Discover 11 Habits that you can incorporate into your daily routine to use your phone more intentionally. Improve your quality of life with these simple lifestyle changes.
Do you own your phone, or does your phone own YOU?
The age of smartphones is a beautiful one. But can also be oh, so complicated.
Nowadays you can check your emails, make calls, take photos, watch television, play video games, and so much more on your phone! It can make things so much more convenient with its streamlined capabilities, and it is nice to have so much instant entertainment at our fingertips.
But at some point, we get so caught up in our phones that they start to own us.
Before I knew how to use my phone in a healthier way, I basically had it fused into my hand.
Everything I did in a day involved my phone, and my eyes were glued to that screen 24/7.
Things I enjoyed doing before didn’t really have room in my life, because everything I did centered around that phone. I had become a slave to this tiny device, and it had more control of me than I had over it.
I had to make some changes.
Instead of getting rid of the thing completely, I took small steps towards cutting back on my phone time.
Little by little, my addiction grew less aggressive, and now I can happily say that I am once again in control of my phone!
So what can we do to make sure that our phones don’t steal all of our time and energy? I want to share with you the strategies that I used to get my phone habits under control. I hope some of them work for you, too!
11 Habits that will help you use your phone with more intention and purpose
Habit #1: Remove email apps from your phone.
Unless you are in a business where the emails you receive absolutely must be responded to immediately, it really isn’t beneficial to have email on your phone.
Now, you might be saying, “Wait a second! I have email on my phone and it is so much more convenient! I mean, I see my emails right as they come in and I can respond to them faster this way!”
Maybe so. But was it really necessary to see those emails immediately?
Sure, you were able to respond quickly to some messages, but have you noticed the time that gets wasted simply because you are trying to answer emails at all hours of the day?
Instead of trying to stay ‘on call’ for your emails, set aside a time in the day where you will consistently check them on your computer.
This way, you give the emails your full attention once and you won’t need to constantly check your phone throughout the day.
Related Posts: How to Keep Up With Emails When You’re Too Busy /// 3 Simple Steps to Organize Your Email Without Stress
Habit #2: Keep your visual entertainment apps in a separate space and limit access.
If you watch television on your phone, whether it is on Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, or anything else, it can be hard to stop yourself from opening it up whenever you get the chance to fit in a little more entertainment.
This is not exactly a bad thing, but it’s also not doing you any favours.
Instead of feeling entertained and relaxed, you are more likely to feel stressed and detached from your day.
Television is not necessarily bad, but the things you do with your time should always be intentional, not just time-fillers.
This includes watching tv on your phone with intention.
I struggle a lot with this area in particular, so I’ve tried a lot of different ways to help myself save entertainment apps for more intentional times.
Here are some of the strategies I use to watch tv on my phone with intention:
- Schedule your entertainment times
- Limit your television allowance and enforce it
- Have a ‘watch later’ list on each app, then designate a time each week to intentionally browse for more material to add to that list
- Don’t multitask!
- Keep entertainment apps in a separate folder that is not on your home screen
Related Post: How to Intentionally Cut Back on TV Time
Habit #3: Set aside time to look for new viewing material.
I noticed that when I was using my phone mindlessly, I was usually just scrolling.
I was not even close to using my phone with intention.
Instead, I was just looking at pictures and posts and doing nothing with it.
I decided to limit my browsing time, and it made a huge difference in the way I use my phone!
Once a week, I give myself some time to take a look through all of the apps that I use and save new material that I want to see in the coming week.
These are the apps that I use this strategy for:
- Save YouTube videos to a “watch later” playlist
- Put podcasts on a weekly playlist on Spotify
- Keep articles you want to read later in the Pocket app
- Add movies and shows to “My List” on Netflix
This step saves you time by setting a single, intentional time to look for new material.
Additionally, when you do allow yourself a little entertainment time, it’s not wasted on wondering what you want to watch or listen to. It makes the experience so much nicer!
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Habit #4: Limit yourself to only having one game on your phone at a time.
