How to Get Rid of Smartphone Addiction
1. Use Digital Wellbeing or Screen Time
Android is equipped with a dedicated feature to track your smartphone usage, dubbed as Digital Wellbeing. Using it, you can manage notifications, set timers for applications that you’ve been spending most of the time on, configure Do-not disturb, and toggle the Wind Down mode to help disconnect at night. It gives you a detailed overview of your digital habits, including how often different apps are used, how regularly you check your phone, and what’s the frequency of notifications. You also get to see the average weekly and monthly time you’re wasting on your phone. Thus, you can monitor your usage and achieve better screen time management. Apple offers a similar feature called Screen Time on iOS.
2. Avoid Uploading on Social Media
The more you upload on social media, the more you’ll be curious to know the engagement and interactions received on your posts, stories, or status updates. This will make you check your phone more often than usual. Not only that, add the time required in entertaining everyone’s comments and queries.
In the screenshot above, you can see my average daily activity on Instagram. Notice the massive increase in time spent on Thursday and Monday- these were the days when I posted the most on my profile and ended up wasting more than double the time I usually spent on Instagram. So yeah, always try to keep yourself from posting on social media, unless and until it’s very important.
3. Turn Off Notifications
Just like social media, notifications are one of the biggest culprits behind luring you to your phone. One notification, and you’ll pause the ongoing work to look after your phone. And generally, most smartphone addicts who unlock the phone for a WhatsApp message, end up scrolling through YouTube updates or doing something else. Therefore, turning notifications off is very important to get rid of your smartphone addiction. You can either put your phone on silent or turn on do-not-disturb with allowance for specific calls and messages. This way, you will save a massive chunk of time without skipping on urgent notifications.
4. Find a Real-Life Hobby
Instead of playing games or watching movies while lying on the bed, focus on building yourself. If yoga isn’t your cup of tea, try doing some physical exercise or play outdoor games like cricket, tennis, etc. If that too is not possible, then cycling or simple jogging would do the job. Given the current situation, it’s difficult for people to go outdoors. Yet, you can try things like cooking, painting, playing guitar, cleaning your home, reading books, and more. These subtle changes in your daily routine can help you cure your smartphone addiction.
5. Remove Addictive Apps.
As noted in the firstmost point, you can use Digital Wellbeing or Screen Time to identify addictive apps and then figure out if they’re adding any value to your life. Say, you spend most of the time playing a particular game; but have you ever thought of what will you get in turn? Well, most of my friends still regret the time wasted in conquering quests and winning races. So, give it a quick think-over, analyze what’s good for you, and then make the right decision.
Tip- Use your Phone for Productive Things
If staying away from the phone is getting too difficult for you, then why not use it for productive things like reading e-books, blogs, or anything that’ll improve your knowledge or skillset. You can also use fitness apps for working out at home. That way, you can focus on maintaining your shape without forcing yourself to leave your phone.
Wrapping Up
So this was all about how you can get rid of your smartphone addiction. Anyway, which tip do you find the most effective? Do let us know in the comments below. Have anything else to suggest? Feel free to add in below. Stay tuned for more such articles. Also, read- How to Save Mobile Data on Your Android Smartphone.
