Conscious uncoupling from the iPhone

I realised recently from a screen time report that I am using up to 4-5 hours daily on my phone. Added to that I seem to have lost the ability to concentrate and a vague sense of unease. Have you ever caught yourself checking your phone without any thought…whether it be scrolling through Facebook or checking the news.

I seem to remember as a child coped ok without a phone and I could read books almost in one sitting and was less distractible.

Therefore I am going to try to use my phone less. Obviously I will still use it for texts, phone etc but I am going to try to get below an hour a day. I will stick with my Mac for productive stuff.

I it would be interesting what is everybody’s average screen time is.

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Mine is 1hr 56 mins average. I am always getting the urge to use the phone but resist as much as possible so I can think and disconnect while out and about. When I have to wait for something I just let my mind think things over and enjoy my surroundings rather than scroll on social media.

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Is it possible to remove an app from screen time? Most of my usage is Waze, but having the phone in my car’s console for navigation is not really “usage”.

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What’s your trigger? When do you pickup your phone? (Screen time can help with this)

Does turning off notifications help?

My anxiety shoots through the roof using my phone for social media. I can’t do it.

I deleted Facebook and my screen time shot way down. I still use Overcast an inconceivable amount but I try to learn new things.

Kept Tweetbot to keep up with my industry and LinkedIn is a necessary evil for knowledge workers. I have Instagram as an outlet but don’t go on it much.

But if I pick up Tweetbot and stay on it for more than 20 minutes I feel myself get anxious and I know it’s time to put it away.

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Is it a coincidence that the story below appeared in my pocket feed within FireFox?

That one got me off the cigarettes. And thinking about it, phone FOMO is kind of the same.

Yes. I had plenty of distractions before the iPhone and the internet came into my life. I’ve found that the solution always involves a better understanding of the problems in my relationship with what I’m being distracted from rather than what I’m being distracted by.

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