Nomophobia is short for “no-mobile-phone phobia.”
It’s the fear of being away from your smartphone.
As you might expect, it’s on the rise.
87% of young adults say their smartphone never leaves their side, while 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 15 minutes of waking up.
Smartphone addiction is becoming a big problem. Here are some signs of addiction:
- You frequently use your phone at mealtimes.
- You spend more time on your phone than interacting with others in person.
- You frequently use your phone when you know you should be doing something else more productive.
- You frequently use your phone while performing tasks that require focus, such as completing an assignment, writing a report, or driving.
- You feel uncomfortable when your phone isn’t with you.
- You sometimes check your phone in the middle of the night.
Are you an addict, or do you know someone who is?
No matter how mild or severe the addiction is, here are 15 ways to help you overcome it.
If you implement the tips, I guarantee that you’ll break this habit.
Here are the 15 tips:
1. Turn off notifications.
Many people get distracted by the endless notifications they receive from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, and other apps.
You don’t need to know right away if someone “likes” your status update, follows you on Instagram, or sends you an email.
The more often you check your phone, the more it becomes an ingrained habit. So turn off your notifications and you’ll feel less compelled to use your phone.
The only apps for which you don’t turn off notifications might be your text messaging app and your calendar app. This is because sometimes you’re urgently waiting for a text, or your calendar app notifications keep you on schedule.
2. When you feel the urge to check your phone, close your eyes and take a deep breath.
You are reading a set of notes or writing a report. All of a sudden, you feel an overwhelming urge to take out your phone and check your Facebook news feed.
You give in to the urge. You look through your friend’s latest vacation photos and comment on three of them. Next, you read a long article about the hidden lives of supermodels. Then you watch one cat video and one baby video.
Before you know it, 20 minutes have passed – when you only intended to take a 3-minute break.
Sound familiar?
The urge to check your phone comes in waves. If you hold out for just a few seconds, the urge will pass. You’ll then be able to get back to work.
Here’s what I recommend: When you feel like you just have to check your phone, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Inhale for three seconds, and exhale for three seconds. The urge will usually disappear.
If the urge is still there, take another deep breath. You should then have the willpower to return to your original task.
This is a simple but powerful technique to help you break your smartphone addiction.
3. Delete all the social media apps on your phone.
This sounds like a drastic measure, but it isn’t.
You’ll still be able to access social media sites through your phone’s Internet browser.
Almost all social media apps can be accessed through their mobile-friendly websites instead.
Sure, the mobile web experience isn’t as seamless as the app experience. But it’s good enough to satisfy your occasional social media craving.
Plus, the extra step of opening your Internet browser app and typing in the site’s URL adds inconvenience to the process. This will deter you from mindlessly checking your social media updates.
I challenge you to go one step further: Delete every single game on your phone. You’ll become a more productive person as a result.
4. Delete all the apps you don’t use.
This will help you remove the clutter from your phone, and reduce the time you spend “exploring” your apps. As such, you’ll be that much closer to overcoming your smartphone addiction.
Deleting your unused – or little-used – apps also frees up storage space, and improves your phone’s battery life and performance.
5. Set specific boundaries for smartphone usage.
Telling yourself that you should “use your phone less” isn’t effective, because that phrase is too general. To limit your phone usage, set specific boundaries instead.
Here are some possible boundaries:
- No phone usage at mealtimes
- No phone usage in the restroom
- No phone usage at social events
- No phone usage during in-person conversations
- No phone usage in the bedroom
Start with an easy one, and add one a month. Over time, you’ll see a huge difference in your phone usage patterns.
6. Mute your group chats.
I’ve muted all my Whatsapp group chats except my family group chat. This way, I don’t get bombarded by messages throughout the day.
If you’re like most people, the messages you receive from your group chats aren’t time-sensitive. So it’s fine if you only read through the messages a few times a day.
Besides, muting your group chats is a more polite alternative to suddenly leaving the groups.
7. Archive your inactive chats.
Smartphone users often scroll through dozens of chats before they find the one they’re looking for. In the long run, this wastes a lot of time.
What’s the alternative?
Archive your inactive chats.
If the conversation has ended, archive it. If you currently have hundreds of chats in your messaging app’s home screen, take 10 minutes to go through them and archive the inactive ones.
It will be 10 minutes well spent!
