How To Overcome Smartphone Addiction In 5 Simple Steps

Most modern people spend a lot of time with their smartphone. According to a recent study, the average person spends four hours a day on games, social networks and other applications. And this is already 28 hours a week — a considerable figure.

Editor and writer Megan Holstein has tried many methods to overcome smartphone addiction. She tried to completely delete social networks from her phone and even made the screen of her iPhone black and white, but all these measures did not give results. As a result, Megan developed a five-step guide that turned out to be more effective.

Megan Holstein

The problem with smartphone addiction is not the smartphone. If that were the case, then the right solution would be to just get rid of it. The problem is which apps you use and how.

Holstein warns you against the following mistakes before you proceed with the five steps:

• Do not delete social media apps from your smartphone. This is too radical a step. Social networks are still needed: sometimes this is the only way to contact some person. If you delete them, then sooner or later you will have to go to the app store again and install clients.
• Do not limit the number of programs on the home screen. Surely you have those that you use infrequently, but they are useful from time to time. For example, altimeter, TinyScanner and Authy. It makes no sense to delete or hide such applications.
• Don't give up your smartphone altogether. Switching to a push-button dialer will deprive you of many advantages — convenient notes and task managers or maps, for example. After all, smartphones are useful, you just need to use them wisely.

And in order to get rid of addiction painlessly or minimize it, try the following.

1. Distinguish useful applications from harmful

ones First of all, Megan suggests deciding which applications are useful for you and which are harmful (she calls such programs "toxic"). Useful applications are, for example, banking programs, calculators, dialers, calendar, maps, and so on. And all sorts of games, social networks and applications for selfies and applying filters are most likely harmful.

But it's pretty individual. For example, Instagram is "toxic" for most people, as it takes a lot of time and does not bring any benefit except nurturing one's own ego. However, if you work with social networks, Instagram can be useful and even necessary for you.

Holstein names the following signs of a harmful application:

• You feel that the desire to open and test it is irresistible.
• You regret that you spent a lot of time in it.
• It makes your life worse, not better.
• It does not bring practical benefits.
• Make a list of useful and "toxic" programs on your smartphone to know exactly what to limit yourself to.

2. Remove really harmful programs

If you have some apps lying around in your smartphone's memory that you don't use at all, delete them. And never install anything from the principle of "suddenly it will come in handy someday".

Having decided to delete the application, spend a few minutes of your time and, in addition, deactivate the account associated with the program, if there is one. Firstly, it will be less tempting to install the program again, because you will have to re-create an account. Secondly, the service will not remind you of itself by sending letters in the spirit of: "You haven't been seen for a long time, install our wonderful app."

Then remove the phone games. Yes, it's a nice way to spend time. But if you are reading this article, then you have caught yourself thinking that you are sticking too much in your smartphone. If you love gaming, buy a gaming PC or console.

3. Rearrange the remaining applications

Place the programs in folders

Facebook inst Twitter, Instagram and other social media apps can be useful, but only sometimes. And in order to be less distracted by them, their icons should be hidden as far away as possible.

Move the icons to the second home screen, and then group them into folders there. This way you will reduce the attractiveness of social networks. Previously, to open the same Instagram, you only had to touch your smartphone once. Now you will have to make three gestures already - swipe your finger to select the desired home screen, open the folder and only then click on the desired icon.

The longer you have to open the program, the less tempted you will be to do it. In addition, if you do not keep little-used applications on your home screen, it will remind you less of itself and bother your eyes.

Move harmful apps to the top

There are many different ways to sort icons on the home screen. But if you are struggling with smartphone addiction, the method invented by Avery Schwartz, a web designer from Toronto, is best suited for you.

Avery places her apps based on how easy it will be for her to reach a particular icon with her thumb when the smartphone is held with one hand. She puts the most useful programs closer to the lower left corner of the screen (she is left-handed). And those that take up a lot of her time are sent to the upper right corner.

If you are right-handed, place the application icons for work, study and sports in the lower right corner of the screen. And let all sorts of social networks and chats lie on top. The harder it is for you to reach them with your thumb, the less often you will open them.

Clear the home screen

After you hide unnecessary applications somewhere in folders or in the bowels of the menu, you should place really important things on the home screen. Task managers, note takers, email client — everything that allows you to spend time with sense.

Megan Holstein

Just remember the main rule: never place an application on the home screen that you don't want to use often.

4. Turn off most notifications

Disable notifications in apps

Even when the social network client himself is hidden deep in the bowels of folders and menus, he still continues to distract your attention with endless notifications. Fortunately, this is not difficult to stop.

Disable notifications on icons

Application settings are not everything. In addition, smartphones can distract you in another way — red circles with a counter of unread notifications that appear on the icons on the home screen.

This is a useful thing when it comes to something urgent. For example, when the red circle says that you have a missed call and you have to call back.

But if someone marks you in an Instagram photo, it is unlikely that it will require your attention at the same minute. And the red icon will only distract you. So disable unread reminder counters for unimportant applications.

On the iPhone, you need to go to the system "Settings" to do this. Find the "Notifications" item there, and you will see a list of applications. In it, select, for example, some social network and click on it.

In the application settings, move the "Stickers" option to the "Off" position. Repeat these steps for each application, which should not distract you with their badges.

Turn off notifications

Social media apps have pretty good and detailed notification settings. But in a number of other programs you will not find them. Fortunately, unnecessary notifications can be disabled via system settings.

To do this, go to the settings as indicated in the previous paragraphs for Android and iOS. Choose an application that is too necessary to delete, but too annoying to read what it says there. Click on the "Show notifications" item and turn it to the "Off" position. Repeat this with all unimportant programs.

5. Install useful apps

So, you have deleted useless and unused programs, cleaned your smartphone of toys, hid social networks deep into folders and correctly configured notifications. Now you need to go further and install something useful on your smartphone so that after limiting the "toxic" applications, you do not have a feeling of emptiness.

Megan compares smartphone addiction to smoking.

Megan Holstein

An effective way to quit smoking is to replace a bad habit with a useful one. Or at least a more neutral one.

Therefore, former smokers are trying to replace cigarettes with chewing gum, regular drinking of milk or sports.

It's the same with a smartphone. When you feel that the desire to tap into the screen is irresistible, do not resist — just do not do social networks, but more useful things.