Is your phone the biggest time waster in your life?

Cal Newport suggests deleting all your apps and then only reinstalling them when it becomes painfully obvious they really do provide you value. I just did this recently and it's helped a lot. I really want to read his book Digital Minimalism, as I've already read So Good They Can't Ignore You and Deep Work and they were both gold.

Also, I've been using Siempo launcher for Android. It's whole goal is to encourage you to use your phone as a tool instead of a pit of distraction. It has some nifty features:

• Every time you unlock your phone you're greeted with the intention you set, reminding you of what you really want.
• It allows you to schedule when you'll receive your notifications.
• You can mark apps as problematic and it will remove them from search and show them in a dedicated pane you have to swipe to. In addition, it randomizes the order of the apps on this page so you can't mindlessly open your vice of choice.

I also have a rule I enforce using Beeminder and Tasker that I have to put the phone away by 7pm on average. This also prevents me from using my phone in bed.

I also use Beeminder and Tasker to track usage data, including how long I use my phone every day and how long I use YouTube on the phone. I can then use Beeminder to commit to changing these metrics if I so choose.

Turn it off and put it in a locked drawer. Put the key to the drawer in a different room.
The more steps you have to take to use it, the better :)

I have a self imposed rule where I don't look at my phone until at least after breakfast. Allows for a few hours of phone free time to let me think about what I need to accomplish that day. The rest of the day I struggle just as well haha.

Okay so things I all ready do:

1. My phone is always on silent and I disable notifications for all apps except messaging

2. I unfollow everyone on Facebook and don’t really use other social media apart from indie hackers

3. I block sites I know I spend a lot of time on like hacker news, the actual news

4. My average screen time is about 3 hours which I think it’s a lot.

5. The main app I use is chrome, so I go on indiehackers and other websites

6. The disturbing thing is I pick up my phone 48 times per day, which I think is a lot.

7. I’m not sure what other people do but I think my stats are pretty bad 3hrs per day of screen time and 48 pick ups.

@chrisT, @christine, @chokybp, @sergey_shvets, @elitan, @MF706

Of course this post was written on my phone :))

I know what you mean, it's so hard to spend less time on your phone! My 'low' average is 4 hours a day, but when I'm not being so disciplined, it's ~6 hours a day. These averages are days where I'm mostly home. If I'm out and about then my screen time is really low.

Here are some things I do to decrease my screen time:

1. Turn it off during the work day and put it in another room
2. Organize the 'time-waster' apps like Instagram into the last pages of my apps and into folders, so I don't see their icons
3. Keep my phone on silent and turn off all notifications
4. Turn on 'Downtime' and 'App Limit' (if you have iOS)
5. Put an interesting book or magazine next to me instead of my phone so whenever I feel the urge to grab my phone for distraction, I trained myself to grab the book or magazine instead.
6. Also, I turned using my phone into a positive thing. So whenever I use my phone for something I consider useless, I have to do some push-ups or pull-ups.

Get rid of the apps/sites that you think are wasting your life and try to make your phone more boring. Try to keep the things as simple as possible. If you are using social media apps/sites unfollow the peoples/groups that don't give you anything valuable.

Turn off notifications and put in on silent.
Use app timers to limit yourself from using them too much unconsciously.
Don't use your phone hour before sleep, allowing your mind to cool down.
When you can do something else, don't read your phone.

Impose some self discipline. Just DO NOT WASTE TIME on your phone.