This year, global phenomena have brought us a complete dependency on the smartphone. From contacting our loved once to shopping for groceries and medicine, everything has become online now. It seems almost impossible to live without a smartphone.

The truth is, digitalization is giving us many facilities; however, it has also taken a part of our sanity. From the unnecessary panic attack of missing a call of a family member to social media updates of bothersome things, we get involved too much into too many things that affect our mental health.

It may be impossible to stop using a smartphone completely, but we can consciously cut our usage down.

Make a routine for yourself

Try to make a compact schedule for yourself prioritizing offline activities, like exercise, yoga. Be good to yourself by eating healthy food, using a smart speaker instead of your phone for music or calls. Put an alarm for social media involvement. Spend time with your pets. You will see how many positive things you were missing just to stay connected with the internet.

We spend so much unnecessary time on the internet scrolling through social media app one after another. Once you stop using you can feel the vast amount of time you have that can be invested in a new hobby, or perfecting your work skill.

Declutter your phone

Keep your phone clutter-free. It is wise not to keep the addictive application in your home screen rather keep the educational app, or necessary apps on the first home screen page. Unnecessary apps can be stored in a folder or somewhere 2nd or 3rd home screen page. As more you see those social media apps, the more you will feel like opening them up and eventually scrolling it without any need. 

Plan lesser usage of smartphone

Next time you open your social media platform, put an alarm or put a timer. Let your close family and friends know that you won’t be available for instant replies to ensure a stress-free time off. Check your phone after a specific interval. And put a “five-minute timer” for checking your phone. This will help you to break the chain of habitual phone usage.

Install more useful app

Start uninstalling the addictive application from your phone and replace it with health apps. For example, language learning, audiobook, educational or motivational app, a meditation app, and many more. It will help you to slowly disconnect with the social media habit and also establish a healthy, positive vibe with your smartphone.

Keep your phone away

Keep your phone away from the bed always. Your phone does not sleep with you in the same bed, but it keeps you awake. Keep it away when you are busy with other activities. Specify the time for phone usage, so it becomes a scheduled task, not a habitual activity.

Mute push notifications

Silent as much push notifications as possible to avoid getting sound or vibration alert from your phone.

Download habit tracker app

Appstore and google play provides many habit tracker apps to cut down your phone usage. If nothing works as it is supposed to, or you want to add on to a habit tracker app for double-checking, you can always find a solution for it. however, nothing works better than yourself.

Read our other article on best ways to find peace of mind

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