Games on your phone are both a blessing and a curse.
It’s nice to have something fun to do when you are stuck in a boring place.
However, too much entertainment at our fingertips can be a bad thing.
By just having one game on your phone, you can feel good knowing that you’ve at least got something to do if you end up in a boring situation. By only having one game, you won’t accidentally spend hours mindlessly jumping from game to game.
I’ve seen people before who tried to juggle too many games and actually got more stressed because all of those games become just another task on their to-do list.
Having just one game will help pass the time without risking addiction or stress.
You don’t necessarily have to stick to the same game forever. Instead, download a game you like, and when you get bored of it, delete it and download a new one!
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Habit #5: Download time-saving apps.
So far, I’ve told you about the apps you should limit, but there are also apps that you can download that will save you time instead of wasting it.
For example, you might download an app that helps you track certain things, like cleaning schedules or budgeting.
It could also be an app that holds information for you, such as memos or password storing apps.
When you use these apps, you are saving yourself time without adding something potentially addicting to your phone.
A good example of a free app that has saved me so much time and energy is called “Tody”. It is a cleaning app that tracks when you should do a customized cleaning routine. It is a great example of a phone app that saves you time instead of wasting it.
Related Post: Tody: The Free App that will Change the way you Clean
Habit #6: Change your settings to minimize reminders.
If you don’t manually change the settings on your phone, it will be ringing all day, trying to remind you of things that don’t really matter.
To use your phone with intention, you should personalize your settings so that you are only reminded of the things you want to be notified about right away.
To do this, open your <settings> in your phone. Next, choose <notifications>. Once you’ve opened that, you will see a list of all your apps. Here, you can choose to either allow or disable notifications from each individual app.
Right now, you are getting notifications for everything! 
Now, the notifications are turned off so you won’t be bothered as often.
Personally, I disable every notification except for actual phone calls.
I tell friends and family that if they ever have something urgent to tell me, they can call and it will reach me right away. It helps me to know what messages are a priority and what can wait until later.
Your preferences might be different than mine.
Depending on your job, you might want more notifications on your phone.
So don’t just do what I do- think about what helps you and customize according to those preferences!
Related Post: How to Find Work Life Balance When You’re Too Busy
Habit #7: Keep your phone organized so that no time is wasted looking for apps or information.
I’m sure you’ve had to deal with this before. You probably needed a photo or a memo, but you struggled to find it. You did find it eventually, but it took forever to get there.
Instead of wasting all of that time searching your phone for things you need, organize your phone regularly so that you already know exactly where everything is.
Organizing your phone does not take that long, and it will save you time in the long run, as you won’t be using extra time searching for buried information in your phone.
Besides, it will make using your phone so much more enjoyable!
Now, just as there are times to organize your phone and make it more convenient, there are also times to do just the opposite…
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Habit #8: Make your phone physically inconvenient to access.
Ok, so this might seem a little backwards. I mean, the whole purpose of phones is their convenience.
But I tend to think that we’ve gotten to the point where phones are a little too convenient.
We reach too quickly for our little personal entertainment systems and miss out on some pretty great things the world has to offer us.
Think of the times that you have used your phone today. How many of those times did you use your phone with intention?
In contrast, how many times did you open up your phone just because it was there and you weren’t doing anything at the time?
I tend to handle my phone the way I handle food at a dinner party. If it is displayed in front of me and easy to access, I take it.
If my phone is already in my hand and I’ve got a spare moment, I’m quick to open it up and mindlessly press buttons and scroll through the contents of my phone.
Instead of allowing your phone to be so accessible, try to make it a little more inconvenient to access.
This will give you the chance to actually consider whether you are using your phone with intention or if you just want to mindlessly scroll through it.
Here are some ways that you can make your phone a little more inconvenient to use:
- Use a case that has a cover over the screen that you have to flip open to use
- Put a password on your phone that takes effort to write
- When at home, put your phone in the same place all the time. Don’t carry it around the house with you
- When out in public, put your phone in your bag rather than in you hand or your pocket
Here is a great phone case that doubles as a wallet! I like cases like this because they take a little more effort to use your phone.
