Apr 7

Apr 7 How To Mindfully Use Your Cellphone

Hi, I'm Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

I play a little game when I go to Costco: if I only buy what’s on my list, I win, and if I end up buying anything extra, Costco wins. Ha! Now, I win most of the time, but not all the time because Costco hires marketers and merchandisers to make sure I end up shopping off my list. Sometimes they achieve their goal, and I end up buying a year's supply of batteries or some Tupperware I don’t really need.

In the same vein, when you pick up your phone to check the time. How often do you notice it's 3 pm and then put your phone back down, and how often do you go down a rabbit hole of checking your email, social media, and texts, and oh, now an hour has gone by, and it's time to recheck your email?

Just like Costco hires merchandisers who create environments where we impulse shop, cell phone engineers design our phones so that sometimes checking the time takes an hour.

If you often end up down that cell phone rabbit hole, you aren’t alone. The average person uses their smartphone or device for over 3 hours per day which is way up from the 18 minutes we used our phones in the pre-smartphone era. On average, we pick up our phones over 96 times per day, which is an average of once every 10 minutes. Yikes!

Some researchers call cell phones adult pacifiers because they are there for us anytime, we need soothing whether we're bored, angry, lonely, or stressed. Reaching for our phones temporarily transports us out of our day-to-day lives.

In addition, research shows that excessive cell phone use increases insomnia, depression, short-term memory loss, and obesity.

So let's say you're convinced. You realize your phone consumes more time than you'd like, and it's not always as productive or relaxing as you try and assure yourself it is. Then what strategies can you employ, knowing you don’t want to give it up completely. It’s a helpful tool however you want to use it mindfully.

OK, here I go with 12 strategies to support mindful cell phone use:

1-Put these questions on your home screen: ‘What for? Why now? What else?’ Yes, ‘What for? Why now? What else?’

2-Set aside one day a week to let go of your phone. Some people call this a cell phone sabbath.

3-I suggest reading Catherine Price’s book: How To Break Up With Your Phone. She’s not suggesting giving up your phones completely, instead, she's offering a more balanced approach with a 30-day process of weaning yourself off of your phone and then forming a more conscious relationship.

4-Try downloading an app such as Flora, Flipd or Space to bolster self-control. They each offer slightly different methods, however with the same goal of supporting you in setting limits and boundaries with your cell phone. You can also use theses apps with friends, thereby creating support buddies, increasing the odds of succeeding with your new habit.

5-Charge your phone outside of your bedroom. Studies show that people who keep their cell phones out of their bedrooms are happier.

6-Try putting your phone away when you get home. Either in a drawer, small lockbox, kitchen cabinet, or another room. When you’re home, interact with your loved ones.

7-Turn off notifications, specifically push notifications. When we leave notifications on and then allow them to interrupt our lives, we are telling ourselves that other people’s priorities take precedence over ours.

8-Set your screen to black-and-white or greyscale. It's oddly dull, even kind of a bummer. Right, we prefer media in color not black and white. This is a quick and easy way to decrease cell phone use.

9-Perform app spring cleaning. This means getting rid of apps that don't add to your life and moving most apps off your home page, particularly distraction-based apps.

10-Use airplane mode or turn on do not disturb.

11-Put a hairband around your phone. You can still make a call, but texting is problematic.

12-Wear a watch and commit to never checking your phone for the time. This is so simple, however quite effective.

Our cell phones are these incredible tools that bring us seemingly boundless information, entertainment, and connection. Yet, they are also designed just like a slot machine to intermittently dole out positive experiences, which keeps us coming back for more; long after we’ve achieved the reason we initially reached for our phones.

Ultimately, our lives are what we choose to pay attention to, and I’m suggesting we consciously decide how and when to use our cell phones.

Do you want to be the average person who picks up their phone almost 100 times per day and self soothes themselves with over 3 hours of use, or do you want to call a friend, go for a walk, read a book, or dare I say experience a little bit of boredom?

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog about how to create a more mindful relationship with your cellphone. If you have any questions about this blog, about health and wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com