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How to break Your Smartphone Habit

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Lalit

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smartphoneflowchart1.jpg
 
[h=3]Perform an Audit on Your Cell Phone Use[/h]The first step in breaking the smartphone habit is to measure how much time you’re actually spending on your phone throughout the day. Seeing how you’re using it will allow you to make more intentional and mindful decisions about the kind of relationship you want to have with your phone.
Heck, just seeing hard numbers on how much time you’re spending on your phone can affect your use. When I saw that I checked my smartphone 100 times in a day, I immediately started checking it less.
Thanks to a few apps out there, auditing your smartphone use is pretty easy. Android has more robust tracking apps than the iPhone thanks to the openness of the Android platform. So you’ll find that most of the apps I list are Android (this will be a re-occurring theme). Many of them not only track your smartphone time, but can also help you manage that time, which will come in handy in “dumbifying” your phone, which we’ll discuss below.
Auditing Apps Available for Both iPhone and Android
Checky. This app shows you how many times you’ve checked your smartphone a day and allows you to compare stats day to day. While it doesn’t show you how much time you’re spending within each app on your phone, just seeing how many times you pick up your phone and swipe the unlock screen can provide some much-needed perspective on your smartphone use.
Auditing Apps Available for Android Only
RescueTime. RescueTime is a paid service that allows you track how much time you spend on certain websites and even how long you use certain apps on your computer and smartphone. You simply create an account with RescueTime, install the app on your smartphone, and the software takes care of the rest.
At the end of each week, RescueTime will send you an email report that gives you a breakdown of how much time you spent within each app on your smartphone.
BreakFree. BreakFree tracks app usage on your smartphone. It will even send you notifications if it thinks you’re checking your smartphone too much. Besides the app tracking, BreakFree has tools to help you curtail smartphone usage by turning off its notifications and wifi at set times.
QualityTime. QualityTime is another Android app that tracks app usage and gives you detailed breakdowns of how much time you’re spending on each. You can set time limits for each app and QualityTime will send you a warning when you’re getting close to your limit. You can even block certain time-wasting apps.
Auditing App Available for iPhone Only
Moment. While Moment doesn’t tell you how much time you’re spending within each app on your iPhone, it gives you an overall look at how much time you spend on your phone each day. Moment allows you to set time limits on your iPhone usage, and once you reach it, the app will block you from using your device.
Pick a tracking app and use it for a week. Use your smartphone as you usually do (though, that’s hard because once you start observing a particular behavior, that behavior typically changes). By the end of the week, you should have a rough idea of how often you’re checking your smartphone and exactly how you’re using it.
 
[h=3]Fight Technology With Technology — Apps to Manage Your Smartphone Use[/h]So you’ve pared down your apps to the most essential. Even with that done, you still have the temptation to constantly check these work or life essential apps over and over to scratch a mental itch.
Take email for example. Sure, your job may need you to check and answer email from your phone, but do you really have to check it all the time? Probably not. Most emails you get aren’t important or even urgent, so you can probably wait until you get to your desktop to answer them. But it’s hard to not check your email. There’s always that hope that the next email you get will be filled with life-altering news.
Or maybe you use Instagram for your job or to keep up with your family. I get it. That’s why I have Instagram on my phone. But you don’t need to scroll through it every 30 minutes. If your Instagram feed looks anything like mine, you’re going to see pretty much the same thing every time you check — dudes deadlifting, dudes shooting guns, dudes showing off their cool outfit of the day, some nice nature pics, and, of course, artistic-looking motivational quotes. Basically, I’m not missing out on much if I don’t check. But the way Instagram is set up, the infinite scroll makes it irresistible to check. Like email, there’s always the hope that with just one more scroll, you’ll come across an amazingly entertaining or cool picture — something your brain worries it’ll miss out on.
If you can’t or simply don’t want to remove these distracting and habit-forming apps, you can manage the desire to constantly check them by using technology to fight technology. We’re going to use blocking/time managing apps to limit how much and when we can use our most distracting and habit-forming apps.
First a note about these apps: most of them are Android. Unfortunately, the stringent standards Apple imposes on apps prevents developers from creating ones that allow users to block specific apps on their iPhones. I’ve only come across one app for iPhone that lets you block apps or websites. I’m sure if you jailbroke your phone and had some programming skills, you could create some pretty spiffy apps that allow you to block things. But since most folks don’t know how to do that, they’ll have to settle for some of the other options discussed above to manage their smartphone use.
App-Managing App for Both Android and iPhone
Freedom. Freedom is a paid service that works across devices. You simply install the app on the devices you want to control your use on, tell Freedom which apps and websites you want to block, and presto! No more distractions. It doesn’t matter if you’re on your iPhone, MacBook, Android, or Windows laptop, all your distracting apps and websites will be blocked when you’ve initiated a Freedom session.
Freedom allows you to schedule distraction-free sessions in advance, so you could create a Pomodoro schedule for yourself throughout the day where Freedom will alternate between 45-minute distraction-free sessions and 15-minute break sessions.
The service is new, so there are a few bugs, but I’ve messed around with it and found it to be pretty dang robust.
If you’re an iPhone user, this is the only app out there I’ve found that will allow you to block certain apps on your phone.
App-Managing Apps for Android Only
FocusOn. FocusOn lets you schedule times when certain apps and websites are blocked on your smartphone. The software also makes it extremely hard for you to back out of a blocked session. You can create multiple FocusOn sessions. So for example, you can create a session that blocks apps in the morning and another session that prevents apps from opening during your study times.
To deactivate a blocked session, you’ll need to type out a complicated paragraph using your smartphone keypad. No copying and pasting. If you get just one thing wrong, like adding an extra space or missing a comma, FocusOn will make you try again. It’s so tedious and time-consuming that you’ll give up trying to bail on your blocked session after the first time you fail the challenge. (Update: It looks like this app is no longer available. It was available right before I published this. Not sure what happened. Looking into it.)
Focus Lock. Similar to FocusOn. Just pick which apps you want to block and when you want them blocked.
ClearLock. Similar to FocusOn. The only downside is you can’t schedule blocked sessions in advance. You have to tell the app how long you want to block your apps each time you want to enter into distraction-free mode.
Stay Focused. Instead of blocking apps up front, Stay Focused allows you to budget how much time you can use on a particular app each day. When you’ve used up all your allotted time, it will become inaccessible for the rest of the day. The only downside with Stay Focused is that it’s super easy to turn off; there’s no challenge like you have with FocusOn.
 
