You may have heard of the terms Smartphone Obsession, Mobile Phone Overuse or perhaps even Phone Addiction. It’s a modern phenomena, caused by the overwhelming and ever-increasing functionality of phones, advertising, social pressure and social sharing. Dozens of notifications pop up the screen every day screaming for attention. What started as a revolution, slowly turned into a global obsession.
This obsession has gone so far that a Chinese city supposedly opened a Smartphone Zombie Walkway for people watching their screen while walking, in order to reduce accidents. But is the phone really that important to deserve so much of our attention and time that we can’t even walk without watching at it?
Rather than giving in to that phone addiction, another approach is to reduce phone-time. The reward is priceless: more time for friends, family and to do things that you love. I call it phone minimalism.
6 ways to reduce phone time
I discovered various methods to simplify my phone and restrict the functionality to the bare minimum. Some being simple, others being rather — radical.
There’s several layered approaches to phone minimalism, each one being more extreme than the previous one:
- Disable notifications — many apps bombard you with unnecessary notifications, making you look at your phone even more frequent. On Android it is possible to disable notifications for each app individually; check this guide to learn how to do that.
- Uninstall non-essential apps — each app slows your phone and increases your phone-time. I suggest to go through your app list and uninstall each one that isn’t necessary; only keep the essentials. If the answer is I totally need that — keep it, if it’s more like I might need it in the future — get rid of it; you can always add it back when really needed.
- Simplify your home screen — the home screen is like your phones dashboard, every time your unlock your phone, you will probably see the home screen first. Therefore, it is important to reduce the home screen to the minimum. On iOS you could throw all apps in a folder and only keep the essential ones at the front. On Android you could do the same, or you could switch your app launcher. Here’s two app launchers I recommend trying out:
- my current setup — the text based ap15 Launcher, which is super simple: it shows all apps in a text grid, whereas frequently used apps are larger that the others
- for a more extreme approach you could try out the No Phone Launcher, which effectively blocks all your phones functions, except for calling, a built-in task list and two apps of choice
- Switch to a minimal phone — a more radical approach is to replace the phone with a minimal alternative. For example a cheap old phone, with limited functions or another option could be The Light Phone. The former being simple due to their age, and the latter being minimal by design.
- Take a break from your phone — if you still feel like your phone is consuming too much of your precious time, you could limit your phone time deliberately, by not allowing yourself to use it at certain times of the day or week. Here’s some ideas:
- Switch off the phone after you’ve finished using it — the phone will stay quite until you decide that it deserves your attention again, by switching it back on
- Leave your phone at home when you leave the house — you’ll be unburdened until you get back
- Only activate your phone on certain periods of the day or week: weekends, weekdays, evenings — whatever works best for you
- Allow certain apps only at certain daytimes or weekdays using an app blocker such as AppBlock
- Get rid of your phone — the final extreme measure. Need I say more?
Take advantage of your phone addiction to practice mindfulness
It may seem counter-intuitive — using an addiction to practice mindfulness, but it works really well. That might be due to phone addiction not really being an addiction at all, but rather a habit. A habitual impulse with the desire to watch your phone. This impulse and desire may be stronger from person to person, but remains impulsive. It becomes an addiction when you are no longer able to control your actions afterwards, that is, if you aren’t able to decide whether you wish to watch your phone when the impulse arises. Most of the time, you’ll be giving in to your impulses and desires without thought.
You can change this.
Habits always consist of three parts: the trigger, the action and the reward. In the case of phone usage, the trigger could be sitting down on the couch, the action is the phone usage, and the reward is probably entertainment. Habits are hard to get rid off, because the triggers are unconscious. However, as soon as action is required the mind jumps in and conscious action is required. That’s were we step in.
Each time the impulse strikes and the desire for checking the phone arises, don’t reach for the phone immediately. Instead, pause for a moment; feel the desire. Ask yourself if you really need to check the phone right now or if you could perhaps do something better. Stay focused, watch the desire, the urge. It feels weird — resisting the impulse — the feeling doesn’t just disappear, but it also feels good being in control.
Now it’s time to let go.
Further observe the desire, slowly step away from it. Watch yourself. Watch your thoughts. Focus on the present. The desire disappears and instead your are left with a feeling of fulfilment and inner-peace.
Further interesting reads
If you wish to dig a little deeper on the subject of phone minimalism and smartphone obsession — I assure you it’s a big topic — there’s many great articles all over the internet. Here’s list with some recommended reads:
- Wikipedia has a neat list with interesting facts about Mobile Phone Overuse
- An article dedicated to minimalist phones found on ZDNet: Can These Minimalist Phones Save Us From Our Smartphone Obsession?
- Leo Babauta’s experience of his Month Without a Smartphone