The apps which you download have been made with the intention to keep you busy for longer times because the more you stay, the more you can interact with the product or the ad and thus they end up making more revenue.

But to do so, the app makers often skip the line of providing sufficient value and start tricking you.

Here is one example, when you log into your Facebook account, you will always see a notification pending to be clicked. Once you click you might have some interaction with the friends and family. But there will be one random and not required notification. Maybe from a game app or survey or just things like, you have completed 1 year.

The whole point of this is that you will see notification pending even if no friend or family interacts with your account. And by showing that pending notification, you are lured into and you spend few more minutes in the app.

Add that to many such app and then compound it with the year and you can see where all your wasted and unproductive time is going.

A Fair Game

This isn’t about apps and website which provide value or the whole point is to get you engaged.

For example, there might be education or motivation app which you have downloaded for the soul purpose of using it for the longest time possible.

So in such cases, it is a fair game and on contrary they are helping you achieve your goal.

The Solution

But there exists apps which exists to keep you engaged for their own benefit and you aren’t getting anything productive in return.

The solution is simple. The whole idea revolves around notification, either when you login or when it comes in your phone screen.

Check where you spend most of the time which isn’t productive. And then go to that apps setting to disable notification.

Now, they won’t disturb you. Whenever you feel like go to the app and explore. The immediate effect is you will realise that all the false alarms that you are required immediately are gone.

Now all that is required is to develop a discipline to close the app within 15 minutes no matter what. So you end up using it for the maximum benefit.

And no, your world won’t come crumbling down if you check less Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or 9gag or sensational news outlet. Unless of course your work is in that domain.

Get out and do the the work matters. It starts with you taking back control of your time.