If you're like me, then you know that urge.
The one that happens every time you wake up, every time you go to the bathroom, and anytime you have any "free" time.
Do you know what it is?
Phone Addiction
How To Cut Phone Addiction and Unplug
Now, this is something that needs to be said.
We are addicted to our phones.
There are many reasons for it but here is the short and sweet.
- The color on your phone is very addicting (1)
- Which is why color keeps getting better and better
- Phones have become a way to get social "contact."
- The algorithms in our apps are getting better at keeping us on them (Which is why Netflix always auto-plays.)
Let's get into the how when it comes to cutting your phone addiction.
1. Get Rid of Color (Turn Your Phone Grayscale)
One of the easiest ways to get rid of phone addiction is by turning your phone on grayscale.
In the video above, I made sure to walk you through how to do this for Android (while a quick google search will teach apple users how to as well.)
The reason this works is that it starts to take out the addictive color.
Anyone who's played a video game with high-intensity color while tired in the midst of night knows the caffeine-like rush from the screen.
Blue light (besides from almost being the devil) will interfere with sleep and so much more.
That's why, to save your eye strain and cut your addiction, turning your phone to grayscale is an easy way to cut the dependency.
2. Jumble Up Your App Locations Often
Human's build stronger neuro pathways when we do the same tasks over and over again.
That's why we deliberately practice specific activities.
What we didn't realize is that we've done that with our phones.
Quite literally, we've been training our brains to think it's easy to get onto our apps over and over again.
That's why we accidentally click on Instagram 5 times in a row even though we just saw the feed.
Now, the easiest way to stop this is to jumble up the apps every so often.
Now as weird as this sounds, it is going to confuse you at first, because everything you've been trained to click will be moved.
3. Consciously Say "No" To Checking It
By standing up to your phone, it makes you the bigger person.
Haha, well, sort of.
Actively and consciously not picking up your phone when you go to the bathroom, wait in line, or go to lunch with a friend is a great way to stop the conditioning of using the phone as a crutch.
It's become what I like to call our "dependent appendage."
The phone travels with us everywhere, and while we could leave it somewhere, we typically depend on it wherever we go.
That's why starting the process of not using it, will help solidify your mind-state and get rid of that addiction.
4. Make Your Phone For Work or Contacts Only
Delete your games, delete your social media (unless you work on it.)
Making your phone only for specific tasks and priorities already frees up the mental space of what you use your phone for.
You don't have to get addicted because you use it for work and contacting people.
Although, I know this is very hard for the millennials (yes, including me.)
So the tips above will help cut the addiction drastically as well.
5. Turn of Notifications
One of the most ingenious ways to keep you using your phone was to invent notifications.
And then, even better, was to change the colors, so you know which app is notifying you.
Despite these nifty tricks, turning notifications off will help to calm the mind and make you not reach for your phone every few seconds to see if you have a notification.
Instead, you get to choose when you want to check your phone.
Bringing the power back into your hands.
How Does This Fit into Heightened Living?
While often we aim to add things to our lives to make them better, getting rid of habits is more productive at times.
This is one of those times.
Cutting down your time on your phone and the addiction to it, not only gets rid of a bad habit but gives you a lot more time and freedom to do what you want to do.
Don't do anything because you don't want to, know your why, find your root and then execute.
Thanks for reading,
Austin
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://heightenedliving.com/how-to-cut-phone-addiction-and-actually-unplug/