Healthy Smartphone Habits?

[yetineti]

As per title. 
 

Any ideas for keeping away from these addicting monsters!

Don’t get me wrong, I use my phone quite practically as well but I also waste a lot of time.

I considered a flip phone but I use my phone for work and it is my main source of internet and other utilities.

Thats the dilemma, I, practically, need the phone but wish I never had it.

I have tried those lock boxes and such and they are pretty good, unless I need to leave the house, or something.

Any tips on how to minimize smart phone usage, while still making the most out of these tools?

[GreenLight]

Oneplus phones has this feature called Zen mode. Basically, you choose a time between 1-120min and the phone locks itself. You can take incoming calls and do photos without seeing it on the screen. That's about it, nothing you can do when the phone locks and you have to wait.

I use it frequently, especially like a timer for my meditations .

I think we need to be 2 hours away from our phones everyday to remain sane. 

 

[Meditationdude]

@mw711 I don’t know if this is something you can force yourself to do and maintain long term. Like any addiction you must have an enormous amount of motivation and vision to get you out. So strong that you can have alcohol or narcotics or your phone right next to you without anybody watching and not even worry about touching them.

 

Once you truly realize how your addiction to your phone is keeping you unconscious you’ll stop. That is if you truly care about consciousness and truth. I find that most people think enlightenment and all this Leo content is incredible and fascinating, but never actually do the insanely difficult work of intentional suffering. 
 

This is what you’re doing right now man. Intentionally suffering in an attempt to grow. A leap of faith, hoping that if you can stop wasting your life on your phone you can take that next step in your life and grow. But you must suffer first!
So, here you go let’s see how conscious you are. Can you do it? Can you let it go for good? Are you ready to let it die? Are you ready to die? 
 

I hope you win this battle man! I’m routing for ya ?
 

 

[Ethan1]

 

@mw711

 

Just wanted to let you know that I created a discussion over in the serious emotional problems category today to discuss YouTube addiction. I spend majority of my time on Youtube w/ my phone and have been addicted for years. Decided to completely disable the app today and try to go without it for a few weeks. If I ever plan on using youtube it will be on my laptop because this creates more of an obstacle to use it. Plus, there's more extensions/tools that are available to prevent becoming addicted with a laptop vs a cell phone. Cell phone apps are  

• Determine which apps on your phone you are using the most.
• Delete as many unnecessary apps on your phone. Go minimalistic. Less distractions. Make it clean
• Use less colorful backgrounds. Less attractive to the eyes. 
• Keep only essential apps on your phone. (Maps, google sheets, texting apps, camera) 
• Delete bloatware to make app less distracting and less friction to find what you need.
• Track your time on each app.
• Set alarm to go off at certain times. Morning a& night time. Especially at night time before going to bed.
• Keep your charger in a different room than your bed room.
• Disable YouTube on your phone completely. Only use YouTube on a laptop to prevent using it all the time.
• Delete all social media sites - They are rigged to get you hooked. Including SnapChat.
• Delete any dating apps - Tinder & bumble. Meet people at coffee shops or go to meetup.com to get involved in your community.
• Delete any and all games on your phone. Games are designed to be addictive & a major distractor. Especially Runescape.
• Change the screen color to grey. Making it less attractive to use.
• Use timer apps like Forest. To intentionally create obstacles from using it. 
• If still using YouTube add time use notifications within the settings.
• Turn off all notifications except texts & phone calls.
• Get a blocker app if you find yourself watching porn to block images & sites.
• Become more intentional with your time. Use Google calendar to time block for certain tasks you have to do.

Also, the book atomic habits talks about breaking habits:
1. Make it less visible. Out of sight, out of mind.

2. Make it unattractive. The more boring looking the less your brain will build habits.

3.  Make it hard. Create obstacles to using the phone. Put it in another room.. Create road blocks. Timers + passwords to access.

4. Make it unsatisfying. Take away the rewards that you get. Dopamine rewards such as notifications. Whatever triggers a reward. Certain sounds. Colorful lights. Whatever to make the rewards less. Create a punishment attached to use if necessary. 

 

Budget your time like you budget your money. Allocate certain amount of time to each area of your life. Back to what I was talking about with the Google Calendar. You only have 24 hours each day to spend. Become intentional with what you want to do. Integrate your to do list with you calendar. Really sit down and determine how to use your time each day. 7-9 hours of sleep. A few hours for eating. Time for a shower. Time for whatever. Keep the calendar opened on your laptop whenever possible in a place you can see it. Bring more awareness to how you allocate & spend your time. 

 

Hope you found some value from a few of the bullets. Also, I recommend reading the book atomic habits if you get a chance. Great book!

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by Ethan1