4 Ways to Stay Off Your Phone This New Year

According to Techjury.net, “Americans spend an average screen time of 5.4 hours on their mobile phones a day.” With the constant usage of cell phones in modern society, studies have shown that there is a related increase in anxiety, feelings of loneliness, and low self-esteem. Here are some tips to help you stay off your phone more: 

1. The first way to keep your mind occupied and stay off your phone more is by keeping yourself on a schedule. By keeping a flexible yet structured schedule, one can have a visualization of what things they need or hope to complete, which in turn will decrease the urge to pick up the phone by providing purpose and motivation. A schedule will also help with achieving goals and priorities on a day-to-day basis, rather than being glued to a phone. 
2. Second, you can turn off all push notifications wherever possible. By doing so, you are less likely to be interrupted by notifications on trivial things such as who tagged you and who liked your photo. By turning off push notifications, you are given the control to go visit apps whenever you would like instead of experiencing constant pressure. This then allows you to see notifications as you feel you have time, versus letting your phone absorb your life.  People often find it hard to resist those notifications, and by habit reach for their phone. Not everything requires an instant response. The push notifications should not be controlling you, but rather you should control them. 
3. Third, finding a new hobby that is personally enjoyable will help keep you from picking up your phone constantly. Finding an activity you are passionate about can make you forget about checking your phone and give you purpose in the real world. If something has piqued your interest for quite some time, invest the time that was once wasted on the internet world into that true passion. The small, relaxing things like reading a book, journaling, painting, hiking, or going to the gym will then fill your time and help achieve a new hobby that you are passionate about. Instead of just trying one new hobby, go and sample multiple new ones to see which ones stick. Finding more than one hobby allows you to choose one that you may be interested in at a certain time. An example would be “today I may be interested in reading, but tomorrow I would like to workout at the gym.” 
4. The last way you could stay off of your phone more is by uninstalling apps. This will allow you to take a break from addicting apps that absorb hours of time daily. Deleting such apps can help improve your focus, productivity and overall mood. Some people may not believe that being on a smartphone will affect mood, but it can make some compare themselves to others, as well as think that they want things that they didn’t even know they wanted. It can make people not appreciate what they already have. It can also alter you as a person because you want to be like someone else. By deleting apps that promote comparison and social status in general, you can help improve your overall wellbeing and help you to focus more on your own positive growth as a person. 

Easier said than done? Find out how to get this New Year’s resolution to really stick.