Try These 5 Simple Steps to Break Your Phone Addiction
I think it's safe to say most of the population has a slight to moderate phone addiction. It's usually the first thing we grab in the morning and the last thing we scroll through before bed (guilty as charged). Now add in work emails, group texts, facebook and instagram and breaking up with your phone seems downright impossible. To help ease the pain of cutting off cold-turkey, we've rounded up 5 simple ways to back off the phone addiction and truly be present. It's all about baby steps!
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
The easiest way to back off your phone usage is to get it out of your sight. Try leaving the phone in another room, or somewhere out of reach when you don't absolutely need it. If it's not right there to grab, you'll cut that mindless scrolling significantly.
Silence Those Dings
Turn off non-essential notifications... like when your bestie posted a facebook picture or you got a billion likes on your latest gram is not worthy of interruption. Turning off those notifications, will eliminate interruptions and keep you from being tempted to just do a 10 minute joy ride...which leads to an hour +.
Make a Plan for Checking In
Set a schedule for checking email and stick to it. I am so guilty of this. I check my email endless times a day and it's scientifically proven to be completely unproductive. Instead, make a plan with set times each day to check your work email. This can also be applied to checking social media and other apps.
No Phone Buffer Zone
Have a one hour grace period first thing in the a.m. and at night before bed with no phone. It's the perfect bookend to ease into a more relaxing morning and evening routine.
Kick Your Phone Out of Bed
Buy an actual alarm - and keep your phone plugged in overnight in the living room, not in your bedroom. That blue light is a sleep killer and if your phone isn't tempting you from the bedside table, it will be way easier to adhere to rule #4.