(If you prefer, you can delete your inactive chats instead of archiving them. Note that if you delete a chat, you’ll lose the chat history. But if you archive a chat, the chat history will remain.)
After you’ve completed this process, you’ll probably be left with 5 to 10 active chats in your messaging app’s home screen. This will make it easier for you to find the chats you’re looking for. It will also reduce the clutter in your phone, so you’ll be more organized.
As such, you’ll spend less time processing your text messages, which will help you overcome your smartphone addiction.
8. Reply to text messages just three times a day.
Apart from urgent text messages from family and close friends, don’t reply immediately. I know the temptation to reply right away is great, but you must resist it.
Why?
Because it’s more efficient to reply to text messages in batches, rather than one at a time.
I recommend replying to messages once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once at night. This will save you time on the whole, and will prevent you from compulsively checking your phone for messages to reply to.
This is in line with the bigger goal: removing your dependence on and addiction to your smartphone.
9. Turn off your phone before going to bed.
Turn off your phone before going to bed, and leave it to charge outside your bedroom. It can be tempting to use your phone in the middle of the night, but you won’t if it takes too much effort to even get to your phone.
If you follow my recommendation, you’ll need to walk out of your room in a half-awake state. Next, you’ll need to wait 30 seconds for your phone to boot up. So you’ll probably just go back to sleep instead – which is what you ought to do anyway.
I can almost hear you saying, “I can’t do this, Daniel. I use my phone as an alarm clock. If my phone is outside my bedroom, I won’t hear the alarm in the morning.”
If that’s you, read on to Tip #10 for the solution.
10. Use an actual alarm clock.
It seems like everyone uses their phone as an alarm clock, right? Well, you can be different and use an actual alarm clock instead.
This way, you’ll have no excuse not to practice Tip #9. Which means you’ll also be on your way to fighting off your smartphone addiction.
11. Before you start work, put your phone at least 10 feet away from you.
Better still, put your phone outside the room where you plan to work. To eliminate temptation completely, turn your phone off – or at least to airplane mode.
Erik Altmann, a professor of psychology at Michigan State University, found that an interruption of just 2.7 seconds doubles your error rate at work.
So use Tip #11 and you’ll get your work done faster and better.
12. Use apps to track and restrict your smartphone usage.
These apps run in the background, so they won’t distract you.
Here’s a handy app to try out:
- RescueTime (Android and iOS). This app helps you understand your phone usage patterns, so you’ll know how to become more productive. It gives you a detailed breakdown of how much time you spend using different apps.
13. Wear a watch so you don’t need to check your phone for the time.
You probably use your phone to tell the time. But I’m sure this has happened to you before …
You glance at your phone to see what time it is. As you do this, you see a flood of Facebook notifications and text messages. You start going through them, and in the blink of an eye 15 minutes have gone by.
And all you wanted to do was take two seconds to check the time.
What’s one way to prevent this from happening?
Wear a watch. It’s that simple, really.
14. Tell others about your decision and enlist their help.
If you tell others about your decision to break your smartphone addiction and ask for their help, you’re more likely to succeed.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
- Inform your friends and family about your decision, and ask them to check in with you once a week.
- Before you get down to work, give your phone to a trusted friend or family member.
- Tell your friend that every time you don’t stick to your plan, you’ll give her $10.
- Find a friend who’s also addicted to his smartphone, and persuade him to join you in breaking the habit.
15. Lock your phone with an annoyingly long password.
Most people set a short password so they can unlock their phone quickly. But if you want to reduce your smartphone addiction, set a long password instead.
Make it at least 15 characters long, and include symbols and uppercase letters. (You can set this type of password for both Android phones and iPhones.)
The inconvenience of unlocking your phone means that you won’t use your phone mindlessly.
The bottom line
Smartphones are meant to help us lead better and more productive lives. But when we succumb to smartphone addiction, we become slaves to our phone. This affects our relationships, work, and life.
By applying the 15 tips in this article, this won’t happen. In addition, we’ll have more time and energy to build meaningful relationships, serve others, and make a contribution to our community.
All because our eyes aren’t continually glued to a small, glowing screen.
So let’s get to work eliminating our over-reliance on our phones. The world is counting on us.
P.S. I work with students 1-to-1 to help them overcome their smartphone and gaming addictions. In addition, I empower them to become both happy and successful. Click here to find out more about the program.
