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Technology has become an undeniably important part of our lives. Ever since the debut of the original iPhone, the world has exponentially grown used to the concept of an all-in-one machine that sits in the back of your pocket, but it is with the convenience that a new problem arose: Smartphone addiction.

According to Mobile Metrix, people (females in specific) aged 18-24 were using their phones 88.5 hours per month. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, consider a discovery by Psychology Daily that reports that in a study, “one out of 10 participants agreed to text while having sex”. If this isn’t enough to prove that smartphones have overtaken our lives – I don’t know what is!

Through this madness, a completely laser-focused field in minimalism has emerged: Digital Minimalism. This is of course the idea of not only using your phone less, but more efficiently. Thus in today’s post, I’d like to share with you some simple start tricks to start using your phone more efficiently



THE DUMB PHONE SYNDROME

The Light Phone II

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my post about the light phone II, a device that promises to only offer the necessary features and none of distracting social media stuff that keeps us engaged. Now while there is a surefire level of science behind this creation, I personally take some issue with it.

Yes, the red badges next to our social media apps are distracting. Yes, our vibrant OLED displays keep us engaged and encourage to take photos of basically everything that may potentially look good. Yes, the ability to play highly complex games such as PUBG on your phone is yet another opportunity for addiction to arise, but consider this: If a smartphone is used properly, it not only provides more tools than a light phone, but allows for an organised all-in-one system that ultimately frees more space at home.

Quickly consider that the same device that you use to watch cat videos can do the following things: Replace a radio, replace your calendar, become your to-do list, help you meditate, give you quick access to a thesaurus and dictionary, call other people, give you recipes, replace physical books and even be your personal GPS.

When all the functions of your device are laid out like that, you may come to the same realisation as I did when I first started tackling the digital minimalism question: It is not your device that is the problem, but your mentality towards it. If you see your smartphone as your entertainment centre, it will slowly consume you, but if you come to accept that your smartphone is actually a tool that can help you become more productive, then it will slowly become less and less appealing as a means of fulfilling some sort of virtual addiction.



REINFORCING YOUR DIGITAL FREEDOM

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find thousands upon thousands of excuses as to why you’re so addicted to your phone. Trust me, for a while I was the first to say things such as “I can’t use my phone less because my friends depend on me” or “If I stop using my phone, then I will have wasted money buying it in the first place”, I’ve even gone as far as saying “If I leave social media for one day, everyone will forget me”. While some of these worries may have some merit to them, they can be easily overcome, here’s how:

Delete Apps: Using your phone less is a long journey that starts with accepting that you need to change your past habits. Be honest with yourself, by keeping your phone the same it is now, with the same apps and the same messy layout, your behaviour will most likely not change. For this reason, I strongly recommend that you take a look through all your apps and consider how necessary they are to fulfilling your habits and survival needs.

When I was in this stage myself, I created what I call the “desktop rule”, which limits me to only using the desktop versions of apps such as Reddit and Facebook. By accepting this rule, you can more easily delete these “hard to let go of” apps, which will encourage you to further delete other apps such as games and any unused application off of your device. This is the hardest step of the entire process, but hey, at least now you’re one step closer to digital freedom and have a few more GBs for the things that matter.

It is also in this part that you may start to get apps that may benefit your new lifestyle. If your hobby is writing, get a good notes app. If you’re into singing, get a karaoke app. Decide what it is that you’d like to focus on and ensure that your phone can be a tool to suffice it. I highly recommend anyone installs a to-do list app on their phone, as checking off goals on your phone can be a great way to use a phone’s addictive psychology to your advantage.

Some apps that I think are necessary to anyone’s lifestyle and should not be deleted include: the phone app, one messaging app, a browser, a to-do list, and a music player. This may vary depending on your lifestyle, for example, if you’re an avid digital book reader, then keeping the Kindle app may be crucial to you. The rule here is to be honest with yourself and try your hardest to control your phone instead of letting it control you.

Get rid of the notification badges: Time and time again, Psychology has proved that the colour red is the most attention grabbing colour in existence. When your app icons display red badges prompting you to open them, it is no wonder that we feel like it is simply impossible to resist. By going into your phone settings and disabling notification badges (usually under some notification tab in your phone’s settings) you have accomplished a very important part of digital minimalism: you now control your phone, it no longer controls you.

Reorganise your phone: This is the final stage and it is when you have to get most creative. It is time to get a new wallpaper! Go for something minute and peaceful, that way when you do reach for your phone, the calming and semi-boring wallpaper doesn’t give you any incentive to keep digging when you know you shouldn’t. A great website to find calming wallpapers is Unsplash, as it has a great varied selection of wallpapers that are specifically formatted for your device.

Another important thing to consider is page arrangement. This is where this entire journey gets very personal: are you a person that doesn’t do what is too hard? Then put your distracting apps in the later pages of an “all apps” folder, making it harder for you to access them. Are you someone who can obey set rules? Then maybe create different pages on your homescreen and set it up so that the first page includes your always allowed apps and your second includes your distractions. Another way to tackle this is to simply create a “routine” and “distractions” folder, which is the tactic that works best for me.

If you’re on Android, you can take advantage of custom icon packs that make apps look boring, making you less-likely to click something just for the sake of doing something. Another tactic you can use if you’re really into getting rid of your smartphone addiction is to go for a completely black and white look, making your phone as boring as possible.

With all this in mind, here is how my homescreen looks like:

My Perfect Setup – For Now



BABY STEPS

Now that you’ve reorganised your phone and hopefully set some rules on your phone usage, accept that becoming completely independent from it may take many months, even years. You’ll find yourself constantly going back to your old habits and sometimes this may make it seem as if your entire journey has been worthless – it is here however, that perseverance and strength are both required in order to ensure that you continue your journey.

A great way to keep practicing it after failure is to remind yourself of why you started this entire journey in the entire place. It is also important to ensure that the initial goals that led you in this journey (be it writing a book or developing a cool new game ) are being done on the side, as the lack of productivity will simply allow for more room for your addiction to return.As a last tip, remember to always be on the lookout for resources that motive you to keep going on your digital minimalism journey, as it is by seeing other people’s success that we grow stronger. One recommendation that I am currently using myself is the book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy world, which provides great insight as to why Digital Minimalism is such a worthwhile process.

