Eliminate Phone Time Wasting

[NorCal]

I've been seriously considering downgrading (upgrading?) my smartphone to a simple flip phone for a while now.  After thinking about it, there are plenty of smartphone features that I wouldn't want to lose out on.  I use it as my sole camera, music player, check cashing machine, and travel-guidance system.

However, 80%+ of time on my phone is wasted due to news and other time-wasting apps.

Here is the challenge:
-Delete all games, news apps, social media apps, RSS feeds and general time wasting apps
-Turn off email notifications (my personal email is turned off, but work email stays on)
-Turn off all other non-useful app notifications

[onlykelsey]

I haven't looked in to it but I imagine there is an app similar to a browser plug-in I used to use called leechblock.  you could block yourself from certain websites all the time, or during weekdays, or after 10 PM, or after you've spent X minutes accessing that domain that week or day.  To get around it you had to be willing to reboot your computer, which was enough of an incentive for me.  I found it very useful in graduate school.

I deleted fb from my phone and then just started going to the browser version, so, I have been thinking about this recently.

[styl1]

I just deleted the Facebook app as well. Even though I can still get to it if I really want to, I already feel less inclined to look at it. I also unfollowed everyone on Instagram, except for 14 people. so I have nothing to look at when I check most of the time. That also broke my habit.


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[Mikila]

Eliminate phone time wasting- what a great idea!  Over the last couple weeks, I have been attempting the same.  My primary strategy is to simply LEAVE THE PHONE HOME ( OR in the car).

Life is so much more interesting than compulsively checking websites/ stocks.

Works for me. 

[NorCal]

Week 1 update:

For the first day or two, I kept impulsively checking my phone for news when I got bored.  Then I realized there was nothing to look at, so I just put it away.

By the end of the week, I only occasionally checked my phone.  Once I even forgot to take it with me.  That's progress.

I've still been using it for work emails and calendar notifications, which is useful.  I would love a life where this isn't useful, but that's the nature of my job and not my phone.

I'm going to try to get in the habit of wearing a watch again.  That will help with impulsive phone-checks. 

[pekklemafia]

I'm also compulsively checking the news or the weather! But I think noticing and paying attention to the world around you, even when you're alone or bored, is that visceral part of being human. It also gives your brain a break 😛

My solution to breaking the phone checking habit was a) not upgrading my phone (any iPhone 4 users still out there?) therefore limiting my ability to upgrade to the new iOS that run the new apps, and b) having a cheap (by Canadian standards) data plan with 300mb of data. So I literally can't do anything but text, email, and google map when I get lost. It pays to be a technological Luddite sometimes.

[Warlord1986]

Deleting the facebook app on my phone was one of my smarter moves. I kept the news and music apps, but instagram, facebook, all that junk is gone! :) My productivity increased and I feel less distracted.

[TheRabbit]

I'm in!

My husband and I have been talking about this a lot lately, and since I'm about to go on a year-long hiatus from work (I'm a teacher having my second baby in late September, so I'm just taking the year off) I'm especially worried about getting a little phone-crazy with nothing else to do and getting sucked into shopping out of boredom.

Some things I will use my phone more are for: reading books on Kindle and navigation. I've been a bit YouTube crazy lately, so I need to cut that shit out.

Thank you for the challenge! I will have to check in with a weekly update.

[Paul der Krake]

Eliminate all social media apps, banking apps, and anything else that you do not need on the go.

There is an exclusive, secret club of smartphone owners who enjoy modernity yet don't need to charge their phone every day or upgrade every 18 months because it's become too slow. You too can laugh at the poor suckers glued to their screens vying for a plug in the airport terminal.

Join us.