We are in a digital era where technology is rapidly moving forward and new social apps keep popping up everywhere. We enter the rabbit hole of aimlessly scrolling through these apps, constantly updating ourselves with the latest news and sharing information with the world to get a response. We are inundated with a unanimous amount of information about the harm our phones are doing to us.
So what can we do to change this worldwide discussion on the negativities about our phones?
It all lies in the intent of using the phone.
The producers of technology thrive from our constant use of technology, have you ever noticed whenever you get a message your phone brightly lights up or when you get a notification the sounds or vibrations lasted a bit longer than usual? Theses are all savvy techniques to keep up connected to our phones and they’ve been planted so in-depth within us, it’s automatic reaction to grab it.
We all fall into this trap including myself. I have a love-hate relationship with my phone because on numerous occasions( too many that I want to admit) I will be using my phone for a particular reason and then all of a sudden my finger has exited out of the thing I was intended to be using and automatically, I unconsciously head over the social apps where I spend an endless amount of hours scrolling through, trying to get to the end of the page; which you’re not able to because the creators want you to keep scrolling. In the end, I feel unproductive and wasted an insane amount of time.
So how do we intentionally use our phone? Here are some daily habits you can do to intentionally use your phone:
- Having a habit tracker will enable you to keep a record on how productive and intentional you are doing with your task- I use an app called Habit that sends reminders on healthy habits you would like to form. As you tick off the habit for the day, the percentage goes up and before you realise it will be 100% and you’ve formed a long term healthy habit.
- Having a set timer or blocker that helps you stay off your phone can boost your productivity and not heavily rely on your phone for social use.
- Don’t use your phone before you go to bed- You will often find yourself not being able to sleep from the brightly lit screen.
- Only use your phone for what you need to do!
- Create a phone-free zone
- Turn your phone upside down, this will help from constantly picking up your phone when a notification arrives.
What are your top tips for using your phone intentionally?
Live everyday with gratitude X
The Grounded Tree 
Great tips, technology is such a prominent part of today’s society but I do think we spend way too much time on our phones in ways which aren’t productive at all.
Thank you! I totally agree that we spend too much time on our phone in non-productive ways. We are attached to our phones so much and once we are sucked in, it’s harder to get out.
Definitely. Phones can definitely be positive in a lot of ways, but we need to remember that there is a line between what’s good and what’s not.
Exactly! couldn’t have put it better myself 🙂
Yeah I definitely need to sort out my phone use – I downloaded that habit tracker but just couldn’t really think of much to track ha! Maybe I need to try it again.
If it helps I started off with 1 thing I would like to do and kept to that for over a month and then proceeded to add more habits once I got into a routine. Alternatively, you could write down goals you would like to achieve and do it that way!