[h=3]Personal Set-Up[/h]I use RescueTime to monitor both my desktop and smartphone use and check it weekly to see how I’m spending my time on those two devices.
I’ve made my smartphone dumber by first eliminating non-essential and highly addictive apps from my phone. I don’t have any games, nor Twitter or Facebook. I also don’t have any news reading apps like Flipboard. I used to have them, but I was spending too much time on them and felt they didn’t provide enough ROI.
Because my business relies heavily on email and messaging, I do have Gmail and Google Hangouts on my phone so I can take care of urgent and important business even when I’m away from my computer. I also decided to keep Instagram on my phone because it’s the only way I can upload photos to the Art of Manliness Instagram account. (Plug: follow us on Instagram!)
While these apps are work essential, they’re extremely distracting and habit forming. So I use two apps to manage when and how much I can access them.
I use FocusOn to schedule out times when I can’t access my most distracting apps. I’ve scheduled distraction-free times weekday mornings from 5:30 AM until 9:00 AM and from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM so I can be fully present for things like scripture study, journal writing, working out, and my kids. On Sundays, I block Gmail, Instagram, and my Chrome browser so I can have my weekly Tech Sabbath.
I don’t want to spend even my non-blocked sessions completely glued to my phone, so I use Stay Focused to limit the amount of time I use these apps when they’re available. I’ve given myself 30 minutes a day for each app. Thirty minutes is just enough time to post a new pic to Instagram as well as do some mindless scrolling and email browsing. Once my time is up, I’m done using those apps for the day.
My smartphone set-up is coupled with my set-up on my MacBook, which ensures that when I’m on my laptop, I stay focused on my most important work and train my mind for deep, focused thinking. I’m amazed at how much more I can get done when I’m not constantly checking my gizmos.
I hope this guide will help you get a handle on your own smartphone habit, so you can use your phone in a way that maximizes its benefits and minimizes its drawbacks. Give these apps and techniques a try if you’re looking to be a more productive, industrious, and successful man.
Be the master of your technology, not its slave




http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/02/22/break-smartphone-habit/
 
I have always believed in dumb phones with large buttons and display of large sized characters.

I felt this is good enough for a senior citizen.

No SMS as I am to lazy to keep punching characters and prefer to ring than sms if necessary to communicate..

Then my need for booking film tickets,booking taxis[uber,taxi for sure etc] , paying utility bills got me sucked into smart phone cycle.

I ended up supporting paytm and some payment sites.

My relative abroad got me into whatsapp saying it is cheaper to communicate that way.

Every one of my need made me support an App.

Someone thrust a smart phone of latest variety into my hands giving highest specs

I have ended up watching you tube music, looking at emails in bed running huge bills.

I have started buying food, furniture[pepperfry,urban ladder] for my flats, provisions, paying all bills online.

I suspect I am getting to be inseparable from mob.

This is what happens when life is made easier with technology.

One becomes prisoner of technology for doing anything and becomes an addict and lazier.

I even start using the mob to talk to my wife in next room .

I have wifi covering my whole flat { You know MTNL charges next to nothing for wifi in home.}

I have become a couch potato having no time or interest in anyone calling on me as my mob. keeps me occupied.

So I have become a recluse.

I love only myself and my smart mob.lol

Otherwise prefer only to receive calls.
 
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