Habit #9: Set firm boundaries on your own personal phone usage.
I know this step feels like it’s for a child, but trust me, it’s a good one!
It’s one thing to have hopes for using your phone wisely, but if you haven’t tried to actually outline what you want to do, it probably won’t happen the way you want it to.
So instead of just wishing you could waste less time on your phone, set some real boundaries for yourself that you can actually follow.
You will be way more likely to succeed this way.
When considering your boundaries, you should ask yourself these questions:
- When do I actually need to use my phone?
- How much time do I think is a good amount of time to use a phone?
- Is there anything I do on my phone that I’d rather do on the computer or the television?
- What should I do with my phone when I am not using it? Where should I put it?
- Should I have a time of day or an activity when I am better off without my phone?
- During what activities would my phone be helpful?
Once you’ve considered these questions, you can come up with some boundaries and challenges for yourself.
Here are some boundaries you can set up:
- What times of the day you can use your phone and what times of the day you cannot use it
- What activities you should use your phone for and what activities you should not
- How long you are allowed to use each app per day
- Where your phone should be placed when you are not using it
You may want to use all of these suggestions, or maybe just one or two.
Here is an example of the boundaries I have for myself:
- On weekdays, my phone cannot be used for visual entertainment during my bedtime routine or during my morning routine (I can listen to music or a podcast)
- My phone cannot be nearby whenever I eat a meal
- I can watch a total of one hour of television every day
- When at home, my phone stays on my bedside table unless I am using it
- Browsing my phone for new material to watch and listen to is permitted on weekends
As you can see, my rules are not a one-size-fits-all, and I will be changing them as my needs change. That being said, I do find that having clear boundaries helps to make the usage of my phone more controlled and enjoyable.
Related Post: 7 Digital Boundaries That’ll Free You From Your Smartphone
Habit #10: When in doubt, ask yourself if it adds to your life.
Like everything else in life, figuring out what’s the best use for your phone is not a black and white decision.
Some things may seem helpful, when really they are just an added distraction.
When you come across a use for your phone that you aren’t sure about, it helps to ask yourself this one question:
Does this thing help improve my life in any way, or is it just ‘convenient’?
Let me explain.
There are some apps that make you feel like you are saving time.
For example, having email on your phone makes it really easy to answer messages quickly and efficiently. You never miss a single message!
But think harder.
Before you used an email app, did you ever have a time where it was absolutely necessary for you to answer an email immediately?
Did you spend less time on email before or more?
Do you get any anxiety from having a constant connection to your email?
Depending on who you are, the answers to these questions will either make you feel better about keeping your email app or will make you decide to get rid of it.
I can’t tell you what the right answer is for you, but you can figure it out yourself with the right questions.
So before you delete an app that you are unsure of, ask yourself if it is actually helping you, or if it is just hiding behind the guise of convenience.
More From ‘In Its Season’: Morning Pages: How to Clear Your Mind for a Better Day
Habit #11: Don’t multitask with your phone.
There is a reason why it is against the law in many places to text while driving.
It’s because we are THE WORST at multitasking!
Trying to do two things at once is always going to lower our performance in both activities. In response to that, I urge you to make the choice to only use your phone when it is the only thing you will be doing.
When you use your phone with intention, you will find yourself being more productive, and you will likely appreciate and enjoy your phone time more, as well!
Related Posts: 10 Startling Reasons Multitasking is Hurting Your Life /// 10 Foolproof Ways to Stop Multitasking and Skyrocket Productivity
A phone can help you a lot with a number of different daily activities, and it is definitely a great thing to have. However, how you choose to use that phone can either make things easier or make them harder and more stressful. It has the power to help you focus or to distract you. It’s up to you how it gets used. By using these tips, you can learn to use your phone more intentionally and add more purpose to your life.
What do you do to use your phone less?
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