Break Up With Your Phone Addiction and Become More Productive.

Do you feel reluctant to be without your smartphone, even for a short time?

Do you find yourself mindlessly passing time on a regular basis by staring at your phone?

Do you seem to lose track of time when you’re on your smartphone?

Do you find yourself viewing and answering texts, tweets and emails at all hours of the day and night – even if it means interrupting other things you are doing?

When you eat meals, is your smartphone always part of the table place setting?

When your smartphone rings, beeps or buzzes, do you feel an intense urge to check for texts, tweets, emails, updates and so on?

Swap “alcohol” or “cigarettes” for phones and it would be hard to argue this isn’t worrisome. Just because a behaviour is “normal” doesn’t mean that it’s okay.

The idea that we’re suffering from a mass addiction becomes even more credible when you consider the brain chemistry involved. Phone cravings are triggered by the same brain chemicals and reward circuits that keep a compulsive gambler at the card table and inspire drug addicts to seek out their next hit.

Whenever we check our phones and find something waiting for us (a news update, a comment on a post, an irritating email), our brains release a chemical called dopamine.

One of dopamine’s many purposes is to help us make sense of our environments by indicating what we should remember and pay attention to – which tend to be things that arouse some sort of emotion, whether it be pleasure or outrage or concern.

As anyone who’s spent 30 seconds on social media is aware, our phones can trigger all these emotions and more. As a result, it doesn’t take long before our brains begin to associate checking our phones with receiving some sort of emotional reward. These don’t necessarily need to be positive.

Eventually the association becomes so strong that dopamine is released any time we even think about our phones, which makes us crave them. Once that happens we’re hooked: the very act of checking our phones makes our brain want to check even more.

Below are some ways to break up with phone addictions:

Reframe the way you think about it

Many people equate spending less time on their phones with denying themselves pleasure — and who likes to do that? Instead, think of it this way: The time you spend on your phone is time you’re not spending doing other pleasurable things, like hanging out with a friend or pursuing a hobby. Instead of thinking of it as “spending less time on your phone,” think of it as “spending more time on your life.”

Ask yourself what you want to pay attention to

Our lives are what we pay attention to. When we decide what to pay attention to in the moment, we are making a broader decision about how we want to spend our time. The people who design apps desperately want our attention, because that’s how they make money. Have you ever wondered why so many social media apps are free? It’s because advertisers are the customers — and your attention is what’s being sold. So ask yourself: What do you want to pay attention to?

Set yourself up for success

Create triggers that will remind you of your goals and make it easier to live up to them. If you want to spend more time reading, leave a book on your bedside table. If you want to cook more, lay out a shopping list for that recipe you’re eager to try. Set up a charging station for your phone that’s not in your bedroom, and buy a stand-alone alarm clock.

On the flip side, avoid triggers that will set you up for failure. Delete social media apps from your phone. (Use the clunkier browser versions instead.) Disable notifications, including those for email. (I allow only those from phone calls, text messages and my calendar.) Establish a rule — for yourself and your family — of not keeping phones on the table during meals.

It’s amazing how often we pick up our phones “just to check” then look up 20 minutes later wondering where the time has gone. I call these “zombie checks,” and they’re nearly guaranteed to be unsatisfying or make you feel like you’re wasting your life.

One solution is to create “speed bumps”: small obstacles that force you to slow down and make sure that when you do check your phone, it’s the result of a conscious choice. Put a rubber band around your phone as a physical reminder to pause, or set a lock screen image that asks you to confirm that you really want to proceed.

Pay attention to your body

When you notice that you’re in the midst of a phone spiral, ask yourself: What’s your posture like? How’s your breathing? Is whatever you’re doing on your phone making you feel good? Do you want to be using it right now? The more tuned in you are to your own experiences in the moment, the easier it will be to change your behavior.

Practice trial separations

Leave your phone at home while you go for a walk. Stare out of a window during your commute instead of checking your email. At first, you may be surprised by how powerfully you crave your phone. Pay attention to your craving. What does it feel like in your body? What’s happening in your mind? Keep observing it, and eventually, you may find that it fades away on its own.

Use technology to protect yourself from technology

Time-tracking apps like Moment, Quality Time and (OFFTIME) will measure how much time you’re spending on your screen. (Be prepared to be horrified.) Freedom and Flipd let you block your access to problematic apps and websites when you want to take a break (Flip’d also lets you create friendly challenges with other people to see who can spend the most time offline.) Apple now has a “Do Not Disturb While Driving” mode that sends customizable automated text message responses so that you can step away from your phone without worrying that you’ll leave someone hanging. Lilspace does the same for Android, and displays a timer on your lock screen showing you how much time you’ve managed to stay unplugged (a strangely motivating feature)

Use the sight of other people on their phones as a reminder of your own intentions

Right now, the sight of someone else pulling out his or her phone on the elevator probably makes you want to check yours as well. But with practice, you can transform this into a cue for a new, healthier habit. When I see other people reach for their phones, I try to use it as a cue to take a deep breath and relax. (I’m successful most of the time.)

Get existential about it

If all else fails, consider your own mortality. How many people on their deathbeds do you think are going to say, “I wish I’d spent more time on Facebook”? Keep asking yourself the same question, again and again and again:

This is your life. How much of it do you want to spend on your phone?