Breaking Phone Addiction

While phone addiction might seem like a joke compared to other addictions, it shares a lot of qualities with something like food addiction, in that nowadays, we are constantly surrounded by phones and often need them for our jobs and lives, just like how we need food to live. It isn't something that you can just swear off and remove from your life. It is constantly calling to you.

In my case, I often get pulled back into that constant phone usage when something exciting is happening in sports, I realize that in the scheme of things, something as meaningless as the NBA draft and free agency shouldn't have such a grasp on me, but it is so easy to fall back into the habit of needing to know what is happening right when it is happening.

It certainly doesn't help that every company is vying for our attention - it could be like my issue, the sports, or it could be a mobile game, the news, other social media, or a million other things. They all want your attention, and they will use every trick in the book to get it.

My job sometimes requires me to be available all of the hours that I'm awake. It's important for me to hear every notification - that means that during prime working hours, I'm hearing every email and text that I get from my friends, too. Hearing my phone triggers a response in me that gets me to pick it up, check the notification, usually respond, and then spend 5 minutes doom-scrolling on the artist formerly known as Twitter. Not healthy.

I don't think anybody likes feeling like they're under the control of their addiction. In order to train my body back to being able to focus, I (ironically) started setting a timer on my phone for 15 minutes, and in those 15 minutes, I only take work calls and nothing else. Training myself to not feel like I NEED to be up to date to the second isn't easy.

On weekends, or when I'm not needed to be available, my phone is on "do not disturb." I don't need to hear those dings. The other day, I forced myself to read for 15 whole minutes straight - and I'm not going to lie, I was only able to make it a few minutes without feeling my mind start to swerve towards the siren's call from my phone

While it was embarrassing to have the attention span of my two year old toddler, it's been a quick journey back into being able to keep focus for a normal amount of time at once. I've regained my ability to be productive. It feels so good, but at the same time, it is a reminder of how easy it is to fall back into those things that can control your life so easily - be it your phone or something else that steals away control from your life.

The feeling of being productive again is so satisfying. Those checklists you make of everything you want to accomplish in a day will be checked off before you know it. And while it might sound goofy, you'll even enjoy those moments of checking your phone even more. Nearly everything in life is better and healthier in moderation.

Note: I did end up buying an hourglass (pictured above) as my 15 minute timer, and it feels good when I eventually look over and see that the timer has been empty for who knows how long.