the unwanted notifications. You can also enable it to alert your friends when your phone is on Do Not Disturb Mode…that way they won’t think you are ignoring them. To set up the focus feature, you can follow the steps found here.
3. Set Time Limits
If you are looking to spend less time on an app, you can set time limits on how long you want to spend on the app. You can set a daily time limit and, once you hit that limit, your phone notifies you. You can choose to ignore the reminder, add time, or simply get off the app. If you are like me, I usually just hit ignore, but at least I am more aware of how much time I am wasting on the app.
For Samsung users, you can set time limits by going into your settings, going to digital wellbeing and parental controls, tap “set goals,” and from there, you can set your desired amount of time. For iPhone users, you can go into your settings, go to screen time, and then click the desired app you wish to set a limit for.
4. Move Distracting Apps Off Your Home Screen
This may seem simple but moving distracting apps off your home screen may reduce the amount you actually go on them. When you log into your phone, you won’t see Facebook or Instagram right away. As a result, you may be less tempted to get distracted and go on the apps.
5. Find a New Distraction and Set No-Phone Time
With the amount of time we waste on our phones aimlessly scrolling through Instagram or Tik Tok, there are so many other skills we could be learning. You can set no-phone times throughout the day that are designated times you spend without your phone. Additionally, picking up a new hobby such as reading or crafting can encourage you to spend less time on your phone and more time elsewhere.
Conclusion
I know, spending less time on your phone is easier said than done; however, spending too much time on your phone can cause negative effects. Excessive phone use can increase depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep deprivation, among other things. Having our phones has become so important to us that there is a phobia when we are without it: nomophobia. Nomophobia refers to the phobia in which people have a fear of being away from their phone. In such a highly connected world, it is important to put your phone down and enjoy the moment whether it’s a hike through nature or coffee with a friend. Now if you do break your phone or any other technological device, GeniusCPR can fix it for you! Just stop into one of your nearest GeniusCPR location to get your device fixed…I wouldn’t want you to have nomophobia due to a broken device.