Healthy Smartphone Habits

Text Messages, instagram likes, and all app notifications have one thing in common - they all want your attention!

With the goal of taking back control of my attention, here are three rules I follow to redefine the relationship with my smartphone:

All notifications off

No dings, no pings, no buzzes. Turning off all notifications ensures that I can have the device on me without it being a constant distraction. Phone calls still ring.

Away time

All healthy relationships require away time. I leave my phone at home when walking the dog, running out for a coffee, and other activities that don’t require a smartphone.

Out of reach at night

When the alarm on my smartphone goes off in the morning - I have to physically get out of bed to turn it off. This has two major advantages. I’m less likely to browse before bed at night, and less likely to snooze in the mornings.

Smartphones are one of the greatest inventions of humanity - how we design our relationship with technology is up to us.