5 Tips for Less Phone Time and More Life This Summer

Ahhh, the battle against the screens. It’s a problem we know all too well these days. You can’t go to a restaurant, baseball game or even social gathering without seeing someone glued to their phone. More than ever, summer should be a time for memory making. You don’t want to miss out on everything that’s happening in front of you because you are nose deep in your phone. That being said, here are 5 tips for less phone time and more life this summer. These helpful ideas are based on the most common areas of struggle that trick us into whipping out our phones in the first place.

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Take Pictures the Right Way

“But first, let me take a selfie…”

There are so many times where people have the intention of less phone time and more life living, but then they see something they want to take a picture of.

You see the beautiful image in your mind, whip out your phone for a harmless photo, do a few edits, to make it perfect, share it to Instagram, think of a clever caption and a few hashtags and before you know it you’re browsing other people’s photos that are living life this summer just like you.

The desire for one harmless photo has now turned into 30 minutes of time spent on your phone.

So what’s the solution?

Just use an actual camera! There are so many light-weight, affordable cameras that help you have less phone time and more life time. The best part is, you can invest in underwater cameras, cameras that take video or ones that do both! There are even cameras that have BlueTooth so later, you can send photos to your phone for social sharing.

Delete your social media apps

You know the best way to avoid scrolling Facebook? Not having it in the first place!

If you are a chronic social media scroller, I challenge you to delete your most time-consuming apps. You’ll be surprised when you realize just how many times you reach for your phone for mindless scrolling.

There are so many things you can do to try and stop yourself from spending too much time on social media, but at the end of the day, the best way to quit is by cutting yourself off at the source.

How to delete apps on iPhone and iPad

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Turn off the “ping”

You could be having a perfectly pleasant conversation or be totally zen relaxing at the beach and then that “ping” notification sound happens. With hesitation, you reach for your phone and then carry on a 20 minute text conversation.

Let’s get ahead of the game here. If you want less phone time, turn off the notifications that are always encouraging you to pick up the phone. There are several ways to do this.

• Put your phone on silent – Sometimes a phone on vibrate still lets you hear that same sound just like a ping. Putting your phone on silent keeps things nice and quiet.
• Airplane mode – Airplane mode is a handy feature that stops your phone calls, messages and alerts. But not your alarm! So, before getting ready for bed at night, prep your phone by turning it to airplane mode.
• Turn off text message previews – You know when you get a text message and then you glance over and can read the message? Well, you can turn that off! That way there is no temptation to just “quickly answer.”
• Stop notifications – Whether it’s social media, email or another app, people often have notifications set. That means any time someone comments on something, there is a news update or you get a new email, you receive a notification. How tempting. Again, head straight to the source and stop those notifications before they happen.
• Turn your phone off – There’s a thought!

Chances are, you know your biggest trouble area when it comes to that “ping.” Whatever it is, cut it off at the source.

Set social media timers on your phone

There is another new handy feature on iPhones that helps you with less phone time by letting you know when you’ve been on things like social media for too long. You can now set time limits for certain apps. After you have reached your designated limit, your phone will give you a notification and then stop the apps use. (Yes, you can over-ride this, but fight the urge.)

If for some reason you are not able to completely delete these apps off of your phone, the next best thing is to make yourself aware of how much time you are wasting on them.

Just having your phone tell you that you’ve spent 30 minutes on a certain app can be eye-opening. We don’t often realize just how much time we’ve spent and a friendly reminder (that you have set) is always helpful.

Check your email on a computer

It’s true, so many people are scrolling their phones all day because so much work can be done through them. I’m guilty of this myself. When I receive those dirty, disapproving looks from people I want to scream, “Stop judging me! I’m working, I swear!”

The thing is, as great as it is to be able to access your work emails from anywhere, it can also mean you never actually leave work.

That’s where we run into problems. It’s getting to the point that in 2017, 52% of workers didn’t even use vacation days.

It’s because so many of us have gotten tangled up in the business of business and are forgetting about the other areas of our lives that need our attention.

That’s why I highly encourage you to make a habit of checking emails from your laptop. You can take it a step further by designating a certain time of the day so you aren’t tempted to always be behind a screen.

Life is passing by quickly folks, don’t miss out because you can’t put down your screens.

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