My mobile phone addiction

Who else likes to escape reality with their phone on the internet? I mean it’s really easy. All you have to do is pick up your phone and go to Instagram, Facebook, or Whatsapp and just scroll, scroll, and scroll. Sometimes you lose track of time when you are on these platforms and end up wasting practically your whole day. In no time at all, you have a phone addiction. I’ve been there and honestly sometimes I catch myself falling but this year I’ve tried to be intentional. I honestly don’t think it’s healthy for anyone to spend more than 20 minutes aimlessly scrolling on social media. I know sometimes I go online with good intentions but I end up getting distracted. This habit became extreme when I had my kids. Sometimes you’re just looking for a temporary escape from all the screaming, all the noise, and all the chaos. You just want to get away, maybe reset and then face the music. Unfortunately what happens a lot of the time is that you lose a level of consciousness to your environment, things get out of hand and it becomes a dreadful phone addiction. I am especially a constant victim because I do a lot of work on my phone and tablet. I edit videos and pictures, design flyers, chat with customers, record my inventory and do my bookkeeping all on my phone and tablet. So I spend a lot of time on my devices. There is a need for change and change is happening.

Zero screen time no phone addiction

These days I intentionally give myself offline time. This is usually over the weekdays between the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Now this is not a very rigid offline time but I do zero or at least I try to do zero browsing online. During this time I play with my kids, make a meal for dinner, and chat with my husband when he gets back home from work. There are times when I catch myself going online but I know that it’s normal to relapse in the early stages so I don’t kill myself. In the near future, I plan to add Sundays to the offline time as well. If you want to get rid of your phone addiction, first practice doing it around the times when you are naturally busy and also around the times when you don’t get a lot of activity on your phone or tablet. For my kids we came up with a “no screen time during the weekdays” rule so I feel like by doing this myself I’m setting a very good example for them to follow. Also, if I’m playing with them they won’t really want to watch TV. Double win! 

Outsourcing work

Over the past couple of months, I have also given some of my online work activities to my assistant. I intend to outsource more in the coming months. I know what you’re thinking, wait if I am giving more things for others to do doesn’t that leave me with more time to do mindless scrolling online? Hello, phone addiction? Well not really. This is how I see it. There are two main reasons why I spend too much time online. The first reason is that I want to escape and the second reason is that I get distracted when I’m doing some tasks. So the main plan is to do more physical escapes and also reduce the amount of distraction. If I’m doing fewer tasks I guess I’ll be less distracted. So far I have found some really good results. I have also been able to find time to do other things in my business and at home so outsourcing is actually very good once you can get someone else to do what you want well at least well enough.

Using more offline tools

This year I bought myself a physical journal slash planner to use to organize my day. I deleted the app that I have on my tablet that I used to plan my day and my week and I’m in the process of doing it manually. There’s something magical about writing things with a pen on paper and it wasn’t until I started his journey that I remembered this. It’s ok to type because the ideas are the same but I feel like your own handwriting makes it more personal. It’s like when someone sends you an email and when another person writes you a letter on a piece of paper. The difference is obvious. I’m not gonna lie, there are some challenges that I’m going through but just like before I guess it’s just a transition issue. I have a few more of my little journals for anyone who’s interested in taking this journey with me. Maybe I’ll do a giveaway and give some out. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in having one. Let’s get rid of our phone addictions together with more physical activities!

Muting my notifications

Notifications on your phone are major distractions. A little sound on your phone can instantly get you away from what you are doing. This is how it usually goes for me. I am in the process of sending an email and then I get a notification about an article on good parenting. I send the email quickly and spend time reading this article. Another notification pops up from Instagram and the rest is history. Turn off your notifications and it will help. I noticed that I handle my tasks better this way and when I’m done I can easily get off my phone. I believe this step will really reduce my phone addiction.

So yeah these are the things I’m starting with right now. I may get more ideas as my journey proceeds but for now, this is what I’m focusing on. Do you have an addiction yourself and want to get rid of it? Let me know what you are doing to get better. Maybe we can learn from each other. Hopefully, I’ll do an update article somewhere at the end of the year to see if things have changed or not. Wish me luck!