An earlier version of this article first appeared on Yahoo!.
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Images: Smartphone addiction, Boundary, No mobile phone, Digital watch
Good advice – my teens have this problem!
You’re welcome. Yes, it’s a very common problem nowadays. I hope they find the tips useful!
Actually, nowadays smartphones have fingerprint unlock with just a touch by a finger. Would’nt the long password defeat the purpose?
Hi Kai, the objective of setting a long password is so that you won’t use your phone mindlessly. So you’d only do that if you want tachieve that aim?
What he meant is that smartphones now have a fingerprint scanner, thanks to technology. If teens have that kind of phone, they’ll just scan their fingerprint instead of using the password.
well then isnt it obvous that a fingerprint lock need not be kept?
or if ur a parent, u can always check ur kids’ phone security to see if fingerprint scanning is enabled
plz help me for topping in class and phone addictrion
brother, the tips u have said are very useful but yet there is some addiction regarding the games can u please write an article regarding how to decrease our addiction towards video games
Thanks very much
Amazing Work Sir..
Hats off to u I m one of them those are badly effected due to this addiction..
It will help me more.
God bless you
Haha.. I believe my hubby needs these more than my preteen.
Yes, Anne. We adults need the tips too 🙂
Very useful and practical tips! Thanks Daniel.
I happened to come across your page and I strongly believe things happen for a reason! I was completely lost and totally stressed out about my son! His lack of interest in study, his lack of interest in anything and his addiction to his mobile phone was affecting his mental health to the point of self destruct. Without your advice I think he would have become so lost he would have struggled to get back to being happy and I would have had a nervous breakdown. Thank you so much for your words of wisdom and guidance. You are amazing and thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world to make it a better positive place! My son and I appreciate your help and support. thank you. Fiona McGregor
Awesome article
Easy to apply
Hope I overcome my addiction
Thanking You
Daniel Wong
I’m grateful my Dear, Daniel. These were a golden tips,i’m waiting for the up coming tips,respect u!!
thanks daniel sir for your tips
you are really inspiring us a lot .Your tips empowers me ,encourages me ,make me organised and disciplined….
thanks sir …
Thank you. Very useful tips
Hi Daniel, am I able to print this and pass to other teenagers? Thanks
Hi Shameema, sure that would be fine as long as you include the link so they can reference the article on my website. Thank you.
Nice… thanks a ton
Hai,
I am bad at mathematics
Please tell me how to concentrate on that subject
This is a good one Daniel Wong
I really learnt a lot from this. I will also try my possible best in putting this advice to practice. keep up the good job Thank you.
I am very addicted to my smart phone and I appreciate this since I am a teenager but my other problem is that I don’t know how to start conversations so if there is an article that you could share that would be very helpful
Hi Mr. Wong,
It’s indeed a very good tip in crisp to be followed.
Thanks for your ideas.
Thanks for the ideas. Very useful article.
My phone statistics tell me that I use my smartphone for over 8 hours every day. I didn’t think it was that bad until I looked at these statistics. I’m not a social media fan, but I definitely spend a lot of time browsing news and entertainment sites and playing and watching videos. But I still don’t understand, because 8 hours is a third of the day… Maybe I should set some limits for myself. Thank you for your advice!
Thank you Mr. Wong, this is very educative. 👏🏽
Does this help with other devices like tablets, computers and others? Like I don’t have a phone so um… I think I’m more or less addicted to the computer.
Hey Daniel thanks for being this creative like your blog
HI, Its a really great article, much appreciated, I am following most of the tips!
Great article!! Also good to be a part of your programs Sir
thank u so much i have learnt more things here ..
thanks a lot 🙂
Daniel great techniques you shared ,I was using some techniques and some are new to me which I will use today onwards.
Let’s hope I can overcome this, wish me luck.
This is so me. I really want to overcome the so called nomophobia, it’s pulling me back from fully focusing on more productive things. Thanks to you Daniel😊
Thanks so much. Lol, it’s quarantine and I keep on procrastinating on my ipad.
The password tip worked the best for me, though I did have to turn off face recognition so it wouldn’t automatically sign me in.
such marvellous tips fantastic
thank you so much for this article
Thank you Mr.Wong.
This will surely help my sisters.
Tnx alot daniel
I’m 20 and I’m already becoming a phone addict. Thanks for the article, hope to use it .