I use my phone less and it makes me happier

I write about smartphones, Android, and consumer tech for a living, but I can admit that I’m addicted to the devices I use every day. I thought I should give it a shot and it makes me happier and healthier. If you use your phone a lot, learn from my mistakes.

Take five minutes to talk to anyone, and almost unanimously, there’s growing dissatisfaction with how much time we waste looking at the shiny rectangles we carry around every day.

No offense, I love technology. I always have and probably always will. Whenever a new shiny thing is released, I want to know all about it, and this is certainly the case on my favorite mobile platform. If there’s a new Android device, I just have to know more about it, sometimes to the actual detriment of my own mental well-being.

It is a blessing and a curse. I love my phone, but I hate how it makes me less “ready”.

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Just humor me for a moment and think about your relationship with your phone for a moment. We all spend hours and hours a day pouring into a box designed just to keep us busy, slip away and take away from our precious leisure time.

I know it comes across as a little exaggerated, but it’s me as I write Pixel 10 Pro Fold long-term reviewI took a long, hard look at my screen-time usage statistics in an average week and was horrified at how addicted I was to my phone.

So a week ago Google II had the catalyst. I just need to disconnect more from my devices.

The truth is that it started a while ago.

Admitting that you have a problem and taking the first steps

I knew I had a problem, and at first it all stemmed from Twitter. It was a crutch. When I picked up my phone on autopilot, I would open it and pull it down to refresh. Scroll through the news, pay attention to what’s going on, and waste 20 minutes before I have time to process what happened.

I got a bit of a reprieve though When Elon Musk took over Twitter, I just struggled to get control of my account after it was hacked through a loophole in the email hosting service I was using and associated with my profile. His capture came at a fortuitous moment. I realized my problem and decided to delete my account and data in favor of a mostly anger-free social media experience.

The problem was, instead of scrolling through my Twitter feed every hour or so, I replaced it with Threads, Instagram, and briefly Bluesky to scratch the itch.

what else Digital Health tools are very easy to bypass that honestly, they might not be there. Tapping the “Use app for 5 minutes” option is not just a deterrent, and it’s not really a deterrent. I still use it to shut down Slack on the weekend, but even so, I sometimes check it on Sunday evening just to be safe, knowing the world hasn’t fallen apart by Monday.

It’s time for the second phase: go nuclear.

I still have accounts for all of these services for visibility purposes, but I thought it was time to go cold turkey. Sure, I’ll check in with an update once in a blue moon, but for the most part I’m free from most social media platforms.

If I need to look at Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, etc., I lock them in my browser window. I have to go to the computer to access them and it’s really annoying. The upside is that since it’s such a process, I don’t do it often unless I want to share something important. I’m not completely invisible on these platforms, but I want to limit my usage and this works.

Is it me or the phone?

After a few months of not going on social media, I thought I was doing well. Then I realized that I was suddenly… very addicted to Reddit.

Any free time, any free time, meant diving into subreddits and my niche hobbies.

I swiped on something I thought was productive. In case you weren’t aware, Reddit isn’t productive at all. I was becoming the stereotypical “Redditor” by arguing about yellow cards in Champions League games, discussing trivial side quests in Cyberpunk, and I had to start the detox all over again because I fell into the same trap again.

It turns out that it is very easy to replace one service with another when talking about our phones.

Replace the phone, not the service

Nobody’s going to give up their phone now, are they? I use Uber a lot, I need Maps while driving, and Google Wallet is important to me. Heck, my phone is my car key, so I can throw it away and drive away.

Every time I feel the urge to grab my phone, I now grab something completely different.

I even stopped taking my phone to the toilet/bathroom.

Hey, it sounds gross, but we all do it. You go to the bathroom and grab your phone and 99 times out of 100 you’re scrolling, texting, or doing something to reduce your “work time”. I figured I put my phone in my pocket or somewhere else when there are deals.

We go there not to read the daily news but to do our business. The upside was that I spent less time in the bathroom – always a bonus!

If I want to watch a movie, I force myself to go to the cinema/theater to watch the whole thing because it forces me to focus on the movie rather than the background noise. When I watch TV at home, I leave my phone in my bedroom or office. I figured I didn’t need to know how many Emmys Better Call Saul was nominated for and didn’t win – i53 in valueand deserved at least one win.

Gaming has always been a major component of my life, so if I need to distract myself while watching TV, I’ll play something on Switch or Steam Deck. Better use of my time than arguing with idiots on the internet or watching YouTube Shorts about the most trivial things. Every time I get a “sliding hole” call, I try to get a controller. If I’m playing a game, at least I’m doing something fun and potentially productive.

My bed is now a no-go for my phone. I am lucky enough that I have never needed an alarm to wake up on time every day. However, if I have to get up early for something, the Nest Hub takes care of that for me. My phone stays charged on the dresser in my wardrobe on the opposite side of my room, so in case of an emergency it’s still somewhat accessible, but there’s no temptation to grab it and mindlessly flip it around in bed.

Instead, I read in bed for up to 45 minutes. I keep a little Boox 6 inch e-reader on my nightstand instead of my phone. Strangely, it works with Android, but it’s so weak that anything other than an e-book isn’t really a great experience. He can barely open a website without breaking a sweat, so it prevents me from trying to avoid reading.

While I’m not saying everyone should do any of these, I wanted to at least share the experiences of someone who is very addicted to my phone. Partly because of my profession, but also because the devices we use are designed that way.

I’m only 5-6 months into these changes, but I can’t deny that it feels good to not be so dependent on my phone, even after such a short time. I would like to say that it helped me to better understand the products I review on the website and on YouTube? Maybe that’s a little presumptuous, but I’m all for it. There’s still a part of me that worries I’ll relapse, but for the most part I’m happier, a little healthier, and definitely more prepared. I consider this a huge lifestyle win.

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