How to create habits to help you manage why, what, and how much you are on your phone.

Fragmented attention fragments relationships.

The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living. 

Got your attention? For the past five years, I have researched and practiced ways to have a healthy relationship with my cell phone. And then I slip into old patterns and have to reboot habits to help me recalibrate the conscious uncoupling with a device that we invest so much time in, every day. 

So how do you break up with your phone?

Edit #1: How much are you on your phone? Take a hard, long look at your phone usage. Trust me it will be more than you think. So often we use our phones to fill the dead space. Space waiting in line, waiting at the red light, waiting for kid pick up, waiting between meetings. But sometimes that waiting bleeds into the time where you are supposed to be on and engaged with others-not on your phone.

Each Sunday I receive an update on my screen time and I can edit/audit my time by reviewing the screen time before the start of the week. When I am really out of sync, I even put myself on screen-time ‘time out’. This is the process of literally locking yourself out of specific apps, or shutting everything down/off at a certain time at night.

Edit #2: When you are on your phone are you growing or grazing? Ever go to Google looking for just one thing, and 20 minutes later you were sucked into a variety of People magazine topics, realizing you actually forgot what you were initially looking for? When you catch yourself in a binge-worthy session on your cell phone ask yourself this question: is what I am reading/watching/scrolling something I am growing from or grazing on? That tough question will produce a few hard truths to clarify why you were on the phone in the first place.

Another trick? Shut it off, or put it away. If you are in a season or space where you are struggling to get something done and distracted by your phone-turn it off or put it away in a different room. My new routine is leaving my phone at home on Sunday mornings. I attend church with my family distraction-free, and on the days I need to bring it, I just shut it off and put it away. Being freed from the bings, buzzes, and rings can help you with clarity in your thinking, and deeper relationships with those near to you.

Edit #3: Time to prune and purge. When contributing to 10 Perspectives on Learning in Education I shared that ensuring that you have a sense of intentionality and time is essential to becoming productive and work and in life.

So to think about this ask yourself: What apps are you using? Do an audit of what you regularly use and delete the rest. Having to scroll through a maze of apps you don’t use will distract you from what you want to get done.

Another idea-delete the ones you are using too much. For a season I took Facebook off my phone-if I wanted to update my status, or check on friends and family I had to do so on a computer.

Edit Extra Credit: Create a Little Zen with your apps. Six years ago I completed the Bored and Brilliant Challenge. Since that time I continue to find ways to organize and declutter my real life spaces and those on the screen. One recent addition has been to cluster all my apps by color. I have a blue folder, red folder, green folder, white and orange and the corresponding apps are on that page. It took me a little time to retrain my brain to search in a different way, but it looks very aesthetically pleasing, and I was able to prune a few more apps in the process.

So there you have it, a few ideas for you to edit, demo, or renovate your own usage of your cell phone. Have more ideas? Please let me know on one of the socials where we can continue to conversation and work together to become a better #PrincipalInBalance by creating habits to set boundaries between work and life.

Interested in a little homework? Work on your own edits? Check out this free checklist: 5 Ways to Regulate Tech Use.