Nice, all those stories about why we should use our phone less. But that’s easier said than done, because we’re só used to grabbing our phone for every little thing. These tips can help you to be more conscious of how and when you use your phone.
- Set your smartphone to black-and-white mode from time to time (see Settings). A black-and-white screen is far less attractive than a colorful one.
- Delete any apps that you really don’t use.
- Make sure the people who are important to you have your landline number at work, if you have one, so you are still available should they really need to reach you. Then you will be more at ease leaving your phone at home for a change.
- Try not to check your phone as soon as a text arrives. Reacting immediately to your phone is an easy habit to fall into. Instead, first count to ten and then make a conscious decision: look at the phone or finish what you were doing first. Remember, if it’s really urgent, people will call.
- Why not try going for a walk with a friend, instead of going for coffee. When you’re walking, it’s more difficult to check your e-mails or Twitter feed. This means you can pay more attention to your companion and surroundings.
- On your way to an unfamiliar address? Find the best route the good old-fashioned way, using a paper map. Apparently, if you never do this, you lose your map-reading skills.
- Unsubscribe from all (pointless) newsletters.
- Flow introduces a Social Out of Office to let people on social media know you’re temporarily unavailable. Go to Flowmagazine.com/socialooo for more information.
- These tips can also be found in the ‘7 days offline-project’ booklet in Issue 16.
Photography Yaoqi LAI/Unsplash.com
