Hey Team! For years I've tried different things to reduce screen time and times I picked up the phone. Deleting apps, to reinstall next week. Moving social apps off the home page, to only take more time arranging and rearranging mindlessly. HOWEVER, this week I found the most effective method yet.
Notifications = distraction. So many times I would hear that ding, I literally did just before I typed this sentence. But it was a productive notification, from a highly recommended app - Habits, reminding me to eat a healthy breakfast. I have basically wiped off every notification that is a distraction or could potentially unnecessarily distract me from a productive task.
It has been tremendously refreshing. So many mindless notifications - and with each pull to the phone to check, there is an inevitable re-check, or 27th check, of whatever news or social media has sucked me in that day.
PLEASE REPLY WITH ANY OTHER CELL PHONE HACKS/CRAFTS OR HIGHLY RECOMMENDED APPS TO REDUCE SCREEN TIME AND/OR IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF WHEN YOU DO USE YOUR PHONE.
I've found it helpful to remove the temptation of checking my phone constantly by not keeping it on me during certain times of the day. For example, in the evenings and on weekends I try to be present with my family so I leave my phone upstairs on my nightstand so I'm not tempted to look at it every 30 seconds. If I need to make a call or check email/messages I have to go into a separate room to do it. I've found that, in general, I'm not missing ANYTHING, and it allows me to enjoy the time with my family much more. I've been bad at this lately, but am going to re-instate my cell-phone-on-night-stand policy and will report back here with feedback!